Welcome back to Late Boomers! We’re Cathy and Merry, and we’re thrilled to bring you another inspiring and empowering episode that will challenge the way you think about your health, medications, and aging well.

In this episode, we dive deep into the world of functional medicine with Jen Germain, a certified functional medicine health coach who has helped over 200 clients transform their lives through personalized lifestyle changes, nutrition, and whole-body healing. Jen brings her own powerful story of overcoming a daunting Crohn’s diagnosis and shows us why a prescription for life doesn’t have to be the final word.

We open up the conversation about why so many of us end up on multiple medications as we age and why "managing symptoms" isn’t the same as true healing. Together with Jen, we explore the surprising root causes of chronic illness that conventional medicine often overlooks, such as stress, poor sleep, and mindset, and learn actionable strategies for taking back control of our well-being.

Whether you’re struggling with a new diagnosis, feeling dismissed by conventional doctors, or just ready to create a new health chapter, this episode will give you hope, practical tools, and the motivation to be your own advocate.

Key Takeaways

• Medication is not always destiny: The conversation focused on how a chronic diagnosis does not mean you’re sentenced to medication for life. Functional medicine investigates and addresses the root causes, not just the symptoms.
• Advocacy is essential: A key theme that emerged was the importance of self-advocacy in healthcare. The discussion explored sample questions to ask your physician and encouraged listeners not to settle if they feel dismissed or unheard.
• Lifestyle changes work: One concept discussed was the power of personalized changes in diet, stress management, relationships, sleep, and even light exposure. Small consistent changes can add up to big improvements—even later in life.
• Mindset matters: The discussion explored how mindset, self-talk, and beliefs (“I’ll always be this way” or “I can’t live without sugar”) can quietly sabotage healing. A positive mindset and self-love are critical to any health transformation.
• It’s never too late: Several points were raised, including real-life examples from older adults who saw remarkable improvements in their health and quality of life proving it’s never too late to start taking positive steps.

If you’ve ever wondered if you could do more for your health or if “treating the root cause” instead of just managing symptoms sounds appealing this episode is for you!

Be sure to:

• Listen now and become an active participant in your own healthcare journey.
• Share this episode with a friend or loved one who needs motivation or a fresh perspective.
• Subscribe to Late Boomers Podcast on your favorite platform and on YouTube so you never miss an inspiring conversation.
• Connect with Jen Germain at Compass Health Coaching LLC or find her on social media for more practical tips and support.

Remember what we always say: It’s never too late to rethink what’s possible. Stay curious, ask questions, and start your own new chapter today!

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Today on Late Boomers, why medication for life doesn't always have to be the end of the story.

And the surprising root causes that conventional medicine often overlooks.

And why learning to advocate for yourself could be the most important health decision you ever make. Welcome to the Late Boomers Podcast, where we bring you inspiring inspiring stories of people creating new chapters in life with style, purpose, and impact. I'm Cathy Worthington.

And I'm Merry Elkins. And whether you're reinventing yourself, improving your health, discovering new passions, or simply trying to live your very best life, we're really, really glad you're here to join us.

And one thing many of us discover as we get older is that our health becomes more complicated. We may develop chronic conditions, take more medications than we'd like, and sometimes feel like we're treating symptoms instead of really getting better.

That is really true. And so many people hear, oh, you'll live with it, you'll just have to live with it, or you'll be on this medication forever. And we all know that medications can be life-saving and really necessary. But so many people are asking questions now, important questions like, is there anything more and anything else I can do?

That's where today's conversation gets exciting. Functional medicine looks beyond simply managing symptoms and instead asks, why is this happening? It explores the body's interconnected systems and searches for underlying causes that may be contributing to illness.

And our guest today knows this journey firsthand. After facing her own serious health challenges, she transformed her life and now helps others do the same.

Joining us today is Jen Germain, a certified functional medicine health coach who's helped more than 200 clients improve their health through personalized lifestyle changes, nutrition, stress management, and whole body healing. Jen, welcome to Late Boomers.

Well, thank you both ladies for having me today. It's an honor to be here. Thank you.

It's great to have you too. So Jen, take us back to the, to the day you received your diagnosis. What did that moment feel like, and what made you begin questioning the idea that Medication would be your only option for life.

