Wellness with Vanda
A women's health podcast where we'll be talking about hormones, mindset, motherhood, & everything in between. The host, Vanda, is a functional medicine nurse coach that helps women overcome hormone imbalance so that they can achieve optimal wellness. In her private practice she specializes in HTMA testing and DUTCH testing. Throughout this podcast she shares tips for boosting energy naturally, improve mood, recover from mom burnout, ways to increase fertility, ways to improve sleep quality, tips for pregnancy, tips for navigating postpartum and the fourth trimester, and more!
Wellness with Vanda
26: Why It Matters That I'm A Nurse & HTMA Success Stories
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Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. We are in. Well, not we. I'm in the middle of an HTMA launch this week, which starts fully to the public this morning. Well, when this podcast release, it will be Tuesday morning. You might be listening to it on a different day, so I'll just give that caveat. But that really is just like fancy business talk. That means I'm currently selling 10 HTMA testing spots. So if you're on my email list, you'll be getting emails about that. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll see me talking about it there, and if you're just a podcast listener, I wanted to also give you that reminder, give you that announcement, let you know that right now, you can purchase an HTMA test for yourself.
Speaker 1:I have that package. It is for sale. It's a $500 investment. You can split that payment into two, so it'd be like $250 now and $250 in a month, which is totally fine now, and $250 in a month, which is totally fine. And I'm including over $400 worth of free bonuses for this sales period and I'm very excited about it. I think the bonuses that I'm including will really enhance the HTMA experience with me, because it's going to give you a couple different ways that you'll get like extended support from me, as you like, get your results back, begin to implement the protocol that I create for you and have me sort of in your back pocket as questions come up, because you know when you're making changes and you are implementing something new, there are bound to be questions. I would be shocked if there weren't questions. Implementing something new there are bound to be questions. I would be shocked if there weren't questions. And I wanted to give a way for you guys to receive that support where it's not just like here's your results, here's what to do. See you back, good luck, because I just don't feel like that's the best way to support you and help you see the progress that you're signing up for this testing to achieve. So we're going to talk a little bit. There's two things I want to talk about, like the outcome that you can expect with HTMA testing and also a super sweet call out that I got this past week from a colleague. That is not something I talk a lot about and I honestly don't give myself enough credit for.
Speaker 1:But first a little personal update. I shared with you guys last week about my migraines. Thank goodness it has stayed away. It has not come back. I am still feeling pretty normal this week, thank goodness that I swear. Those few days where I just did not feel like myself were such a trip and it was really kind of like anxiety provoking because I just didn't understand why I didn't feel like myself. I still don't really understand why, but at least now I feel better and feel more like myself. However, from all of that stuff that happened, the need for me to get a brain MRI did come up and I had that this morning and I will spare you guys the details. But what a trip that was. I'd had a brain MRI about 10 years ago so I knew sort of what to expect.
Speaker 1:But I've been in great denial over the last like week, since I knew week or two weeks, since I knew that I was going to have to do this, that I'm not claustrophobic, because I am a little bit. It's not extreme, it's manageable. But I do not really like small spaces, and it's not so much the small spaces, it's that I don't like to be stuck anywhere. We could be in a huge room, but if I'm stuck there and I can't get out, it's. That is what causes me panic and I have lied to myself all week long about how chill I was going to be today in this MRI, and every time that they asked me verbally on the phone and they gave me a paper this morning and I had to answer are you claustrophobic? I kept saying no, no, and if there was ever, obviously there was doubt in my mind that I'm claustrophobic. I now know that I am. But I got through it just fine with you know, only mild panic, treated myself with a little Starbucks drink.
Speaker 1:Afterwards I went to get the berry refresher, the summer drink that they have. I tried it earlier this week, made with water, and it was delicious. But I wanted to also go back and try it with lemonade, because I've heard that is even more delicious. And they were out of the very base. And I was so disappointed because I don't live like where I live. There's not a Starbucks here, and I was in a different town to go get this MRI, so there was a Starbucks there, which is why I went, and so I was disappointed but I did get. So what I ended up doing was getting a strawberry lemonade refresher and they added the boba beads, things I don't know what those, what you really call those. They added those to the bottom and that was really cool. It's like a nice little, nice little treat.
