The ROI of Rest: Why Your Health Is Your Most Underrated Investment with Erica Jones

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This is Busy Getting Better, the podcast for women who are committed to prioritizing their own personal growth. I'm your host, Madison Day, a mindset and money coach, a first generation wealth builder and a woman on a mission to help you master your finances and live your best life. Money is not all we are covering though, because in order to live your best life, you have to become your best self. So we are diving deep into all things personal development and bringing you the mindset. Mindset shifts, money, tips and inspiration. You need to go out there, be bold, and build the life you can't stop daydreaming about. It's time to get busy, babe. Busy getting better. What is up, you guys? Welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited for today's conversation because you know, we love money and we love wealth, but you can't build a wealthy life in a body that is running on fumes. And so today we are going to talk about that with our guest, Erica Jones. There are so many of us out here that are chasing our next level, scaling our businesses, climbing the corporate ladder, creating our dream life, all of the things. But if your energy is tanked, your sleep sucks, and your nervous system is fried, there is no amount of strategy or manifestation that is going to make that feel good. So we are going to get into it today and talk all about helping high performers build sustainable wellness routines that actually support the ambitious lives that doesn't lead to burnout. Because I think that that is something that we all struggle with of like this all or nothing or what's the fine line and how do we work really hard but not get to a point where our energy is not support. So Erica is going to be talking to us all about that. A little bit about her background. She started her career in pharmaceutical sales, which I know about that industry. And that is definitely a career asking for burnout. And she also went through something so similar that I went through. So I'm excited to talk with her a little bit about that but just like realizing that that necessarily wasn't the most alignment with her purpose and pivoting into more of a holistic health and now helping women protect their energy, optimize their health and just keep the momentum going so we're not sacrificing our sanity as we're trying to build these things. So I'm so excited for today's conversation. And Erica, welcome to Busy Getting Better.

Thank you so much for having me, Madison. I'm so excited to be here and to just have a great conversation Today. It's gonna be fun.

It's gonna be so good. It's gonna be so good. Okay, let's take it back to this, like, moment in your career where you were in pharmaceutical sales. You're like, this ain't it. I'm assuming you have a story that led you to burn out, and you were like, I just don't know about this. And then obviously, there's so much there of, like, having the audacity to leave that and pivot to something else. So give us a little bit of juice around what was happening in there and what led you to really focusing on this specific area of helping their health.

Absolutely. It's been quite the journey. I graduated with a degree in biology from the University of Tennessee. And I was told at the time that I graduated. I'm kind of dating myself here, but I graduated in 06. And that was in the years leading up to the 0809 recession. We had a big recession. Some of the younger listeners may be like, what are you talking about? But there was a big recession during that time period. And so I was told, hey, you can either teach biology to high school students or you can go get your medical degree, be a doctor. I knew I didn't want to do either of those, so I was like, well, what are the other options? My dad was in the biotech industry at the time. He was working for a huge company called Genentech, and he had had lots of experience in pharmaceuticals previously. He said, look, I can get you a job in the pharmaceutical industry. I was like, great, that's going to be awesome. I'm going to be able to help people with their health, help people to create a better future for themselves. It's going to be awesome. So he got me a job. I moved to Florida, Orlando, Florida area, to. To take the job. I Research Triangle park in Raleigh, North Carolina, for a couple of months to train, and then I went back to Orlando, out in the field, and they had me with an older rep. He was probably in his 50s or 60s, longtime rep, 20, 30 years he had been in the business. And I remember one of the first things that I was told when I was out in the field was always remember that the best story wins. You've gotta take the data that you're given, the clinical data, and tell a story to the doctor that gets them to write the prescription for your drug. So right then I knew, this is not what I thought it was. This really wasn't what I signed up for. I thought I was gonna be helping People with their health. But this really sounds more like a marketing machine more than anything. And that's what it was. It was a marketing machine. It was how do we get doctors to write more scripts? Patient well being wasn't really a top priority in every case. And I just felt a sense of turmoil over what to do about it because I had taken this job, I had moved to Florida, I was like, what am I gonn. Well, how do I get out of this? And so at the time I met my now husband, Dr. Isaac Jones, who was finishing up his training in functional medicine. And he was the one that brought me into the world of holistic wellness and living because I knew nothing about it prior to then. I grew up on TV dinners and chicken nuggets and I needed to learn. And so long story short, he and I fell in love with. We started a one on one health consultation called Designer Health Centers in 2010. We did everything virtually. We helped people reverse chronic illness detox front to back, improve their sleep. I've seen things like heart disease, cancer reversed absolute insane health results that we're able to get for people. And so we did so well with that, virtually working with people that a lot of his doctor friends said, hey, how are you guys doing that? So then he launched a doctor coaching and training business helping them scale and grow their practices. And we've been doing that together since 2014. But my real passion for, for this and for supporting women came in when I became a mother. Um, we had four babies in six years and I, yeah, it was, it was, it was a lot going on from what, 29 to. I think I had my last one at 36. Had babies back to back, nursing pregnant for the better part of six, seven years and my body, my adrenals were just fried. But I'm also ambitious. So balancing the recovery and the wellness side of it with pursuing my passions and also pouring into my family and being the nurturer that I like to be was, was a lot. It was a lot. It was a bit of a balance. And so that really led me to where I am now with Elevase as my branded website. It stands for elevated days and just helping women. Helping high performers find that balance of weaving wellness and longevity into the day to day. So hopefully that gives you a little idea of my background and how I got to where I am now.