Yeah, it was a very impactful day. It was very— it took me aback when they said, you know, I went in for an emergency colonoscopy and then they showed me the pictures of what was going on in my small intestine and my colon. And it kind of just, you know, when you've been relatively healthy your whole life and you have something hit you like that, it does, just set you reeling, like, oh my gosh, what do I do? Like, I've never really had something like this happen, never really thought of it happening to me. And so it really just, it hits you. And, and as we both, you know, as everyone knows, like Crohn's and ulcerative colitis are things that they don't really technically have a cure for or anything like that, but you can manage different things with it. And when they said, you know, we'll put you on some meds and stuff, and I was like, I just don't want to be on meds the rest of my life. And then when I went from my gastroenterologist to My rheumatologist, my rheumatologist said, "Oh no, you should probably just be on a biologic the rest of your life," because I asked him and said, "You know, can I manage this with you know nutrition and lifestyle and that kind of stuff?" He said, "No, you should just be on a biologic." And honestly, the thought process in my mind was that's not who I am. I'm not going to live that way.

I'm not going to be on medications. It's not something that I foresee for myself. I also knew, like with the with the Crohn's and the ulcerative colitis that I had, you know, my increase of possible surgeries in that area, losing parts of my intestine and that kind of stuff. If I wasn't managing it correctly or wasn't working on myself, I'd have that possibility as well as an increased cancer risk because of nutrient absorption and everything else that could come from that. Part of that stemmed from my mother because she was a nurse, but she also had ulcerative colitis as well.

Oh.

When she was growing up. And so I saw what that did to her and I was like, you know, I'm not, I'm not going to be that way. I'm not going to have those issues. I don't want to take meds.

Mm-hmm.

And so what that left for me was, okay, I questioned them and they said, yeah, you're gonna have to do this. And in my mind, I'm saying no. So I had to look for something else. And I knew, um, from a woman that I followed on Instagram, she was a cancer survivor and she had talked about functional medicine and, and how it had helped her improve in, in her, um, in her diagnosis and, and through what she was, uh, going through every day. And I said, you know what? what's, what's it going to hurt if I try? If I can see and get a picture of what they can help me with and help me work through, what's it going to hurt for me to give this a try? Because I know I can't do pills. I don't want to do any of these things. I have to try something else because this is just not going to work for me. So I went to a functional medicine health coach myself, and she put me on what's called the autoimmune particle diet.

And that, uh, within 6 weeks, My blood work where I was anemic before was perfect now. My CRP, which was higher, was okay now. My sed rate, which was triple what it should have been, was now normal. So all of that blood work came back normal. And to me, that was the best Christmas present I ever had, was to know that the work that I had been doing for myself was seeing results and I was healing myself.

And so you said something about functional medicine.

Yes. How would you explain what it really is and how does that So functional medicine is an evidence-based medicine that looks to get to the root cause. So instead of going into something like a conventional doctor where you would tell 'em what your, what your symptoms are or what you're suffering from, and then what they will typically do, they might run some tests or they might send you for a procedure, but what they'll do is then usually give you a medication to kind of bypass the system or at least help you relieve those symptoms. Well, with functional medicine, they really kind of look upstream. They wanna know the why.

Okay.

So what's causing the symptoms? They want to know, okay, so if your, if your intestinal tract's inflamed, why? Why is that Crohn's? Why is that coming? You know, why, why are these things forming in your body? What is going on in there? What is your body saying no to? What is it reacting to? And so it really starts to look at a whole picture.

Tuned into what their bodies are feeling though.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And truly, that's allergies, all kinds of things, right?

Yep.

Yeah.

And, and functional medicine really takes a broader view, a step back to say, okay, let's get a bigger picture of what's going on with you. When did this start? They really look at like family history, but they also look at your history. Like, when did all of these things start? And they take time with you. And I think that's one of the biggest things with functional medicine is when I went in with my health coach, I was in there for over an hour with my health coach.

Hmm.

She took time with me. She'd listen to what, you know, what my symptoms were, how I'd been living, all of the things that were happening to me. And, she really heard what I was going through and said, okay, here's the steps that we can start taking. And, she gave me that. And, as a person that I am, I kind of just dove right in and just, you know, I'm an all-or-nothing kind of girl. So, I was like, I'm doing this. And, I was a sugar addict my whole life and I have not had refined sugar in 6 years. And, I stopped it that Saturday.

I met with her—

That's hard.

