Decoding the Data – What Your Test Results Reveal About Your Health ep3

Welcome to the Balanced Body Podcast, where Sherri Griggs, owner of Balanced Body Health and Wellness in Omaha, talks to us about health, wellness, and balancing hormones.

Hello and welcome to the Balanced Body Health and Wellness Podcast with Sherri Griggs, owner of Balanced Body Health and Wellness in Omaha, Nebraska, hormone expert extraordinaire. Also known as the MacGyver of hormones. Today we've got a great show talking about— we're talking about gut health still because we had some follow-up questions and my journey. But Sherri, how are you doing?

I'm doing great, John. How are you?

I'm doing amazing. I'm tired, hungry, not hungry. I keep balancing around from, from from like my, my weirdness and my thing because I've started my own journey. But, um, I do feel a change and it feels good. And I've got updates talking about sort of my progress, but we'll get to that near the end, I think. But, you know, how are you doing?

Well, here's what I want to know. Here's what I'm curious about, John. So as you're saying you're hungry, not hungry, you're feeling good, because right now you are in the Middle almost exactly right. And are you at two weeks right now of the elimination portion?

You know that's that's interesting that you say that because I thought I was still at the beginning, but I seem to I I think you're right.

I think it's two weeks in, so we're it is because yeah, you are two weeks in, so you're halfway through.

Oh my god!

What do you know?

Yeah, and eliminating. The inflammatory foods, the foods that we know in functional medicine are the most inflammatory to our body. So, John, what haven't you been able to eat?

I have not been able to eat what seems like a lot, and it's not necessarily a bad thing, but like grains of any sort, like oats and gluten and flour and All the fun bakey stuff. I haven't been able to eat soy, corn, sugar, certain oils. There's other things to that list. What am I missing?

Eggs, dairy, dairy.

Yes, those are things I'm avoiding. And I tell you what, that first week, it was rough. Like, I was tired. I think, I think it— and tell me if I'm wrong here, but like All the things that we're eliminating basically translate to sugar for the body.

Pretty much, yeah. They're, they're the things you're eliminating. A lot of them are processed, so they're processed foods, although our dairy isn't processed in general, right? I mean, cheese processed, but not processed in the sense of like it comes in a box, right? Um, if you get real cheese, it is real cheese, but dairy seems to be inflammatory for the human body. So, but you had 2 full pages of all kinds of things you could eat. Yes.

And that's the thing is like we're focusing on and that's— so this is an important distinction for me, for my own personal journey. The thing I hate about diets, and I know this is going to sound like an exaggeration and dramatic, but I mean, you know who I am. I always felt like doing some sort of a diet or some sort of a cleanse or some sort of detox, whatever, was all geared towards restriction. And I always felt like if I can't have— insert whatever I can't have— I'm gonna die.

Mm-hmm.

Like, and I didn't think I was physically going to die, but I just felt like it would be so hard that I wouldn't be able to live going forward.

Right.

And so when we started all of this 2 weeks ago, I didn't really think about it that way because it felt a little bit sort of quick to hit the ground running. But like, I knew that we were excluding a lot of things, but there's also a focus on what are you boosting? What are you focusing on? What are you adding? What are things that you can have all the time? And because it's not a calorie-specific diet, like we're not trying to not eat anything. We can eat tons of stuff. And you say this all the time, but it means something different once I started this program and I don't know how to explain it. But like, obviously all the things that you're thinking, vegetables and You know, different colorful, colorful things. And what are other things that you should sort of restrict but you can still have? You're gonna have tons of things. And I've been— that's why I'm saying I'm like hungry but not hungry.

Yeah.

Like, I'm full from all the stuff that I can eat, but my brain is so addicted to sugar. And this is my own fault because I do a whole side hustle thing where I'm eating candy. I was eating candy all the time. So I'm like injecting sugar straight to my blood, you know, my bloodstream.

Yeah.

Um, but like you can fill your body with tons and tons of things. It just takes a shift in the mentality. And that's what it— and that's— I'm trying to focus on what I can have and focusing on how much of that I can have because I can have however much I want until I'm full. I'm not focusing on, well, I can't have that.