Yeah, I love it. Well, you've hit on so many things that I feel like have been, I don't know, I've been on my own health journey and just like being very aware of how our health system works and how doctors are trained. You said something in there that was a recent revelation of mine when maybe within the last couple years, that doctors are really trained to prescribe. Your goal is to identify and prescribe. It's not necessarily to go to the root of what's causing the problem. Which I think is fascinating when you start to recognize that that's how Western medicine works. And it also makes a lot of sense when we look at the state of our current health environment. Right. And I think about this often. Cause it's like we're just putting a band aid on the problem. Right. We're not really going to the root of it. And that's really what functional medicine can do, is help us get to what is the root of this problem, which is how I view money. Right. I feel like there is so much here from, you know, we just try and be better, do more, but we're not really going to the root of what's causing the problems to get there. I see so many parallels between, like, health journeys and finance journeys, because there is. There is so much of that, like, needing to actually diagnose what's going on and what's causing the problem. And also it takes time to find those solutions. So there's a lot of, like, delayed gratification. And also on the other side of it, you feel just like your absolute best self, hopefully, is the objective. So I think that's awesome that you pivoted. And also it makes a lot of sense that you got into the industry and then had that revelation and you're like, well, wait a minute. Like, I actually want to help people. I don't know if this is how really helping people. So I love that that's how you ended up getting to what you do now.

Yeah. It wasn't a linear journey. I had to kind of figure out find my way, if you will. But I remember before I met Isaac, I'd actually enrolled in a master's program at University of Central Florida. I completed my master's in health science. But one of the things that irritated me so much, because at that point, the door was open because I saw what I was seeing in the pharmaceutical industry, and I enrolled in this master's program. Cause I was like, well, maybe I'll be an administrator for a hospital or something like that. I was trying to figure out my way out of the pharma industry. But as I was in this master's program, we had to do a lot of research and some of the papers that I read were identifying exactly what you said is how the western model of medicine doesn't get to the root cause of anything. Why is the obesity rate go, go up year after year after year? Why is it that people are dealing with chronic conditions and we spend all this money, so much money, so much of our taxpayer dollars going to our healthcare system, but we're ranked the worst in the world. It doesn't make any sense. And so that's when even during my, my training in my master's program, it just further illuminated for me this whole model over here is not working. It doesn't work. I need to figure out something else. And I do believe in divine power. And God placed Isaac right in front me at the right time with the answer. And so the rest is kind of history.

I love that. That's so good. And I agree. Yeah, he was there and he's like, okay, here's your mission. Like go out into the world and make it be known that there is a better way to approach this and to actually solve the problem. So I would love to hear, because what you mentioned is, I think so relatable to so many people that listen to this podcast and myself included, of wanting to be the best version of yourself, wanting to build this business and wanting to like, make sure that you are reaching your fullest potential in all areas of your life. Right. Whether you are a mom. I'm not a mom yet, but it's definitely something I think about when we do add kids into it is balance. Like, it hits me so often. I help blessed I am in this chapter of being able to own all of my time and still I have this pressure and I know so many people in my world do, of wanting to do it all and wanting to, you know, embody this like high achiever identity that so many of us put ourselves in. But then it's that balance of, of how to not burn out and how to recognize burnout before it happens, or maybe even how to recognize while you're in it so that you're like, oh, well, no wonder I feel like my brain is fried right now. Right. So I'm curious, from your perspective, what is the number one mistake that you see ambitious women making when it comes to balancing their health with their ambition?

Such a great question. And I really feel like women hold this differently than men do. Just have more responsibility. That's just the bottom line. Especially women who are caregivers of children. We own more. And my husband is the most amazing hands on father. Like, he's absolutely incredible. And at the end of the day, I also bear most of the responsibility because the kids, they come to me when they fall, when they get a boo boo, when they need to talk through something that happened at school, they're coming to mama. So it's just. It's a different dynamic. So I do feel like women have to acknowledge, however your roles are, are set up in your house, understanding how does that impact your day to day and your ability to lean into whatever you have with your work life. So for me, I'm a homeschooling mom. That's a choice that I made as a mother, Isaac and I made as parents. As an entrepreneurial family, we kind of buck the system in every way.

Yeah, I love that.

We buck it with respect to our health and wellness. We buck with how we school our children. That was something that we chose. But for me, understanding that, okay, making this choice to pour into my kids and homeschool them means not that I have to put aside my ambitions, but it may mean that I go slower, I may not be able to plow forward as fast as some other women who maybe don't have that same level of responsibility. It's really understanding one. What do you want? I think that's the first thing. What is the desire? If the desire is, I want to build the biggest business that I can, I want to be like seven figures, there's nothing wrong with that. But you have to align your. Your priorities with that. Right. Mine is God first, marriage second, family and nurturing third, and then my business comes next. So I align all of my priorities around that. So I think it's first identifying what you want and figuring out how to align your life around that. That's where the balance comes in. So for me, when I have a choice between working until the late night hours or if a child needs me, I know what I'm choosing. So I think people have to identify first what they want and then structure their priorities around that, if that makes sense.

