From Corporate Burnout to Holistic Health Advocate Amanda Soukoulis' incredible journey

What happens when a driven athlete, dancer, and corporate professional turns to functional medicine after experiencing burnout and health issues? Join us on the Bite Size Podcast as we sit down with the inspiring Amanda Soukoulis, also known as Coach Souk, who shares her remarkable journey from the dance floor to the accounting world, and finally to becoming a passionate advocate for holistic well-being. Amanda’s story is a testament to the power of faith, community, and the relentless pursuit of true health and purpose.

Amanda takes us through her challenging health journey marked by symptoms like a distended gut, low energy, and hormonal imbalances. Feeling dismissed by traditional medical advice, she trusted her instincts and sought out a functional doctor who finally provided answers. From uncovering a surprising bacterial pathogen to addressing a sluggish thyroid and leaky gut, Amanda’s path to wellness is filled with valuable lessons on self-advocacy and persistence. Her experiences serve as a powerful reminder that we must listen to our bodies and seek comprehensive care when standard approaches fall short.

We explore the broader aspects of holistic health, including the interconnectedness of our body’s systems and the significance of proper nutrition and lifestyle choices. Amanda dispels common misconceptions in functional medicine, emphasizing the importance of addressing root causes rather than merely treating symptoms. We wrap up by celebrating the role of faith and divine purpose in our lives, expressing gratitude for Amanda’s dedication to helping others. This episode is a heartfelt reminder of the transformative power of faith and the unique purpose within each of us.


Contact Amanda here

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome to the Bite Size Podcast. I'm your host, lorraine Michaels, former EMT and nursing assistant, now business owner and wild entrepreneur. I walked away from over 15 years in medicine to pursue my passion and my God-given talents. Now I get the honor of helping other women discover their passions and purpose. If you're feeling stuck in life, unsure where to go or what to do, welcome. If you're exactly where you want to be great, you're welcome here too. If you have faced any kind of hardship or setback, you have found a safe place here. In other words, no matter who you are or what you've been through or what you're going through, this is the space for you. On the Bite Size podcast, we'll discuss life, business and faith. There's something for everyone. So grab a cup of coffee and something to take notes with, because there will definitely be things you won't want to forget.

Speaker 1: 1:09

Welcome back to the Bite Size Podcast. I'm your host, lorraine Michaels, and today I have a freaking fire episode that I know that needs to come out because it has been so difficult to get scheduled, to get recording. We've had all kinds of technical issues. So I'm really excited for this because obviously it needs to be said and talked about and someone needs to hear this, so I'm super pumped. Today I have Amanda Soukalis, aka Coach Souk, on Instagram. She's amazing. She has a freaking incredible story y'all and I just love seeing how she shows up on Instagram and just her journey is amazing. So I do not want to stall any further. Welcome, amanda, to the show. I'm so excited you're here.

Speaker 2: 2:02

Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here and, yes, it has been a long time coming to be able to record this. I feel like you know, sometimes the devil will just try to throw some darts at us and we were just like, nope, this is happening. So I'm so excited.

Speaker 1: 2:21

Yeah, for sure. I was like I don't care, we can zoom, we can FaceTime, we'll figure it out, oh gracious. So I met Amanda at Amberlee's mastermind event. Well, it wasn't her mastermind event, it was her event. She just put on in Dallas her unstoppable event and it was incredible and everyone in her mastermind got to get up and speak.

Speaker 1: 2:50

And I have been following you for a while now because I got connected with Amberlee and so she's obviously connected with some amazing women and that's how I found you. But then I rabbit holed into your story, into your Instagram, like into everything, because I've connected with you so much on many different levels, between faith and athleticism and being a cheerleader. I was a cheerleader. I never took it as far as you because you're amazing, and so I just I've connected so much on your journey, so I would love for you to talk a little bit about it. You know it went from being an athlete and then getting into corporate and then having this health struggle that led you into functional medicine, which ultimately, now you have found your purpose. You have found your purpose, you have found your reason, your why, and you've been helping so many women now through their own health journey. So I know that's a lot. That's a lot to unpack, but what's the Cliff Notes version of that?

