When Exercise & Diet Aren’t Working: Which Lab Tests Should I Get?

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It's made by a trusted family-owned company that we all can feel good about. Third-party tested for purity and potency. And if you're interested, you too can try a sample for just $6. But even better, you can get 30% off forever with discount code FLIPPING50. That's FLIPPING50. Just go to flipping50.com/blueskycbd. We'll put that link in the show notes and you'll find it everywhere on Flipping 50 at My Favorites. What are you waiting for? Good night. Okay, before we dive into this episode, I have to just put out this disclaimer that there is no easy way to unpack what we're about to talk through. So my real goal, my objective for you by the end of this is that you have some clarity on not what lab tests you should get, but whether in fact you should get any. And if there's something that you could do first to self-assess at no cost to you and in minutes, and you haven't done that, that this is an easy step to take a look at that. But I will start this podcast with one big question that before you think or ask which lab test should you get, you need to ask this question and then we'll unpack the rest. All of it. I'll talk to you about why lab tests are not the same, why lab tests that are ordered by Western-trained doctors and those ordered by functional doctors are different, and why the two can be compatible and complementary, but one may not be enough. You may be simply skimming the surface and not getting to the root cause of what's causing the problem. I'm Debra Atkinson. You're listening to Flipping 50, where I address your top struggles and your concerns, and I share what to eat, how to move, and how to change your mindset so you can have the energy and vitality that you want, need, and deserve in this second and better half. And this episode is really, really digging into those struggles and concerns because I think We get to this point of saying, should I get a lab test? Should I get my hormones tested? And we get there when exercise and diet aren't working, or whatever lifestyle changes we're trying aren't working. Because let's agree on this one thing before we go forward. I'm going forward with the premise that if everything was going lovely, you would not be asking if you should have your hormones tested. Am I right? I mean, we don't even begin to ask that question. Until something's going wrong and you can't quite figure out the puzzle anymore, where potentially you used to be able to. So which labs should I get? Should I test my hormones? These are common questions, and it's also a common recommendation from trainers and coaches that I don't always agree with. There's one question I ask first, what are you going to do with it? It being the result. Do you want hormone replacement therapy? Are you considering it? Do you want to? Are you open to it or are you not? You're absolutely, I don't want to do that. That's not for me. Knowing what you will do with the results may determine the answer to not which labs should I get, but whether you should do labs. Because we can really pretty much tell from signs and symptoms and put that together with your age and stage and what's happening, and we can probably pretty much say, yeah, probably you're in post-menopause or you're in late perimenopause, and that's what's going on. But if you don't have any inclination or you're adamant about not wanting to do hormone replacement, at least for right now, because hey, We all get to change our minds whenever we want to. It's your prerogative. But I don't think testing is a good use of your time and your money if you're not actually going to get those results back and say, yes, okay, from this I want a doctor to prescribe HRT. And in giving you that answer, that statement I just gave you, hopefully I clued you in to when and how and where you want to get those labs ordered, because you will need a prescription if you want HRT. And you've got to look at if you want bioidentical hormones— those are that are made more like the human body, grown in a lab to be as close to it as possible— rather than synthetic hormones, which we know do cause issues with the body. If you want bioidenticals, you're gonna need to go to a doctor, a physician who can prescribe bioidentical hormones, and you'll need to order labs that, that functional doctor will want. So you don't want to go through double the price, the cost, or the wait time. So it's really important to get this right. So let's see if we can give you some clarity on where we're at. So I wanna start here not only with that question of what are you gonna do with your results? Do you know what you're open to or want to do? Number 2 is then what you think that you know might need an update in 2023. Said respectfully, and what we learned in the '80s is no longer applicable. Can we agree on that? To either the bodies we have now or to the science developments since then. And we know that no one healthy is okay for everybody. So let me say