Yeah. And I feel like so often it's like getting clear on what your values are. I feel like you just missed it out. Prioritization, but also values. And it's so important to have that conversation. Right. I always talk about this. What are the values that you have and how are you aligning that from your finances, but also from your health and your priorities? Like, can't. You can't have it all, but can you have it all at 110% at all times?

Probably not.

What do you say to that person that Is like trying to do it all. What signs should they be looking out for from a health perspective to know if they're reaching that their capacity reaching burnout. Like how do we know? Okay, maybe I need to take a step back here. I need to maybe reassess if I'm prioritizing my time correctly. Right. I feel like we're all trying to reach the edge of our bubble essentially. Right?

Yeah.

We view that through the lens of making sure our health doesn't take the backseat.

I think that for me, I weave it into my daily life. That's what I'm all about with Elevase. It's making wellness a daily rhythm. Because if it's not woven into the day to day, it's hard for a lot of people to make it a reality. You can't go away for some like three day retreat every weekend because you're burned out. Right. You can't do that or you can't lock yourself away to have like a personal day because you've maxed out. That's why it's important to weave it in every day. So for me, I have guardrails and boundaries around my time. When it comes to five or six o' clock at night, I pretty much shut off of work unless it's something urgent that I need to get done. That's rare though, that's not often. But I mentally need that time to disengage so that I can recharge and be a person that's present and also creative and coming up with ideas and things that really help to drive my business forward. And I think because I have the guardrails around my time, when it is time for me to work, I'm much more productive because I know I'm not gonna be sitting here at my computer till 10 o' clock at night. So in these few hours that I have, it's time for me to focus and get stuff done. Not be on social media, not be calling a friend or whatever. It's my focus time. So I think for me it's having the boundaries and the guardrails that help to weave that wellness in to my day to day.

One thing you say right is like the consistency is the catalyst for transformation. And I think that's so true. Consist. I feel like we hear this word all the time though, right? It's consistency is so key. But from your perspective, what would be some consistent healthy habits, right? You're talking about guardrails, you're talking about boundaries. What are some simple healthy habits that people can really, like sometimes we overcomplicate this, you know what I mean? So like, what's the bare bones of like, okay, we've gotta be make sure we're walking, we're drinking our water, that kind of stuff. But what are some things that maybe you are making sure that you're always incorporating or helping your clients incorporate that feel seamless, that maybe people are overthinking, you know? Cause I think sometimes it can be, oh, I gotta build this whole new routine and I gotta do all these things. But we know it can be way more simple than that. And sometimes we just overcomplicate it as an excuse to not start to take action on that. And so let's break it down for the people and make it super easy so they can walk away with something where they're like, okay, I can do that, I can put that in my life.

Yeah, totally. So I think touching on what you said is there's so many similarities between the finance industry and the wellness industry. Finance can seem so complex for people. There's, there's so many pathways to success. There's high failure rate. There's also lots of quick fix scams and things out there. Same thing with the wellness industry. And I think people with respect to health at least they think they have to make some herculean effort for it to matter or for it to count. Because now you can go on Instagram and you can see the person that's, you know, doing a five hour morning routine. They're like up at 4am and they're making their matcha and they're cold plunging and they're doing all these things. So it can feel like, well, if I am not able to live up to that standard, does it really matter? And I'm like, do I even bother? I can't do this like Olympic level, you know, weight training session. So do I even bother working out? And I think that is one part of the problem for people, the challenge of just mentally getting over the hurdle that you don't have to make some giant size effort, you can just do something small. I'll tell you, I struggled for the longest time. I've been in this lifestyle now for over a decade. Isaac and I met when I was 26. We celebrated 15 year anniversary this year. So I'm 15 years in. I'll tell you for the better part of that 15 years I struggled to get into a consistent workout routine, like an exercise routine. I would try to mimic what I saw him do and it was so hard. And so I just Said, you know what? I started with five minutes a day. Literally I would just exercise for five minutes. Whether it was squats, sit ups, jumping jacks, I would find myself forgetting, oh my gosh, I didn't work out today. And doing squats in the sauna because I promised myself, hey, I've got to get this workout in. And so even just something small like that of starting with five minutes a day of walking, or maybe it's your. I'm a big proponent of energy and sleep. Not just from a perspective of are you feeling well rested at night, but what are you giving your energy to? Like, if we look at energy as a currency, what are the things that drain your energy each day? What are the things that light you up each day? I think high performing women, because we're such doers, we're achievers, we can get into the business of doing things and taking responsibility for things that aren't ours to own. And those can be energy drains. So not just thinking of energy from a perspective of sleep. Cause I'm all about like, have a good wind down routine, go to bed at a decent hour, don't be on your phone all the way up until bedtime. These are all things that impact your sleep. So not just thinking about it just from a physical perspective, but where is your, your energy, your output, your, your chi, if you will, like, where is that going throughout the day? And are you preserving your energy for the things that you want to pour into the things that are valuable to you, or is it getting wasted on like toxic relationships on social media, on just beating yourself up sometimes? I know high performing women can do that. So these are things that I like to think about and weave into the day to day.

I love it. Okay, you mentioned something in there and I'm so excited to hear your take on it. But, but the wellness industry is like really booming right now, right? With all these like quick fads. And I will be so quick to admit I have fallen down so many rabbit holes of like, I need this protein powder, I need this creatine, I need these greens, I need these healthy energy drinks, all of the stuff. So can you give us, like, what's your thought on it? Do you have a hot take? Like what's one of the top two or three things that are just like, everyone's talking about this right now on the Internet and I'm telling you, you might be wasting your money spending money on it.

