Advocate of Women’s Physical, Emotional and Mental Health with Sachin Patel& Elma Reka

Hello, my friends, and welcome to Perfect Practice. Today we get to take a deeper look into gut health. My guest today is Alma Rekha, and she's going to be discussing with us a little bit more about what she does, how she helps people by starting in the gut. The gut, as you know, is one of the most important aspects to our healing and restoration and repair. However, it's often overlooked because we can't see it. And it's something that plays such a vital role in the healing journey. So as we get started, what I'd love to know more about is what makes the gut so interesting to you, Alma.

Well, first of all, thank you so much, Sachin, for having me on this podcast and having me share my experience and why I'm so passionate about gut health. And what makes it so fascinating is that gut health is what got me into the journey of the health. I was not in this industry before. I was working in the corporate world for many years, and until I became a mother, where health started going a bit downhill. Usually it's expected. They say I don't want to believe in that. I want to defeat that belief that health deteriorates after having children. But that was the start of my journey. For three years, I did not know what was going on after my first child, where all the tests will come back normal, but you feel anything but normal. You have no energy. You. Your moods are all over the place. You just don't know what's going on. And of course, you can mask it. You go to work, you put the makeup on, you dress up, and you come home and the entire energy has been spent at work. And when you come home, you don't even have time to spend with your not. You don't have time. You don't have the energy to be with your own children and enjoy the life in the family, let alone doing additional stuff like the cooking or like being social. And it was those first three years where I was lost and at the same time very overwhelmed with the information out there as what I can do to make myself feel better, because I, up to that point, I never had any health issues. And it was when I met a functional medicine practitioner that started looking into the gut health that dropped that coin. Like, it reminds me of those phones. You drop the coin and then the signal comes in. And that was my. My light bulb. It was a lot of changing the diet and a lot of lifestyle changes as well. The stress was there as well. But because I've been traveling so much, I never. I never knew what Gut health was and how important is the digestion and the way we eat and all. And along the way traveling, especially in Asia extensively, I think I picked up on different types of bacteria and infections and the ecology changed. So all these was so underlooked in the conventional medicine. Actually they were not looked at all. And it was through functional medicine that I found the answers. And the change I would say was within three days, not it was like you take a pill. It was magical. But you feel from totally lost and no energy and as if you have a curtain in front of your eyes. Within three days, if you're like, oh wow, I can see better, I can wake up in the morning with energy and it feels good. And I think that was the moment that gut became the foundation of health for me and foundation of passion to get into this field, into nutrition and functional medicine. So. So yeah, that's my, the beginning of my journey.

Yeah. You know, usually I find that's where people's stories start and determines what they're interested in is really where their story starts. Now you mentioned that you had low energy and you said, you know, almost by a slip of the tongue that you didn't feel like you had time. And, and I wanted to just bring that to people's attention because when we don't have energy, it feels like we don't have time. So a lot of times when people are saying that, maybe your clients are saying that. My clients say that sometimes, sometimes I'll even catch myself saying that, oh my God, I don't have the time. Well, we have to pause and ask ourselves, is it that we don't have the time or is it that we don't have the energy to put into that time because the time is always there. We can always devote the time or invest the time that we need to, but it requires that we have the energy to be able to do that. Now you mentioned that, you know, after your pregnancy, that's when you started noticing some of the symptomology that you're experiencing. Were your symptoms in the gut or were they elsewhere? Were you experiencing joint pain or brain fog, anything else like that? Or was it mostly the energy that was the issue for you?