11th. And, on the 14th, I was done with sugar and I don't miss it. I don't miss it.

Yeah, a couple of times I've gotten off sugar in my life, and once you're off it for about 3 or 4 weeks, you don't miss it. But then somehow people keep handing it to you and baking cakes, and you get back on it. So now I'm back on it. But what are some of the hidden, hidden root causes that people and healthcare providers can easily overlook?

Uh, I think a lot of the root causes are— one of the things that people don't always factor in is stress. Stress is such a huge impact on our overall health and well-being that it is often missed by so many people. Nutrition is one of the things that people— conventional care doesn't pay as much attention to, but it is still a huge factor. But a lot of people know about nutrition, um, what they're eating. If they know that they're not eating something right or eating something that's healthier for them, they're kind of gonna know that. But stress is such a big impact. I see it with so many of my clients, how And then when I try to tell them how their physiology works, how the stress response works, then they can start to see, oh, okay, so it could do this to my body. It, you know, it could do this or that.

And stress is such a huge part. And sleep. Sleep is one of the biggest overlooked factors. Everybody does not factor in those sleep habits and what that can do for your overall health as well. So those are just a couple off the top of my head.

Yeah, I mean, I notice when I don't sleep or when I'm very stressed, I'll wake up in the morning after having maybe 2 hours of sleep and it'll be, why do I feel so horrible? Or, or stress. I mean, believe me, it creates lines in your face. So yeah.

That's what people talk about, elevated cortisol, because that's the stress. That's the stress thing, right? And that's measurable, isn't it?

Yep.

They can do tests for that. You can get a Yes, ma'am. They can do that through a blood test. They can measure your cortisol levels, and that's typically done in the morning on, uh, when you're fasted. Yes.

Oh, interesting. Yeah, good to know. Well, you have a quote, um, you can't heal a body you hate. That can be very powerful if you feel that way. Can you explain what you mean and why our mindset plays such an important role in physical healing?

Yeah, I know it sounds, uh, you know, very, very, uh, hardline, but at the same time, it's true. One of the things that I had to do when I was changing my, my lifestyle was I had to realize how I've been treating my body. And while I didn't hate my body necessarily, I still wasn't treating it very well. I was abusing it, obviously, with the sugar and that kind of stuff, and maybe not living, uh, as, as good as I am now. Obviously, my health has, uh, been, been really gone on a different trajectory. But when your mindset has to change when you want to heal yourself, and you can't look at your body really the same way that you always have. Um, you know, when I was growing up, I ate tons of sugar, all that kind of stuff. I'd have sugar for breakfast, I'd have candy, I'd have— you know.

Ooh.

Now anymore, that's not something that I do, but it was something that I had in the past. And when I looked back and saw how all of the things that I had done led to me sitting in an office, somebody telling me that I would have to be on medications the rest of my life because of the choices that I made every day. I realized I had to make different choices.

Mm-hmm.

And I think that's the beautiful part about functional medicine is that genetics only play about 10% of your overall health. The rest is up to you, the 90% of your daily choices every single day. And for me, when I was looking at myself in the mirror, I didn't always see the woman that I wanted to be in the mirror. And I had to start picturing myself as a healed woman and saying that I loved my body. It's taken me to this point. And now I have to step up and say, you know what, I've not always treated you the best, body, but you are my ride or die, 'cause we're gonna be together forever.

Yeah.

You know, in this iteration, you know, till I leave this plane of existence. And I have to treat you and nourish you the way that you deserve because you've always been there for me. And so you really have to appreciate the body that has carried you from when you were a little kid up to where you are now, because you have 37 trillion cells that live in— that make you you. And every single one of them listen to what you think and what you say. And if you say something negative to that body, how do you think those cells are going to respond? They're not going to respond at optimal function. So when you talk nicely to it, when you, when you say loving things to it and you understand that you uplift yourself and that you love the person that you are and that you're becoming, they're going to work even harder for you because they know that you are with them. So it's really that self-discovery in a health journey is one of the best parts that I could ever say for somebody, is that you will discover who you are in your health journey.

It's the best relationship you could ever have.

Yeah, because unknowingly we get in our own way, right? We just do. But what are some of the subtle habits or beliefs, do you think, that quietly sabotage healing without people realizing it?