Right. Yeah. Because as opposed to the old school diets, they literally were, you can only have so many calories, right? And you got to count your calories and keep track of this, or, you know, and, and you would be hungry.

Yeah.

Depending on what you ate or didn't eat. Because again, some calories are more filling than other calories. Some calories sit with you longer and take longer to digest than other calories when you only look at calories and you don't look at What they are made of. Are they made of fats or proteins or carbohydrates, right? Those macros and a good mix.

And the other thing that I kind of like about this program too is that it's not so specific. Like, yeah, there's a list of things that I can't have, a list of things that I shouldn't have, and a list of things that like I need to try to eliminate altogether, but it's not like Not just the calories part, but it's, it's not like you need to make exactly this thing or you need to focus on that. Like, I feel like once I start having— and as an example, I did this 3-day detox a couple years back where we just did these juices and they had to be very specific, and you drank the juice and you made the juice and you had to be very, very specific, and it became time intensive to focus on what are we doing.

Yeah.

Rather than just like Eat whatever you want from this list of stuff. So we're able to like quickly make things or prep for things. Or if I'm, if I'm running around and I miss, you know, I'm running late for lunch or something, then I can just grab like a snack.

Mm-hmm.

Like that I know and just like munch on that real quick and then go. For some reason, apples— like, I— it's not that I hate apples or am opposed to apples or anything, but I don't usually eat apples.

Yeah.

Now I'm like, that's where all the sugar is. And so I'm like, apple, have one. So it's weird. It's just a weird change. And I'm noticing— I'm noticing differences because of that.

Well, you know, I've heard a saying, sugar is addictive or more addictive than morphine. So, you know, some of that hungry, not hungry is maybe you're not really hungry as you are craving.

Yeah.

Right?

Totally.

It's not like, like you said, I'm not hungry, but I'm hungry. Well, you're not hungry. Your stomach is full. You're— but you're craving certain things. And usually by week 2, that craving is pretty much gone. But like you said, you were doing this side hustle where you were eating lots of candy, and that was part of it. So, you know, you yourself could have even, you know, more of an addiction. And, and also, if you have the thought process is that, yeah, but sugar is energy. Okay, well, we turn vegetables into energy because they're still carbohydrates, right?

Mm-hmm.

Carbohydrates are carbohydrate. So you still turn that into sugar, the body turns it into sugar. And if you don't have enough, the liver is going to produce some glycogen. It's gonna help you out. So it's, you know, having that mindset of realizing that, you know, outside of fats and proteins, everything else is turned to sugar within the body.

It, it's funny talking about the fats. That's one of the first things that I did is I was like— and I said this to myself— I was like, let's have fun with fat. What fat can I have? And let's buy all of them to see if I like them. So like I bought ghee even though I've never had ghee before, you know. And we carry, just because we do, you know, stuff on the side with, um, making soaps and— and I say we, but like my wife does.

Yeah.

Um, we have like coconut oil and we have all these things, but we've never really used them because we were just using like regular vegetable oil. So we dove right in on that. One of the things that I, uh, started doing too, and I don't know if this is just the human psyche looking for loopholes, But I was like, if I can't have bread and I can't have gluten, is there something that I can make as like little, like a little tiny snack that would like satiate that part? So we made, like we went out and bought these like weird alternative flour things, like bean flours and stuff to try to make some form of Sweet dough that we could eat. And I tell you what, they turned out very interesting because they're not something that tastes good in the normal— in the normal way.

Yeah.

Like, I was using an egg substitute by taking like, um, it wasn't flax, it was like chia seed powder or something, and like making an egg substitute. And like we were putting that in and making these like blueberry muffin-y bread things with like almond flour. It was so weird. But like, because I'm restricted and I can't eat the other thing, I was like, this is better than nothing. And I took a bite and it didn't taste the same. It didn't taste the same, but I was okay with it. So I'm like eating this thing like, is this like a blueberry muffin? I don't know, I'm tricking myself into it.