Yeah, no, that's a very good question because it was never the digestion. I always thought I had great digestion and I thought I eat healthy because I, I'm from Albania. It's Mediterranean diet, all is home cooked food. So I never blamed that part. But it was the brain fog, the changing moods, the achy joints and you Know, energy was the main one because we want to do things, especially as new mothers. There is so much going on and you tend to blame, oh, I did not sleep well last night. Oh, maybe it was this. And then when you sleep well, you still don't feel good. So then you try to find other reasons why not. And digestion was always, always not overlooked, but not part of the picture at all out of the frame. So it was anything else but digestion. And that was why I became so passionate about it. Because it feels like the lost in the middle. It's always there, but nobody can see it. And it's a pity because it's such a vital and important organ or system that we have in our body and our immune system. 60, 70% is there and immune system these days. We know how important it is. So how can we overlook this part of our body? I still am at O, but I want to bring that message out there. We should take care of our guts, we should take care of, of the way we, we treat ourselves, the way we eat. And never underestimate the power that the gut health has in all the other aspects. Mental health so connected with the gut, arthritis, anything else that we experience. Let's first look at the gut. Let's like look at it as a root cause. I don't want to close the, you know, look with a very narrow lens, but it is a very good starting point. And that can open up a lot of other paths to find the optimal health of the energy and the time that we want to create to have a life that we want.

Yeah, you know, these are great points. And I think the gut is the keystone to great health. So even if that's not where the symptomology is, you need a healthy gut to build a healthy brain. You need healthy gut to absorb the nutrients, to build healthy joints and assimilate the nutrients that we need for mitochondrial function and energy. So it makes sense that we start there and that brings us to the clinic and the services that you started, the business that you've started, which is called Start in the Gut. So it makes sense now why your journey is wrapped up into this. Tell us a little bit more about what you do.

Yeah, no, definitely. I was so, so impressed by what I achieved just starting with the gut. And I thought, okay, I have to name the business like that. So it is very clear because I found myself to look around what will I do? And trying many modalities and all that. And when things are just straightforward, it's just easier for people to find you or maybe for them to start questioning, oh, why is this? So that that's the name I chose. I don't know. Hopefully it's. It resonates with many people. But what in my clinic, it's I work or I love working with mothers. It's not necessarily immediate, immediate postpartum, but is after one year. And especially mothers who never feel the same after having children, which it can be one year, two years, even five years after having children. And I have met a lot of them throughout my personal experience and through the clinic that they don't have any diagnosis and they don't know exactly what's going on. They're doing all the investigations, but they know they don't feel great. Tests come back normal, they do changes, the nutrition comes there because now everybody is so more aware than before when it comes to healthy living and nutrition, which is a great thing. But after trying all this stuff, they still don't know what exactly is going on in their bodies. So I love working with mothers who are at that stage because I find them to be the lost crowd, which is the majority. When there is a diagnosis, then you get a medication or you get some treatment or therapy of any kind, or you have the mothers who bounce back and you know, they. They're living the life the way they wanted to live. But there is this very big chunk of mothers that go day by day and it looks like they're living a normal life because they put so much energy into making the day look norma normal. But it's very taxing on them. And throughout the years they end up developing other diagnosis like they will be hypothyroidism or they will be prediabetes. And I would like to work with them and catch in that stage where they are totally overwhelmed, totally lost and don't know what to do, what's happening and sometimes even giving up to that believe that health deteriorates after having children, which I really do not like that, that kind of belief because it's not true. And that's the. The audience or the people I work with, it's not necessarily the only ones because once you see the results and you have the partners joining, then there's word of mouth. And I do work with even single women or like not mothers, women in general. But my passion is working with mothers for them to feel good and most importantly for them to be there for the next generation.

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And I probably will talk about this later if it comes up, but I can bring it up as well. When I started, I first wanted to work with children. And in the last two years of my studies, when I was doing my degree, I was working with pediatricians and was doing the nutritional part for the kids. But I never worked with kids. He was working with mothers and teaching them what the diet should be like if they would come with different allergies, the kids, or intolerances. So we will tailor different diets. And throughout those conversations, I just found out that mothers themselves, they were so tired and so overwhelmed, and when they were trying to do even more to help their children, they just found themselves not to comply with it and then feeling guilty for not being able to do all the things they wanted to do. So it was through those two years of practice with, during my studies that I was like, okay, if I want to get to children, which is still my passion, I have to get to the mothers first. Because only when we. And I'm a mother myself, I have two daughters. Only when I am in good health and I have good spirits and I have energy and all that, only then will I be able to take care of the children the way I want to and provide what they need. And it's not necessarily only nutrition is all that emotional support we can give and being there for them. So, yeah, this is what I try to do and bring out there and talk with mothers as much as I can whenever I have the opportunity. It's not always about you. It's about the children as well, the next generation, the family. Because we are like the gut. We are the foundation of the family.