Speaker 2: 4:12

yeah, thank you. You summed that up very well. So, uh, as she said, I I was an athlete from pretty much the day I was born. I played every sport growing up, but my love was always for dance. I took my first dance class when I was 18 months old. I was with with the same studio owner pretty much my whole life, until 18. Then, from there, I got the opportunity to go dance for Penn State University. I danced for four years and then I coached for a fifth year. We were a top 10 team in the nation every year and got to compete for national titles every year. I got to perform in front of 100,000 fans every weekend. But, most importantly, we were a team that was really committed to the community and committed to just like where can we show up and serve other people? And so I kind of feel like that was a common theme, was that dance was always that vehicle for me to show others hope and to inspire others to bring people joy, and I'd gotten pretty burnt out in college. That'll happen right when you're doing.

Speaker 2: 5:16

I was in an integrated master's program as a junior in college and so kind of doing a master's degree at the same time as training 20 hours a week, performing all of that. So at the end of that I was burnt out. I was like I think I'm done with dance and I coached for a year as I was finishing my master's, as I mentioned, and at the end of that, that's when I got out of grad school, that's when the pandemic had hit, and at this time I decided to move back to California for a few years. My plans had been to go to New York City, but it really wasn't a place where I wanted to be.

Speaker 2: 5:55

When the pandemic hit and went home, I had studied finance and accounting in college and so got my CPA license, went to go work in corporate for Deloitte, which is the largest professional services firm in the world. I was super blessed by my experience there for two years, but they worked me hard. They worked me really hard and when I first got there I saw this thing like oh, become a well-being wizard and I was like huh, what's that? That sounds like fun. And that was kind of my first step into all-around holistic well-being outside of my athletic career. And so I get my CPA, I go back to work and kind of all at the same time I'm like huh, I kind of miss dancing and I was like kind of like, hmm, when I was in grad school I was doing so much service. I was serving the girls as being a coach on their team. I was a captain for the largest student-run philanthropy in the world where we raise. I think now they raise like over $15 million a year for children that are impacted by cancer.

Speaker 2: 7:15

And so, yeah, like I had come from a year of like, just like how, how cool. So much service, like serving these families. I was serving the girls on the team. I was feeling so like fulfilled in just being able to do all those things. And then pandemic hit and, much like everyone else, like a lot of isolation, and so when I was home studying for my CPAs that pretty much is a full-time job in itself there's four four hour exams and it took, it took me from like. I took my first exam in February and my last one in September, and that was all during 2020. So throughout that I was like I think I miss dance. I think that's the little inner joy, the little Amanda that needs to come back.

Speaker 2: 8:12

I started just taking classes virtually and that led me to audition for a few professional tier teams in California. That year I was a finalist for two of the teams and at the end of that second audition I had a girl that I had met at the first audition. She made the team for the second audition and I texted her and I'm like hey, I am so happy for you, congratulations, you're going to have an incredible year. And she responded and was like thank you so much, and then sent a long paragraph about this woman out in Texas that trains dancers to make professional cheer teams. So what did I do? I hopped in my car and I drove out from California to Texas and I got an Airbnb and I was planning on being here for two months. And here I am, almost three years later now.

Speaker 2: 9:11

So, that's kind of how I ended up here and kind of just gives you a little bit of color on my background. And when I got to Dallas, that's kind of when I started know, I started to be able to create the environment and cultivate the environment that I really wanted and be able to start to stack all those, those micro habits. And so I I got to Dallas the following year I auditioned for the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and I was cut in the very first round and I was like, wow, okay, yeah, it was super humbling and I was just kind of wrestling with the Lord, like, do you have this for me, Do you not have this for me? Where am I? And at the end of the day I decided I'm going to go for it again. And so a year later I auditioned again and this time I was a finalist. So there's round one, then there's semis, then there's finals, and then from finals they take girls on the training camp and they took nine of the 41 girls onto the team. So I was right there at the end and it was such an incredible experience. Being able to train and, um, just be able to be in that environment was really, really cool. Yeah. And then after that. So that's kind of my whole, my whole dancing career up until that point.

