Resolving Eczema & Food Sensitivities Without Skipping Gluten

This week, I’m bringing something new to The Less Stressed Life Podcast! I’m sitting down with my past client, Kelli, who went from struggling with eczema and food sensitivities to healing in a way that felt surprisingly linear. We don’t always expect healing to be a straight path, but when it happens, it’s a relief—and I wanted to dig into what made Kelli’s journey so effective. 

Kelli’s story is a great example of what’s possible when you take the right steps. If you’ve been told you just have to “manage” eczema or avoid certain foods forever, this episode will give you a new perspective. 

❓Have a question❓ Submit it here: https://www.christabiegler.com/questions

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• How Kelli resolved her eczema without long-term food restrictions
• Why food sensitivities aren’t always the root cause of symptoms
• The nervous system work that helped speed up her healing
• How she tackled mold exposure without getting overwhelmed
• Why symptoms are just messages from your body—and how to respond

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WHERE TO FIND CHRISTA:
Website: https://www.christabiegler.com/
Instagram: @anti.inflammatory.nutritionist
Podcast Instagram: @lessstressedlife
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lessstressedlife
Leave a review, submit a questions for the podcast or take one of my quizzes here: https://www.christabiegler.com/links

NUTRITION PHILOSOPHY:

• Over restriction is dead; if your practitioner is recommending this, they are stuck in 2010 and not evolving
• Whole food is soul food and fed is best
• Sustainable, synergistic nutrition is in (the opposite of whack-a-mole supplementation & supplement graveyards)
• You don’t have to figure it out alone
• Do your best and leave the rest

SPONSOR:
Thanks to Jigsaw Health for sponsoring this episode! Struggling with dry, cracked hands? Try their Alaska Cod Liver Oil for omega-3s + vitamins A & D to support skin and immune health. Use code LESSSTRESSED10 at JigsawHealth.com for 10% off—unlimited use!

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TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Kelli: I think it was very helpful that you've taught us that perfectionism doesn't exist as far as symptoms and that things are just going to ebb and flow. And also that there's always options to make different choices and to do something differently.

[00:00:17] Christa Biegler, RD: I'm your host, Krista Bingler, and I'm going to guess we have at least one thing in common that we're both in pursuit of a less stressed life. On this show, I'll be interviewing experts and sharing clinical pearls from my years of practice to support high performing health savvy women in pursuit of abundance and a less stressed life.

One of my beliefs is that we always have options for getting the results we want. So let's see what's out there together.

All right. Today on The Less Dressed Life, I have something new. I have Kelly here. Kelly is a past client of mine with a background in mental health counseling. She's currently a stay at home mom of three children under seven, which I would argue, I always joke, was my most challenging time of life and careers, and some people are made for it, the challenging and rewarding career.

So I invited Kelly to do a little bit of an interview today because I just on her journey. To be interesting and inspiring for others. What about her journey was useful, maybe inspiring is that I felt like it was a little bit more linear from the outside than some of our clients. And we don't ever really expect healing to be totally linear.

I'll explain exactly what I mean by that. It can be quite meandering, but it's always a relief. When it is, and I wanted to, what I like to do is look at common denominators. And so regardless if your path is linear or very nonlinear, I can look at those common denominators. And I wanted to get Kelly's feedback about things she thought allowed her to get results faster.

The other thing that one of my colleagues and I talk about all the time is that we often think that we're alone in our healing. And so any possibility we can shed a light into someone else's healing can help us feel like we have more of a community, which is this unrecognized essential component to healing, I find.

And I would say that our thoughts are made up by what we surround ourselves with. So no matter what our echo chamber is currently, I think I'm always looking for stories of inspiration or hope, personally, or proof of what's possible. Thank you. To expand my thoughts and then give me a renewal of the mind.

I was actually in a funk the last week and a half, and I was talking to my own coach about, flipping back and forth or improving my own neuroplasticity and what kind of the download I got was metanoia or renewal of the mind. I always have to find renewal of the mind and look for inspiring things to pull me out of a funk.

Our brain is always seeking. proof. So when we only seek proof of negative, then we believe that's all that's possible. But I asked Kelly, if she would mind coming to share a little about her story, her journey and what she thought the essential pieces are. So I thank you for coming to join me today, Kelly.

[00:03:13] Kelli: Thanks for having me, Krista. 

[00:03:15] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. I feel like I am fortunate to get to see Kelly still sometimes past clients. I'll think about them. I wonder how they are, but. In the last year, I've started having a small group of past clients that I meet with monthly. And it's just fun to see something I didn't really bring up in some of the interview questions today.

But Kelly continually shows me how she's like continuing to use things to benefit herself and her family, how she's continuing to learn her use her learning and apply it. And I always joke, some client asked me last week, like, how do you. I forgot the exact context, but she was like, how do you suggest I go, I like consume this or understand this or whatever.

And I was like, you get the most education from action and results. Would you agree? 