Yeah. You know, I heard once somebody said that the women are the neck of the fam. Of the. Of the family. So wherever the neck turns, the head goes. And I think the same can be applied for the children as well. Right. Because if mothers have good energy, they're modeling good, healthy practices, then they don't have to teach their kids how to be healthy. They're modeling that for them, and their children are witnessing it. And we can kind of break that cycle of trauma. Right. Of demonstrating to our children how not to take care of ourselves. And how to put ourselves last. Meanwhile, we're telling them to put themselves first. And that can create some, you know, I don't know what the right word is, but that can create some dysfunctional thinking, right where my mom is telling me one thing and then she's doing something totally the opposite of that. With that being said, what are some of the things that you found that thrash people's guts? Like, why is it that these issues pop up for people?

Well, it's an accumulation of things. Even if I go back to my own history, it doesn't come like this. Okay, when you have an infection or a bout of parasitic infection, it's different, but it's throughout time. We live in very stressful times. Or actually, I can go even back to earlier years with children. Today I had a clinic session with the mom and she was so extremely tired that she did not. Was not able to cook that much for the child. And the child just kept eating sugars, cookies because she needed to sleep. So that is the start of a really bad digestion, bad habits and all that. But how our ecology, how our microbiome is created, it starts even from birth. We know how C section or cesarean is very different from having natural birth and how that impacts our microbiome. Then it's the first year or the first two years of childhood impacts our microbiome, the biggest organ in our body, actually, that the scientists have recognized it in the latest years. Then it's the stress that can come, or antibiotics or other medications that we give to children or we have taken when we are children. And then it's the stressful times of teenage years. It's the environmental pollution, it's the way we eat, the food we eat, if it's genetically modified, if it's organic, the pesticides. So it's an accumulation of many, many, many factors that impacts. But when the body cannot, when it reaches a certain stage, then we start experiencing symptoms and that's when the body starts saying, okay, something is really not good and we need to make some changes. And actually symptoms are not to be blamed. I have shifted this mindset for myself and I try to explain to clients as well, symptoms. We are blessed to have them because they tell us something is not right and need to look at it so we can fix it. So let's not just polish them and suppress them, but let's just find what's going on. So, yeah, gut health is impacted by many, many factors out there. It's not one thing or the other. Stress is very important. And in our world is such a chronic thing, then it's the way unfortunately, people eat these days in front of the TV or in front of the computer working, because we are so busy trying to do so many things and there is no connection between the brain and the gut. Like, okay, we're eating now, so we need to relax and we need to start digesting. It's. We just eat to fill a void maybe, or just to have the stomach full, to get the feeling that the stomach is full, but not necessarily because we're hungry. And all this, it's part of digestion being skewed until it gives us the signal that we have to do something. And most of the time, unfortunately is seen in the wrong way because they will go by after the symptoms again. They will not go after digestion and fix the gut. So, yeah, yeah.

So I would imagine that sometimes when people connect with you or contact you and maybe they're complaining about non gut or seemingly non gut related issues because everything ties back to the gut as we know. How do you explain that to them? You did such an elegant job right now. But do they, do they look at you like you have two heads? Or do they ever wonder, if this was so true, then why didn't my doctor do this way? Or why isn't anyone else talking about this? Why is it that they're hearing about this for the first time from you? How do you overcome some of that as you're coaching them through the healing process?

Yeah, no, they definitely come up quite often and they go into a disbelief as well. Like, yeah, okay. They sort of like, oh, did I make the right decision to come and see you and talk about this? Because when they come, it's all about nutrition. I want to lose weight, I want to feel better, okay. I want to have energy. And they connect the energy with eating better. Because if you eat better, you get vitamins and all that. They get this little part of it.

Right?