Speaker 2: 10:42

And after that, a few months later, all of a sudden my energy plummeted and I wear a WHOOP band, which, if you're not familiar with it, it is a band that tracks your sleep, it tracks your recovery, it retracts your strain from your training, and a big thing that it tracks is your heart rate variability, and a big thing that it tracks is your heart rate variability and short for HRV. So your HRV tells you how balanced your nervous system is, and my HRV it's a relative. It's going to be different for everyone, but my normal HRV at the time was in the nineties, and so that was my average at the time was in the 90s, and so that was my average, the higher the better. All of a sudden my HRV plummeted, like down to the 60s and was steadily at the 60s, huge drop. So that was the first sign that I saw. I was like something's not okay with me. My energy started dwindling too, and so I had gone to my yearly woman's wellness checkup and my OBGYN kind of was explaining some of the things and she was like we can run some blood work, but I don't really think there's much to worry about. I'm like okay, still didn't sit right with me. So we got the blood work back and my liver enzyme was a little bit elevated, but that could be from like a little bit of though for training, because I had just been preparing and dancing for pretty intensely for a handful of months and then I ended up calling the first functional practitioner that I had worked with back in 2021. So this was over two years ago now.

Speaker 2: 12:26

Between that time and this, and I was like hey, this is what I'm feeling. My gut is starting to actually be a little distended too. I'm not really sure what's going on, but my energy levels have really dropped and my HRV is out of whack right now. And she was like I don't think there's anything wrong, but keep an eye on it. Let's put you in contact with our nutritionist. So I talked to the nutritionist and she's like you just need to cut out the dairy Amanda Just cut out, because I had incorporated Greek yogurt back into my diet. And she was like just cut that back out and you'll be fine. I'm like no, there's something wrong with me.

Speaker 2: 13:09

And at this point it was like this is when I started to feel really dismissed by doctors and over time that was the first time I saw the doctor was I saw my OBGYN in July and then in August is when I started calling my functional doc and bringing that up that I felt like there was something wrong. And then the quest for the search for answers. That's when I started reading different books and listening to more podcasts and trying to figure out what was going on. When I was 16 years old, I had gone to my first gastrointestinal doctor and they'd put this tube down, the scope down, and they had said oh yeah, you just have IBS irritable bowel syndrome and at the time we know so much more today than we knew then. At the time they said just cut out gluten and dairy, you'll be fine. Oh no, that was just a band-aid that they had put over that for 10 years and so fast forward to November, December.

Speaker 2: 14:11

Finally, I was like, okay, it's time for me to find someone that's going to help me and that I can actually run labs and tests and get down and figure out what is actually the root cause, what has caused my energy to just plummet like this. So, found the right coach, we ordered all of the labs, and what we found out was that, I mean, there was a lot of things that were going on, but the main thing that caused, I think, the eruption in my body was we found a bacterial pathogen, and the bacterial pathogen was every single nurse. I tell they're like what, Because it's most commonly found in people over the age of 65 in a hospital setting on antibiotics. I didn't fall into that category for any of them, and so that wasn't the only thing that contributed to that, but that was the last thing, the final straw, and so, from the results we saw, my hormones were all unbalanced, I was having a sluggish thyroid, I had leaky gut, and there's so many factors that led to that, because there's a few different stressors.