that another way. I struggled there, could you tell? We know that one woman's healthy is potentially another woman's poison. You know, it's the amyloid proteins that come in chicken Yeah, I don't care if you buy organic, doesn't matter. They may cause gut problems. The anti-nutrients that are in kale may not work for you. You may not have celiac disease or a full-blown allergy. However, you could still have developed a food sensitivity to something that you've eaten daily for a long time. Can you test for your food sensitivities? Yes, you can do a lab test, but they sometimes aren't detectable until they're fairly bad. So it means really you just have to wait. No, you'll have to come back when it's worse. Actually, I've heard physicians tell that to patients who then tell that to me, our students or clients. That's not a great statement in my book. I certainly would not wanna hear that. If I'm not feeling good, I know I'm not feeling my 100%. And they're like, well, yes, but it's not bad enough. We can't do anything about it. Actually, my son recently heard that from, from a physician, and I didn't love that. So I said, here's what we're going to do. But I'm not your mom, so I can't do that for everybody. So here's what we want to do. I suggest if food sensitivities are the issue that we were talking about, that you don't hang all your faith on a lab test. You might want to also do that, but not in isolation do that. I would first suggest do the elimination diet, eliminating all of the 7 most likely to be food sensitivity issues and giving you gut issues. Remove them completely. And that may sound like, oh, that's a lot of things I'm removing, but you may find you already have done some of these already. You're reading magazines, you're reading books, you're, you're in the know about gut health and hormones, at least to some level. So you may be already avoiding dairy or avoiding wheat or gluten and found, oh my gosh, I do so much better when I'm not eating that. But the other things, I mean, sugar is an obvious— can we just say, no matter what you were gonna do, sugar really should not be a part of your regular daily consumption. And It's everywhere. So we do have to be somewhat more aware and conscious of it than just the fact that we're not eating breakfast or soaps and we're not eating desserts. Yeah, hopefully dessert for breakfast either. But in this episode, I've got a load of information. I would suggest gathering all the information about what is happening for you right now before you decide what step to take next. So there are certain tools that will give you feedback right away, and those are a smart scale, meaning one that not just tells you weight but tells you your body composition, your percent body fat. If it's got a certain level of intelligence or IQ, that smart scale may also tell you how much lean muscle mass you have, and that's a great number to have. A measuring tape— if you're just doing your weight and a measuring tape, don't have the budget for a smart scale right now, that's another way to be able to see is are things shifting, are proportions going in the right direction? Continuous blood glucose monitor, that's another option for looking inside internally without actually going inside, right? So it's very non-invasive, but it'll tell you at a glance. And I have a brand new one, I happen to be wearing it right now myself. And I'm always a little reluctant to swim with it, but I did swim for about half an hour today, still seems to be functioning. I know they tell you that it's okay, but it's like, how do you know it's 30 minutes? What if it's 29? Or what if— can I really go 35? I don't know, just seems like it's a little bit— it, it's good in water if you only go for that long. But there's that. That's how my mind works. But other tracking devices, if you're using an Oura Ring, you're using an Apple Watch or a Fitbit, and it's telling you your sleep scores, details like that, those are helpful. But always, always, please override with how you feel. That matters more than anything. If it tells you you slept great, but you wake up and you're just feeling like, I don't think I slept at all, that's far more important to me. Walking, weight training, intermittent fasting, monitoring your protein, your carbs, and fat intake may also be beneficial. By the way, that's not macro counting. I'm not a counter. I don't count points, I don't count calories, and I'm not gonna calculate your macros for you. That's the ability to look at a plate, or look at a menu and say, here's what I'm ordering. I know this is what you have on the menu, but I don't want it exactly like that. Like, seeing that you have salmon, I want salmon. And don't bring me the potatoes or the, the hash browns or whatever else you have there. What I want is a side of vegetables. What have you got that you could substitute for that? Demand what you want, right? But you should know how to plan your own plate, whether you're pulling it out of your refrigerator, you're ordering it across some counter, or at