But when you try to explain that, look, gut health is very important that the immune system is there, the microbiome is there. We need the diversity of the microbiome to even digest our food. Or like we need to rest and be, to be relaxed and enjoy our food or even smell your food so you can start the digestion process and trying to explain. I mean, I would say part of probably half of my clinic session goes explaining about the gut how is important because if God doesn't work, then you won't, you won't be able to digest. And most of the clients actually they eat very well. The clients that come to see me, because they eat organic, they try to eat all the vegetables at the, you know, the five a day is like a big campaign. Of course, even five a day is not enough. It has to be 10, probably seven to 10. But they do their best and they eat quality. But I try to explain, explain to them, to get to them that if you do not digest and absorb, then there's no point for you to eat the best foods out there because it's not like you, you're benefiting as much as you should. So it's just trying to explain in very simple terms how digestion works, how we need the stomach acid to be the first thing. I mean, it starts from the mouth, but you know, sometimes people are like, okay, whatever. So I like to start with the stomach, the acidity that is needed there to digest the food, how the protein is the main one that is digested in the stomach. If you don't digest it there, then you can't really digest it going further down. So trying to make those little connections. And it's a lot of education that goes around it. Some of them accept it because depends on personality. And some of them are like, okay, just tell me what I need to do and I'll do it. And some are like, okay, can I support it? And that gets a little bit more complicated because you don't want them to be supported lifelong with supplements, because that's, that's not the goal. We don't want to give supplements, enzymes and HCl, pepsin for digestion or other vitamins and minerals all the time. So it's, it's an edu. It's a process. It doesn't happen. On the first session we talk again. I deliver quite a lot of videos so they can understand a little bit better. I refer them to certain books that I find to be easy to digest. So it's all about education. But they find it fascinating, especially the microbiome part, when you tell them there are a lot of bacteria in our gut and they go like what?

You know, there's obviously a gut brain connection and I feel like that's the one that people probably have the hardest time connecting. And also the gut skin connection. Right. A lot of times the issues that are happening in the gut are going to show up on the skin, but most people would probably tend to think of those as topical issues. So bridging that gap with education is so important. Right. Especially because you're teaching them something that seems intuitive to us as practitioners. But may not be intuitive to them. Like, nobody's going to a dermatologist and asking them, hey, can you check my gut? They're saying, what's this on my skin and what can I put on it or what can I apply to it? And while that might be providing them temporary relief, it's really, like you said, it's polishing the symptom as opposed to getting to the underlying cause of it. Now, you've got several trainings that you've taken over the years. Was gut health discussed extensively in the way you discuss it now, or is this additional knowledge that you've acquired with your own experience and additional training you've taken?

I was very lucky to go to a very. I have a diploma in nutritional therapy. And the school I went to, the principal was adamant that we learn things in details and we know the mechanisms, how they connected. So then it was like, oh, gosh, we don't need to know all these mechanisms because we're not going to. Nobody is interested in mechanism. They want to know what to do. But now I'm very thankful. I know all those mechanisms and those details because I understand them better. I make the connections. And once you understand something, explaining it becomes even more, like, easier. So, yeah, gut health was very important. We had not only one module, it was. Gut health was there throughout the four years of studies. It was there and. But it never ends. Gut health is, is new compared to any other things. So new things keep coming every time. So you have to take additional training and then it's about the lab testing. If you want to go into very, you know, detail to find out what's going on. So you need additional training for that. So it's, it's a combination of all. Training never ends. I love trainings. Attending seminars, reading books, it's ever fascinating.

But.

It'S, it comes with the clinic work. I think that's the most valuable that has been to me because when you learn theory, theory, then you end. End up forgetting most of it. Yeah, okay. But then when you get a client with certain, with certain conditions and then you need to connect all the points together, you say like, yeah, it's the skin or it can be, it can be all both together, you know, like they. Moods and depression, they have eczema, they have arthritis pain. So, yeah, they're all connected with the gut somehow and you need to find out what exactly is going on. That's the point when I appreciate all those mechanisms and all those details because I have to do the investigation. But before going so deep also is addressing the fundamentals to see what's going on in their life as well. Because you need to remove just as much as you need to add the good things or removing the bad ones. So it's both keeping it light and fundamentals, what digestion, what gut health is and also going into the deeper details if you want to investigate what's wrong or what's going on in their gut with the lab testing or even genetic testing, to see any issues with the celiac. And because it's not only one type of celiac, as we know, because if you go to the GPS here, at least in England, they will do it automatically lately the risk of celiac. But it's only one type of test that they do and you can do more than one to see what the reason is. But yeah, that's the clinic work is the main one, I would say that teaches us every day what's going on and keeps me abreast.

