Have you ever done everything right- eating clean, exercising, staying disciplined and still felt like your body was failing you? In this powerful episode, Sarah reconnects with former client and friend Jenny Goforth-Hickerson, a longtime fitness expert turned integrative practitioner, to talk about the moment everything changed in her health journey.

Jenny opens up about her surprising diagnosis, the mystery symptoms she couldn’t shake, and the moment she knew something much deeper was wrong. From being a top trainer at a national fitness company to having unexplained symptoms, Jenny walks us through her journey of discovering breast implant illness, regaining her health, and redefining success on her own terms.

She shares what it was like to be dismissed by doctors, how a God moment gave her unexpected clarity, and what happened when she finally had her implants removed. Jenny also offers insight on common health misconceptions, why most women are under eating, and the importance of personalized wellness plans, especially in seasons of change.

This episode is for anyone who has ever felt discouraged in their body, unseen in their symptoms, or lost trying to figure out what’s “healthy” anymore. You are not alone, and Jenny’s story might just be the hope you have been needing.

Mentioned in this Episode:

• Dr. Stephen Cabral’s The Rain Barrel Effect: https://a.co/d/98GQC8Z

Connect with Jenny:

 Instagram: @goforthwellness

TikTok: @goforthwellness

Website: www.goforthwellness.com

 Link for $10 off monthly app. subscription:

https://goforthwellness.fitbudd.com/packs/aTJksSW0YEG5yezYTB1h

Well hello and welcome to the Lessons From Your Hairstylist podcast. I'm your host and hairstylist friend Sarah Cruise. Have you ever had a time where you felt like you were just doing everything you could to achieve a certain result and nothing was working? You knew you were putting in the work.

Maybe it was something physical. Maybe you've been trying to get in shape. Maybe you've been trying to improve your health journey and you feel like you've really been putting in the work and your body is failing you. If there's ever been a time where you just felt like no matter what you did, your body was failing you. That's what we're talking about today. And I have a friend of mine, Jenny Goforth-Hickerson on today. She's a formal client and I haven't seen her in quite some time, but she's got such an

interesting story. I came across her TikTok again I started seeing her videos come up and she was talking about this journey that she had been on over the last few years. Jenny is an integrative practitioner and personal fitness trainer and she's always lived a healthy lifestyle. She's always exercised. She has always been

very focused on fitness and that's been her whole educational background her entire career so when Jenny's body actually started to fail her and not respond the way that she was used to she knew that there was something wrong and She was talking about this on her Instagram and on her tik-tok where she was telling the story of how

she had struggled for many years and doing everything she absolutely could only to not be seeing any results. At the same time, she was the face of a big fitness brand and she felt that she couldn't even have the authority at that point to be teaching and leading other people in their health journey because she couldn't seem to achieve the results herself and it was a complete mystery.

And as I watched these videos of Jenny's, I was just fascinated and I thought there have got to be other people who are going through the same thing. So I reached out and I was like, I would love if you would want to come on the podcast and

Talk a little bit about your story and maybe this is something if you're a listener and you're hearing this and this resonates with you, maybe this offers you some hope and some encouragement to keep pushing and looking for the right solution for yourself. So I want to introduce Jenny Goforth-Hickerson. Jenny, thank you so much for being on the episode. I so appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm so glad that we've reconnected and I'm so happy to be here and to share this story.

Yeah, it is such an interesting story and like I said I was

very fascinated when I was watching your videos and I didn't realize you'd gone through all of this. It's been a while since we'd seen each other. I remember when you had gotten married to Vinny and I think you may have had your first baby on the way, but that was kind of the last time that I sort of knew what was going on in your life. And then to rediscover you through the magic of TikTok, I was like, wait a second. I didn't know all of that had been going on. So can you share a little bit about your background and

Great.

Just sort of what your what your journey has been like

Yeah, so my story is very long, so I'll try to shorten this. But I've been in the fitness industry 25 years, which makes me sound so old at this point. A really long time. I like to say I fell into fitness my freshman year of college. you know, like growing up, I wasn't healthy. I ate fast food every day. I hated anything to do with athletics and sports.

It's funny that I've been in the fitness industry and this has been my career because growing up, I was the girl that would write my own notes to get out of PE class. I didn't want to sweat, I didn't want to mess my hair up. And I didn't feel like I was good at anything. I was so underweight. I grew up very sickly. So I was anemic and just struggled with energy.

but my senior year of high school, I was thrown in a women's weightlifting class, which I was mortified. And I wanted to do just basic PE, I had to have one more PE to graduate high school. But I get thrown into this class with all the athletic girls. I'm talking like the softball players, the basketball players.

And then there was me who had never lifted a weight in my life. I'm like 85 pounds of nothing. And I have to complete this class in order to graduate. So I go into this class the very first day and we all gather around the bench press, the 45 pound bar. And we wanted, the teacher wanted us to see how much we could lift.

So that first day we all gather around this bar and I'm like shaking. This is making me so nervous. I grew up a performer, a singer. Being in front of people didn't bother me, but having to lay down and try to lift something, I was scared to death. I get up there with my 85 pound self and the 45 pound bar and it just falls on me. Everyone laughed. I couldn't get it off. So that was my starting point, not being able to lift anything.

Our whole grade that semester, that one semester was based on our improvement. So I didn't like the laughter for one. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna work. And so the girls that wanted to lift and wanted to learn how to lift weights and improve could put in the time. We had our exercise plan. Our teacher showed us the correct form and what we needed to be doing. And me and another girl decided we're going all in with this lifting stuff.