I think some of the subtle beliefs are, I will always be this way, or I've always been this way. It's those, those statements that we carry through our childhood, or the belief statements that we have. And that's part of that mindset shift, is to say, okay, if I've believed that, and I've gone up to this point in believing that, Is that really true? And if it's not, then what is true? And you can make the changes by saying, you know, I, I relied on sugar for my stress, for my emotional well-being, and said, do I have to rely on sugar for this? And the answer was no. It was what I wanted at the time, but do I have to go forward? Is it— does it have to be part of my life? And to heal. No. So you have to look at it from a different perspective. And that mindset is really, um, you know, part of it— the narratives that we tell ourselves. I told myself I couldn't live without sugar, and I've lived 6 years without it, and I feel better.

I'm healthier. You know, my biological age is younger than my chronological age.

Wow.

So it just shows when you take care of yourself how the difference that it makes. When you wake up every day and feel amazing, why would you ever want to go back?

Exactly. That's so true. Yeah. Um, you can actually reverse your, your biological age.

Yes. So that's, um, through your, um, metabolic age. So there's actually a test out there that you can get. It's through blood test, and it will measure how your body is functioning on the inside. So I'm about 10 years younger on the inside than I am chronologically.

Well, that's great. We'll have to find out what that is.

I know Merry and I were going to do a podcast at some point on what age are you really, because we found an article all about it. We're going to talk about that on a different— on a different episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's so cool.

Yeah.

So, uh, yeah, you can.

Yeah, well, that's great to know because I think we all would like to go there. Um, have you noticed any common patterns among the more 200 people that you've coached, and also, um, you know, how the people who've made lasting, um, changes, how did they behave differently? What do they do differently?

They, they made the mindset shift to say that they were going to become somebody different. I think one of the best stories that I can talk about is, um, one of my clients. She— we worked together for about maybe like 2 years, um, but when she came She was not very mobile. She thought she would have to give up horseback riding, which was one of her passions that she loved doing. But she did not see— her doctors said that she wouldn't be as mobile anymore. She'd have knee pain. She could barely, like, get, you know, walk around her house, go up and down steps. And so then we started working together, and the first thing we started was with nutrition.

But then we started going deeper, and then we started to look at the psychology and really looking at how she felt about herself. And I think one of the most powerful things, at least that she told me, was that We were sitting, you know, in a session together, and she said to me, Jen, I just don't know. And I said, well, the woman that you want to become is inside of you. We just have to pull her out. And she's in there, and she's waiting to come out. So let's dig deeper, and we'll find her for you. And so it's really looking at that mindset shift. And she went on to lose 50 pounds.

She does not have the mobility issues. She can go everywhere. And she also is back horseback riding, one of her passions. And she was able to do all of that because of changing her lifestyle habits and realizing that she can heal. It takes time, but she can heal. And I think in today's world where we have kind of instant gratification with a lot of things, we have to be a little bit more patient with our health journeys because they— it didn't happen overnight. For many of us, it took decades to get to where we are. So we have to be a little bit more patient when we're trying to undo those things, um, or change the direction.

And I think that's one of the things is the mindset shift with my clients. And I'm always reinforcing with them that it's, it, it's not gonna happen overnight. So just be patient, give yourself grace at the moments that you maybe aren't performing your best, but we're looking for progress, not perfection. So even if today wasn't 100%, it's still better than the 75% that was maybe yesterday. Maybe you're at 80 today. And we keep going for that progress. And if it goes down a little bit more, is that's when you say, okay, that's a day. What happened that day? Might've been stressful, might've had different things happen and say, okay, we clean the slate for tomorrow and we go right back up and see if we can hit that 80 or 90.

We don't dwell on those things. And I think that's a lot of things that my clients is the mindset because it is psychological. And then also, once you start with consistency, that is actually going to lead to the motivation. Motivation does not start first. Discipline and consistency start first, and that will give you the results and then the motivation to keep going and keep that ball rolling.

And sometimes when people get those results, even over a long period of time, do sometimes their actual medical doctors then allow them to go off of their medications and get rid of some of their, some of their prescriptions, but at a certain point their blood work would change enough.

Yes. Yeah, I actually had a gentleman who was, um, he was diabetic, and we worked— he didn't want to go as drastic as doing like a ketogenic diet, which was okay. Um, so I said, we can go what speed that you want. So we did more low carb, and we worked on it for about 11 months. And, um, because he didn't want to be on the statins because they gave him, uh, different, different issues. And so what happened was he actually lost weight And, within 11 months, he was off of his medications because he was now no longer diabetic. So, he went from being in diabetic range down to normal. And, his doctors were kind of shocked.