You know, I, I think a lot of people are big into cold plunging right now and I've Done it before, but it's not a practice that I'm going to add into my routine. I have studied ayurvedic medicine in the past and a lot of their philosophy is around, they think of things in like cold and warmth. So for women, it's said that too much cold can be detrimental for us from a hormonal perspective because a lot of women tend to already run cold. So then you're shocking the body with this freezing cold, these freezing cold temperatures, which, it sounds euphoric and it can feel that way. I've done it several times before. I can see the euphoria in it, but it can be a shock to the system. And I think this is one of those things that is not necessarily beneficial for everybody. I've tried it enough times to know this is not for me. So my hot take on stuff like this is people are so quick to chase the what's hot right now kind of trend. I know Brian Johnson, have you heard of him? The guy that is like, I'm never.

Gonna die, never gonna die. Really interesting documentary watching him just try and age backwards with dudes living no life other than trying to live as long as it is weird. But yeah, people are hyper obsessed, like this guy of just like, I need to do all the trends and drink all this up, eat all the supplements and all of this stuff. It makes you feel like, am I just get not getting enough nutrition from my normal diet? Like, do I need all of these things to play into living an optimized and healthy life? Who? It's hard to tell. It's hard to tell what's real out there nowadays.

I think that I'm a big proponent of functional health testing because I do think that the future of healthcare is customized. It is a personalized approach so that you can know specifically what your body needs and how to adjust for any deficiencies, if you will, in nutrients or whatever it is. So I'm not a big proponent of one size fits all approaches. But you'll see people out there that, that, you know, they're doing all the biohacking, they're doing all of these, you know, hot right now kind of trends, but they're missing basic things like, hey, just get enough good sleep at night, hey, don't be on your phone for like four hours a day. You know, it's, it's, it's creating frenetic energy in your brain, it's fragmenting your brain, it's making it harder for you to focus. It's known to create mental illness. In people. Whether it's anxiety, depression, feelings of guilt, the doom scrolling, a sense of doom because everything in the world feels like it's caving in. All of these things that are so simple are often overlooked in favor of what feels trendy or the gadget that's cool. And so I want people to know you don't have to buy the most expensive gadget or toy that's on the market. You don't have to have like a $3,000 supplement stack to experience true health and longevity. You really can start with the basics. And that's what I talk about in my Wellness without limits audio challenge. It's really bas stuff that anybody can do and start with on a day to day level. And then once you get those things down, once you're really solid in the things like you know, optimizing your sleep and your energy and things like that, then you can play around with different gadgets and supplements and things like that. But I don't think jumping ahead to those things is beneficial when you don't have the basics yet. It's like somebody talking about uber complex investment strategy when they've got like tons of credit cards ahead and they can't pay their bills every month.

I was literally going to say it's the exact same thing of this. Like in the, in the money world it's get rich quick. Like everybody wants the sexy stuff, nobody wants like the foundational stuff that is actually going to help you. Everyone's like, I want to talk to me about crypto. I'm like babe, talk to me about getting out of credit card debt. Let's start here, let's lay the foundation. And I feel like the wellness industry to me feels very similar. It's like this and again I'm guilty of it. I've gotten so sucked I bought my husband wouldn't be laughing at like the amount of products I bought over there. But it's like you want to get into this wellness journey and all of a sudden you're like I need all these and I want to make sure I'm optimized. But it feels kind of gimmicky. It feels kind of like get rich quick schemes for these people. When the majority of America is not sleeping eight hours a night is doom scrolling all day every single day and it's negatively impacting their mental health. They're not working out and they're not walking and they're not not drinking enough water. Like those really boring things that actually make majority of the difference. And then to your point we're kind of fine tuning with these supplements, but everybody wants the sexy thing. Oh, look at this new product. I'm drinking every day. Okay. And also your sleep sucks and you don't have a good diet. You haven't eaten enough protein in like a decade, and you haven't stepped foot in a gym in seven years. Like, I don't think that's the majority of the listeners to this podcast, but I feel like that is kind of what's going on. And it just reminds me a lot that, like, we can make you a millionaire in 17 days if you just follow this one investing strategy. And it's like, whoa, let's go to the foundation. Let's get to the basics here.

Yeah. And I think, I think that's the thing that people need to understand the most is, is you're not doing it wrong if you're taking baby steps. You're not doing it wrong if you are just focused on getting hydrated every day first. It really starts with those things.

Yeah. Those are the things that make the biggest difference, I think, about my own health journey. I mean, I started taking this seriously five years ago. If five year ago me looked at my life now, she'd be like, there's no way that that could be my normal routine. But it happens slowly over time. It takes intentionality on a day to day basis to just shift slowly. And everybody wants these crazy, you know, again, that gets you like a big transformation. Yeah, yeah.

I actually recently was speaking with someone that I had met for the first time. It was a new esthetician I was going to. And we kind of just got on the topic of health and wellness and she was kind of saying that she feels guilty about how little she does for her health and yada, yada. I told her it took me over a decade to get to where I am right now. I was like, don't compare yourself to me. I think with our social media access to see everyone's life all the time, it's not all that healthy because you can look at somebody with, you know, millions of followers on Instagram, who's doing the red light therapy and the cold plunge, and they've got all the little gadgets and all the things, and you think that's where you're supposed to start. But that person 10 years ago was just maybe trying to stop eating fast food. Right? Exactly.