Speaker 1:So got that, got myself some food to eat, came home and I've been home for like several hours now and I still kind of feel amped up and anxious. After I get finished with like what I'm working on right now and recording this podcast, I'm going to go like lay on the couch and watch TV for a little bit and just kind of zone my mind out and see if that will help me to just feel a little calmer. I don't typically like struggle with a lot of anxiety or feelings of panic or anything, but sometimes stuff like this really like amps me up and I definitely, definitely can feel it. So anyway, there's that. Okay. What do I want to start with first? Okay, two weeks ago, within the last week time is sometimes hard for me to keep track of because my days feel like they run together, sometimes Sometime with since I recorded the last episode.
Speaker 1:So within the last week, I got the sweetest message from a colleague. We are collaborating together on a bundle right now, like she was just in my recent bundle. I contributed to a bundle she's hosting right now. She's gonna contribute again to my bundle in the fall. And then we're like both contributing to someone else's bundle and so, like we were just kind of chatting back and forth about the experience and we're just, you know, we were just talking and she said, you know, I listened to your training, that you contributed to my bundle the other day and I wanted to let you know that I was so excited and so glad to hear that you are a nurse on top of this additional training that you have in functional medicine to be able to do this testing that you do and working, you know, with clients on their hormones and stuff.
Speaker 1:She was like, but I just I was really reassured to hear that you're a nurse and you have that formal training behind you. Because she said, I get so frustrated and, honestly, sort of like scared and anxious when I see these other health coaches online that I don't really know what type of health training they've had. I don't really know what their health coaching certification or, honestly, if they even have a certification, because you can claim yourself to be a health coach, a mindset coach, a whatever type of coach, without any formal training. It's like not against the law, it's you can just call yourself a coach. Anyway, she was like. So she was like I just wanted to call that out to you and like let you know that that is like a major um. Take in the yes column for me. Um to like want to work with you. And she's like I'm sure that lots of other people feel the same way. So she was like I just wanted to like encourage you to you know, like be open and share that with people because it's probably really reassuring to them. And I walked to like I first I was so flattered. I was like this is such a sweet message for her to like. She went out of her way to say those nice things to me and I just it made my day. But I really thought about it after she said that to me.
Speaker 1:And I do talk every once in a while about the fact that I'm a nurse, but I don't, I don't know. It's not like one of my big like things that I talk about on a regular basis all the time. So there probably are a lot of people in my audience that don't realize that I'm a nurse and I thought about how I do need to be better about sharing about that and sharing how that impacts what I do and the knowledge base that I have, so I thought I would do that for a couple minutes here on the podcast today. So for number one, I've been a nurse for 10 years now my nurse-iversary was just the other day and so I've got a lot of experience caring for patients and I've been blessed to work in a lot of different settings. I have worked in acute care in different settings. I have worked in acute care in the hospital. I have worked in outpatient settings. I have worked in a unit that was kind of a mix of both, which was such a fun experience and I've gotten to learn so much.
Speaker 1:But I feel like it has really given me good perspective on, like, acute care, medicine like something is wrong right now and we need to treat it and also preventative healthcare, which is really where I feel like my passion now lies, like I loved taking care of patients at the bedside. I don't currently work at the bedside anymore, but I did love that and I still like have a love for it. It just those work hours and things don't fit with my, my lifestyle right now with my kiddos and stuff, um, but it's something that I'll probably go back to at some point in my life because I truly enjoy the work of caring for patients and educating patients on their like acute illnesses and things, um. But I'm also really passionate about helping people just be healthier so that they can avoid those acute illnesses and sicknesses, and I feel like I get to bring a lot of those principles that I learned in nursing school and in practice about preventative care and how to care for yourself and be healthy into my business that I have now because, you know, with my wellness, with being in a business, I'm really helping a lot of women to optimize their health. These women, yes, are coming to me with like problems or symptoms and issues or like not feeling so great, but it's not.
Speaker 1:I'm not really working with women that are like acutely sick right now, if that makes sense. Um, it's usually like things that have been going on long-term that are a little more chronic and we just can't seem to make progress or can't really figure out why you have, you know, a certain symptom and they've kind of been like dismissed and blown off by their providers and I just it really, it really fills my cup up to be able to help women move out of that situation, feel better, feel like they got answers for why they were having some of the certain symptoms that they were having and now getting rid of those symptoms and feeling the best that they have in quite some time, like that's why I do what I do. That is like what drives me and I just love it and I feel like between that plus, you know, I had to take anatomy I take, well, two, two anatomy and physiology classes. I had to take a chemistry class. Um, you know, like I've had more in-depth training than your average health coach, so I understand things on a little bit of a different slash, deeper level.