Well, you mentioned books a couple of times, so I'd love for you to maybe share some of your favorite books, things that you share with your clients or books that you've read that have made a big impact for you.

Yeah, no, absolutely. The biggest impact that. And I go always back to when I started it was the GAPS diet and I like that because again, I started working with kids and GAPS is mostly connected with autism and kids. I am a firm believer that if somebody is able to work with autism spectrum and see great results, then you get the best training because their gut health is so important in the autism spectrum and how they address it. So the GAPS diet has been fundamental for me. Not that I do apply, I'm not trained in gaps. I did not take all that. But reading the books and all, it's, it's been really good. And another book, it's. I keep it here because I love reading about it. It's why my brain isn't working. From Datis Karazian and he worked, he talks more about the brain and all that, but the gut health is always there because it makes that connection between the brain and the gut. And I do love this book because it's very simple. It give of details and it looks like it's very high level but at the same time it gives you the case studies so people can get, they can find themselves in the book as well and see like, oh, okay, this looks like me and I can try actually doing this kind of stuff or what has been recommended in this book. And gut health is always part of any Case study, gut health is there. So I guess that's why it's one of my favorites, why my brain isn't working.

Yeah, he's such a great author and he's so super intelligent and smart, but very good at explaining things in simple terms. So I really love his other book about thyroid health as well. Why do I have thyroid symptoms? My lab work is normal. And even that book, a lot of it is associated to gut health because a lot of thyroid issues are caused by autoimmunity, which, as we know, starts in the gut. So all roads lead back to the gut, which tells me you're in the right space at the right time. You know, there's so many threats to healthy digestion. You talked about chronic stress. You talked about, you know, the poisoning of our food supply in many cases, or deficiencies of our soil. You know, people eat really fast, they don't chew their food properly. I find moms especially, they're standing up a lot, right? So they're trying to navigate a young family and usually putting themselves last. My mom's guilty of this too. So I don't know if this problem or challenge ever goes away. She's always so busy trying to make sure everyone else is fed that she's usually the last person to sit down. She is a very slow eater and that's one thing that I've learned from her. I don't think she realized why she was doing it, but she's always been the last person to get up from the table because she takes her time. She chews each and every single bite. And this is so important because in our fast paced culture, we view food as something that's inconvenient and we try to eat as fast as we can or we're not fully aware or intentional with our meals. I'm not perfect. I grew up in my house. We would all eat together as a family, but we would eat while we were watching tv. So while the food was home cooked and lovingly prepared, how we consume that food was in a very distracted state. We weren't in that fully intentional state of understanding that, hey, this food is going to become part of us. It's going to turn into parts of our body, it's going to turn into our hair, it's going to turn into our skin, it's going to turn into our thoughts and our actions the very next day. It's something that's so sacred that unfortunately has been looked upon as an inconvenience. So how do you help people navigate through that? Because There is like a psychological shift that has to take place with their relationship with food as well. Or have you found any good tips or strategies for people?