I have to look and see. I have this recipe for lemon blueberry scones that uses only almond flour, fresh blueberries. Um, you zest the lemon, get a fresh lemon, zest it, and use the lemon juice. I have to look and see because I'm almost positive there's no sugar in it. What few things I do make, if I do Um, if they have anything, it'd be maple syrup, but at this point you would be avoiding that. But that doesn't mean that moving forward, as you said, one of the things you said is, I feel better.

Yeah.

So tell me, and this is what happens to a lot of my patients, John, is they feel so much better at the end of that 30 days. Some of them are like, I'm never going to eat the way I ate again. I feel amazing. I had no idea how bad I felt. Until I felt good. And I have one patient that actually said, I'm scared. I am scared to eat a muffin. I am scared that if I eat that muffin, I'm going to go back to wanting sugar. And I'm going to go back to not being able to think straight. I'm going to go back to not being able to get my own shoes and socks off and on. Right. And I'm scared I'll go back.

I can see that.

I'm not necessarily scared And there's definitely things that I want. Oh my gosh.

I mean, only 2 weeks in. Tell me what— tell me how you feel better. I want to hear how you feel better.

I do. I feel, I feel better in a couple different ways. What's weird— okay, here's the weird part, and this is probably my sugar addiction talking, but, um, I definitely have more of— without changing really anything but our diet Um, like this normal rhythm that you've talked about where it's like a little bit more energetic in the day, pretty even through the day, and then at nighttime kind of like crash.

Yep. Yep. That cortisol thing. Yep.

That crash at the end of the day, way more significant. And I know that that doesn't make it sound like I'm feeling better, but like it seems like I'm in more of an actual rhythm of things. So that's kind of cool.

So you're actually more tired because you had more energy during the day.

Yeah.

So you're actually truly tired.

Yeah, I think that's probably what it is because I'm not— because the 2 things that I definitely had way too much of, it seems, and we talked about this on the last show, was I was drinking way too much caffeine.

Yeah.

Um, and I, and I tell you what, I need way less if— because I mean, we've sort of eliminated caffeine. I'm still doing my 1 cup of coffee a day. Okay, but I went from an entire pot, maybe more, of caffeine to just 1 cup. Um, and I wonder if half of that is I just wanted something warm while I'm at the desk, you know.

It can be. Yes, I find that myself as well. Yeah, sometimes you just want something warm. Have you tried the warm— the lemon juice with the cayenne and the hot water in the morning?

Oh no, I have not tried that.

That actually almost kind of takes place of the coffee. So when I did my 2-week— because we do need to, when we hormone replacement detox once a year, and I did mine and I didn't drink any caffeine, uh, when I went, I went back to my coffee because I love my Cinnabon coffee, right? It didn't even taste good. Oh yeah, it's good.

So, okay, along that same line, you know what's weird? And this is kind of probably just a me thing more than anything. I'm starting to smell things a little bit more, if that makes— like, I don't know why that makes sense, but on this detox, my sense of smell is just a little bit stronger. I was drinking my cup of coffee today, and we don't have cream, and I usually take it with cream. So no cream in my coffee, and I'm drinking it. I'm like, what is that smell? And it's my coffee, like, sitting over at the table. And I was like, this is this, and it smells different. And I don't know why it smells different. So I had deadened smelling senses from sugar. I don't know that. I don't know that.

Well, here's the thing. Sugar causes inflammation in the body. We know this. This is fact. Yeah. So part of the elimination— well, the only reason at this point— well, there's 2 reasons for the elimination, the 30-day elimination. One is inflammatory foods, right? We are taking those out. We want to get the inflammation out of your body. Inflammation, when your body's inflamed, It screws everything up. It— our body is just so complicated.

Yeah.

Um, we have no idea how it really works and how— I mean, we in general, the world, the scientists do, but we say lay people, normal people, have no idea how complicated the body really is and how the cells work. And, and when you really start to know, it's amazing that it, that it does what it does. But as you are— as that inflammation is leaving your body and your body is calming down and feeling better, Processes of the body will start to work better, right? So it makes perfect sense that you're— that sense, haha, no pun intended— that your sense of smell is improving as you are decreasing the amount of inflammation in your body.