And so we took it serious when everybody else was just chatting and eating and hanging out during the class. We were working and I quickly, I'm talking within like a month, saw changes in my little body. I started to get some definition and I was like, ooh, I like this. I'll wear tank tops. And so I work hard. At the end of that semester, we all gather around the bar and I get up there and lift 95 pounds.

more than what I weighed at the time. No one laughed. I was lifting more than the athletic girls. And that sparked my interest in fitness. I was like, huh, I'm actually freakishly strong for some reason. And I liked the way I'm looking and feeling. I wasn't healthy before, so I'm starting to drink more water, which I thought was foreign to me back then.

So moving into college, I come out to Nashville to study music and my roommate was a former power lifter. And I was like, well, I know all about lifting weights now. I did it for one semester. I'm pretty much an expert at this point. I'm really strong. And so her and I just decide, you know, three days a week, we're going to go lift weights. And I learned a lot from her. And then we sign up for an aerobics class.

You're an expert.

And day one, I see the instructor with her little mic and I'm like, I tell my roommate, I don't know why, but I'm going to be her. And everyone laughs and they're like, Jenny, what are you talking about? You don't even know how to do aerobics. I know, but I see myself up there teaching fitness. at that time, you know, 18 years old, I couldn't fathom that people actually got paid.

Yeah

to go work out, because I was starting to get the bug. I liked working out. I liked what it was doing for my confidence, my body. And so while I was studying music, I figured out how to study to get a certification and teach group fitness, which by the way, did not make me good at it by no means. had a lot to learn and a long way to go. Luckily, I had some great mentors. had...

You

a woman that had been teaching for like 30 years, take me under her wings, tell me this is the music you need. This is how you turn your little mic on. This is how you connect with people in the class. And this is how you do a squat, This is how you actually like look better when you're teaching, you know? And I'm grateful for those people when they could have been like, no, you don't know what you're doing. You're not gonna be a teacher. ⁓

Well, the story. Yeah, the story.

Yeah,

and I love that you're talking about all of the little details that went into this whole journey because

That's what it is, is I mean, know we're spending some time on your story before we're getting, you know, your pre-story before we get into exactly what was going on with your body. But I like what you've said so far about how you came so far in a short period of time and you could get that bug so quickly. And for people who don't even work out or it seems intimidating to them, or it seems like just something that they could, it would never be them. I think,

when you it's those little things even you going into the the class where you were just learning how to turn on your mic it's small little wins like that where you feel like okay now I start to belong in this industry now I start to belong in this world and I just wanted to kind of touch on that first before we got into you know what was going on with your body and all of that kind of thing because I think that many times people will look at maybe

and

⁓ you ⁓

tiny little things along the way of just like you might have to just go to the gym and decide like how do I use that machine or watch somebody or YouTube it or just make a tiny little bit of progress all along the way and then it feels good. I didn't mean to interrupt you but that just kind of resonated with me about how you were talking about the little things that were like the stair steps up to where you

Yeah, that's great. And you know,

I work with people all the time that don't have a background in fitness, haven't worked out, but they know now that they're getting older, everyone's talking about lifting weights and that can be really intimidating for people, but it does. It's a mindset shift in it. I love more than anything, more than the transformations and the body changes. I love how it transforms someone's confidence.

Yes.

Like when I

see a woman and that carries over into their job, into their family, you know, how they feel about themselves. That is why I do what I do. And I saw that very early on in group fitness with women and I love that connection, you know, with them. My story with group fitness transformed into a lot of other things. I say pre-kids, pre, you know, my twenties and my thirties even. I ended up in martial arts and

an all or nothing person, obviously I wanna learn something new and that's my personality of, I think I wanna be a black belt now. So I ended up in Taekwondo, I took that very, very far, I got up to third degree, I competed for a world title and I got that, think I was 32 years old when I actually won that title. And then after that, I'm like, you what's my next, what's my next goal? Cause I've kind of done the best I can do in this martial arts world.

I decided.

I think I

remember you at that time. I think this was about the time I knew you and the story between you and how you met your husband is also so fascinating. I know we only have like, we don't have all day, but that's a fascinating story too if you want to touch on that.

Yes.

Yeah. ⁓

Yeah, so I knew Vinny, he goes by Big Vinny, two Gs. I knew of him in the music world way back in our 20s. And then I followed his journey. He was on the Biggest Loser TV show. Being a personal trainer and fitness instructor was a huge fan of the show. So when I watched it, I'm like, my gosh, that's my friend Vinny. And I was secretly hoping to get him off of the show as one of my clients, which didn't happen back then.

But we kind of connected around that time when he was on right before the finale of the show. He was in the final four and I was just amazed at how much he transformed, but how positive he was during that whole experience. And I didn't think anything further than that at that time. You know, I didn't think this will be the person I ended up marrying. I just was amazed at his journey. Fast forward five years after he came off the show.

He was doing motivational speaking, leading some big boot camps. And at that time I'm in the height of my taekwondo and bodybuilding stage. And he reached out to me and had been following my journey and just wanted to pick my brain about bodybuilding. So that's how we reconnected all that time later. And when we actually sat down, he took me to Whole Foods. I was a week out from a national show and I remember not being able to, at that point to eat anything.

and he bought me a Clif Bar and watermelon and chicken. And I was like, I can't eat it. I can eat the chicken. That's it. So.

Some of those times when you were in that when you were I can remember some of those training times when you would Come into the salon and you were like literally I'm eating green beans and chicken right now

Mm-hmm. I probably brought my food with me to the chair.

So once we connected, like I said, we quickly fell in love. I was actually told I couldn't have kids. So, you know, I let him know right away he didn't have kids of his own. And I let him know right away, hey, if that's a deal breaker, you know, I'm letting you know now. I don't know for sure, but that's what the doctors have always told me. So we just thought, you know what, we'll do music together. We'll do fitness together. We'll travel.