[00:03:58] Kelli: It's like 

[00:03:58] Christa Biegler, RD: really sinks in. It's like when people gets they're flirting with illness. I was talking to my daughter. today who's in Rome. And she said that everyone is sick because one of the professors came over from the US and brought the flu for a wedding.

And everyone did 30 people in her study abroad cohort. And they're all sick except for her and her friend. Cause they're downing immunoglobulins, like it's their job between class. She's and it's working. And I'm just use her story because clients, this is a common thing I share with clients and clients that experience it.

They're like, Oh my gosh, that worked. And then suddenly we believe it. Because we saw the results. So Kelly, I want to ask you, and I'm a jabberbox, as I ask you questions, I may comment generally on how there are things that are similar to what I see with other clients or even different than what I see in some of our clients, just to share that perspective since I, I get the honor of walking with lots of people.

So I get to see all those common denominators, but first of all, How did you arrive here? How did we find each other? And this is actually fun for me. I love asking people like, how did you decide to book a call with this person you'd never met on the internet? 

[00:05:05] Kelli: I had eczema is what led me to you and I've had, I had it for seven years and I had tried a lot of things on my own, but I didn't know where else to go.

And I really wanted to find the root cause. Like I knew, okay, these things when I do, they help, but I didn't understand why. And when I was searching root cause of eczema, your information came up and I actually started with one of your old courses on the root cause of your eczema. Yeah. But it was attainable, like it didn't feel risky to start with that.

And I liked the information you were sharing. And I did even after that for a couple months I'm going to try to figure this out on my own. And then it just got to a point where I was like, I need to help find somebody who knows what they're doing. And from that course, and I had listened to some of your podcasts, it's just trusted that you knew what you've done because you share all of your experiences, I think of yourself and your clients.

And so I came to you. 

[00:06:08] Christa Biegler, RD: Something I'll share with you it's help, I don't always get to talk to people in this context or in this way, to be honest, and I might be funny for you to hear that I used to run away from this being a purpose. For me, I was really avoidant of wanting to work with eczema primarily because I was think it was like the weight loss of the skin, it was like, you can have other things going on and you can ignore them, but when it shows up on your skin, it's like.

It it brings us to our knees a bit and I say that from personal experience and I always joke that it probably, I know it makes me a better clinician, but unfortunately I've had all the same problems my clients have had. So when they come to me and tell me they've had that issue, I was like, I completely understand.

I completely understand you don't have black clothes in your closet. And I understand why, if your skin is flaky or whatnot, and people have different types of eczema, so before I was welcoming, I've done a 180, I'm like, okay, I'm embracing eczema because I think often our own journey it's just, part of it, we have an opportunity.

to help others through our journeys or through our challenges and through our own struggles. So my eczema journey was in about 10 years ago, crazily enough. But there was something else I really flipping loved helping people with. So before I was more openly saying, I will help with eczema, which by the way, everyone would come for anyway.

And the reason you found me, I think I was lucky. Looking at our notes also is because I got asked to write a cookbook, which was very insufficient for my feelings. The publisher like made me cut 10, 000 words, things I never talk about on here. I just love to share behind the scenes. If anyone likes behind the scenes, I wish I could do a podcast on behind the scenes stuff, because I always think it's really fun, but the publisher made me cut 10, 000 words and told me this isn't a textbook.

This is a cookbook. But what I really, I actually started in food sensitivity, and that was something I loved helping people with. And it's still, there's still things I prefer to help people with like getting them to all day energy, but people don't necessarily like, want to pay to get to there.

They're like, I'm just tired. Cause I have three kids under seven now. 

[00:08:11] Kelli: That's what the world tells you. 

[00:08:12] Christa Biegler, RD: So there were some of those, you had some of my other favorite things that you wanted to resolve also, 

[00:08:17] Kelli: yeah. Food sensitivities. I think you're right. That's, I was probably actually Googling the root cause of food sensitivities because I had found that if I stopped eating gluten and avoided fragrances and all these things, then my eczema was a lot better, but I didn't understand the why of the food sensitivities.

And yet that was the main goal when I came to you. 

[00:08:38] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, actually, you make a really resonant point for a lot of people that I haven't fully gotten into a soundbite yet, but people are like I fixed my eczema without any gluten and dairy. I was like, yeah, but you could also enjoy it potentially.

And actually, I'm going to stop right there because I was so glad when you told me whenever it was a handful of months ago, you were like. I can eat gluten now, and I don't have skin issues. And you were how many years without gluten? 

[00:09:08] Kelli: I had been, let's see, from 18, six years. 

[00:09:13] Christa Biegler, RD: Let's say I fully agree food is medicine.

One of my nutrition philosophies is like whole food is best, but also like we're doing our best and leaving the rest. And I think a lot of people come to me because they're like, is this all we can do? Is there more we can do? And I would say, yeah, there is. I like croissants personally, like I like to enjoy.

 This is a good thing because it's I actually did also start in a restrictive place in the under the guise of health that I thought it was good. And then I saw what would happen. This is probably good for me to share that I started with food sensitivities in the middle of my own eczema journey.