Yeah, and it makes me think too that I'm definitely allergic to something. Whatever it is, I'm definitely allergic to something because I was assaulting my body with something.

Sugar's inflammatory no matter what. Right? So the person I told you who said they were absolutely scared they might eat the muffin, that is the person that said, Sherri, I put everything back in and nothing caused inflammation. Nothing gave me an issue. Nothing— as I introduced it, I didn't have a problem because sugar was the evil. Sugar was her inflammatory food. And so nothing else was.

Yeah.

But it was just the sugar. And strange thing, she used to bake cakes for a living, so she would add sugar all the time, right? I mean, sure, what sugar? So, um, yeah, interesting.

Well, and that's— so yeah, we'll figure out what I'm allergic to and what I need to take out of my diet going forward. But yeah, it's funny because when I was talking to the nutritionist Um, she, she was saying that, you know, after a month, the one thing that I'm probably for sure gonna want more than anything is an egg.

Yeah.

And right now I could care less about eggs. I know it's not that I'm avoiding them or that I don't like eggs or whatever. I usually love eating eggs. It's not what I'm hankering for. Like, for some reason I really want corn and I really Really think that it would be terrible if I was gluten-free because I'm picturing like a croissant, which is no good for us, but it's definitely tasty.

It's sugar. Corn is pure sugar. A croissant is sugar.

Yeah, so really it's just sugar.

It's your sugar addiction.

I'm addicted to sugar.

Yeah, yeah.

I need to go to Sugar Anonymous.

Very good.

Well, this was— I mean, look, that— and this, this at the end of the day was, I think, all tied to our original quest of gut health. Because again, and if, and if you're listening and you missed the last one, we talked through all of the things that assault the feeler Is that right?

The flora and the fungi and the flora. Yes, and your normal flora.

So right now, we're— everything that we're eliminating is trying to make it so that that can rejuvenate, so that I can assault it again by putting things back into my diet to figure out what I don't like.

But only one thing at a time. Yeah, and not together on the same day or, you know, back to back. And but we're also helping your mic. We're also supporting your microbiome with some probiotics, right? And some digestive enzymes so that, you know, we know you get your nutrients.

Yeah.

And these are all things that are, are good for our gut because our gut can be what makes us anemic, right? Where we don't have enough iron, um, because we can't absorb it. So It can be depression because we don't have the neurotransmitters. Our gut has a lot to do with neurotransmitters. It can be getting sick all the time, right? You know, I used to admittedly, I will say that, you know, in my prior career, everything was around a party. Everything was about going out. Everything was about drinking alcohol, and it wasn't drinking alcohol to the point of inebriation. It's just drinking alcohol, and I had. sinus infection after sinus infection, and I was sick all the time. I'm really not ever sick anymore. Now, I will, I will, I— it isn't like it used to be. I mean, there was probably 2 or 3 times a week, right, where there were drinks involved and socializing. I'm 25 to 30 pounds lighter. It just depends on the day from when I used to do that. I don't get sick anymore.

I—

if I do go 2 days in a row, maybe we go to dinner with friends and I have drinks, and the next day I have drinks, I will start to feel like I'm getting sick.

Hmm.

So alcohol, which in most cases is sugar, but it's also poison for our body, and it also injures our microbiome, and it makes it hard for our liver to work, and it makes it hard for our cells, and That's my body saying, this is something you shouldn't have. Even though in my nutrigenomic test, it said that I can easily— it gave a green box for alcohol, that I can easily metabolize alcohol. But that's not my genetics. So it's not a problem.

Hmm.

But my body says, we don't like it. I don't like it, and I'm gonna punish you. Oh my gosh, if you drink too much, you're gonna be punished for 2 days. I think they call it a hangover. Um, and if you don't drink an absorbent amount but you do it 2 days in a row, I'm still gonna punish you.

Oh my gosh.

Even if it were a glass of wine, just one, a couple days in a row, my body's like, I don't think so. You're gonna pay. You're gonna pay. You're gonna pay with pain.