fine dining restaurant or you're eating at somebody else's house, you know what to say yes to and what to pass on. It's not that difficult, but we all need to be able to do it. And we were actually never given that user's manual for some reason. Then the rules have changed at midlife, so there's that. But you, you also should not be deprived. So there is— when we talk about food, talk about how do you order at a restaurant, you know, somebody said to me, I will have chips and salsa if they're there at a restaurant. And I'm like, you If you're gonna tell me you want to lose weight in a week, you're gonna be disappointed you didn't lose any weight this week, but you went to a Mexican restaurant and ate the chips and salsa, I'm gonna tell you I can't help you if you won't help yourself. So weight loss is not conducive to— you know, there are a couple things wrong with that. Having carbs like the chips before a meal, worst thing you could possibly do to your blood sugar levels. If we ruined your blood sugar levels, we've ruined your insulin, and your insulin resistance is gonna contribute to fat storage. End of story. And then there's the corn. We could talk about that too. It's one of those high sensitivity foods, and, uh, corn generally is just simply metabolized as sugar in your body, almost in all forms. And yes, that goes for popcorn, and I know it makes me sad too, but it's the truth. It's not the healthy snack you are led to believe. All right, let's dive into the difference between functional versus Western-trained testing. And I'll mention this a little bit, and then we'll come back and we'll deep dive into it, because before you go into testing, I want to talk about what can you do first yourself. So functional is, you know, a type of training, medical training Yes, but it's ND versus naturopath versus MD, medical doctor. And many docs you'll find have now both, right? So some of those medical Western-trained medical doctors have gotten a little fed up with the system and the, the system that's, you know, really pharmaceutical-based, and insurance kind of caters to certain pharmacology as opposed to really healing the individual. And that's where Western-trained doctors come in, they actually want to get to the root cause of why you have that symptom. Let's not just chase the symptom and make it go away or make that feel better, but let's figure out why you're having this symptom in the first place. That's what we really want to know. So functional doctor gets to the bottom of it, and this, you might guess, is why their testing is very different. Lab testing that gets to the bottom of something is screening for something very different than a lab test that is looking for a level, a number that would tell us, oh, you have disease. Oh, you— yes, you're pre-diabetic. Or, right? So we're not wanting only those Western-trained things that tell us we're below disease. We don't have that yet, right? But we want more than that. If we don't feel good, we want to get to the root cause. So I hope that helps break things up. What you do with your Western-trained doc will be very different than what you do with a functional doctor, but you do want to take advantage of those things like your annual checkup, the complete blood panel. If you don't feel good, it's gonna check your fasting glucose levels, it's gonna tell you where your cholesterol levels are, it's gonna tell you, um, generally if you ask you can get this put on there. They'll check the iron, maybe vitamin D as well, so related to energy, your B12s, and those are all very helpful as well for function of thyroid. So things are all integrated, but the more you ask and say, "Look, you know, here's how I've been feeling. I don't think that's normal, right? Do you? So could we do some micronutrient testing as long as we're doing the blood test?" You've got to ask, but for a doctor to be able to order them, generally there has to be a complaint or problem, and they have to be on board with wanting to or agreeing that this test will show you what you want to see. So if you're thinking you want HRT and the reason you're contemplating doing a lab test or quote-unquote getting your hormones done, a functional doctor who can prescribe bioidentical hormones is going to order very different testing. For you. So generally, when one hormone goes wrong, many others fall by the wayside. It's a domino effect. So they'll do an in-depth testing of thyroid. They may look at micronutrient insufficiency or sufficiency. You may want to look at your saliva, um, or your cortisol test in through saliva, could be done through blood, and it could be done through dried urine called a Dutch test. They also may want to look at a stool test, but generally that's not one of the first things somebody will do unless you're having just crazy constant diarrhea and you've had it chronically and you've modified your diet to try to stop or slow that down and there's no other explanation. Generally, a stool test won't come until later when they've maybe had you changing your