Speaker 2: 15:29

There was the dietary right I'd added something back into my diet that probably shouldn't have been. There was the emotional stress of just having come off of. I was on the brink of a childhood dream, fulfilling a childhood dream. Brink of a childhood dream, fulfilling a childhood dream, and I also, at the time, was going through a pretty nasty, toxic breakup with someone who had cheated on me with multiple other people, and so that was all going on while I was going through these auditions, and so finally I was coming. I was like coming out of that um, after being in fight or flight for so much time, yeah, and then the um, the physical overtraining that I probably had put my body through and maybe not have rested as much as I probably could have. But it was that bacterial pathogen that came in and just said nope, you're done. And so my body just kind of shut down at that point.

Speaker 1: 16:31

Yeah, so much of that is like I know so many people are experiencing not the exact same thing, but what you're describing is a lot of life's circumstances, right, and then when we know, when we're not feeling our 100%, when we're not at our best, and we go to the doctor so many people do and they tell them a blanket statement or a blanket diagnosis and they know no better. They don't have, you know, any type of education or background in medicine, so they don't know and they trust Western medicine. Or you know they just they don't know and they don't want to argue with the quote, unquote, professional, and so they just go about their business. And I mean good thing that you had that inkling. You know inside of no, there's something else and you kept going and you kept looking for it and you wanted to find the root cause of it. So what would you say? As for someone who doesn't know, who is unsure? What might they be experiencing Like? What would you say to them? Encourage them? What piece of advice would you give them?

Speaker 2: 17:52

to take it a step further, but in a different direction, the functional medicine direction, yeah, it's a great question and if I take a step back, even, just like thinking about my own symptoms. So first, the first symptom that came didn't come from oh, my gut hurts. It came from my energy is dropping, my nervous system is imbalanced. And then is when the gut came on, and then, after my bloating and the distension and it just looked like I was six months pregnant, like people here, like that's how it felt. The worst of it was actually when the brain fog set in. And when my brain fog set in that stripped the life out of me, I could hardly remember anything, I could hardly do my job, I was like I don't even recognize this woman right now. And it just went to show the power and the interconnectedness of our entire body. And so I would say, if you're starting to feel different warning signs from your body, it's communicating to you that something is not okay.

Speaker 2: 19:04

So first tune in and feel. What am I feeling right now? What is causing me to feel this way? And what I did when I wasn't feeling well is I started. It's the awareness. That's the first, that's the first part of it. Once you're aware of something, then you can actually care about it. A lot of different things that led to that point, and so it's going to take a lot of hard work, no matter what you're doing, to get to where you want to be, into a new and healthier state. But the first thing I would say tune into yourself. Listen, say what does my body actually need right now? Tune into yourself, listen, say what does my body actually need right now? Sometimes it's just as simple as going outside for a walk, without any distractions, to be able to assess what's going on, and then it's being able to just ask for help, like I think, as women, a lot of us are like we're just taught to keep pushing and to keep going, but that's not always the solution.

Speaker 1: 20:24

Yeah, yeah, absolutely One of the things that I noticed. I noticed with myself. But then you know, having watched you and your journey and looked at everything, there's, you know, a similarity in it and it's looks can be deceiving, right when we look on the outside. When you quote unquote looked your best, and with me I used to compete when I looked my best and people were like, oh my gosh, how do you do that?

Speaker 1: 20:59

On the outside we look good, but on the inside we're wrecking havoc on our body. We're putting our bodies through so much stress, so much training. We're probably not eating the way we should and we're limiting and restricting instead of giving our bodies what they need. And like I feel so strongly to like shine a light on it. Like it's not about the aesthetics. Yes, we want to look great, but we need to fuel our body so that we can feel great, because then you know it'll show, it'll come through. Like, for instance, your coach, rachel. She looks fantastic and she fuels her body with what is needed. And that's taken a long time, a long process of figuring out what your body needs, because every body is different. But it's not just the aesthetics and making sure that you're doing it in the proper way. What are some easy swaps people can do? People can trade out getting rid of this, to add this, because that's really better for your body.