Literally. Literally.

So I think that people, the. The approach has been kind of to leapfrog over really this solid meat that holds everything together. And then we want to sprinkle on all the confetti and all of this stuff and it looks nice, but there's no real substance there. Cause the foundation is, it's broken. There's no foundation. So that's why I think I really encourage people to start with the basics, get consistent with the basics. And sometimes the consistency isn't about going into some hardcore ultra restrictive diet that's not sustainable. So when, when I, when I talk to people about how to make health change, we're not trying to go for some like Herculean effort here. We're talking about, okay, if I'm eating fast food most days of the week, maybe I drop that to like, like three instead of seven days each week. And then once I do that, okay, maybe I, maybe I just do it one day a week and I start to, you know, maybe cook one or two days a week. You build it up. You don't have to just cut everything cold turkey. Because I think a lot of times for people when they go through these super restrictive diets where they cut everything out, it might work for a time period, but it's not sustainable. And if we're actually going to build, well, like a rhythm of wellness into our life and not compartmentalize it, but actually make it a lifestyle, it has to be sustainable. It's gotta be something you can live with, not just for like a weekend or a few weeks and then you start over again. It's like, okay, no, I can, I can actually live my life this way.

But Erica, that's not sexy, that's not exciting. Slowly changing my life one small thing at a time, right? I am hopeful that we get to a point in society. Like we've had exposure to social media and it has absolutely impacted the way that we think and operate and move through life. I'm hopeful, I don't know what your thoughts are that we will. That we maybe are already getting to a point where people are recognizing that those gimmicky things don't work and getting boring. And doing the basics actually gets you to where you want to go. It's kind of like the tortoise in.

The, the tortoise and the hair.

Yeah, yeah, the hair is like, I'm going to do all the da da, da, da da. And, and it's like, well, I'm actually just going to build my little bricks brick by brick. And I'll see where you're at five years and I'll see where I'm at in five years and we'll see, you know, and I feel Like, I'm hopeful that we get there from a health perspective, from a finance, perspect, everything. Because all these things take time. All good things take little, like bricks. You're building the foundation and we can't get there overnight. And social media has really made us all think that we can. And so I think it's just important to continue to have more of these types of conversations of the person that you, that you idolize, that has the health and has the wealth and has all these things didn't get there by an overnight success. It's. It's these slow changes and you slowly evolve into this person that you're trying to become and have these healthy routines. But we can't just get there overnight.

Absolutely.

Okay, so you mentioned the cold plunge, which I also have heard a lot of people talking about specifically for women and their hormones. Like, it's not that good. Are there anything else out there that you see, like the greens or the energy fizz drinks or the creatine? Like, there's these little supplements that pop up. Magnesium. Any other ones that you see that you're like, y', all, it probably doesn't make sense for you guys to be going out and buying it. Or is there anything that you're like, actually, I think every woman should be insert having this supplement or doing this routine, and it would make a positive.

Difference in their life as far as supplements go. Just because I've, I've spent so much time in the functional medicine world. When Isaac and I were first working with clients one to one, we did everything off of lab testing. It was empirical data. We would see what are your vitamin D levels, what are your hormones look like, what does your gut look like? I mean, we were looking at everything related to this individual's biology. And from there we would make recommendations on supplements. So I think supplements can be beneficial. I have a good supplement stack and I know what my levels are and it's, it's supportive. So I don't want to downplay the benefits that supplements can have, but I would caution people against running out and buying every trendy thing. I mean, I've seen everything from weight, weight loss gummies, which I'm like, this is ridiculous to. I don't know if you remember, there was a big craze. Chlorophyll went nuts like a few years ago. Okay, So I took chlorophyll. I'd been taking chlorophyl. I was pregnant with my first child. Because it can help with just building up red blood cells. I tend to run anemic and it was supported for that. So I've stayed on it for years. I remember going online to order my chlorophyll. It was like sold out. I was like, what is going on with chlorophyll? I checked another store, it sold out. It was like the Internet lost its mind over chlorophyll. And I'm like, okay, this is, this is wild. But I don't know if people really understood why they're, they're taking it. So to kind of, to kind of tie a bow around it is. I don't necessarily think that supplementation is bad. I think it can be, be really good. But be careful with jumping on every little bandwagon when it comes to supplements and also know who you're buying from. I highly recommend buying from reputable sources. We like to use physician grade brands. Be careful with what you're getting on Amazon. Some of this stuff is coming from overseas where the regulations are not as tight as in America and seen some horror stories from that have taken supplements. So I would just really caution people from just buying whatever you see from some influencer, whoever. Just make sure you know what you're, you're putting into your body.

Yeah, factual for anything. Just like be more cautious of people that are trying to see on the Internet. And I think it's so true. What you're talking about is taking something if you don't even know if your body needs it. One, you can use yourself up more. And two, why are we wasting money on things that we don't even know that we need are going to benefit us? So I think, I think I, I have a question around just what it's like to work with a functional doctor. I think that it would be helpful for everyone. Like what's different working with you? And I know you talked about like lab tests. Are you drawing my blood? Are you taking a stool sample? What does that look like to understand what is going on in my body. If somebody wants to reach out and work with a functional doctor, how is that process maybe a little bit different than how we're visioning, going to our doctor that we normally might see for health things?