diet, maybe taking supplements, and still maybe your energy isn't there, and maybe you're gaining weight, or you really seem insulin resistant, you know, it may be that you're not absorbing certain foods. And if you don't have formed stools, that may be the time when somebody goes looking for it. So put that in your back pocket if you're struggling with constipation, diarrhea, or you're going back and forth between the two. Or certain foods just seem to really upset your gut or run right through you, that may be a reason to do a stool test earlier or sooner in your case. So before we come back and go a little bit deeper with specifics about thyroid and about what's tested and why they look at things like dried urine testing and the DUTCH test, let's talk about this, you know, why are you wanting it? Most likely it's because you're gaining weight or you're tired, right? It's one of the two. In spite of— treat this like a checklist for me, please. You're sleeping soundly and you're waking rested. You're increasing your protein. You're keeping it steady in doses throughout the day. So at every meal, you're eating adequate amounts of carbohydrate, especially around your exercise time. Your exercising priorities are strength and low-level, low-intensity movement like walking. HIIT only if you feel good, you have good energy, you're sleeping good, and not doing endurance. These are all true for you. Your recovery between exercise, you're ready for a workout, you're feeling strong, you're feeling energized by the time it's time for you to do it again. You're measuring your body composition and it's fat or inflammation gain, not muscle. That would be a reason to, you know, do some testing and dig into it. You're testing yourself with elimination diets, reintroducing, and you're following a plan from there, but still you're gaining weight or feeling tired. You're eliminating alcohol, you're reducing your caffeine to 2 or fewer cups, and you're keeping it to the morning, not drinking throughout the day, you are hydrating with good quality pure water and adding electrolytes. Women do need sodium, by the way. And you're adding adaptogens potentially. So that would be another layer that you may not have done yet or gotten to yet. But things like, uh, maca, M-A-C-A, something that you may want to look up, put that in your back pocket, because maca or ashwagandha are natural herbs they don't do any damage, but they do support cortisol and adrenal levels. So supporting your own body generating its renewal by just kind of giving you a kickstart. And it's one of those— an adaptogen is a no-harm, no-foul. If you need it, great, it'll go to work. If you don't need it, it won't do any damage. So for the next step, so you've looked at that and these are the reasons why, yes, you know, these are, these are true for me. I'm gaining weight or still tired, even though all of these are true, then I would suggest let's do a subjective test. It's you. You have all the answers. If I ask you these questions on a scale from 0 to 4, as I mention what I'm gonna ask, I want you just to jot it down. Okay, we're energy level. I'm gonna talk to you about energy level, just kind of very broadly. On a daily basis all day, what's your energy level? Are you zero? You're tanking. Are you at a 4 where, no, it's— I can't even imagine it being better, it's great. Or just below great, it's at a 3. Or is it maybe just off of pond scum? It's not a zero, but it's a 1. You're doing, you know, sometimes I have a little energy, but then it's gone. You know, or, or you're a 2, somewhere between that and really good, right? So there are your numbers. So you have that 0 is tanking, 4 is great, kind of using those descriptors between where's your energy. Next, I'm not going to give you that much time for each one. Elimination. So write down another E for elimination this time. And this goes into constipation, diarrhea. Are you regular? I mean, you can depend on certain time of day every day, or after every meal at least once a day. Where's your elimination? 0— remember, it's tanking, it's not where it should be— or 4? Here's normal, and I find I need to say this to a lot of women because they think their normal is just normal. It's in a lot of cases not going at least once a day with a formed stool. Is normal. And for many people with healthier bowels, as they start eating the right foods and stop eating the wrong ones, as their stress level and parasympathetic nervous system kicks in and does its work, you're much more relaxed. You're actually digesting foods. A lot of people will go after each meal— yeah, that many times— so up to 3 times a day, but not diarrhea, just formed stools each time. Wouldn't that be nice? Right, here we go. Digestion. Now we're talking more gas, bloating, maybe heartburn. So how are you doing, 0 to 4, with digestion? Libido. Nuff said, right? So, and put everything under the roof here. So the desire for it, the, the, the enjoyment of it. So no pain during it, right? Focus and concentration. So this is related to just your ability to like get on a project, stick with the project, and get that done with few errors, without being distracted, no shiny pennies. 