Yeah, I mean, it brings a very good point because it's. Not long ago I was doing a cleanup on all my files and clients and all that, and I was looking at the files, mostly of them moms, and there is this three day questionnaire that they fill in for the food that they're eating and also how they eat it, when they eat it and all. And I can say with certainty that at least 80% of mothers, not to say hundred, but at least 80%, they all ate dinner walking around while preparing dinner for their own children. So, and this is, this is quite, quite important because it's not just them, the digestion, they're eating, walking around and all that, but they're not even, they're not giving that education to the kids that we should sit all together, we should enjoy the food. And there are so many layers that come with it. It's not like just going into a relaxed mode and eating and all that, but maybe saying a grace for the food, maybe talking about the food, where is it coming from? Maybe just appreciation of who cooked it, on what they did, how they cooked it. Maybe somebody wants to help next time just to create that family environment and all. So I like to keep it to the basics and the highest level because, and I love, I want to go back to the nutrition that now everybody's into nutrition and healthy eating. And I absolutely love it though sometimes is the wrong information out there. I love that there is awareness coming out of it. So I don't measure. Oh, don't say this. Yeah, chia seeds, omega 3. You know, let's talk about it. Fun, vegetarian, vegan, whatever you want to be. But there is an awareness that's coming out of it. So. And with this awareness, I try to bring them to a very high level what eating together means and why is it important for everybody. Because we're not trying to just improve digestion, we're trying to improve, especially with mothers, I want to improve the relationship with food because the way they connect with food is what's portrayed to the children. And I feel sad because it feels like this generation, we are the last generation to tell what eating healthy is. Eating healthy is what grandmothers ate. But what will our children tell to their own children if we don't sit and cook and know what the whole foods are like, what an actual food is? Because some kids don't even know where, how an apple is grown in tree, for example, or how another type of fruit. They just don't know where it comes from. So what will they tell to their own children? Eat healthy like grandmothers. I mean, if we never sat at the table, how is our healthy eating done? Or if we just go and grab things from the supermarket, it's like, okay, how's that food done? What's the cooking part of it? So I try to keep it to the very high level. Let's cook together. Let's please eat one meal a day together. And let's just talk about food, whatever it is, even if it's processed food. Let's talk about processed food, what it is, where it comes from. It's just to raise that awareness. And yeah, I am extremely, extremely passionate. And I don't know how I'm going to structure my business in the future, but I want to make an impact on the next generation so they know what actually healthy eating and what food is. It doesn't come from bottles.

Well, certainly I know that if you're impacting mothers, you're impacting next generation. So that's a start. And then, you know, I can see this moving into the school system in some way, shape or form, and reaching more lives that way. So I'm excited to see what ideas you come up with with regards to that.

Yeah, I look forward to it too. I don't know, I'll see how things will work. But I love working with families and creating that feeling of that food brings us together. And yeah, family energy is very important. I think it's, again, the foundation of society.

Yeah, I mean, it's really where it's at. Right. So tell me, tell me one of your favorite case studies with a client that you've worked with.

Yeah, the latest one, actually, it's with a mother. She is 46 with two children, young, 11 and 7. And always thought she ate healthy and she loved her food. She doesn't want to give up certain things because she feels is good. And she joined actually my clinic or my program because she wanted to lose weight and people want to see the, you know, the tangible stuff. Though she had a lot of other issues, they were not important to address. She wanted to address the weights. I'm like, okay, we're gonna do that. And she lost seven kilos throughout the program. But what was extremely satisfying for me on week two, she goes like, I have never felt this happy in my entire life. And it was not about the weight because it was just week two, she's like, I'm in such high spirits. I don't know what's happening. I feel like I'm high and I don't know what was going on. But she felt like that throughout and still continues to be like that. It's week 14 that I have been working with her and she texted the other day, said, I have never felt this happy and fulfilled in my entire life. I don't know what's going on. And I attribute all this to, to her changing the eating habits, sitting with the family, spending time with her own children because she loves them, she talks a lot about them, but somehow she kept saying she doesn't have the time to sit and do. There are so many other things. And when she started connecting with them, I think that's what made her fulfilled because that was what was probably missing in her life. I'm not going to own because I don't know exactly all the details of the family setting. We don't go into those details. But she mentioned that she did not have time for the children eating together. The husband was working so much. And throughout this program I said, just try to eat all together and don't cook differently. Because there was a cooking differently part as well for me, for him, for them, like, don't cook differently, eat together. And I think that has been one of the biggest things. She lost the weight. She looks fabulous along the way. She doesn't have any more aches and joint pains, which she did not mention at the beginning. That's not why she came. And she was drinking coffee in the afternoon, actually at 5, at 6pm Just so she could use like a pick me up coffee, but four or five coffees a day to stay awake. And now she only drinks one in the morning. So there are quite a lot of other things that have happened, reasons she did not come for. But she is experiencing them now and realizing. So yeah, that's what makes me happy again. Goes back to the family setting.