Speaker 2: 22:18

Yeah, you make such a good point too. Like I think that it's so easy to have an all or nothing mentality, like I have to do this, this, this, this, this, and like I had always prided myself on my discipline, but you know, like sometimes that could come to a fault and my body was like Amanda, I can't keep up at this level anymore. So I totally understand that and I think that you have one part of our culture that's like that right, we can swing too far one way, but then you have another part of the culture that swings way too far the other way. Like it is not healthy and should not be celebrated to be to not take care of your body. Like our bodies should be fueled. You're not going to put cheap gas into a Ferrari, so why would you put processed junk into your body?

Speaker 2: 23:21

And just because, like my boyfriend, really loves energy drinks and so he gets them a lot of the time from the gas station, right, and so this is a good example. Like we walk into the gas station and I just love to look at the labels. I just love to look at them and I'll get into what to look for on labels with these swaps. But it's like this bar and it's like 15 grams of protein, and then I like flip it over and I start reading all the labels and I'm like, well, that destroys your gut, that destroys your gut, that destroys your gut. And so it's just like looks can be deceiving and if you don't have the education, then it's really hard to know what to do. So back to your question what are some good swaps? My favorite swap is with oils.

Speaker 2: 24:11

So in the industrial revolution, seed oils, vegetable oils literally became 10 to 25 times more used and increased our omega-6 to omega-3 ratio negatively. And so if you go to a restaurant, most of the time they're going to cook with vegetable oils or it's going to be a combination of a vegetable oil with olive oil, because it comes pre-mixed that way. So I recommend everyone that I work with I have this sweet little allergy card and my recommendation is to ask. The waitstaff say hey, I'm allergic to vegetable and seed oils. Here's a list of the oils or butter that I can.

Speaker 2: 25:07

That these are the good, healthy alternative swaps. That, I would say, is the number one thing, because vegetable and seed oils they have a half-life of staying in your body for a really long time and it really destroys and inflames the body. That's one swap. I would also say sucralose is in a lot, so it's a sugar. That's in a lot of energy drinks. It's in a lot of protein bars, it's in a lot of protein powders. If you're gonna grab for one of those kinds of things not that I'm recommending that, but sometimes if you're in a pinch it might be the only option Look for something that instead has stevia or it has monk fruit.

Speaker 1: 25:52

Those would be my good sugar alternatives that's so helpful, because I know a lot of times that's what people are doing, like they're trying to get something in and quickly, and, um, you know, they just see the protein, the protein grams and they're like sweet but really like you got to turn it over, you got to see what's really in it. It's so funny. I have my steps on doing it now, because he just wants all the crap food and I get it. He's a kid, he's 10, but it was just getting out of hand and so I showed him this video about what red dye does to you and if you're interested, if you've got kids, I would highly recommend showing them. It's um, they put celery in three different types of dye red dye, yellow dye and blue dye and it shows like I don't even. It's probably over a period of a day or two, I don't even know Um, but the celery dies so fast in the red dye and I'm like that's what your body, that's what's happening inside your body. Red dye is literally killing you and it you know it did it. It flipped a switch in him. So now he's super obsessed.

Speaker 1: 27:16

Granted, he still eats crap, just not as much, but everywhere we go he's always flipping stuff over and he's like I can't have this. It's got red dye 40. It's got this. So he knows, because he remembers. He remembers watching the video of what it does to your body. But I say all that because we don't realize what this crap is doing when we're putting it inside our body. I had no idea that those oils have a half-life and stay in you longer. That's just, it's insane. It's so sad what they make and what is okay for us to consume and people don't know. And I am so glad there's more and more functional medicine coaches and functional medicine doctors that are out there that are making it more known, because we're just only getting worse as a society as a whole, you know yeah, but it's especially eye-opening.