Okay.

But again, we weren't doing anything that— it was just more of low carb and then we introduced some strength training. He also did some cold plunging and stuff that worked for him that can help with different people with that insulin resistance. You know, and that's why it's so important. You can't really do everything that everybody else does. You have to find what works best for you, that personalized, individualized approach.

Cold plunging.

Yeah, we did a whole episode on cold plunge. And now I, and now I don't actually do cold plunge where you immerse, but every single time I take a shower, I do cold at the end, like a lot of cold.

I do cold at the end for about 3 seconds.

I do about 30 or 40 seconds.

That's awesome.

Very often 60 seconds. I like it. I— if I, if I accidentally get out of the shower and I forgot to do it, I get back in.

That's, that's amazing.

I don't want to miss the cold. Yeah, it's made me more adaptable to heat and cold. Funniest thing. Like, I went to New York, it was freezing cold there. And it's the first time in my life I wasn't freezing cold because I'm from California and I don't do well with freezing cold. But all of a sudden it didn't feel that cold to me and it was like 30 degrees out.

Then you can go skiing with me.

Oh, sure.

But Jen, for someone who's frustrated because they feel dismissed by their doctor, Or they're told everything looks normal when they don't feel well, like, what questions should they begin asking?

I would say, you know, you know your body better than anybody. Your doctor doesn't live in it every day like you do, and neither does an insurance company, nobody else. So I think the thing you have to do is to say, I understand where you're coming from, doc, but at the same time, I know I don't feel like me. There is something wrong. And you have to advocate for yourself and just say, if these are the symptoms that I have, what— how, how much deeper can we go? Are there other things that we can run? What else could it be? Can we please look for a root cause? Can we please look for like an upstream effect that would make this downstream symptom happen? What else could the possibility be? If they aren't willing to do that, then you fire them.

Mm-hmm.

Um, they work— doctors technically work for you. They're there to help you with your healthcare. They're, they're there really to help you with your health journey. And if they aren't willing to listen to you, and they're not willing to possibly go deeper into what could be the root cause of things, then you need to find somebody else who will.

Hmm.

I think so many times people think that they're stuck with a doctor. And truly, it's almost like you have to go out and do some doctor shopping. In that sense, you have to go out and find functional medicine doctors. Yes, yes, yes.

So they should, they should be pretty common in big cities. Maybe a little bit harder to find.

How do we find them?

So you can, you know, there's, you can go on to Institute for Functional Medicine. They, I believe, do have a directory of many of their functional medicine practices and doctors. You can also do a Google search in your area for nearby functional medicine doctor. Where I live, I live in south central Pennsylvania, so it's near the capital of Harrisburg, but we're not like a huge booming city. But we do have some functional medicine doctors here. And so that's who I went to in Mechanicsburg. I went to them. And but you can do some searches if you can't find one in your area.

There are some that do telehealth as well.

Okay.

So you can search for that too, to at least hopefully start getting some answers. So you can do some of that. It won't be as fun as the in-person visits. I do think sometimes the in-person is, especially when you're talking about some deeper-rooted issues, can be nice because it's that rapport and then obviously just that human-to-human presence.

And most people—

sometimes it can be really intimidating to advocate for yourself because we don't always know how. We're not used to it. We think doctors know best. If you What do you advise people who aren't comfortable either talking about themselves or just are intimidated by the doctor? What do you tell them?

So one of the things that I would say is if before, if you know you want to ask a particular question or you have a particular issue and you're not as comfortable, I would say write down the questions that you have on a piece of paper. But I would even say to bring a family member or somebody who can be with you to help advocate for you. Um, so I, I've offered that to my clients before if they do have issues and they're in the, the general area. Some of my clients are obviously, uh, through virtual, they're not near me. But, um, but even just going and having a family member or a friend that can come with you to give you that support, um, to ask those questions. But I would write them down ahead of time. So, 'cause sometimes you get into the moment and you forget and like, oh, I forgot to ask this question.

Yeah.