Hahaha

I loved all my friends' kids and I always thought, okay, now I'm gonna go back and get my sleep and get my rest. Like that's a hard job, I already knew that. But the way that people talked about their kids, I didn't get it till I had kids that it really is the greatest thing ever. And man, if I had been 10 years younger, I'd probably have a house full of kids, because that by far is the greatest thing I've ever done. But I had my son.

And after that, I was like, you know what? Now that I know I can have kids, let's hurry up and try for one more. And if it doesn't happen by 40, I'm personally just gonna stop trying, even though I've got lots of friends that do it past 40. And just for me, that was kind of my thing. Maybe God's just given us one. So we tried, I was getting frustrated and I finally gave up. It was right before I was hitting 40. So I was like, it's probably not gonna happen. I'm just gonna.

quit trying for that second baby. I'm gonna get back into bodybuilding to prove I can do it after having a baby and a C-section. So I had gotten shredded back to pieces. was one week, I hit peak week, which is the hardest week of dehydration, cutting calories. It's pretty drastic. And I hit that week and I'm taking weekly pictures of my body because every little thing can manipulate what you look like and.

can shift, you have to shift your macros based on those pictures. So I took pictures and I wake up and I'm like, hmm, I'm really bloated today. And I looked so good last week, what's going on? So I'm like, hang on, let me go take a pregnancy test. So I found out that week that I was pregnant with baby number two, my little girl. And it was a sweet surprise. I was in the best shape I had been in, you know, and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna be so healthy during this pregnancy.

I'm at the top of my game. I was working for a fitness company, the largest fitness company at that time online. And I was the top trainer there, you know, and I worked my butt off, but was so passionate about what I was doing and helping all these people, you know, in the online space. So I have my daughter right at 40 and after her, everything shifted. We were in a pandemic for one. So life was definitely stressful.

I was working 24 seven for the online company because once that pandemic hit the online businesses boomed and I was at one point doing 80 meal plans a day. So I had 80 new people to talk with, give them custom meal plans and do their check-ins on a weekly basis. So it was a lot to handle and these people were all over. had clients in Australia. We were doing zoom meetings in the middle of the night.

to make it work for their schedule. All while having a newborn, having a toddler, thinking I was gonna stay at the top of my game and work my way up in this company. And all the while my health was just deteriorating. I was so sick every week. I had COVID a couple of times. One time sent me to the hospital. All the people rushing to the hospital, that was me. As healthy as I had been, I thought I was gonna die. And then I just couldn't get better. Every week.

was something like a crazy illness, not just not feeling good, but I would wake up with the weirdest symptoms, couldn't get out of bed, my joints ached. Like I literally had a list of at least 30 issues going on. The biggest issue for me that I was struggling with was my stomach because it looked pregnant, hard as a rock, not leftover baby weight, but a hard belly that looked about eight months pregnant.

And so in the beginning, I'm like, I know the things to do. Give my body grace. You know, I had a baby older. I'll get it back. And I'm telling myself, you know, just get back into eating right. Just get back into the gym. And I found myself at the gym laying on the floor after a 10 minute workout. Like I was not the same person at all. And I'm thinking something happened in the birth. Something happened with, I guess, the stress of the job is catching up to me. Sleep is.

non-existent. So I'm just thinking I'm just in a really stressed state and this has taken a toll on my body. Everywhere I went people would ask me when I was due and it got to the point where my daughter was almost two years old. And so then I couldn't say well I just had a baby because now I'm like well I have a two-year-old and this is what my stomach looks like. It was I mean I'm talking family, friends.

I actually joined a boutique style gym to just focus on me. And at that time, no one knew that I was a trainer. We had moved to a new city. I didn't know anyone. And I thought, you know what? I'm just going to, for one, I'd never even joined a gym because I always taught at the gyms. I'm going to pay. I'm going to join this gym. I'm going to get myself back. so week one at this gym, the instructors on the mic, she's teaching about 30 plus people in this class.

and she yells over the mic, hang on Jenny, I'll give you an option since you're pregnant. And I'm like, okay. You know, it just, I was so defeated. Defeated. I mean, I went home crying. My husband, who is the happiest, most positive person that just wanted me back, you know, he's frustrated because we can't figure out why I'm so unhealthy at this point.

my god!

But you know, I came home from that workout and he was like, Hey, how was your workout? And I just bust into tears. I'm like horrible

one.

Yes.

And I'm in a contract with this gym. So I have to go back or pay to get out of this thing.

that company that had been sort of your bread and butter, both you and your husband were working for this large fitness company. You decided, I'm gonna take a step back. I'm gonna just give myself some time and

I'm going to just take my foot off the gas a little bit. And I think you said you went to the company and decided you, you told them you decided you wanted to do that. And can you tell me what happened next?

Yeah,

so before I left, during the time I was sick, I was up for a massive promotion with them. And in fact, they didn't know that I was pregnant with my daughter. And like I said, we were pandemic, I was pregnant. I didn't need to necessarily let them know, because I was still top of the company. But during the pandemic, they came to me and said, hey, can you go online and teach a live workout to, I mean, they had hundreds of thousands of people in their Facebook group.