0 to 4. And last but not least, I'm going to ask one more: muscle tone and your strength. Now they go together, but I'm gonna allow you to override this a little bit more with muscle tone. So if you're really— you're not seeing the muscle tone that you used to, your skin is just like all of a sudden it's creepy, and you, you're seeing like cellulite where you never did, like you're not seeing the muscle tone that you actually deserve from doing the work that you're doing, then you're closer to a 0. So 0 to 4, where are you with those? So now look at your paper. You may not even remember what categories they are, but what are your numbers? Are they all a 3 or a 4? Gold star, you're doing really, really well, okay? But for any of those numbers that are 0, 1, or 2, anything that's below a 3, we wanna take a good look at that. And those, if all of your numbers are below 3 or 4, then we want to make sure you're making the habit changes. So what you used to think was the thing to do actually may not be the thing to do. So the lifestyle changes really can take us 80 to 90% of the way if we'll make them. But we often sometimes want to— let's get a lab test, let's get hormones, I'm gonna feel better right away with that pill or that shot or that cream or the troche or the patch or whatever, and I'm not gonna actually change anything. That's probably not going to work really well for you. So your lifestyle changes actually make whatever it is you're taking— it amplifies those results. You get better results, you get them sooner, and potentially you don't have to take a higher dose. Even if it's bioidenticals, you don't want— it's not like a hall pass. I mean, the less of anything you have to take, or at least the way I feel, the less of anything I have to take, the better, right? I'm willing to take it if I need it, but I would definitely— whether if I could naturally kick something in, yes, sign me up, I'll do that, right? So hope you feel the same way. So with enough variation, you, um, in your diet, in those lifestyle habits, if you're not consistent, you may not be seeing the change. So one of the questions I'll ask somebody is, how did that work for you? If they said they tried something and then And then the answer I get is, well, when I remembered it. I mean, that just doesn't work. So I'm sorry to be the harsh deliverer of news, but you didn't really try it. If you were supposed to take it like every night with dinner and you only did sometimes when you remembered, it doesn't count. You actually haven't tried to change that habit consistently enough. And then with certain habits, we need to start them at a certain level. And if that didn't get results, we actually increase it. And then we do that, that level for 3 more days and see how that worked. And then we change the level again. And this is really important. A lot of people don't know that they have consistently tried something, really sequentially tried something in a right order with other things. And have done it in a way that you've taken the right amount in order to know if it worked or it didn't work. So it may be worth going back to visit that. All right, lab tests you may want, when and why. So that complete blood panel, if you haven't done that in the last year, absolutely you should do it, right? It's covered by your insurance most likely, so get that taken care of. You can see from that inflammatory markers, your A1C, your CRP, Your fasting blood glucose levels, fasting insulin levels, both, um, you know, it still may not be conclusive if your fasting blood glucose level is okay or within norms, but it's, it's a marker. And ideally, if you've tested every year and you have those results, I hope you do, you can see a trend, what's happened, what's changed. Saliva cortisol, That's my favorite. It's first thing in the morning, at noon, at dinner, and before you go to bed, or at 10 PM, whichever happens first. For me, it's, yeah, before 10 for sure. But you're basically just literally spitting into a test tube, and then you send that right off to a lab, and you look at the bell curve of what happens to your cortisol during the course of a day. Because it actually is supposed to have kind of a, you know, a rise in the morning. We're highest at 8 AM. It it'll be up for a while and then it should start to come down around 11, starts to curve back down in the afternoon. It's really coming down by 5 or 6, is really down. 2 AM is the lowest ever in a 24-hour cycle, and then it begins to come back up again. So if yours is very off from that, we see that you maybe peak in the morning but then you crash right after, or you don't come up in the morning until far later in the morning, those, those things are off. It tells us let's look at your circadian rhythm and how we can help you to reset it. And some of those adaptogens again can be helpful if you see that. Other people like to see the cortisol