Yeah. Now she's a better model for her children. Right. And she's got more energy to do the things that she needs to do, feel more fulfilled. And you know what comes up for me as you're saying this is she's feeling human again. And humans are in high spirits and they are, you know, energetic and they feel a sense of purpose and a sense of connection with others around them. So you're helping people feel human by healing their guts. I love it.

Yeah, no, that's a very good point that you bring in feeling human again. Yeah, that's what I felt 10 years ago.

That's awesome. So you said you have two daughters. Tell us about them.

Oh, yeah, some of them. I have two daughters, eight years old, Amelie, super energetic, wants to be a gymnast and likes. She wishes I was not a nutritional therapist so she can eat a little bit more candy. And then I have Lara. She's 11 years old, and she is the brainiac. Loving the facts and all that, Learns a lot about gut and tells me, did you know that? Did you know that? So, yeah, these are my daughters, and they. They love cooking. I have. My husband loves cooking, which I am very blessed with that because though I'm a nutritionist and people expect me to be in the kitchen making stuff, I cook, but it's not my passion. And my husband cooks and loves cooking, so the girls cook with him most of the time, and it creates a very nice atmosphere. And I feel good because I can try the food that they make.

Well, it seems like a pretty balanced relationship, right? You've got your husband that loves to make the food, and you love to teach people how to eat it and be nourished and fulfilled, improperly digest and assimilate what they're consuming. So I think that that works out pretty evenly, in my opinion.

Yeah, no, it does. I'm very happy. It's like a pendulum. I mean, we go both ways. Sometimes they go like, okay, we got to be get back to what mommy says to eat. And sometimes you go like, okay, we're gonna cook some other stuff. So, yeah, I like it. Actually, I do like that, because I don't want to be very strict, and I think relationship with food is extremely important. We don't have to be very picky. You know, I don't want not only my daughters, but even children in the future to be like, oh, you eating healthy? I'm not eating healthy. Like, first, we need to understand what eating healthy is before we give those labels. And having a good relationship, seeing food that it nourishes us is very important, rather than just, you know, be very picky, because that can have psychological effects later on in life. And we don't want to give that to the children just by saying healthy, healthy. It's not. We should not overuse the word healthy, healthy eating either.

Well, yeah, I mean, sometimes it can backfire, right? Because if you're overly strict and, you know, then when you don't have your eye on them, then they're more likely to rebel. Right? Especially depending on how the child is and how the parents are, you know, sometimes they'll rebel. Against you by eating unhealthy. And that could be self sabotaging without them even knowing it.

Yeah, exactly. So I find that to be very important to keep that like everything else, the balance, finding that balance.

I love it. So you know, Emma, you've been part of our mentorship program and what I love to do is switch gears and talk about, you know, what made you seek mentorship to help you grow your business. What were you looking for?

Yeah, first, I am extremely happy I am in this mentorship because sometimes you don't know what exactly you're seeking and what you're looking for or you know, you need help or you know, you need some directions and support, but you don't know what exactly. And I joined the mentorship right after I started my business because I, I ran the clinic for a few months. I was working with one on one. But deep inside I knew that one on one is not exactly what I wanted to do lifelong. The reason being there are as many people as you can see within the day and you can't reach all the people you want to reach. And not only that, but you can't express or provide all the information you want to provide in one on one consultations because you're going to see them for hour, hour and a half, three times. And there is as much as you can explain to one person. So I was looking for a mentorship or a place guidance how I can work with group programs, how I can scale my business. And I wanted to make a business because you need a business, you need the money to make things happen. But at the same time I wanted to give that impact to the people and reach the audience that I always dreamed to reach. That's why I joined the mentorship. Because when, when I participated on the live event, it was a three day event, it was mind blowing. Just the people that showed up, the speakers, the guest speakers that were there and listening, also the mentees that have been there the year before me, what they had reached. And then I had also the opportunity to speak with a couple of mentees, why they joined your program, why they rejoining your program for a second time and a third time. And yeah, that was, that was the reason why I decided actually I didn't have to think much. I just decided like that it was the right place. It felt right.