Can you go live and teach a workout? Because this is what, we're moving into that era with the pandemic. And I was like, yes, I can. But just so you know, I am eight months pregnant. So I'm gonna be in my living room. I'm gonna do the whole workout. I can still work out just to let you know. Well, they bragged on me. In our next meeting, we had company meetings each week. They were like, my gosh, Jenny's pregnant. We didn't know, congratulations. And she stayed at the top of her game with a toddler. And they were just bragging.

closer to the birth of my daughter, my boss comes to me, my manager comes to me and says, hey, they're promoting four people and you're one of them. And I'm like, good, you know, like I've worked hard for a promotion. So yeah, that's awesome. This promotion would have been life changing financially. I was already making more money than I'd ever made in the fitness industry. So for those reasons, I'm so blessed to have had that job. I learned a lot about the online space. There are so many good things with the company, but

do about it other than just be upset about it. And so that's when I knew that was the biggest red flag of like, hey, you I'm pouring everything into this company. I had a full-time nanny at the time for my toddler. I'm trying to nurse the baby, trying to do all meet everyone's needs. And I actually don't think the company cares that much, you know? So I had decided during my health journey that I needed to leave. So when I quit,

I just openly said, hey, I need more time with my family, which is a thousand percent correct. I need to get my health better and focus on my kids. My husband worked for the company and he was planning on staying. He was happy. He was not top. He was somewhere in the mid. He was happy where he was sitting with the company. And I thought, you know what? We'll just live off that salary. And he's doing music and speaking and all the other things too. And I'll just take a step back for now. When I did,

We were moving, we actually sold our house to move again, trying to get my health better. The day that we woke up to pack up our house, I had just quit the day before, I opened up his computer and I said, I'll just see how many emails you have. I opened up his computer and he was logged out of everything. So he had been let go. And that afternoon found out that I guess there's a policy if one spouse leaves, they get rid of the other one. Obviously.

What?

That might have shifted my timing on things for sure. Yeah, so no warning, we're moving into a brand new house, paying a lot more money for it, and our main jobs are gone, so.

No warning. No warning.

That is absolutely devastating.

I know that you sought advice and answers from several doctors, didn't you? I think you said that you finally had gotten to the point that you're like, this is something's not right. Like what's going on? Tell me about what that was like when you were trying to seek medical advice and you couldn't find any e-cars.

Yeah.

Yeah, we spent

so much money trying to figure it out. Functional and regular doctors. I went to a chiropractor slash functional doctor and she was like, you know, give me 90 days. We can get you. We can get you healed. 90 days comes. I make zero changes. I still feel awful. I still have 30 plus symptoms, like not even a little bit of a breakthrough. And if I had had a moment like a couple days of good energy,

then I was wiped out for the next week. So I literally, you know, at the end of that 90 days with her, she was like, I don't know. She goes, I think you need lymphatic therapy. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go get a thermography scan and do lymphatic and you know, I'd spent thousands in supplements and all kinds of things. My OBGYN was baffled. She thought I was constipated, which I wasn't and that I needed antidepressants.

which is I had three doctors just say, you know, you need this antidepressant. Maybe I did at the time. I was really depressed, but I needed to know why my body was doing this and why nothing was working. I hired a coach in L.A., one of the best coaches, super intelligent, couldn't get a breakthrough with nutrition. I may have had like a tiny little bit of improvement, but like I said, the next week I'm wiped or the next month I'm wiped. So I remember it was Christmas.

2021 and I traveled back home. My dad actually asked me if I was pregnant again. And just like everybody else was asking me at that point, I was really getting used to it. But I was also thinking I'm to have to leave the fitness industry. You know, even though I'm online and behind a computer, I'm getting thousands of people shredded to pieces and feeling good. I just feel like sad, like this is sad. I can't get it. I can't get myself together.

So it was that trip that I was listening to different podcasts and I came across a doctor by the name of Dr. Steven Cabral. He's a very large podcast. And I thought, man, this guy knows about everything. You type in an illness and there's a podcast on it. And I told my husband, I don't know who this guy is, but I got to get to him because I don't know where else to go at this point, but I know something's wrong and I don't want to live like this. So I...

research him, find out, you know, he's quite famous. He's got books and the podcast is huge. And so he has practitioners underneath him that you can hire. So I hired a practitioner and she was actually the first person that said to me, yes, something is wrong. This is not right. We're going to figure it out. And so they do a lot of lab testing. They ship you the lab, you do the lab, then you meet via zoom to go over the results.

I had ordered a gut bacteria lab because I thought my number one issue was my gut looked awful. And I thought, man, something's horribly wrong with my gut. So I'm going to order this test. The company sent me a free heavy metal test that I didn't even know what it was. You cut your hair out and ship it in. And we may have worked together around this time. I can't remember if I, no, I don't guess I was testing back then, but I remember having to.

something back then though I think I remember you were you tested for something and I don't remember what it was but I this was pre everything that was going on though I yes

Yeah, yeah, probably my hormone issue is full of four kids. The

hair analysis is the heavy metal test. You cut some of your hair out, ship it in, and I thought, you know what, whatever, I'm gonna do this test too. I get the results back. My gut bacteria lab was great, and my heavy metal lab was through the roof. My numbers were terrible. And the practitioner was like, you know what, I've been doing this 20 years. I've been reading labs. I've never seen labs like this.

She goes, in fact, this morning I went to Dr. Cabral to get his advice on your labs. And I was like, I don't know if I should feel so honored or scared that he saw my lab. And so she comes back and she was like, look, we want to retest because hair dye can play a role, scissors, know, go show me the kind of scissors you cut your hair with, you know, just to make sure it wasn't contaminated. We're going to ship you another test. We're going to redo this thing. She actually researched the hair dye.

which you try to get really close to your scalp anyway, so it's like new growth. But the hair dye that was used at the time was more natural, so there really wasn't a lot of chemicals or anything in it that would have caused the heavy metals to do that. So I test, that test comes back even worse. And she was like, okay, so this is something, this is more than aluminum in your deodorant. Everybody's heard about the toxins in your products. She was like, this is more.

than that, but go ahead and start switching those things out. Let's go ahead and switch out your cookware. And I thought, wow, what am I ingesting? And again, I'm spending money left and right just to try to figure this out. And I thought, has to be my water? It's gotta be my pipes because all I drink is water. I eat really clean. Like what else am I putting in my body? And so I buy a really nice water machine that I love and it has made me feel great, but it wasn't the answer.