Yeah, that's a great question. So we, we don't work with clients one to one anymore. We mostly just work with our doctors. But the one thing that I like about functional medicine is if I were to take two different lab tests. Okay. Have you ever been to your doctor and they just run like a, a blood panel on you? Right. They, they take your blood let's do some blood work on you, Madison. Everyone's heard that before from their primary care. So I'll tell you a story. Right before I met Isaac, I moved to Florida. I was getting established there and wanted to find, like, a primary care do. Well, he ran blood work on me. He said, you're so healthy, you got a clean bill of health, et cetera. So I was like, great. So probably about a year after we met, we got married. And he's like, I'm running every lab I can on you to figure out what's going on in your body. So when he got done running his labs, they told a very different story than the labs that I took from the traditional health doctor. So when you think about labs that will come from different, just like a regular primary care physician, they're kind of measuring you against what's average in America, right? So if I take a pool of, you know, a thousand other women in your age range, what's the average cholesterol level? What's the average blood pressure? What are the averages? And do you fall in the range? Well, I don't know about you, Madison, but I don't aspire to be average on any level. Don't compare me to average to what's average. I don't care. Care.

Okay, no, that literally is irrelevant in my mile markers. Like, I. That's what I actually don't want to be, if you were curious, because average in our society is not. It's not as.

It's not desirable. No, not at all. Not on any level. So they're comparing you to average population if you want to be functioning at your optimal level. And this is where the functional part comes in. With functional medicine, they're looking at how this body system, the organs are functioning. How is. How is your body operating on a day to day that looks at very different things. So we're not. Now we're not comparing you to what's average, we're comparing you to what's optimal. So that's why when I took the lab test with my husband and they were measuring me against optimal ranges, it told a very different story. It wasn't, oh, clean bill of health. It was, you've got hormone disruption, you've got gut issues, you've got nutrient deficiencies, you've got food sensitivities. I had all kinds of stuff going on that was never picked up on the labs that I got with the traditional doctors. So that's why I'm a huge proponent for functional medicine. If you're somebody who wants to be above average and wants to be optimal for me, it's like the only way to go.

Yeah, well. And like you said, like, we think about. Okay, your goal in that. In that environment is to compare me against averages in America, which we've just said are not really aspirational. And we know that your objective is to just prescribe and not actually help me feel better. So.

Right.

This is kind of disentangled, like, why. Why wouldn't I. Right. And I feel like I've heard this story from so many people where that exact scenario where it's like, I don't know if something feels off, I don't know what it is. You go to your doctor, your doctor's like, you're great. And then you're like, well, I don't feel great. Like something. And then it just. Especially as women. Right? Like, am I crazy? Am I making this up? Maybe I should feel stronger. Maybe my pain me told tolerant, maybe this is normal. Maybe I should just deal with it. Like, I feel like women can go so quick down that spiral. But we're really intuitive. If you feel like something's off, trust it. Right? And utilize something like this, functional medicine to explore that and get better feedback on your body. Because I feel like I've heard the story from so many people recently of, like, I don't know, they said, I'm fine, but I don't feel fine. And then they do exactly what you're saying you did, and it's like, oh, well, this is actually what's going on.

This is why. Yeah, right. You're not crazy. There's. There's actually something going on. And then the approach, too, with functional medicine is different. Once we identify that there's issues, there's problems, then the way that we go about resolving that, it's different. So a doctor, as you mentioned, is mostly going to prescribe a drug to alleviate symptoms. Functional medicine, doctor, a good one, a really good one, is going to approach this from a holistic response perspective. They're gonna come from different angles, and they're actually gonna be able to see how, okay, here's how your hormones are actually affecting your gut, and here's how your stress levels are affecting your hormones. And so then when they're able to make all these connections with the different systems of the body, then the prescribed method of alleviating it is not so much. Here, go take this supplement. We're not just. We're not just swapping supplements for prescriptions. You want somebody that's gonna help you Create a lifestyle. Right. So it can't just be, all right, I have this lab with all these irregularities. So what, supplements can fix it? No, usually a good functional doctor is going to say there's actually some lifestyle changes that you will benefit from. And that's why it's so powerful, is because when you can build a lifestyle that's actually sustainable and helps you to get your lab results in alignment and you're just kind of fine tuning and tweaking these things to make you optimal, then it's like the power in that is, is incredible.

Yeah. Are there any telltale signs of somebody who maybe might be listening to this that's like, wait, this is kind of symptoms I'm struggling with. Maybe I should go to a functional doctor. Like, what are some common things that women might be experiencing that they could kind of see if they might need to explore this route?

Yeah, I think for women, hormones is a big thing. We've come to accept that feeling tired all the time is somehow normal. I've heard this a lot, especially from women who are, are, have children or they might be in their 40s. I turned 40 a couple years ago and the amount of people saying like, oh, your energy is going to take when you turn 40, and it's normal to feel exhausted all the time, none of those things are normal. There's probably some kind of hormone imbalance. If you are struggling to sleep at night, like a lot of women, they'll either have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. That's not normal. There's probably something off hormonally there. Women that have no libido, like if there's no sex drive there, that's also not normal. I think that kind of thing has been normalized as well. So these are some things that have come up repeatedly in the past, either from clients or just me talking to girlfriends that are like, hey, you know, we're just talking shop about health and wellness. Those are things, I think that have been normalized that are not, not normal.