Speaker 2: 28:25

It's especially eye-opening too when you travel. I had the opportunity to travel to Switzerland last summer and you go into a grocery store and every single item has a grade on it a through f. It literally on the outside of the wrapper. It was required when we were in Switzerland. Every grocery store, every item has a grade if it has a label on it. If it's an, it's a fruit, it's not going to put a grade on it. But if it was like anything with a label, anything packaged, it had a grade and it was giving you exactly what was on it. And it's like if you would do that just in one aisle in the United States any aisle that's in the middle more likely than not those grades are going to be failing overall. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:14

So like if it's A, b, it's you're okay, d, f, it's like stay away from this. It's your little babies, oh my gosh.

Speaker 2: 29:25

I don't even think they had stuff like that Right, it just goes to show.

Speaker 1: 29:33

Yeah, how awful freaking America is with their food. Oh my goodness. What are some common misconceptions when it comes to like with functional medicine, when you're working with someone? What is a common misconception that you're seeing, that you're kind of having to redirect and correct with people that you're working with?

Speaker 2: 29:59

Yeah, it's a good question. I think the biggest thing comes down to mindset and really when people come in to me, the very first thing we do is we do a deep dive, not only on your nutrition but your whole lifestyle. So we're looking at your sleep, we're looking at your exercise, we're looking at your little habits, like what are your ties to food and to nutrition and how can we help create better systems in play so that you're able to make better choices? I mean, I think that in Atomic Habits, james Clear's book it's such a well-quoted book because it makes such good points about habit stacking Part of it is just like, hey, if you want to make healthier choices, don't buy the cookies and have them in your pantry. And so it's like little, little little steps. We want to take baby steps, because if you do all of it all at once, for most people it might not stick.

Speaker 2: 31:08

But when we start stacking those little habits and I would say the big misconception is, people come in and they're like, yeah, I got put on this blood pressure medication or I'm on this thyroid medication, and I'm like, okay, let's test and see what's actually going on. And so, right, we get those tests back and then a lot of the times it's like, okay, you're having this thyroid imbalance because of something that's actually connected to your gut. And once we figure out what's actually going on with your gut and we're able to heal your gut and get it into a healthier state, all the other secondary the autoimmune, the thyroid imbalances, the brain fog that you may be experiencing, the hormonal imbalances all of that kind of starts to balance out once your gut kind of gets back into place. So I would say a big misconception is just that people come to me with their symptoms saying I want to treat the symptom. It's like, no, let's figure out what's actually going on and heal. Use for longevity.

Speaker 1: 32:18

Yeah, that's a huge one, A lot of again, with nothing against Western medicine, I don't fully agree with it. I what everybody to each their own own right. I have 20 year history in medicine so I get it. There's a time and a place for it. But I also know that there's, you know, they blanket diagnose things and they throw medication out and they are not into getting to the root cause. They're more for treating the symptom. Emergency medicine 100% believe in Western medicine yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 32:52

But as far as getting to the root cause of something, yes, that unfortunately is happening and people you know doctors are trained to treat what they see and a lot of times that's putting giving you medication to treat what is going on. And that is so helpful. And what I absolutely love about functional medicine and you know it's finding the root and getting to the root of it and fixing. You know this is what's going on and then you don't have to take this blood pressure medication or cholesterol medication and that just excites me to no end that that is available. That is available and also the habit stacking and starting small. That is super important because a lot of times, by the time someone gets to you, they are flooded and overwhelmed and they're just so sick of the way that they've been living and they just want to change. And if we completely, you know, give them everything that needs to change, they get overwhelmed and it's so discouraging.

Speaker 1: 34:06

But one thing at a time. If we start to fix one thing at a time and we stack it and then they get those small wins, it's so encouraging. And then you get to the point where I'm sure you did. I know you had some skin issues because of all the stuff that was going on internally, but you start feeling better, your skin starts clearing up, you get your energy back, your bloating starts to go away, you get off the medications that you've been on. It's just so freeing. And then your body is just so thankful that you're finally operating the way you should be. I just I know it fires me up and I'm sure it fires you up too.