You know, it was just at my wit's end. I go to bed one night stressed because this is constantly on my mind of like, wow, why are the metals so high? It's such like a guessing game. And I went to bed and I heard God tell me, it's your implants, your breast implants, get them out. And it was plain as day. I've had so many people question, you know, was it a voice? Was it a dream? And I can't explain it other than I knew it was God and I woke up with such clarity the next morning.

That just gives me chills. Yeah.

It's so

crazy. I've never had that experience before. I don't feel like God talks to me in that way or didn't at that time. And in fact, you know, I had become kind of miserable. Like I had everything I wanted in my family and my kids, but then I'm like, I can't even enjoy it. Like it's all a fog because I feel so terrible. But that next morning I woke up and I told my husband, this is what I heard. I got to get my implants out. That's what's making me sick.

and he was baffled at first. He's like, hang on, are you talking about replaced? And I'm like, I don't think so. I think just out for good. And he was skeptical because we had already tried this and tried that and poured money here. And now we're talking about a surgery that insurance won't cover. But he supported because he was like, look, I just want you to feel better. If this is it, go get the things out, it's fine.

So I went in for ultrasound that week and that's where they found the rupture. I had a silicone breast implant that had ruptured not just out of the implant, but out of the capsule that surrounds the implant. So your body builds up that tissue and I had a breakthrough from that. It was killing me. The silicone was killing me. And I will say, and this is definitely not a podcast to be like rush and go get your implants out. They're making you sick, but there are heavy metals.

And even if you get saline, it's still made of heavy metals. Particles can be leaked out in your body. And this is not to scare anybody, but if you go down that rabbit hole, you'll see a whole lot of research on implants and what they do. I had always loved mine. I didn't think I had any issues with them, but, you know, looking back a year after I got them, I had hormonal issues. I was told I couldn't have kids. I was diagnosed with PCOS. That could have just been...

my body, the circumstances at the time, or it could have been a side effect of the implants. And that's what's so tricky with breast implant illness, because if someone comes to me and they have these symptoms, a lot of times you can fix things through nutrition, through working out, through mindset, through a lot of things. But for me, I was doing all the things and literally getting nowhere. And so I just knew, and the rupture for me was like,

Okay, God, this has to come out now. Like this isn't just me guessing. And if this doesn't fix all my problems, it still has to come out. There's still a rupture going on. So I decided, and of course I thought about maybe I'll get them, maybe I'll get them replaced. And the doctor that I saw is primarily doing only explants. He said, look, I've seen this happen where we put them back in with people that have been very, very sick and the symptoms are even worse.

Yeah. Yeah.

So he said, I would advise you just to get them out. And which is what I knew to do anyway. I was just, it was scary. I've had them 15 years. And right. And especially in my industry, when things were based on your looks, I get clients cause I was shredded up. I won bodybuilding shows and not cause of my boobs, but because of the whole, the whole body, you know, everything was based on the visual.

You're used to your body looking a certain way. If something's really gone, that's a loss.

But at that time, because I even remember my husband saying, you know, if you get them out, you know, it might switch things if you ever get back into bodybuilding. I'm like, that's not even on my radar at this point. I just want to be able to walk up the stairs without dying like hurting all over. I just want my life back. So within a month, I scheduled the explant. And I kid you not, within 24 hours, I looked like a different person. I had developed such dark.

spots all over my forehead, dark circles under my eyes. I did not look like the same person at all. And those things I thought just having a baby at 40, like this is what's happening to me. Now I don't look good anymore. But I kid you not, 24 hours later, my skin was glowing. Those spots were going away. I have the pictures before, I'll have to share some of this so you can share with your listeners. The before and after of 24 hours, then three days later,

I would love it.

I would love to see that.

insane. The stomach started going down and that took a little bit longer but it immediately I felt like the world went from dark to light and I was back.

Wow, that's a-

And

at first I'm skeptical because I'm thinking, maybe I'm on the meds. Maybe I'm just feeling amazing because I just had surgery. But it continued and my energy continued to pick up. And the cool thing is I worked with that practitioner that helped me with the labs and the heavy metals. And we had a protocol of how to detox what the leftover in my body and all the inflammation and the things that had been going on because my body went through such stress all those years.

that we had a protocol pre-surgery to build my body up as much as we could, post-surgery, nutrition-wise, supplementation, and then a detox. So I did a 21-day detox followed by a heavy metal detox and just continued to feel better and better. But it was that moment that I woke up that week after surgery when God said, you know what, you're not working. I had actually quit my other job.

because I thought the job was killing me. So I had just recently quit that situation and I had a week off where I was just healing and I got out a journal, started writing. I hadn't journaled in years and I knew then that I was meant to help other people that feel so stuck and feel like nobody hears them and everybody thinks they're making up their symptoms or this is just how it is when you age.

And I decided to go back and become the integrative practitioner to help other people, not with breast implant illness. It could be that, but just to get to the root, because so many people come to me with a lot of similar symptoms. You know, they're foggy, they have no energy, their joints ache. What they used to do doesn't work anymore. And getting to the root of that and helping them get their life back and helping them get unstuck just became my passion after I got my life back.