Okay. So if you're struggling with sleep or.

Sex or stress, irregularities with hormones, your cycle. Even when women start to enter into their 40s, 50s, dealing with changes, perimenopause, menopause, it's. It's not talked about hardly at all. I feel like it's lately been getting more attention, maybe just cause of the people that I, I talk to and surround myself with, with. But doctors are given very little. It's like very quick in medical school, the training that they get on, it's like nothing on Perimenopause. Menopause is. It's very, very quick. So women can experience little hormone shifts, irregularities with their cycle. They're struggling to lose weight. They're metabolically feeling like things are off. Like, maybe they're dealing with cravings or whether it's sugar or salty food, they're, like, struggling with that. All of those things can signify a hormonal imbalance, balance that may need some attention. So any number of those things. And just in general, like, if you. If you're feeling off in your body, like things aren't feeling right, it. It does not hurt to get labs done. I like to do them every year because I just want to see, where am I at, how are things looking? It's kind of like a wellness check. I do.

I love that. I think that's something that, like, doesn't get talked about. Like, usually when you go to the doctor, too, like, that's like, pushed more of, like, a maintenance model, you know, And I like that. And I think that that's probably what a lot of people need, you know, like, to actually be able to stay on top of things.

And honestly, if you can get ahead of stuff, like, what's on my radar right now is menopause, right? So you start getting into your late 30s or early 40s. That's the topic of conversation amongst a lot of my friends right now is going through, like, this hormonal change. And there's nothing necessarily off for me right now. But I did. I did start working with a functional practitioner who. She is very specialized in hormones. Because I want to get ahead of anything. I don't want to wait until I've got symptoms and I'm feeling like crud. And now I'm trying to, you know, my productivity and energy's tanked. And now I'm trying to figure it out quickly, like, how to get it on the right track. No, that's part of my practice, is how can I stay on top of this and continue to feel great? Because I do feel great.

I love that, too. Medicine for, like, it doesn't need. You don't need to be in dire health help. You don't need to be, like, dying or on your deathbed or feeling like absolute garbage to want to optimize how you feel. And I think that's such an important conversation. More people need to hear that. Because I do think that we are kind of trained. Like, you know, I'm bleeding, something's broken. Even me, like, to go to a doctor. Something's gotta be Wrong, you know? And so I love what you just said there of it doesn't have to be like, you can lean on this stuff to just be the best version of yourself. And just knowing that normal doctors are gonna compare us to averages like, that's. If that's not what we want, then don't wait to go to the doctor until you feel like you need them. Like, just be okay with opening up that conversation if you're just, like, ready to optimize how you're feeling. I think that's incredible. And I have to admit, I think I heard the term perimenopause for the first time this year. I just turned 30 this year, and I had no idea what is shortly waiting for me and all of my friends on the other side of this. And I think it's starting to become more of a conversation. But no, like, I didn't even know that was a thing until this year. And that is. Is scary because I think about how many women have gone through these chapters with their hormones and just how much women have been made to think with no support. And that's really sad to me. So I'm glad that that conversation's starting to happen, that we can be a little bit more prepared, because I've been talking about this a lot lately, but just like, we don't talk about what hormones are going on and how different we operate than men. And we gotta give ourselves some more credit and education around that because it's not fair to just put us in this box of. Of like, you should be feeling this way always. And the fact that hormones are such a big play in how we live our life. We've gotta be able to have more conversation and give women more grace as we go through these different chapters.

Yes, I a hundred percent agree with that. And I'm glad you brought up the differences between men and women, because even when you're approaching your wellness because of the hormone changes that we have and because we're just wired differently, there has to be a different approach. I used to try to, like, when I was first starting out on this journey of wellness, I would kind of try to template what my husband was doing because he was like, the only model, the real model that I had for this lifestyle. Quickly found out I was, like, pushing heavy weight around in the gym. Like, doesn't work for me. He can fast, like, not eat fast.

My husband cannot eat. I'm like, I need food now.

No, I cannot do that. It's different. It's completely different. So eat. Even just Talking about strategies and tactics with wellness, the feminine has to be taken into consideration because some of the things that work for men are not necessarily super helpful or beneficial for women. Or if you're a woman and it's totally okay. And you have to also think about things like, where am I at in my cycle? Like, if I'm gonna do like this kind of fast, like it's actually better to do it during this part of my cycle versus this part. These are all things that can actually play a role in the results that we get and how we feel. And if we plow through kind of trying to copy and paste someone else's routine, it may not feel so good. So that's an, that's why I just, I'm such a big believer in customization.

Yeah. Oh, I love that so much. Okay. Is there anything else that you feel like these ambitious women need to hear, need to know about, like any other thoughts, tips, tricks or anything like that?