test done from the dried urine test, which is the Dutch test, and that's another way. I like a lot of numbers when it comes to cortisol, actually. Micronutrient testing. So I mentioned some of the things you can ask your general practitioner to put on your regular complete blood panel test, but you can't put a lot of things on there. So if you really want to go in depth, we'd love to see your omega-3s and your omega-3 to 6 ratio. Omega-3 turns off inflammation, but omega-6 turns it on. A lot of foods, things that we eat, and oils have higher omega-6s than omega-3s, so it can be hard to balance. That's one of the reasons why omega-3 is a recommendation as far as supplements supplement. I take it religiously and always have. Definitely when I'm training, if I ever decide I'm training for, you know, any kind of endurance event, I amplify what I'm taking. I increase my dose because essentially training like that is, is giving myself inflammation. It's just happening. The more you are active and, and daily, you've got inflammation coming regularly, and your body can get more fit. As it gets more fit, it gets better at clearing some of that out, but you still need to help it along the way. In menopause, we have more tendency toward inflammation. So even if you're not training for endurance events, but that's another one. Magnesium is another. Zinc and selenium may also apply to— as to especially if you may have a thyroid issue or wonder if you do. And if, you know, wounds are not healing well or your immune system is not too buff, you may want to look at those as well. Stool testing, we talked a little bit about when that would be appropriate. And, you know, it's not necessarily the first thing, but for instance, if you're reporting you're tired, and we don't just want to start saying, okay, well, this is good for energy— vitamin B1, your vitamin D, that's another one to test, B12 and iron are all related to energy— but we, we don't want to just shoot shoot blanks and just go buy a multivitamin or just go buy these individuals. It's always better to know where am I, what are my levels right now, and what's an optimal level, and what should I be taking now to bring myself to optimal level. And those questions are questions that really only functional health coaches and functional health doctors can answer with you. So otherwise, people are interpreting based on norms and they may say, well, you fall in the norms, it's the low side, but that's not thriving, right? Norms is a whole lot of people that don't feel very good make up those normal numbers. So you're just— you, you feel badly just like everybody else. That's kind of what norms say. Hormones, of course, your estrogen, your progesterone, your testosterone. In that, you also look at your DHEA. That's a precursor to the sex hormones, and you'll see where that is. When you're testing those, often it is either blood test or it is the dried urine test, the Dutch test. The DHEA is in there as well, because if your DHEA levels aren't where they need to be, then the estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone levels are hard to get up where they need to be. It's kind of like, uh, they've got to work together in this systematic machine. And then thyroid. So under thyroid, your TPO, um, that's almost always on your doctor's regular test that he'll order for you. Antibodies— these can be a clue into Hashimoto's thyroiditis, whether you have that as a division of your thyroid issue or not. T3 and T4 and reverse— reverse, I'm sorry, T3. And these are not all tested, but they're also not necessarily always interpreted correctly. And sometimes this is the reason why your Western doctor won't order certain tests, because they don't know what to do with the test results. They don't know how to interpret them and how to prescribe based on those interpretations. And it's not their fault, it's the Western method of training that they've had just has not educated them on that, so they won't go down that path. But these are all pieces of the puzzle that you want. You want to get it back and you want to look at where's optimal, where do I ride, and know that even if you force your doctor, or, or if you could force your doctor to get these tests, they wouldn't be able to prescribe potentially what it is you need or know what to do with that and interpret it. So you have an active form of thyroid, you have an inactive form, and you may be creating plenty of inactive, but it's not converting into the active form the way that it's supposed to. So we've got to figure out why is your thyroid not converting the way that it should and kind of give it a kick up so that it can. Not all functional doctors favor the Dutch test. Blood tests can also pinpoint for you what's going on, but some of the things that you would see in a Dutch test will include your estrogen. You'll see all 3 estrogens that we have and how you metabolize them. And this can lead to telling you a little bit more about whether you metabolize them well and you're getting rid of kind of