And through this whole journey, know you said that you had been turned on to this Dr. Steven Cabral. And I think that you had told me that that sort of led you on a whole other path. And I think that your work and your research and just the background now that you have having worked with him and...

that has allowed you to have a whole deeper understanding of really how the body works, I would say. And can you tell us a little bit about what that has been like now that you've been working alongside them?

Yeah, that's been really cool because, you know, as a trainer before, I thought people just aren't eating right. They're not working out the way they need to. You know, had a different perspective as a trainer before, but then when I became the integrated practitioner and started doing more of the wellness side and aging myself, I saw that, wow, you know, you do have to shift your metabolism shifts, your hormones shift. You know, we hit

perimenopause, a fun stage, and how to not just balance your hormones, but how to optimize your hormones. So I start researching that, but all of that to say, listening to someone, I think is the biggest thing, like meeting the client where they are and coming up with a path that's right for their body. It's not a one-size-fits-all. As much as I love group fitness, it's not made for everybody, especially in different stages of life.

you know, the way that I eat may not be the way that somebody else needs to eat. So shifting your foods to optimize your hormones as you're aging and eat for your body, you know, I started really dialing into working more one-on-one because like I said, everybody's different, everybody's journey is different. And so the symptoms and everything that people are dealing with are very different. So getting to the root cause, getting their bodies to where you are

detoxing, whatever, we're all surrounded by toxins, we can't escape. And then optimizing so that they can get their energy back and making it a more personalized plan.

interesting that you can actually personalize a plan for

each individual person and it's just amazing how it is such a, so, gotta be so complex because everybody's so different. But just knowing that it is possible to work with someone like you to be able to come up with a plan that actually is optimized for you as an individual, I think that's very inspiring and encouraging to know that it's even possible because like you, I think there are a

lot of people out there thinking, I'm the only person that feels like this. I'm the only person that has this particular issue. Nobody else is going through this. And there's just so many different things that people could be going through that they don't even know that there is, you know, there could be a plan made for and that there's hope that they could feel better and they could, they could be on the other side of what it is that they're going through right now, like you were, you just have to be really diligent about doing, you know, doing the work, doing the

Yeah.

the

research and you went through years and years of trying to figure out what was going on and finally stumbled across it really and it just sort of came to you. How is it that somebody could, what is it, tell me exactly what it is that you do as far as like with your clients, how exactly you help them and what working with you kind of looks like.

Yeah, definitely. So I created a year and a half ago, Go Forth Wellness. I have an app so you can join the app. And in fact, I'm going to give all the listeners of this podcast $10 off monthly. That's going to get you workout. So if you're not moving your body, you don't know how to work out. I've got follow along, gym, in home, monthly workouts that you get. And then you get customized macros, which can sound scary if you're not used to

tracking anything, but it's a really simple app to use. But more importantly, I'm there. So if you have questions, you can chat with me anytime. So that is where I started with Go Forth Wellness. But then when I moved into the one-on-one coaching, each person, each individual gets their own portal of the app. So that's where it's customized with housed in the app. You have your nutrition plan and that's based on your body, your goals, your habits, where you've been.

Within that app, we do weekly calls. I still keep the group aspect for those that like that. I do monthly webinars, monthly meetups with everyone so that they can see, hey, I'm not alone. Like you said, a lot of people feel isolated in their symptoms. So I have that option for anybody within my app in any of the programs. with one-on-one, it's gonna start with your mindset, your nutrition, how you're fueling your body.

then the movement and your recovery, how your sleep and detoxification pathways and things like that are open. that is a weekly, with my one-on-one clients, we meet weekly. They have before and after pictures, which some people really hate, but they love the after. And so, yeah, that's what we do.

think it

will definitely be putting all the information in one note so people will be able to find you and work with you if they would like to do that and if they'd like to find some personalized care and to get a plan for them as an individual because I think that coaching and having someone

Now!

be there as a support is a huge part of it. And I think when you're just trying to do something on your own, it's harder because you do feel like you're the only one that's really pushing yourself. And when you have somebody who's cheering you on and you've got that accountability and someone that you can ask questions to and bounce ideas off of, think that is just, I think that is like the best part of it.

Yeah, and you know, it takes the guesswork out of it. You know, you don't have to be like, you know, I'm going to try this diet or this fad thing. And you don't have to guess. Like we figure out what your body needs, the correct amount of carbs and fats and proteins. And I even for people that don't want to track and don't want to enter in all their foods, you know, like I, I create the actual plan, just go follow the plan and it's going to work.

Yes.

That's incredible too because I do track through like an app now, but it takes a while to get to that point where you're willing to do that and to where, you know, it's like those baby steps again. And I think, I think it would be so good for somebody to be like, here you go. Here's what you need to eat. And you just don't even have to think about it. And I thought it was so interesting. You said that most women under eat. Is that right?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

It's hard to believe because I would think that a lot of women would assume that they should stay under 1300, 1400 pounds.

Yeah, well, and you know, it gets tricky because

in order to lose weight, you've heard you got to be in a deficit. What I'm seeing and I'm saying from like 95 % of the people I talk to is they're not eating till later in the day because there's a thing called intermittent fasting that is a big trend. It can be a good trend. It can be a horrible trend for certain people and their hormones. And that's where we dial in. Like what is going to work for you? Like I said, there's not one diet that's the best thing out there.

I see people, I see women skipping and then they eat and then they might munch a little bit on their kids' foods or they're busy and so they forget to eat anything else and then they overdo it at dinner. But they're still, the amount of calories they're getting is way under where they need to be. And to really rev up your metabolism, a good sign is waking up hungry. And our bodies naturally fast overnight, that's why.