I was transitioning from working in a clinic to doing food sensitivity work. It sounded really interesting and fun. It sounded like fun puzzle pieces to put together. I love putting puzzle pieces together. And so it was really interesting, but it actually personally, you don't know this story, it made my own eczema much worse to restrict.

 That's a whole different story, but I haphazardly made everything much worse by restricting and sometimes that happens to people. And then the other thing I was seeing after working with food sensitivities for a long time is it was great until it wasn't great. And I was really concerned about the food fear that was coming from it.

And I was like, this is actually worse for your health to be fearful of food than to enjoy that food. So thanks for sharing that part, because I think that's really resonant and it's, that's like the stuff that like touches my soul and my heart. More than some of the, like I was like, I really want to help people resolve their food sensitivities because they're unnecessarily restricting and it's sucking the joy out of their life.

 That was the transition I made in about 2022 fully because I think before that I was just like all inflammation. Then I was niching down to food sensitivities and then just recently now I'm like, okay, I see eczema. Cause, cause people were like I barely see you talk about this on I'll be interviewed about it.

But I could talk ad nauseum about it a lot, just cause you have a lot of experience with it. So expect more content on that because it is, it's an issue that affects a lot of people and I just feel like it's optional. It's optional. Do you want to share any other symptoms that you were looking to correct just because they're extremely resonant.

[00:11:18] Kelli: Yeah so you reminded me that my eczema had been around for a while and I had not done gluten for a long time, like we just shared, but my eczema was at now at that point was starting to get worse. So the one tool I thought was working, I was like, Oh, and I was just really scared of having to cut out more food because when you look online, that is, the guidance to restrict.

And I didn't want that. And so I think. Your information about, Hey, it actually doesn't have to be that way. There's another option where we don't have to just restrict. We can heal from this. That was really inspiring to me and exciting. 

[00:11:51] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah.

[00:11:52] Kelli: And then I think those are the main symptoms I thought I had.

And then I talked to you and you were like what about these other things? Like I would get sores all over my tongue, but I guess I had accepted that was normal. Yeah. And just eczema in different places where again, like in my armpits. Oh, yeah, I guess that is eczema too. And fatigue, although I did have young kids, so it is hard to sort out, but the fatigue was certainly a big point.

And the way my digestive system would vary up and down. 

[00:12:22] Christa Biegler, RD: And most people will walk around because you can. That's not something people are going to ask you about. They're not like, did you poop today? Because did you know if you didn't poop today, it's not actually normal. And there's a lot of pieces there.

So when I looked at , those primary things that you were wanting to resolve, eczema and food sensitivities and improve gut health and focus. I love focus also. Another thing people would never come to me for. If I wasn't helping them with food sensitivities and eczema first and sugar cravings and canker sores, but I like, I'm obsessed with helping people with energy and focus.

Actually, it's a really fun thing, but even I've had people say yeah, no one's going to pay you for that unless they already trust you. And I was like, it's what if you get all these pieces, right? It like works amazing. And again, that's a whole different story for another day. But that also comes from a result of my own personal things.

Like I used to just think I had ADHD. And may I have ADHD? Possibly. I'm not a person who's going to pursue diagnosis. I just need to focus. I just need to have good focus. Like I just need to not be a squirrel. And when I get to be that way, I know I got to bring things back into balance because all symptoms are just signs that your body's trying to share with you that are out of balance.

And yeah, the other thing that you shared is that I always. Anytime we can improve awareness around symptoms before they come diagnoses, they are tend, they tend to be easier to resolve. So for example, I may or may not talk about sluggish thyroid, which is a little confusing to people because it doesn't, that means it's subclinical.

It's not necessarily showing up on blood work and it's a lot easier to help. And I didn't want to go talk about that. It's, I'm a crazy person and some people would come back and they would have relapsing gut issues. And if you have some sluggish thyroid, you'll have slow motility and it'll be like a birdbath and you'll have relapsing gut issues.

And I like to achieve. So I was getting like. Driven crazy if I had any kind of like failure and so you'll see all that stuff gets built in. I'm like, hey, this is how you prevent relapses. Okay, so you shared a little bit about eczema. So when I'm assessing a case of eczema, if it's like a child, I'm asking about birth story, parental history, or genetic predisposition and just like life and the history is short.

But when I have an adult, they always have a lot more variability in their life. Very often they have it as a child and then it goes away and then it comes back. I didn't see that in your history that you actually had it as a child. So tell me about, I know you were skipping gluten for about six years before it was like not really working for you anymore.

But when did eczema start for you? 

[00:14:45] Kelli: Yeah, it actually started within the month of when I got married, but you helped me see too, that was actually eight months after we moved into our first home, which ended up being quite significant. 

[00:14:59] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, did it ever worry you that it started after you got married?