Speaker 2: 34:49

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:50

It's so freeing too, because what I've learned is that so many people don't even know Like it's the lack of education and the lack of awareness.

Speaker 2: 35:03

And so one thing that's really important to me is when I start working with my clients, it says I'm not just going to tell you what to do, I'm going to tell you why we're doing it. And I actually do a whole analysis of their blood work and I don't just tell it to them, because a lot of times that comes at you and you're just like whoa, what did I just receive? Like when we get the reports back, I run down this is what I'm seeing. This is why I'm. This is like what it, what it will cause, cause sometimes, like you get a marker back and it's like 10 months from now, it may not really be a negative, but if we keep training in this direction, 10 years from now, we're gonna have a problem. And so being able to like, show people hey, this is what I'm seeing, this is what will happen if we don't address it now and this is what we're gonna do to heal it.

Speaker 2: 35:58

So it's very bite-sized pieces and not like overwhelming with all of these scientific words.

Speaker 1: 36:05

Yeah, so let's go into that real quick. How would someone start to work with you? What would be their key indicator of hey, I need to work with Amanda.

Speaker 2: 36:16

Yeah, most people come to me that have a variety of symptoms. So it could be that they have gained a bunch of weight and they've tried everything and nothing's working to get it off. It could be that they have really bad anxiety or depression or brain fog. It could be the standard. I have gut issues and doctors have told me I have irritable bowel syndrome or irritable bowel disease, or I have Crohn's or or a variety of different areas that have to do with the gut and nothing seemed to help. Or SIBO is another one small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. People have come to me with that and most people that show up to me they've tried everything and nothing seemed to work. But they haven't gotten all the testing done that can actually identify and pinpoint.

Speaker 2: 37:18

But I would go even a step further and say, even if that's not you, how much better would it be if you're just starting to feel like if I was able to go get those tests done in August, when my energy started to drop and I started to feel a little off, I would have been four, five months ahead of a bacterial pathogen that literally overwhelmed my body.

Speaker 2: 37:44

So if you're starting to feel those warning signs and you don't know what to do. That's when you reach out to me, because I'm there and I want to be able to partner with you, whether you have a goal of. I just want my brain fog to go away. I want my mental health to feel better. I've been having bloating for a year and it's just not going away. Or I gained weight unexpectedly. Those are a few of the very many reasons that people come to me, but I like to work with people who they're ready to make a change and they know that it's not going to be easy to heal. It takes hard work, but I'm that person that's going to get into the weeds with you and I'm going to be able to show you a path towards what is your personal blueprint to healing.

Speaker 1: 38:37

Yeah, that's awesome. So everybody's different, which I absolutely love about your coaching it's not a cookie cutter. You get them labs, they get their labs done and you're able to interpret them and go over them with your clients and then take it a step further, and this is what you need to do now. What about supplements? Do you help them figure out what supplementations they're needing or lacking?

Speaker 2: 39:03

Yeah, yeah. So once we get all of those results back, we're able to see is your vitamin D low? Are you really low on vitamin B? Are your hormones imbalanced, like all of those kinds of things. And I do also a handful of different questionnaires, so I do a stress test to see what parts of your bodies have been affected by stress, and so a lot of the times when people come in, they're in fight or flight, whether or not they know it or not, and so my first goal is okay, how can we get us back to a grounded state? And so most of the time there's like an adrenal reset that we do. So that supplementation, right there. My goal is never to make supplements the main thing. My goal is to treat 90% with nutrition and lifestyle changes and then that little teeny top of the pyramid with supplements. So I do work with a few different companies to get the right supplements for people to help treat and heal that way, as opposed to going and prescribing a medication.

Speaker 1: 40:25

Yeah, well, I mean, cause that's what we're ultimately trying to do is get you off all this stuff. We don't want to replace it, we want to get you you know, in the whole healthy state and not more supplements.