Yeah, I would say if you're working on building well for yourself, and I know that you're doing a great job leading people into that, that future that they see possible, think about. Because we don't often think about how life and how years and decades impact our health. Some of the research that I have been seeing around aging has been shocking and honestly a little bit like, wow. I recently read this study, it was a Harvard study where they followed around 100,000 people from the age of, of 39. They followed them for like 20 or 30 years and they would fill out these questionnaires about what their diet and their lifestyle was like. Well, by the time these people were 70, only 9%, like my brain wrapping around this was like wild. Only 9% of the people had aged to that point without some kind of chronic condition. So 91%, like the vast majority had some kind of chronic disease. People over 65 in America, 90% of them have a chronic illness. It's wild. So we're talking like heart disease, diabetes, cancer. We're talking about all of these different types of life altering conditions that. Yes, that's the kind of bad news. The good news is that this study also showed that you can actually impact the outcomes, like what you're gonna experience later in life, life by what you're doing right now. So if you are investing in healthy nutrition, taking care of yourself, getting sleep at night, not stressing yourself out, like burning yourself out day after day, you can actually add up to a decade, like another 10 years onto your life with healthy lifestyle. This is stuff that's not talked about. I know it's like, you know, thousand feet down the pike, people don't think about this. They're thinking about, you know, what is my investment portfolio going to look like? What's my. How much money am I going to have? What is my empire going to look like? I want people to think about what's your health going to look like? Are you going to be able to live with autonomy? Are you going to need somebody to come and help you get out of your bed and put your clothes on when you're like 65 or 70 because your health was neglected?

I think that's such an important thing to talk about because we do. We think about, like, I think it is hard for people to see themselves in that light. We are all going to be old and gray at some point. We are all going to be in our 60s in our set, hopefully. Right. God willing. But it's like, it's hard for people to see that, like, we do live so in the now. And it's so much instant gratification. But to your point, if you're somebody who's listening to this and you're trying to prioritize building wealth, like, you want to make sure that you can enjoy it when you get there. And I feel like I've been so cognizant of this, of like, recognizing how far away that is and also how.

Not far away, how not far away it is.

Do you want to be, for lack of better words, like a burden to everybody around you because you are unable to take care of yourself? And then also we. The traditional talk about, like, average advice, right? The average advice in wealth building is like, put a little bit away and then at 65, you can enjoy it. And it's like, is anybody actually enjoying it if you aren't also prioritizing your health along the way? Because what's the goal? To get to the end of the road and, and, and need help doing everything and to not be able to, like, live life fully.

Right?

Yeah. Like, we've got to have both. You've got it. And again, that's. It's almost like you're explaining, like, the compound interest of our health. Right. Of how we have like a wealth building, but like, those habits stack and hopefully your wealth is building and your health is building so that you can enjoy both of them and live a very fruitful life.

Yeah. I call it the wellness window of opportunity there. Everybody has this window of opportunity for all of us. The window is getting smaller and smaller each year that passes but the window is, what can I do to impact my health right now? And there's a time where that opportunity, the gap closes and there comes a point where you're not gonna be able to do as much to impact your health. So the younger you are, the easier it is. So start right now, even if you're in your 50s, 60s, 70s, now is better than never.

Now is better than ever. And it's like that. That. Yeah, I don't. It's just like that thought of, like, anything could happen at any time. Like, what are we doing today? Like, we've gotta focus on what we can control, which is in the now. Yeah. Have you read the book the Slight Edge?

No, I haven't. It sounds like a good one. So good.

I think you'd love it. It's talking about this. I've mentioned it before, because it very much so just puts into perspective that everything we're talking about, like, it all comes down to the microhabits and the decisions that you make today and the way that that sounds and the difference between people who achieve their goals and high performers and live a healthy life and a wealthy life. It comes down to the. That you make today and almost all of the decisions that have a big impact. Like, we're talking about drinking water, going to sleep on time, not scrolling. They're so easy to do. They are also so easy not to do. And it feels like it's so insignificant in the moment. Like it's not really going to matter if I make this micro change. But really, if you zoom out on your life, those micro changes and those microhabits are exactly the thing that get you to where you want to go. And you're not going to notice until it's too late because it's already compounded.

Absolutely. You know, I think maybe it was James Clear who said it in his book Atomic Habits. It's like, show me your results and I'll show you your habits. The habits that you do every day. They're. They're building something. They're building the results that you're going to see tomorrow and 10 years down the line and even beyond that. So it's. It's not insignificant to focus on those micro things and, and be consistent in the things that you value and what matters.

Yeah, I love that. Such a lovely reminder of just how important and how much control we really do have over our life if we decide to do the little things today. So.

Yeah.

That's amazing. Erica, thank you so much. How can people find you? What have you got going on in your world and where can we help them figure out how to optimize their health and work with you, work with your husband in any capacity. Tell everyone where they can find you.

Yeah. So my website is elevase. Com. It's E L E V A Y S dot com that sounds for stands for Elevated Days. I've got lots of free content on there but we're about to launch the Wellness Without Limits audio challenge. So it's all about the most foundational like non negotiable habits that anyone can do. Start from wherever that really create that launching pad off into the future to create incredible health for years to come. So you can find that@elevase.com and you'll see all of my different social handles and things on there as well.

Amazing. Okay. And we will link all of that in the show notes for you guys. So if you guys got anything out of today's conversation, make sure you are following along with Erica. Reach out to her, shoot her a message, shoot her an email, let her know what has landed with you from today's conversation and let us know what is one microhabit that you are going to start committing to today in order to live your healthiest and your wealthiest life. So thank you Erica so much for being here on today's episode and I will see you guys all on the next one.

Sam.