[00:15:03] Kelli: I like to joke about it, but no, not really. But at the time, I didn't really understand. I thought it was just something outside. Yeah, 

[00:15:10] Christa Biegler, RD: I understand. I think everyone wants eczema to be pretty simple and very external, right? Very naturally, because we're just humans. We're like I should be able to put cream on this.

And then it's it doesn't work forever, I always like to joke about that too because I like to think about my own health and I think part of our journeys in our lives is our ability to be aware of anything. And so I sometimes look backwards at like, when did I have X, Y, Z thing start?

And I always joke that like, yeah, my health really went downhill after I married my husband. Also, I was like, we do, as a, in a physical way, we share microbiota with those we live with, whether romantic or non romantic, but there are other. Factors. Of course. My husband, I always joke. He was broken when I got him.

I think he thought I was going to save him as we do another episode. When you feel like you need to be saved in a place, and so yeah, he had his own imbalances and things. And I think he was excited that I was into health, which of course was attractive at that time. But anyway, I digress.

It doesn't matter. So that was interesting that eczema, because often people would have something or atopic March, either asthma, allergies, or eczema as a child. And then. Quote unquote, grow out of it and then have it reemerge. And then it's actually a little more layered. And I just share this because.

 Your story allows me to expand on conversations I have day in and day out with humans. We are very similar. When do you think you noticed, I know you were eliminating gluten for a long time for six years. When do you think, what's a little bit tricky with food is that, I would make a very strong argument that food is a secondary thing.

It's actually not a primary root cause, technically, of a lot of symptoms. Again, food is medicine, so we need to consume good foods that we can actually use and break down to nutrients, right? So not all foods break down to very useful nutrients. Some of them are actually nutrient depleting. I'm thinking about some of the standard American diet, just stuff we know is junk food, right?

But My clients come in, they already have a healthful diet, and that's a little unnerving for them, as they're like, I am eating well it shouldn't be this hard. And so I'm curious how you got on to that if you remember, it was a long time ago, we forget the past, but I'm curious how you got into playing with foods and food sensitivity stuff, and did you notice anything besides gluten causing issues for your symptoms at all?

[00:17:32] Kelli: No first, like you predicted, I did everything externally. I did that for probably almost two years let me try doing this, all the skincare. And then I just landed on, okay, I have to try the restriction diet. It must be something. And so I did 30 days, gave up the top, gluten, dairy, and then sugar, and then added them back in.

And gluten was the only one that I totally reacted to. And when I did cut it out, I was, I didn't have a breakout for at least a year after cutting gluten, which was pretty significant at the time. 

[00:18:09] Christa Biegler, RD: You thought you had it figured out. 

[00:18:11] Kelli: Yeah. 

[00:18:12] Christa Biegler, RD: I was like, this is clearly my problem. And I understand and this is where it is more normal for people to come to me after they've done several things, understandably, but you hear in Kelly's story, it's really not different than most people's story.

And even my own, I, Think I had eczema. I have to look back on it. I was like, I know I had it in high school because I was prescribed topical cream for certain areas, but I thought it was family. I thought it was genetic because my sisters had it in the same places and granted, I'm not blessed genetically, but we actually cannot diagnose or blame things on genetics.

It's actually what else is happening in the environment and in our body at that time. So it would come and go worse in the winter. Some people have it worse in the summer. There's all those like little things. And then, yeah, there was several pieces before it broke out like hella bad. And of course, we want, and as a dietitian, of course I want a diet to be the answer.

And I was like, wait a second. It's actually is ruining, this is actually not enjoyable. 

It's actually 

starting to suck and, we don't initially feel that way when we're first feeling good as we clean up our diet. And I do think it's totally fine for people to do diet experiments and see what they feel like.

And I don't have judgment. I ran into a friend from 20 years ago this weekend. He's yeah, I'm a carnivore now. And I think it's, and I was like, cool, whatever. Maybe you'll love that forever. Maybe you won't, better than some things, better than some things. I won't, I'll try not to digress on that one.

Okay. We may have covered this a little bit, but why do you think you like were moved to, I think you said it already, but what was that final straw that you were like, I think I need to get help with this? 

[00:19:51] Kelli: Yeah.

I would, once it's spread to my couch, The eczema on my scalp, it was like distracting my sleep because it was really itchy and it was bothering me a lot throughout the day and all the things that I could think of to try that didn't seem like too risky.

I had tried and they weren't working so I needed to, I knew, I just, I didn't know what else to do. So I know I needed to get help. 

[00:20:18] Christa Biegler, RD: I'm bummed that this is more common now. It's not always. I looked at your history and it, I believe it said you hadn't really seen a ton of practitioners, but nowadays I'm usually looking through another practitioner's work.

I'm kind about it, but it's I'm looking for what the issues are because I just want to help people get results. I don't want to work with anyone I couldn't get results with. Although what I find the common denominators are when people come to me from other practitioners is they either had A decent test that they were told was unremarkable or there was nothing they could do with it or didn't get, essentially they didn't do an effective treatment, no matter what.