Um, but to write it down and say, look, these, you know, maybe I was looking on online and they said, Some of the symptoms I have could be something like this. What are your thoughts? And a doctor doesn't know everything. They, you know, they're there to help. Um, most conventional doctors are there to, to diagnose some symptoms and give you medications to help with those symptoms. When you go to a functional medicine doctor, they're gonna, they're gonna sit with you for a while. And they're gonna— and trust me, the paperwork that you typically fill out beforehand, it's almost like you're writing your novel.

Wow.

It's a lot of questions. But, the reason that is like that is because they want to know where these things might have come from. And, it's not just genetic patterns through your family history, but it's also questions like when you were eating as a child, what did your pantry look like? Was it a lot of processed foods or did you guys have a lot of whole foods? Because that shows patterns, lifestyle habits. Because diabetes doesn't technically run in families the way we think it does. It runs through behavior in families. So, if you're really using a lot of products—

And culture.

Yep, and culture as well. And so, if that is part of your daily life as a child, then that can correspond to the things that you are looking at as an adult because the heart attacks and that kind of stuff that happened in the '50s really start in your 30s with the lifestyle habits and stuff that you have now. So it's, it's sometimes the body plays the long game and it's not always the short game. So we have to think about it in different perspective. And functional medicine really does a, a great job of that. Seeing, you know, what you're doing today is gonna benefit you, uh, 10, 20, 30 years from now.

Mm-hmm. One thing I love about functional medicine is its whole body approach. So tell us how You've touched on this a little bit, but tell us how things like sleep and stress and light exposure and movement and even relationships can influence our health.

Yeah, so I don't know if anybody's familiar with, um, Harvard did a study and it's the longest running study that they've ever done. I believe it's either 70 or 80 years, and they found what the, what the most impactful part of, uh, your overall health is your relationships. the kinds of relationships that you have every single day, whether they are supportive or whether they are more on the side of a toxic relationship.

Mm-hmm.

Because that happiness and that social connection matters to your overall health. And then when we also look at the whole body approach, when we're looking at our sleep and our stress, you know, our stress, our brain doesn't know whether it's real or imagined stress. So you could have a bear chasing you and that's real. But if you're worried about that meeting that you have at 3 o'clock, Your brain sees it as real no matter if you've been in that situation yet or not. It still perceives it as stress. And then, what that hypothalamus does is where your stress response starts. It also controls your sleep-wake cycle. It controls your rest and digest, your appetite.

It controls your hormone regulation. It controls your homeostasis, your temperature of your body. It controls all of these different pieces of your body.

Yeah.

And, it makes sense because if you're stressed and if there was a bear chasing you, you're not going to stop for a slice of pizza. Your body's going to say— your brain's going to say, no, you keep going, we're not stopping. So, it has to control all of those parts. And, when we are really stressed, then we don't sleep very well. And then, that sleep, if we're not sleeping very well, we're not going to eat very well the next day because our body tries to compensate for that lost energy and rest from the sleep. And typically, for every hour that you don't sleep, you're usually craving about 400 calories.

Wow.

calories of carbohydrates the next day. That's what you want. Your gratitude translates.

That's actually how it translates. Right?

So, that's the cost of sleep.

An hour of sleep to 400 calories of carbs?

That's frightening.

Yep.

So, you are going to crave those carbohydrates more because your body doesn't have the energy from— and the quickest source of energy for the body is the glucose. So, it's going to go for the So that's the carbohydrates. So then you can see how stress can equal to your sleep, and then that sleep then goes into your nutrition. But then when we bring in light factor— so light is very important to us for our circadian rhythm, and that helps too with our sleep. So if we get that morning sunlight, that's going to help with that circadian clock, and it's going to help with melatonin release by the end of your day so that you're getting to bed and able to fall asleep and stay asleep. And, if that light when we're eating, if we were out more in natural light, the way that our body actually becomes more insulin sensitive versus insulin resistant. So, all of these things really play a part. And, that's why it's so empowering to understand that those choices that you make every day can make such a huge difference in your overall health and you have control over those.

Mm-hmm.

It doesn't mean you start with all of them at once because we don't want to bump up those stress levels, but you start in the place that you find is the, um, is the place that you need it the most. Some people may be okay with diet, but they need to work on sleep. So looking at it and saying all of these are connected, um, which I think is missing a lot from conventional care.

What if you have trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep?