Speaker 1:And that is not I'm not trying to discount other health coaches and health practitioners. I just I do think it's very smart to look at someone's training and their history and find out how they know what they know, because there are some very, very, very smart, educated individuals out there that don't hold some type of formal license. But there are also people out there that are pulling things out of, you know, the Dr Google hat, that really are not as qualified or as high ofa quality person that you want to be working with. And I had another thought and I've lost it. Oh, I know what I was going to say. The other thing that the way that I feel like this me being a nurse on top of my other educations and certifications the way that I think this is helpful is that I am not against modern medicine. I am not fully for functional medicine Like.
Speaker 1:I don't have this belief, like a lot of practitioners and health coaches online do, that you have to choose one or the other and that you can't like do some of both. I very much believe that there are amazing ways that you can combine the two and utilize them both, and I do think that in order to like effectively and most efficiently utilize both, then you need some education, you need some help and some guidance there from someone like me to kind of show you the way of like, how to marry them both together, how to incorporate them both into your personal like health plan for yourself. But I think that that is a really good, a really good asset, a really good perspective. Perspective is probably the better word that I'm looking for there that I bring to the table as a practitioner working with someone, because, also, when you're seeking this type of like private healthcare, working with a health coach, working with a functional medicine provider, most of the time you cannot use your health insurance for that. I think that we're definitely going to get there, hopefully sooner rather than later, but a lot of people can't always afford the functional medicine route and or they can only afford it to a certain extent, like that's the boat I personally feel like I'm in. So I need to know ways that I can still utilize my traditional health care that is covered by my insurance and then supplement it with the functional health pieces that I need, slash want. So having somebody like me in your corner to help you figure that out is super, super beneficial. So I guess I just wanted to like toot my own horn for a second and call out the fact that I am a nurse and that I do have these 10 years of experience, plus a few years as a tech before that, in the health care field, on top of additional certifications and trainings in functional medicine and HTMA testing and Dutch testing and all of these other things that really make me a well-rounded practitioner for you to work with, and I just really appreciate the person that took the time out of their day to point that out to me last week, because I've given it a lot of thought since then and they're totally right in the fact that I need to be more forward about that, because it truly is an asset.
Speaker 1:Okay, the other thing that I wanted to talk about is the transformation that you can expect when you do an HTMA test. You know, like I have had podcast episodes before where I have talked about the data that you get. I have walked you through one of my recent tests. I think I've done an episode where it was like a case study of a client. I have talked about the different ratios and the systems of the body that we get insight to. What I really just want to like call out today is that, while all of those things are super awesome, I'm a very data-driven person and I know some of you guys probably are too, so seeing the numbers of something are very motivating to me and very helpful for me to like wrap my brain around why I need to do something.
Speaker 1:And, as great as all of that is, the true like reward and transformation and like hour of HTMA testing is the difference in your day to day life, and I did do a podcast episode not that long ago, kind of walking you guys through how having my HTMA results like changed how I approached different things in my day, um, but I don't think I really talked a lot about how it like changed, how I feel or how I like my attitude in the moment or how I show up for my family, myself, my friends, my whatever and I think that's like a really important piece for people to understand like what's possible when you get the HTMA test and you have your results and you get a customized plan and you're really addressing the unique needs of your body customized plan and you're really addressing the unique needs of your body. So I was reflecting on this kind of planning for this episode and thinking about some of the clients that I have recently worked with and the like wins and transformations and things that they have shared with me, and I just want to. You know, I can tell you guys about my personal experience until I'm blue in the face, but I think that it's more powerful for you to hear from what has worked for other people and what results they have seen. So I'm just going to share a little bit of that. Most of my clients, within the first like two weeks, notice a big increase in their energy and it's like that's great, vena, everybody would like to have more energy, but like, how does like. You know what does that really mean? So you know, I work with moms primarily. Not everybody's a mom, but most people are moms. So for them, some of the things that they share with me is that, you know, for sometimes the first time in a long time, they are engaging in play with their kids, and sometimes without even being asked. They're like. You know, I used to dread when my kid would come to me and be like Mom, can you come play with us, or can we go outside and all play together? Because they just like didn't feel comfortable, like they could, like they were just so drained and tired at the end of the day that they really wanted to sit on the couch and veg out and zone out and just chill. And you know, some of them come to me and they're like. You know, now I'm the one that is like engaging and coming up with ideas and activities for me to do with my kids outside or in the house, without them even asking me. So they, you know they've shared with me that like, they feel like in this aspect, even their kids' lives and health has been improved because they are also being more active now because mama feels like it. I think that's an incredible takeaway. The improvements in their sleep that they see is huge.