Or they missed some pieces or they treated it really generically. So when I say treated really generically, the person comes in on some of these products, maybe more or less An elimination diet or a gluten dairy free diet on omegas, zinc maybe a probiotic. The most generic toolbox in the world.

Fine, if that works for you, fantastic. Super happy for you. I, that is not what I do. And but you did not exactly. I don't know how, who had you seen, what had you done before you arrived in my virtual office? 

[00:21:23] Kelli: Yeah I had only, I had spoken to two just like family doctors about it. Like maybe, like I mentioned it at the yearly checkup and they didn't really know anything but to say.

And the only other place I knew to go was a dermatologist, but I didn't want to go to a dermatologist because I didn't want. Steroids. I didn't want the creams. I wanted the deep and so yeah, I hadn't gone anywhere else. I wanted to dip into the functional world and I was waiting to find somebody that I tested.

[00:21:53] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Cool. Very commonly people go to the dermatologist and then at first, maybe they're okay with getting a steroid, which a steroid. They can be useful. I do like people to sleep so they could be useful. Then they're a double edged sword. We're not supposed to be on them very long.

Unfortunately, when we're on there for a long time, they thin our skin and it can cause some issues. I definitely had, I didn't use them very long and I had the ramifications of steroids for years, unfortunately. And I do not say that as a fear thing. I'm just like, that's a bummer, like I wish I hadn't, and I feel bad if people are on them longer.

So people will come and say a lot. Steroids take it away, and when I take the steroids away, it comes right back, and I'm like, duh it's not really doing, it's just shutting down the inflammation. There's lots of things that we can do to just turn off inflammation, but it's actually not finding.

We often think inflammation is root cause, but inflammation is coming from another root cause. It's just like food sensitivities. So it's actually secondary, even though it's a real good buzzword. And one I've used for many years accidentally because I was also obsessed with the concept of inflammation and in 2017 that's why the name of the podcast is called the less stressed life.

Cause I was looking for a synonym for inflammation and this is all I came up with. And here we are. it worked out. There was many years where I was like, I don't know if that's the best name. So you have a unique, you took calculated action a little bit. And then, yeah, there's some other, I think the other reason people sometimes present is that after steroids, unfortunately, the next treatment is often very expensive biologics in the tune of a few thousand per month.

So when people are like, these are my two options. Not very good. I always say Unfortunately, it's not a very deep toolbox yet. And we are coming, I would say there's more improved topicals than there ever has been in the last few years. And yet, I go from an inside out approach for the most part.

give lip service to topicals for sure. Because we don't want fires on the skin. We don't want infections on the skin. So there's some things we want to help heal the skin faster. So those are things we consider. And I always joke like we want eczema to be easier. It's literally twice as much work sometimes as just getting someone on constipated.

So okay. I'm curious also, so you took really calculated action and I think everyone has individual feelings and stories. Why do you think that you, I know you shared this in another way, but I feel like my approach is such that here's why I do. So I'm going to show you the thing I do and then I'm going to ask you, like, why you decided to take this route.

If I saw people only when they wanted to be seen, which would be, they might choose once every week, two weeks, six weeks, four weeks, three weeks I would not be able to control their results as much as I want to. They, it would be more challenging to get them results because I wouldn't be able to talk to them or support them at the intervals that are actually necessary to get results.

This is something I know from working very close with clients for a very long time. I always say clients are my best teachers. They taught me everything I know about how to get results for the most part. And for me, I feel that it's in poor service to my clients to not work with them for an amount of time to help them get results.

I will also offer that humans, I love observing humans in this beautiful way. Because I always joke let's not blame ourselves for being humans. Humans have a few months of stamina. They're not going to want to do something. I always say if you've been working with someone a year or 18 months and it's not resolved, it's that's a long time, actually, unfortunately.

And maybe there's reasons for that. I've got a client who's got some pretty deep history and her stuff has resolved extremely slowly but she has such a good attitude that I'm here for it because her attitude is so fantastic and that makes a big difference to me. But for me I create things with a couple of filtering questions.

And one of the filtering questions is what is in best service to my clients? And so for me, I try to give people what they need to know up front. And I try to tell them, here is the cost, here is the timeline. I don't want you to be surprised because, and I do this out of my own trauma as well.

Like I used to see different practitioners and it would be. Maybe a few hundred dollars for the appointment and then seven hundred dollars for supplements. And then I just didn't know where we were going. I couldn't see the roadmap and it just felt. It felt indefinite. And that was my experience as I was digging through my own health stuff from about 2010, nine or 10 to 2015.

I was doing a lot of that stuff. Cause I had a husband who had symptoms. And so I was coming from that and I came actually, it was trained in like muscle testing and things before, but I struggled to see the end of it. And so for that reason, I just say it's going to take about this long. You could see results and as little as.

One month, but it may be six weeks. So I've gotten really good at trying to communicate as to the best. I like really like clear communication resolves. Or unmet expectations and things like that. So my question to you is, especially sometimes people become, there's this unfortunate dynamic that happens when people have seen more practitioners, they have now spent more money, unfortunately.