So getting to sleep—

many of our listeners are baby boomers, and it seems like when you get to certain stage of life, sleep sometimes becomes more elusive. So, what do you say to that? And, yeah.

So, for sleep, and this is interesting because my mom actually has some problems with this and I just talked to her last week about it, trying to get that morning sunlight is very important because it really starts that clock and it helps to signal to your body the time of day. Decreasing blue screens before bed. So all of these little fun gadgets that we all have, decreasing that at least half an hour. If you can do an hour, even better, because that blue light, when it's coming into your eyes, really signals that it's afternoon. So your melatonin is not going to decrease or increase the way that it should because your body's like, well, it's afternoon, we're not going to fall asleep yet, we got to keep going. So that is where we start to look at the nighttime routine, but then also your morning routine. So having that sunshine in the morning. And if you can't fall asleep, you have to ask yourself as to why.

Is it because we're looking at devices, or is it because we have racing thoughts? If it's racing thoughts, then that's stress. And then one of the things that I, I recommend to a lot of my clients is, you know what, you got to take it out of your brain. You have to take that stress and put it out. So I'll have them put a pad of paper and just write all the things. It doesn't have to be full sentences, you just write it all out. Because there's been studies that when we write out things, our brain does better with either releasing it or absorbing it. So when we're trying to dump it, it will actually feel like we're dumping it out of our brain. Whenever I have my clients in a session, and I'm taking notes, I don't use— I don't type.

I take handwritten notes, because then I absorb what they're— what we're talking about in those sessions. So I don't have to refer to my notes as much later on in other ones. Because that's what it does.

Wow.

Well, what would you tell someone in their later years, their 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond? Um, what would you tell people who thought— who, who aren't feeling well and who perhaps haven't eaten well or taken good care of their bodies? What would you tell them if they start to lose hope that, you know, well, I've got heart issues, well, I've got, you know, leg issues? What would you tell these people?

It's never too late to start. It really is never too late. You know, I think about— I can use my parents as an example because I don't think they'll care if I— I won't share like personal, personal details. But, you know, my father was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes when he was in his early to mid-30s, and he has had issues. And he, at one time, I think he was on about 20 medications. And you could see basically how he has—

Yeah.

you know, declined over the years in his health. But one of the things that when I became a functional medicine health coach and I, and I showed them what I did with my Crohn's, and, you know, he was like, okay, well then how can I start working on, uh, being less, uh, reliant on insulin? How can I bring those numbers down? What can I start doing? And he started doing them. You know, my mom was cooking different foods. She was looking at things. He can't really exercise because he has a walker, so he got a vibrating plate and stood on that to help with his lymph movement and stuff. And, he's seen results from that because he can't walk down the sidewalk and stuff like that because afraid of maybe falling or tripping. So, I was like, well, we'll start here and then we'll work into getting some strength training and stuff in to build some of those muscles to help the muscles absorb that glucose.

Yeah.

So it's really starting in a place that fits you best, but it is never too late to start. Both of my parents are in their 70s, and, you know, with my mom, with her sleep, she's had the best sleep score the past few days since we've talked about some of the things that she can do. And she's getting the light in her eyes in the morning, and she's working on— because stress is one of the things for her, I said to, to do, uh, You know, to work on the notepad beforehand, really relax, get away from the screens. And her scores have gone up on her, on her Fitbit, and she's noticing a difference, and she's starting to feel restful, and she's getting more hours of sleep, and it's actually quality sleep. So it is never too late ever to start working on your health. I know some people will say that that's not true. I have to disagree. It— you can change your life if you decide to.

I have a question, but I think you may have just answered it. I think if someone wanted to begin improving their health tomorrow morning, I'd say get light, but they only could make 1 or 2 small changes, where would you recommend they start? With the light? Would that be the first thing, or getting light?

The first— the first thing, if they want to make 1 or 2 changes, the first thing I would say is your mindset. Believe that you can. Believe that even if you haven't done diets as well in the past, they were not made for you. You can make something for you, and you have to change your mindset and believe that you can heal. That would be number one. And then number two, if it is depending on which pillar, if you want to call it a health pillar, where it's nutrition or sleep or stress, whichever one is the one that you feel is hounding you the most or you have the most difficulty with, and that's the one you want to confront, then start small. Don't start overly big unless you are that kind of person that can, you know, toss everything out of your house and go that way.

Yeah.