Well, we'll get there soon. We're screaming towards the end of the month, or well, I mean the end of four weeks or whatever.

So you're halfway through.

Halfway through.

You're doing great, and I'm very proud of you because sugar is again addictive as morphine. Okay. And those are serious addictions, and they can be very uncomfortable. And that's why you did it.

I did, I did know, uh, when you have, um, when you have a kid, they give little babies a little shot of sugar instead of any kind of medicine because the sugar actually like gives them a boost to go through any kind of weird pain that they're dealing with. Like, so I found— I, I was like, what are you giving him? What kind of medicine? Because I was just curious, not that I was like— Yeah, I mean, I think it's just like Playing defense, and they're like, "This is not this sugar. Sugar's such an assault to their system that it's just like they feel happy immediately, no matter what." I was like, "Right? Oh my God! There's probably a bad reason to use that then." Till they come down off of it, right?

And then they get the.

Yeah.

What do you call that? Oh, because you come down off the sugar high. That's why they call it a sugar high.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's true.

All right, John. Well, we will check— I think we should check in with you in a couple of weeks because I am interested, and I would hope that our listeners would be interested to find out. So here is John here at 2 weeks. We know how he felt in the first week. We know that you're positively— you're going in the positive direction and feeling better. It'll be interesting to see if at the end, if those cravings are gone.

That's true.

Yeah.

Because I will think, oh, I think I want that. And I might take a bite out of it and go, oh, that's not nearly as good as I thought it was. And then I spit it out and don't swallow it. But, um, but, but seriously, it's just like, even chocolate, it's even getting to chocolate now. It's so, it's so awful. I had chocolate last night and I'm like, Oh wow, this is kind of rich. This is kind of heavy. Ray's looking at me like, what is wrong with you?

Now that's an interesting one.

I need to have darker dark chocolate now.

Interesting.

Because that has less sugar in it and it's a little bit more bitter. And I don't remember what percent this was, but whatever it was, it had too much sugar in it for me. And I just was like, oh, oh no. It doesn't taste good and I don't feel good.

So interesting.

Yeah.

And out of all of the sugary things that I love, chocolate's always sort of the last thing that I'll want, if that makes any sense. Like, I love all sorts of different sweets and chocolate's in there. I like it. But if I'm choosing between sweets before all of this, you know, change to our diet, I'm usually going for something sour. So Yeah, it's interesting. It'll be interesting to see when I reintegrate into what my new normal is going to be, how I react to any of that.

Well, when you say that to me, I'm thinking something like pure sugar, like Skittles or, you know, something like that. That's, that's pure sugar. It has absolutely no nutritional value of any other sort at all. And that's just a whole different ballgame than like a chocolate, right? Especially like a dark chocolate that has some other, well, the cocoa in it that can be good for you.

Right, that's true.

Yeah. All right.

Well, we'll keep you abreast of the situation.

Sounds good.

Now, Sherri, if somebody wants to jump in and try to do this, themselves? Obviously there's a lot of different ways that somebody can get a hold of you, but what do you think is the sort of the preferred paths?

So I would say that the best thing to do and the best way to start is to go to the website balancedbodymedical.com and sign up for a discovery call. Let's get on the phone, let's talk, let's see if this is something that would be a good fit for you and if it's something you want to do. And that's, that's the best way to go about it. Of course, people are always welcome also to go to the website and schedule a consultation and come in. Um, but if you just want that, you know, a little bit of conversation to help you make the decision, uh, before you spend the time or money, you can do the free discovery call.

It's perfect. Awesome. Well, Sherri Griggs, Balanced Body Health and Wellness in Omaha, Nebraska. Thank you for the time.

Thank you for sharing your journey, John.

This has been the Balanced Body Medical Podcast with Sherri Griggs, owner of Balanced Body Health and Wellness. If you're looking to find Sherri, go ahead and look for the website balancedbodymedical.com. If you're looking for the business and you want to find Sherri at her office, you can find her at 10815 Elm Street in Rockbrook Plaza. Thank you.