And then they're also eager to go to someone who they believe can be helpful. You skipped the spend a bunch of money before you got to me, fortunately for you. I'm so thankful. For you, because I'm always like happy for that for clients. And then you came into my role and you could have said, I think I'm going to go try something a la carte.

I think I'm going to go see the local naturopath, whatever. And so what do you think, how do you think you justified? Yeah, I think I want to go all in with this particular person without all these other negative experiences that some people have. 

It's hard question. Sorry. 

It's a little loaded.

[00:27:20] Kelli: Yeah, 

[00:27:20] Christa Biegler, RD: it's an investment. I think and the reason I honestly think things have to be an investment to take them seriously, but unfortunately, one problem for me is I see all the problems people have that they don't see yet. And I was like, Oh, but I'm going to need to fix that and that also.

So I just need enough time. I need enough capacity with you in order to fix those other systems. So that's like where I'm coming from. And I'm really curious how you were like. I think I trust her or I think I'm going to justify this. And also like you're a stay at home mom right now too.

And I have lots of stay at home moms, but I'm always just curious. Cause a lot of times then maybe your husband's more involved in that answer than just you. So I'm just curious how you justified it. 

[00:27:59] Kelli: I think that for me, maybe it came from, I had tried so many little things.

I'll be on my own. I think it felt there like this isn't going to be, if there was a magical cure, I would have found it. I would have found it in my hours of searching. And I think I understood this is going to be, if it's a root cause, it's going to be a deep fix and we would need time to do that.

And your program is just comprehensive. That it wasn't just I'm going to fix your eczema. It was, I'm going to fix your food sensitivities and the fatigue and also your very you want to set somebody up for success moving forward to not I'm just going to give you these tools. You'll know what you're doing.

I'm in my program and then you're done. And so I think it felt like a worthy investment because it wasn't just to fix one thing. It was to fix a lot of things and also learn what to do moving forward. 

[00:28:53] Christa Biegler, RD: I appreciate your feedback on that because you're validating exactly how I feel about it and you heard me say I'm, it was driving me crazy if I had people who I'd rely depending on your personality type, you're just going to keep improving things I literally am going through a huge improvement upgrade right now, not because there was anything broken, but because I'm like, I see that I keep being asked these questions.

How can I make this faster and easier for people, right? It's how I make it interesting for myself and more of a challenge there as well. So I learned, I didn't know you had a background in some clinical work also. And so I wonder if having a background in clinical work in a capacity where in your work people also needed to see someone for, several sessions to have lasting change.

Do you think that influenced kind of your own perspectives on that potentially? 

[00:29:40] Kelli: Yeah, I think so. I think I worked a lot with trauma. Okay. And so I think knowing this is a process to undo this and to heal from this. It's very similar to, yeah, what you're doing. 

[00:29:53] Christa Biegler, RD: I will say that I don't always know where people come from, what they do, because they don't always necessarily share that with me, sometimes they do.

But there's been a lot of times I've taken a little bit of a very loose inventory and at any given time sometimes I have 30 percent practitioners. And we can think about why that is but I would say that these are people who value health typically. Or they just have a little more awareness, and if they're not practitioners, they're ultimately health conscious people, otherwise they wouldn't care, probably, maybe, and then, of course, there's probably other exceptions, too. So one of the reasons I invited you here is because I thought it was interesting, I thought your progress Was lovely, and so I like to take inventory, look at the common denominators of people who improve faster and some that slower, have a more meandering journey everything is okay but what I see That you had some very specific root causes that can challenge clients like physically, emotionally, and some people have a freeze response and they become paralyzed by overthinking.

I've now added resources so we can try to push through that faster because I see that is. I'm going to talk about the process of literally just slowing people down. You didn't come in the door and think that was slowing you down, but it's like the thing all the time. Usually I see that some of the root causes you were dealing with just take another month or two.

Everything is fine. Everything is treatable. But I was really intrigued when I was talking to you around month four, and I was just noticing that your progress was linear. And what I mean by that was that, Clients rate their symptoms. They like a whole list of symptoms that they rate, which is another useful self awareness tool.

I always recommend if you're listening to this and you want to do some DIY stuff or you just want to get started, look up multiple symptom questionnaire on the internet. Bill went out. Really good also for if you're trying to support your family or your husband and part of the problem around trying to do something for someone else is like you have to have self awareness as the first step or know something that is an issue and so a multiple symptom questionnaire allows you to note that some of these things like Cranker sores or ulcers in the mouth or throat clearing.

These are actually technically not normal things, but are not Diagnoses and so what people do when they walk in the door is they fill out a form so we can get that And ideally it's objective measurement. Some people fill it out with a lot of emotion and so it can go up and down but it's meant to be pretty objective because you're like how am I rating this every single month essentially?