the, the icky estrogen in the way that you want to, and the pathways are going correctly, or your body may need a little help in order to do that. Then progesterone, testosterone, and DHEA, as I mentioned. And on that Dutch test, you'll also see cortisol levels and what's happening there. So, um, those functional doctors who use DUTCH to prescribe really love it. They'll have you pre- and post-test with it. Health coaches often like DUTCH. However, a health coach can't prescribe for you, so keep that in mind. They may be able to be able to read it and interpret it, but they can't tell you what you need to take based on that, and they can't prescribe it. So there, there are limitations. There's, you know, you need to stay within your scope of practice, so be sure you're asking the right professional for the right thing. So remember, or please keep in mind here, that what we're doing here is just giving you an education so you've got a little better idea of how do I sort this out, and the difference between my, my GP and Western testing that they'll offer, and what I can ask them for, and what they probably will or won't won't do and why their reaction is this way and what I might need to or want to seek out in a functional doctor. Realize that the pandemic has done us all a favor in that telemedicine is wide open. My— the clinic I went to, um, because I— when I lived in Scottsdale, I— it was so close I could walk to it if I had— I wanted to, and I did a couple of times. But there are lots of clinics, and now we can use telemedicine, and you don't have to actually go for that first visit anymore to somebody out of state if that's who you choose to work with. You can just begin that relationship. And a lot of doctors are licensed in multiple states and they can practice in different states. So don't feel like, well, I can't find somebody in the phone book, right? I know I just dated myself, but you knew what I meant, so there. You know, it doesn't have to be somebody within a 25, 50, or 100-mile radius that you could drive to. And you may want that personally, but realize that, you know, if you're not gonna go be going in and getting shots, they're not physically examining you. They can do everything they need to do via a Zoom or a telephone call, and I doctored with someone with an office less than 10 minutes walking distance from my home and never once met with her at the office. It was always a Zoom or a phone call because it was more convenient that way. So, uh, realize there's no advantage. So when I was going in to get testosterone shots and, and estradiol shots then of course yes. But we were to the point where they were going to give them to me, like I was gonna— they were ordering them and I was gonna give them to myself because I'm now 35-40 minutes away. So it was no longer convenient for me to do that. And actually they closed their office and it was just a good time for me to make a change. So I've done something different and I'm working with a doctor in Michigan it, just to give you a for example. Okay, so before you ask about lab tests, you know, there are other tools beside the self-assessment, that subjective test. But how you feel never lies, so go through that frequently and often, that 0 to 4. And you'll find this in the show notes, by the way. I think it's easy to turn over our power to a physician. In the past, we've always done that, right? Haven't we? We've gone to the doctor, make me better, give me a pill, could you give me a prescription? I've done it. You know, right? I'm like, I know my PA so well, please give me the Z-Pak like I'm sick. Just get me over it. And you know, that is not necessarily a great route, right? So, you know, we possibly want to do a lab test, get results, maybe take that pill, cream, patch, shot, and think, okay, it's gonna do the heavy lifting, I'm gonna feel better on these hormones. But you need to do the lifestyle changes It comes down to us needing to do our part. We need to explore whether lab tests that result in a prescription of some type will do its job if we really haven't explored the consistent habit changes that will take us the majority of the way down the field. And habit changes come from different nutrition information than we may believe, different exercise habits than we've been led to believe are the best in prioritizing our sleep and our self-care come right up there too. Sometimes though, the value is we pay attention because we pay. And so getting a lab test to see in a lab result what you already knew from your signs and symptoms may make you do something about it. And I do not fault that. At all. Sometimes we have to do that. I know that I hear this from a lot of people. I'm not sure it's true because things have changed. We should no longer— you and I say collectively, women in our 50s, 60s, and over should no longer exercise the way we learned when we were in our 30s. So women often will say to me, I know what to do, I just don't do it. And I'm, I'm not always sure You know, do they mean what they, they think