Breakfast is called break fast. You're breaking that fast overnight. So you don't have to go even longer throughout the day. There's a time and a place for intermittent fasting, but most women need to wake up within the hour and start eating and start getting their metabolism going. It is hard. And the other thing, we're in a society where we're trying to get energy. We're on the go. We're waking up. We're grabbing the coffee. That's the first thing.

Ooh, that's hard.

for a long time, even through my illness and my digestive and stomach issues, I was waking up and going for caffeine first thing in the morning. know, switching that to where you are healing the gut by not doing that and you're putting at least some protein in your body and then having the coffee or nothing else waiting an hour before your coffee.

did hear

that, I have heard that where you should eat when you get up and it's hard. Sometimes I just get like a couple of spoonfuls of Greek yogurt and choke it down just so I can...

Yeah, and what I like, know, the Greek yogurt or

a shake, I have a daily nutritional shake. It's a multivitamin. It has 15 grams of protein. Sometimes I mix it in with another protein and then that's how I start my morning. And then about an hour and a half later, I eat an actual big breakfast. I love breakfast. So I don't want to give up those foods, but you know, easing your digestive system into the day with a shake or like an easy protein. And you're going to feel energy shifts to waking up and doing that. Now,

I could talk all day on the educational stuff on like waking up and doing fasted cardio versus not pros and cons to both. If you are going to wake up. Yes, let's do a whole. Yeah, it's a whole health episode for sure. But yeah, so I guide people on where they're at, what they've currently been doing schedule wise, eating wise so that we can get them to where they need to be, but also work with their schedule, you know.

It's so fascinating.

We might have to have you come back to talk about that though because I am interested in that stuff. Yes. ⁓

a mom of kids homeschooling, they don't have time to get to the gym every single day. So that's where I come in with, you know what, can you give me 30 minutes? Yes, you can. Those kids can do it with you. know, that's the beauty of it. That's what my kids do.

Thank

Yeah, yeah, I love that. I love that.

know?

you think that with all of the experiences that you went through with the company and everything else, that had to have primed you to be able to start a business and be successful and to have all the knowledge that you would need, all the puzzle pieces you would need?

absolutely.

I am not a tech person, which is funny that I work in the online space, social media, all those things. During that time, I did not post anything because I worked for the company that did. I might have posted my kids once a month, but I was not on social media that much. Definitely not creating a brand around all the things I've done in fitness or posting in those ways.

So that was a learning curve for me starting my own company and being like, okay, now I'm the face of this thing. I gotta grow my social media. And I think I had like maybe 900 followers starting out and I'm about to hit 10,000, which is crazy, know, in a very year and a half, very short amount of time. But I've learned, I did learn how doable it is online and how you can actually be there, you know, as an in-person trainer.

If you go to a personal trainer in a gym, you're seeing them two to maybe three times a week. You're not texting with them. You're not emailing them. A lot of times they're not doing your nutrition as well. They're not guiding you always, maybe some are. They're not guiding you on your supplementation or like really what your body is needing. You just meet and you work out, which is great because it gets people moving, but it might not get them the results that they want. So the online space opens up the door for all of that.

You know, you have a coach like with my app, you have me in your back pocket all day long. And I'm very quick to respond to people, you know, with the questions and that kind of thing. But everything within how I'm doing it, so self-explanatory that I don't get a lot of questions and confusion and those kind of.

Yeah.

Well, and it's nice that people can have that at their disposal, like you said, and that it's so easy to follow.

and that you do feel supported. think those are really three things that have to make it successful. And like you said, now you've grown your online presence. I I found you again. That just brings us back to, know, this is how I, you know, was able to reconnect with you by seeing your story. And I'm so glad I did, because this is so fascinating. What advice would you give to someone who is struggling with a

Right.

unexplained health issue like you I mean not everybody's is going to be the same but if somebody is really struggling right now and they're just not being heard by the medical like by medical professionals their doctor what what would you say would be the first thing to do?

Yeah, I would say to reach out to functional or integrative help. If you've got something that you're dealing with that, and a lot of times I see doctors are doing the blood work or doing the testing and they're like, everything's fine, everything looks great, but you know something's wrong, definitely reach out to integrative or functional because they're gonna at least want to take a deeper dive. There's labs that you can run that doctors won't run that you can get.

more answers to. If you are struggling with wanting to get in shape and eat better and you don't know what on earth you're doing, you need a coach. And you you need to find someone that is relatable to you that can, that knows their stuff, you know, because it's really easy to get a certification. And this is not at all to knock younger trainers or younger coaches, because I think there's some really good ones and really knowledgeable.

Hmm.

But look into their transformations, how long they've worked with people, see if there's a client that's like, that looks like me and look what they did. But having a coach and having that guidance, like I said earlier, it takes the guesswork out of it.

Yeah, so important. What are some key takeaways that you just want somebody to remember from this episode and from your journey? ⁓

Yeah, absolutely. I think there's hope. You know, that's

the number one thing because when I felt like I was at the end of my rope, there was someone, the integrated practitioner that I hired that listened and I remember crying on the call with her and she listened and she was like, you're right. We are going to get to the bottom of this. Like people want to be heard. And so just knowing that where you're at now is not where you have to be. created my whole company.

Go Forth Wellness, which Go Forth is my last name, my maiden name. I know, but my whole motto is keep moving forward. Stop looking behind, stop comparing yourself to what you were. I was so stuck in that rut of being like, well, I used to do bodybuilding and I used to look like that and I used to run and win marathons and all the things I used to do. was so stuck. That's not me anymore. I've had life, I've had babies. had health issues going on.

That's so perfect!