Speaker 2: 40:37

Yeah, and I think that supplements sometimes get a bad rep, like oh, just take all these supplements. And I'm going to be honest if your gut is not in a healthy state, if you have too much bad bacteria, not enough good bacteria, it might not actually be great for you to be taking a probiotic because it could be feeding all of the bad bacteria.

Speaker 2: 41:02

So, the right supplements at the right time can do wonders, but if you're just taking everything you see online and not sticking to a plan and knowing the reasoning why, that could actually be very detrimental. And that's, I think, where supplementation sometimes gets a bad rep.

Speaker 1: 41:24

Yeah, so in order to know they would need to get labs done. So, working with someone like you, then they can get the correct lab work done, so that they have someone that can tell them this is where you're lacking lacking, or you shouldn't be taking this, or you need to take this, or let's add in this nutrition and take this out. So that's huge. I hope everyone gets that that it's not just a. You know we can't just Google everything. It helps to work with a professional that knows what to look for and knows how to treat it knows what to look for and knows how to treat it.

Speaker 2: 42:06

Yeah, and also I was just going to say also, like, a good example is if you think about like detoxification right, everyone will go on all of these cleanses like oh, I'm going to do this cleanse, like my body needs it right now.

Speaker 2: 42:16

And cleanses are great, but in the right time. And if your body, if your gut, is imbalanced, if there's dysbiosis and you have too much bad bacteria, not enough good bacteria, then what happens is there's three different phases in the detoxification cycle before the toxins are released and excreted from your body. Phase one and phase two help break down the toxins from fat-loving toxins into water-soluble toxins that then they can get out of the body. Phase three is where the toxins like actually prepared to get out of the body. But if your gut is not balanced, those toxins all the hard work of phase one and phase two in the detoxification cycle those toxins will just get reuptaked right back into your body. So it's a negative feedback loop and the toxins, instead of going out of your body, they're pushed back into your body. And so that's a thing where like, oh, I'm just going to do this cleanse, but if your gut's not healthy, then everything that you're doing for the cleanse isn't going to matter, because those toxins are just going to go back up into your body.

Speaker 2: 43:41

So that's where it matters to do things in the right order, so to heal your gut first and then. Once the gut is healed, then it's like how can we work on clearing all of those toxins that are from within?

Speaker 1: 43:47

That is crazy, everything that you just shared, and I think there needs to be more education about just what is out there. That is good, what is out there that we can swap so that people can live and operate optimally. Um, and I'm just excited for you to get out there and for you to help more and more people. Um, what's the best, easiest way for people to contact you?

Speaker 2: 44:23

Yeah, the best way to contact me is you could send me a direct message on Instagram at CoachSouk S-O-U-K, and there'll be a little bit more information. My email could be in the show notes if you want to send me an email as well. Absolutely, and I know I had mentioned those inflammatory oils, the vegetable oils and those swaps. Anyone who's listening to this and who would like to get that card in their hands that I send out to all of my clients, just shoot me a DM. Tell me that you found me through this podcast and I'd be happy to share that card with you.

Speaker 1: 45:05

Amazing. Yes, we will have all your information in the show notes, because people need this and need to work with you. You are amazing, amanda. I'm so so, so grateful for you and the work that you're doing and that you took time out of your day to sit and talk with me and share everything with us. So thank you so much and I am so excited for what God is doing in your life.

Speaker 2: 45:34

Amen, amen, only through him. It's only possible through him. Yeah. Thank you so much. It was such an honor, such a joy to sit down and have this conversation today. I'm so grateful for our time.

Speaker 1: 45:47

Thank you. All right friends. If this episode has helped you in any way, or if you know anyone that needs to hear about this and needs to work with Amanda, please share this episode and remember y'all you were divinely created for a divine purpose and there was no mistake in you.