Yeah, I love how you're. Because your gut's working, so you're tapped into, your gut feeling and your intuition and when you find something that you have a good feeling about, you lean all in Which I think is a sign of a smart entrepreneur. Entrepreneur as well is being able to tap into that. You know, you're clearly very intellectual. However, the intuition is what makes people excellent entrepreneurs and you know, servants of their clients. So I greatly appreciate that. What have been some of the big lessons that you've learned since joining the mentorship about your business?

All the great lessons is mindset shift is one of the biggest ones. I am so blessed to be in your mentorship and I am so blessed that your mentorship provides that, that framework stressing the mindset being one of the most important ones when you run a business. Because when you start as an entrepreneur, and I do a lot of networking here as well, one thing that came up a lot for me was, oh, entrepreneurship is so lonely. Oh, it feels so lonely. And actually it feels lonely, but it feels lonely up to the point when, where the mindset is like, I'm doing all this on my own. And when I joined your mentorship, I still am doing things on my own and I have one person I have added to my team and that's because I changed my mindset. But being part of a community, not only like minded people, because you can find like minded people in different groups, but a community where, sorry, I will plug in my computer. Sorry, it's dying. Like minded community where everybody wants to excel. They have answers or they pull you up and give you ideas. I think that has been the biggest, biggest win in this mentorship. Your guidance is priceless. And then the community, it's amazing.

Yeah, I will say we have an amazing community. The people that join, including yourself, are so heart centered, so passionate about what they do, so willing to share and there's a lot of camaraderie that takes place, a lot of connections and relationships that get built and friendships that get built along the way. So it's amazing for me to witness it and it's also awesome to see the individual growth that takes place as well as the collective growth that's taking place each week, week in and week out. I mean, we've had some amazing calls recently and it's so great to see the light bulbs going off for individuals and knowing that the impact that's going to have not only on them, even in their family, but also in their business and therefore in their communities as well. So thank you. I appreciate you sharing that and shining some light on it. What's next for you? What's coming up for you in this next year or so?

Yeah, I am not exactly sure where I'll Take my business, but I have implemented the metabolic program that we have received through the mentorship, and I am personalizing it even more. I think I just want to reach as many people as possible at the moment, grow my audience and get the message out there, because this is the fundamentals of health. That's what this program addresses. And, yeah, it's just working with mothers and maybe, maybe actually try to make something with families as well. That might be my direction.

Yeah. And of course, working with moms, you're indirectly working with families. But I can certainly see that, you know, you can create a whole family program for individuals so that, you know, the husband, the kids, everyone can experience amazing. Not just gut health, but brain health, skin health, immune health, everything. We deserve to be happy, healthy and whole in all areas of our body. So it's great to see you doing that. I'd love for people to know where they can learn more about the work that you're doing. Where can they reach?

I mean, startinthegut.com is the website and Start in the Gut is my Facebook, my Instagram. I created Start in the Gut Community. It's a new Facebook group that just created like a week ago. And if anybody is interested, I would love to have them there because I share a lot of information and education about not only GUT health, as you say, but health in general. And it's not only for mothers, it's for fathers as well. Throughout the program, I've worked with partners joining the mothers in the. In their journey. So. And it was. I found it to be very satisfying for both of them. And that's probably what gave me the thinking that, okay, if we join kids, that would be even more interesting and maybe the whole family setting.

All right, well, it's already happening, so I'm excited to see. Maybe a year from now we can redo this interview and see how much progress you've made and how many, hopefully hundreds, if not thousands, of lives you've impacted with your message. So thank you for taking time out of your busy day, time away from your family to join me today and share the amazing work that you're up to. And congratulations on your growth and success. I'm looking forward to that continuity and always here and happy to help in any way that I can.

Thank you, Sachin. I am so blessed to be part of your community. It's been godsend. It's really, really good.

Well, thank you. And here's to many, many years of working together. Yep.

Wishing that as well.

All right, talk to you soon.

Thank you, Sachin. Thanks. Bye.

Bye.

Bye.