they should do from their 30s or what they know they should do for now? But they will join a program or do training or coaching with me for the accountability and the reminders and the nudge and the step-by-step. And there's no fault in that. That is great self-awareness. That is just knowing yourself. And here's what I need in order to go forward. And You're winning if you're, if you're at that point where, you know, previously when I want to move forward in something, these are the steps I usually take, these are the things that usually help me. And if you can identify that same thing regarding your health, your wellness, or fitness, you're way ahead of the game. Do it, do it every day because it is so worth it. So there is that. If you've done the labs that are not the right labs, just remember you want the right insight. They may be leaving you wondering why you feel so bad when you are doing the right thing, and it may simply not be your fault. Wasn't the right test, wasn't the right interpretation. Maybe you didn't get the right results. Maybe you still are lingering with some of those thoughts from the exercise or the lifestyle habits that you learned in your 30s that really are not going to serve you for the rest of your life. So So my advice to you is do that self-assessment we did together here. And we've— we use this periodically as a membership challenge. We do a monthly challenge inside the Flipping 50 membership and going through this just to reconnect with where are you right now and do we need to regroup? You know, is there a certain category we need to pay attention to? Because obviously if you were to say you had zeros and ones in your diet, your elimination and your digestion, We need to look at that because you're probably not absorbing anything, even if you're only eating great food. It's just not working for you and you probably don't feel very good. And let's fix that right away. So sometimes things will jump right out at you. This category is really gonna need some attention. Even if you don't know where to start, you at least know where to start asking questions, and that is gold. So my advice is do that self-assessment first and keep it handy. Do it on a regular basis and, you know, keep yourself as the quarterback. So never— use a team, use a health coach, use a trainer, use a doctor, whoever you can, whoever you want to, but never give your power completely away. Be your own quarterback. That's a really important thing to remember. It takes two of you. It takes co-collaborating. I use that term over and over. Probably you're tired of hearing me say that, but whenever I invite a person to do a program with me or to coach with me or do our membership, we're co-collaborating. I'm giving a blueprint, I'm suggesting this, but we need to work together because you know your body. You've been driving that vehicle for a long time, and I'm just like circling around the outside, and I'm gonna sit in the passenger seat with you. You may let me drive, but, you know, I couldn't go anywhere without you. And that's a really important thing to remember, is you really have the wisdom about your own body. I hope that was helpful. I'd love to have your comments after this podcast, and if you have specific questions, you know, we can dive into it. But again, you know any one individual listening is gonna have individual unique questions that I may not be able to answer and/or would do you a disservice. So unless we have a coach-client relationship, I can't go too deep with you. We can't go very far, but we can answer some basic questions about, I have this, I'm thinking of this, do you think that's right? I can agree or not disagree. I will put some resources in the show notes. When I wrote You Still Got It, Girlie! After 50 Fitness Formula for Women back in 2014 and '15, I did all the self-directed tests. So any of the, the functional lab tests you and I can order for ourselves. Yeah, today. And insurance won't pay for them because no doctor is ordering them, but you don't don't sometimes want to go through insurance, but you can order any of those things, get the results back, look at the interpretation, know, okay, I'm going to focus on this, I'm going to retest and post-test. And I highly recommend that if you don't plan on ordering self-directed tests, go to my resources page because literally it will talk about the test, but it will also let you click and say, what will I learn from this task? And it's kind of a, what's the value of this for me? Why is this important? And that's what I encourage you to read. Use it like a resource page as much as an order form. So I'm not begging for you to go and order something, and I make no commission off of that, okay? So there you have it. I hope this was helpful. I hope it answered a little bit of your questions about when should I test, if I test, how should I test, what tests do I want, and what value are those tests to me. Okay, show notes will be at flipping50.com/labtests. And what are you waiting for? Let's start flipping 50 today.