And so letting people know that you gotta stop looking in the past, you have to keep moving forward and there is hope. So don't stop looking for that hope, find that coach, find that person, find that friend that's gonna pray over you when you don't know what else to do.

is so good that is such such great advice how do you and how do you envision the future of your company going forward and your mission

Yeah, we're growing, which is exciting right now. It's just me. And then I bring in my husband a lot of times, cause he is a trainer, but he is the most motivating person. So I bring him in, you know, for my life coaching and people that need a little extra help with the mindset coaching. But I definitely see us expanding. my next step with go forth wellness is to hire on more coaches to offer more workouts that,

you know, are other experts in like the Pilates and yoga field and the things that I don't do. so just continue expanding that way, but to bring on other amazing coaches that can also read the labs and dig deep.

That is incredible, Jenny. I love to hear that. And I know that is going to be wildly successful because you're going to have such a scope of offerings for people. I think we're more equipped to help other people when we've walked something very similar ourselves. And I can definitely see from your journey that you are.

You are primed to be able to help people who don't feel like they're being heard or who may feel isolated with their symptoms and so I'm excited for The growth of your company and to watch what happens there

So as we reach the end of our episode I want to end with a little segment I like to call cut it or keep it. So cut it or keep it is a take on what I as a hairstylist would do every day in the salon. Decide whether to cut the hair or keep it. So I'm gonna ask Jenny a series of topics and see what she thinks. Would she cut them or keep them?

So Jenny, cut it or keep it. Accepting weight gain as just a part of aging. Cut it, yes!

Cut it. Cut

it. Aging, it's not a sentence, it's a season. So even though things are shifting, your metabolism shifting, like I said before, what worked before might not work now. You have to shift how you do things, but you can absolutely get that lean muscle energy and really feel your best.

to hear that. That is so encouraging because as I reach 53 years old it's like it's definitely harder and you do have to shift things for sure but knowing that it's not something you just have to accept is very encouraging. ⁓ here's one here's one I want to really know about. Cut it or keep it? Alcohol.

Yeah.

For me, cut 100%, but I think it depends on the dose. So if someone doesn't wanna give up their wine or the margarita, moderation, I definitely think more than one or two a month is doable. And I know that's hard for people, but it depends on your goals. And I think in the end, it's sugar and too much of it is not a good thing.

Yeah, is it inflammatory? it make you hold on to? Yeah, I can kind of

Yes, yeah, different

than if you were gonna eat chocolate, which is my go-to. I've always been that way though. I would much prefer chocolate over a glass of wine.

Hmm.

yeah, we're gonna work on that. Yeah, because do you feel I mean, please tell me you feel that just backing off a little bit also has benefit like, like, more you it's got to be like, if you cut back, it's got to be better than not.

And not everybody is that way. Cut it as much as you can, limit, keep the doses short.

100%.

And listen,

it's gonna come down to what you do 80 % of the time. You know, I'm gonna splurge on my chocolate and the things I like to do. It's okay to have the glass of wine. It's not gonna like kill you to have the one, but as much as you can limit it and just keep those as for like special occasions and not nightly occasions.

Hmm. Mm-hmm.

Good to know. We'll work on that. I already knew the answer to that by the way. was like yeah know what she's gonna say. All right, cut it or keep it. Social media as a source of health and fitness information.

Just my take.

Hmm.

I say keep it because there's a lot of good out there. There's a lot of gold. There's also a lot of garbage. So if you can kind of sift through that. And like I said, if you're looking to work with someone or buy their program or whatever, just do some digging, see who they've helped, you know, see those, like I said before, the transformations or, you know, try to find someone that you can relate to. But there's a lot of good on social media. I mean, that's how a lot of businesses are ran now.

I've learned a lot, you know. You do have to sift through, but cut it or keep it. Taking creatine.

And you learned a lot, Yeah.

keep it, especially as we age. Good.

Yeah,

I just started, so I've been probably a month in.

Yeah. Now

you might feel a little bloated in the beginning and that's okay. It's going to level out.

that's good to know because I kind of feel like I might have. But,

okay, that's good. And then cut it or keep it, detoxing. Keep it.

Keep it.

While our kidneys and our liver, they're made to detox. So that is the argument with people that are like, you don't need all these detoxes. Detoxes and cleansing, two different things. Like people that go do juice cleanses, or people that detox, two completely total different things. Detoxing and the reason, I mentioned Stephen Cabral earlier, he's got a book called The Rain Barrel Effect.

Ooh.

and it talks about how your liver specifically, it's like our second brain can get overloaded with the toxins and then it struggles to do its job. So doing a detox and I recommend if you've never done one, I run my one-on-one clients through a 21 day detox. It sounds intense, but I'm telling you in the first week, I've had people that are telling me I have never felt this good. I have so much energy. I don't need the caffeine. It's crazy what

what detoxing your body can do. I like to start with that because then when the body's cleaned out, then it's receptive to a nutrition plan, your workout plan. Then you can really kick it into gear. I'm a fan of it done the right way.

Hmm.

that's a good, that's very valuable information because I think you're right. I think people think of detoxing and doing a cleanse as the same thing sometimes, but I like what you're saying there. And then finally, cut it or keep it, no exercise days. Any day with no exercise at all.

Yeah, so I say cut it, but exercise and movement are different things. So cut the exercising, but move your body daily. Our bodies are made to move.

Perfect. That's

so good.

Wow, that was great. was so much information that I didn't even know that we needed and it was just chock full. I think it's going to be wildly helpful to listeners who are struggling with not knowing what's going on. Anybody who is feeling isolated, like you said, and their symptoms and is just looking to have some help with, know, what do I do in this stage of life and how can I manage what's going on and how

can I feel better? I know that this is going to be just just greatly helpful. So Jenny, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I think we should do it again and do a part two with even more detail