And so what I was noticing was like your first form had a symptom rating of 45. And they can vary all over the place. They can be, 40, 50, 120. Like they're all over the place for people just depending on what they have going on. So your initial score was 45. And then the next month it was 37. And the next month it was 17.

And the next month it was. 10, which is what, like a seven over a 75 percent improvement within those four months, which is exactly what I want. I want nowadays, I try to undersell improvement. We can get improvement in the first month for sure. But I say I would really 50 percent improvement in everything within a few months, ideally 75 percent or more within a couple months after that.

But. It varies depending on how long someone's had something. You have it over a decade, it could just take a little longer. The goal is as fast as possible. So I was intrigued because you had some of the things that catch people up and cause a little bit more of a meandering journey. I was surprised that your symptoms were as linear.

Like it was like great to see because I was pretty accustomed to seeing a more meandering journey. In that, and we go in waves in practice too, sometimes, but I was really intrigued by that and I was also noticing that you presented a little more calmly, not like in this, large, because sometimes people, their emotions like ooze out of their pores a little bit and that's okay.

And so I just noticed that you were presenting calmly and that might just be your personality in general. It's all neutral, but I was just observing. Just observing. So when I see people getting results faster or slower, I just like to evaluate. What do I think is going on here? So I have opinions about what's going on.

I, of course, combed through your history and it was like, what else do I not know about Kelly? What else is she doing that's helping her do this quicker? Why do you think you're getting results faster? And I wanted to ask you what you thought were some of your best practices because no one wants to hear more from me about this.

I want to know what you helped you make more linear progress. Not that one can expect that, go in without expectation, but without perfectionism expectation, but also with the goal is to reduce, but anyway, why do you think you were getting results, quote unquote, easier?

Maybe it was not easier. Maybe there was a lot of work there, but what do you think were some of the best practices? What could you share about that? 

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[00:35:37] Kelli: A few things. So I do think I had started nervous system work before I started working with you for about, I think, five or six months had focused on that.

I do think that 1, I was already open to that part of your program. That's about your nervous system and I understood the importance of that. I was able to apply that very regularly. And then 2, I think the biggest thing is this, I took action. We identified that we most likely had mold in our house, and I got off that phone call with you, and I went and told my husband, and that hour, we looked around our house okay what could be going on here, and that weekend, we started doing what we could, and just, we we broke things down, because obviously, we couldn't do everything all at once what can we just do right now to get started, and I think that helped move me along.

Much quicker. 

[00:36:30] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Yeah. And what is not necessarily verbalized exactly there. So I'm going to paraphrase it as because you had done some nervous system work, which we do nervous system work in the program also is if we can break through the thought process of overwhelm, which is a common scenario, my observation is people are overwhelmed before they enter working together.

And I just like to unpack that with them real quickly and attempt to, and we had one of those sessions. So you were doing nervous system work before, and within that first month, we did have a session where we you did acknowledge you were like, I feel like there's just a lot going on, and it feels like a lot, and that statement is, shows up a lot, and a lot of times it looks like overwhelm, or fear, and then what happens next is people freeze, and so then they just literally don't take action, they're like, maybe this will just go away, on its own, maybe everything will be fine, and we then talked through that, and created a different thought process, which was like, I can figure out what to do, or I'm able to learn each step as I need it, just one little bit as a time.

And the feeling became confident and capable instead of rumination and fear. And so it was really the result was like you were trusting in your own capability and awareness. And again, you had been practicing that stuff. It's easier if you've been practicing. If you haven't practiced some of that at all, it is, it's just.

It just takes practice. It's like strengthening a muscle with the nervous system. And why do I care about this? Why does this matter at all? It's not just mindset work. It's it's actually physiology. If we have your body can't perceive whether stress is physical, emotional, etc. And so whatever is going on in your thought processes is being processed through your body as well.

And so when we communicate, freak out, or overwhelm to the immune system, The message your immune system gets is overwhelmed. And when your immune system is overwhelmed, you will have a bucket load of symptoms. 

Yeah, that's a simple way to say it. And so every time I learn something, I can't unlearn it.

Unfortunately, I'm like, Oh, this is a big needle mover. Dang, this is a big needle mover, right? And so I just really pondered, I was like, man, I wonder what else Kelly was doing, because we did that, we had that conversation early on, not that was enough because you had already, but it was probably a little bit helpful, because you'd already been doing some of the other work, so it was easier for you to embody it, maybe, as opposed to someone who hadn't done stuff, and I would say something that might be useful for other people as well, is that generally You'll find that anyone who's had stuff, symptoms for quite a while, there are some real neural pathways that get shifted and formed, and so you'll pretty much find the recommendation of doing nervous system work is essential for long term healing.

It really makes your life a lot better. But I did kiss lots of frogs before deciding which nervous system modalities to include in my programming. And I'm always attempting not that I want to try to do everything, even though it feels like, yeah, I'm always attempting to how can I try to make this a little more accessible and easier so people aren't having to invest in multiple different things at the same time, if we can try to make it easier for people, that's the goal.