Speaker 1:Sleep is hard for a mama sometimes, especially when you have little ones or newborns or babies or just toddlers that still ain't sleeping through the night, and you know to some extent some of those things we can't control. But when you're in a place where it's like, no, it's nobody else's fault Other than my own self and my own brain, I'm not sleeping through the night or I'm not waking up feeling rested and I can't figure out why these women are coming back to me after we're addressing some like deficiencies or imbalances and they're like I'm sleeping the best that I have in years and I can really tell a difference in the way that I feel. And that makes total sense because if you sleep good, then you feel good. You know, um, digestion is another big um win that I frequently hear.
Speaker 1:A lot of women struggle with bloating and sometimes women are struggling with bloating and they don't even realize that they're struggling with it because it's just their normal, like they've been bloated for so long that they just like they don't realize how bloated they are. I hope that that makes sense. But you know there are certain markers for digestion on the HTMA test and, if you know, I look at those with every HTMA result that I review and if somebody needs to really address their digestion, there's several different things that we can do to help address it. But I'll have women, and this one takes a little bit longer. So you know, a month or so later, coming back to me, being like my stomach is so much flatter, like I haven't really lost any weight. If there's somebody that gets on the scale but they're like just physically, the way that I look and the way that I feel in my clothes is so much better and I'm just way less bloated in my stomach all the time. And that's a big indicator that you know digestion has improved, which is nice for the way that they physically like, look and feel better. But it also means that they're better breaking down their food and able to. When it's better broken down, you can also better absorb the nutrients from your food. So that also is then going to turn around and help support their minerals, which, if they were deficient in something and now they're better able to retain it, that level is going up and that's also helping them to feel better.
Speaker 1:So I don't want to ramble, I don't want this podcast episode to get like super long. Those are just like some of the main things that, when I was thinking about this episode earlier came to mind. That are like the most common things that I hear and there's, of course, other wins, other commonalities but those are the most common things that I hear. And there's, of course, other wins, other commonalities, but those are the most common and I thought that they were some of the most impactful for someone's just like day-to-day life in terms of what you stand to gain for yourself and extending on into like your kids and your family and your friends and your life in general, when you decide to invest in an HTMA test for yourself and learn more about your body and its unique needs.
Speaker 1:I really feel like HTMA testing is a form of not only healthcare but just self-care, and I really feel like it doesn't only care for ourselves, like the way that we feel trickles into everything that we do. It trickles into how we perform at work, how we show up for our friends, how we interact with our children, the way that we react to our children in stressful situations. Same things go with our partners or our husbands. So I really view the decision to invest in H2A testing as, yes, it's something for you, but it's also something that's going to benefit most everyone around you. I haven't worked with anyone yet that has, like, done HTMA testing and implemented their protocol and stuff and gotten worse. You know, like everyone sees improvements it's a different scale of improvements, it's different types of improvements, it's improvements in different areas, but everyone improves of improvements. It's improvements in different areas, but everyone improves.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, this current HTMA sale is going through Thursday at midnight, unless those 10 spots sell out before then. So, and that is since this is not like you could be listening to this at any point in the future. That date let me see here. That is May 23rd at midnight Eastern. So you know, if you are interested in snagging an HTMA test, I'll try to link it in the show notes.
Speaker 1:Sometimes my links in the show notes don't like work very well and that's probably a me issue, not a tech issue. But if it's not linked in the show notes, the easiest thing that you could probably do is look me up on Instagram, cause you can do that even if you don't have an Instagram account. I'm wellnesswithbanda, so or you can go to my website, wellnesswithbandacom. You can find it there too. So I hope you guys have a great week and I will talk with you next week. I have a really exciting announcement that I'm going to be making next week, talking about something for the first time that's coming up in June, and I'm I'm super excited to talk to you guys about it. So I'll chat with you next week.