But if it's not you, instead of, you know, overhauling your whole diet, just say, you know what, instead of that, that 3 PM Snickers bar that I love, how about I change up that snack to maybe include like, um, some cheese and some apple, or maybe an apple and some nut butter? Just making that one small change and be consistent with that. And then once you have a few days of that And then say, you know what, let's start maybe with dinner because that's one I can control at home. Let me start with that. What can my dinners look like that make a difference? And you start small and build on that foundation so it's not so overwhelming, and you feel that progress and you feel that sense of, hey, I'm doing it. And then that ball just keeps rolling and keeps rolling.

I love that.

I do too. Um, so tell us a little bit about all the health fads out there? Well, not all, a few. And how can people separate evidence-based work, evidence-based information, from all the trends and fads out there?

Yeah, that one you have to be a little careful of for sure, because you— that's a lot of the questions that I get from my clients are like, hey Jen, I saw this, what do you think of this? And amazingly enough, that's usually at least a few questions every session is, I saw this, what do you think of this? Uh, you have to be careful because I, I would always say if you can follow, um, either functional medicine doctors or people that are in that holistic space, that would be, I think, more preferable than some maybe other influencers that you might see out there. Because sometimes those influencers are, are promoting things that they might be getting Uh, compensation for. And not to say that it— those things might not work, but you just want to be careful. So they might say, oh, this product is great, but they're also an ambassador and they get paid to, to do that. So it's just to be mindful. And, uh, I always say if you can try to find some, uh, either PubMed studies or some research, research studies that can help you guide you—

What was the name of the studies you said? What kind of study?

Oh, research studies.

Oh, I thought you said something right before that, a type of studies.

Oh, oh, PubMed, like published medical studies.

Oh, published medical studies. Okay. Sorry, I didn't know what that was.

Is there a particular diet, one that, um, everybody could follow?

Yeah, PubMed. Yep.

Yep.

Yep, yep, yep. And they're put out on—

The Mediterranean diet or something like that.

Is that what you're talking about?

Yeah, yeah. So it's, it's— yeah, so those are like, uh, PubMed studies or studies that are put out by, uh, they're the research studies that are done throughout the, the country, and they're usually published, uh, you know, as, as credible studies that have been either random control or random trials. that kind of stuff. So they're— they have a little bit more information in them so that they're more researched than say, hey, this diet that you— if you just do this, this, and this, it'll drop 10 pounds off your—

Yeah.

10 pounds off your waistline. So it's just— you just have to be a little bit discerning. And I do think sometimes either asking a coach or a trainer or somebody that you trust to help you discern through that can be very beneficial as well.

Sure. And finally, Jen, if our listeners remember just one message from today's conversation, what would you most like them to take away? And please tell us in conjunction with that how to connect with you and learn more about your coaching.

Sure. So I would say a diagnosis does not define who you are. You define who you are. And genes are not your destiny. They are a roadmap that you can use as you work on your health. And, you know, I, I think sometimes we, we give a lot of credence to both of those things, but they can only point you in the direction of the healing that you want to have. And it is possible at any age. You just have to ask the right questions and have the mindset to believe that you can heal.

And the way that people can find me is at compasshealthcoachingllc.com. And they can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at Compass Health Coaching LLC.

That's great.

Thank you.

Compass Health Coaching LLC.

Yeah, got it.

Got it.

Thank you so much for joining us today. Your message is powerful, hopeful, and empowering. It's, it's encouraging to know that, you know, we, we can't control everything about our health, but we can control most of it with our minds and positive steps and eating right and treating ourselves as the They've always said treat your body as a temple. I think that sounds like what you are advising. So thank you. And thank you for giving us positive steps on how we can support our bodies and improve our quality of life.

Absolutely. And we hope today's conversation inspires our listeners and viewers to become active participants in your own healthcare journey. Ask questions, stay curious, and remember that even small changes can lead to meaningful improvements over time. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please share it with one person who could benefit from this discussion. I bet everybody knows one person that needs to hear this, and that simple act helps us reach more people who may need encouragement and hope.

I know more than one person who can benefit by this, but thank you for— to our audience, and please subscribe to Late Boomers Podcast wherever you get your podcast and also subscribe to our— the Late Boomers Podcast YouTube channel so don't miss an episode.

And remember what we late boomers always say, it's never too late to rethink what's possible. We'll see you next time on Late Boomers.