Cause you know, we don't need to add more overwhelm to their life. So that's helpful for you to share. And that was just really, I just, I was like this is outside. Usually it takes people a little longer when they have this or this going on. pretty cool. And also I just want to talk about this. 

covered this already, but you were doing nervous system stuff. We talked about how your background and mental health probably was useful or I was talking to you and clients earlier today in a very similar session. And this client was talking about. She's yes, took lots of years of therapy to get there.

And I was like, I do find that can be a common denominator work has to be made, however you choose to do that. There's work in there, not saying that I do any therapy and in our programming, we just have nervous to shine a light on the stressor. So you're not processing it through the body.

And then we have body modalities to help you process it through the body. If you would like just the ones that I have loved over four years of trialing and airing. I mentioned at the beginning that I get the honor of talking to you on a regular basis. I get the honor of seeing you along your journey and you are incredible at sharing with me.

Look at this cool thing I'm applying right now. And again, when you apply, you get a ton out of it and it takes time to do that. And so it's been really fun because I want to say, I hopefully I can say this. I think last month you were like, yeah, I had no period symptoms this month and this is what I learned.

Or maybe there was something with your family's health. So I was just curious how you've continued to use what you've gained and working together to help yourself and your family. 

[00:41:02] Kelli: I think one of the best tools you've given us is the ability to look at our symptoms and to see what's changing, what's not.

And just the idea of, okay, if this comes up, I can just try a little experiment and see what is going on. So I don't actually crack it anymore, but I just have that mindset of, okay, maybe for this month, I'm going to try these ideas and see how I feel or see what I noticed in my kids. And when you take it at a small chunk like that, it doesn't feel overwhelming.

I think it feels more hopeful and exciting. 

[00:41:37] Christa Biegler, RD: And I think. What is underneath the surface there is that sometimes, and this is just a perspective, so it's just a way to reflect. I have seen people get frustrated that they do not know everything that is in my brain within five months.

And I was like, that is not how that works. 

Just 

I can't download. These years of experience. I'm trying to help you understand as fast as I can, so that way you can do this stuff on your own, but what you just shared is really useful. Sometimes we'll do lots of things to try to get good outcomes, but sometimes when you're just tweaking, there's a few little things, and it's it's nice to do one thing at a time, so that way you know.

What's helping or not. So I think initially I try to cover lots of bases, because I know covering lots of bases is going to give me specific results. And then later it's it's not perfect yet. Especially menstrual cycles are funny, because they only show up once a month, right? So what happened that month, the month before that can all impact it.

So it's nice to that's something you play with a little bit longer over time. Even if you have initial success, it's Oh, it's a little messenger every month to let me know how everything went in my body, all the things. So like it. Thanks again, you're sharing how you go through what you're not trying to do is sometimes we're trying to rush.

I want you to get efficient results, but I actually had to change one of our business core values from efficiency. I had to take it away because it was actually stressful for some people to think that, because it's actually a subjective statement. It's what's efficient to me as different, if you can heal in six months and you've had issues for two decades, pretty efficient, in my opinion.

It's just, it looks different, but our human desires are that efficiency is three weeks, which is only reasonable for some symptoms. Only some symptoms respond in that short of time. Some of them will take a little bit longer than that, for sure. Is there anything else that you'd want to tell someone that's going through what you went through?

[00:43:33] Kelli: Yeah. I think these are really some pearls that I've learned from you, Krista. I think it was very helpful that you've taught us that perfectionism doesn't exist as far as symptoms and that things are just going to ebb and flow. And also that there's always options to make different choices and to do something differently.

And we can always learn more, but it's not stuck. 

[00:43:59] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, there's always, you like are very good at taking words out of my mouth, which I appreciate because there are things I say a lot. I'm glad someone's paying attention, using it and it's useful for you. And what I'll offer is that you said like symptoms will ebb and flow.

And I will say similarly, symptoms are possible. So what I want people to know is that while our goal is to always resolve. Completely or mostly all of the symptoms that you have. Most of them are pretty fair game. Some of them are, there's different symptoms that respond differently. By the way, chronic pain, super annoying.

Little bit slower to resolve. stuff he knows pretty easy. Symptoms are possible. And so when we're talking about eczema, food sensitivities, constant, whatever energy stuff, like stuff happens, life happens. And so my approach or my goal with clients is to teach them how to resolve it. Cause when you.

Get the result. You understand it in a very different visceral embodied way, and then I want them to know how to correct it in the future if it ever wants to peek out or pop up because there are things that create that. It's if it happened once. Why do we think that we're immune to having it again?

 And that's a perspective shift. I've really Yeah. Attempted to start to and I'm doing it better and earlier now as I remodel things, right? It's like I saw people they were like, oh my gosh, I just want to close this chapter of the book. I never want to read this chapter again. And it's you can have that feeling now.

But, this is all here. Like it's your body just communicating with you, right? So it's just letting you know something's out of balance. And my entire thing right now is really helping people understand symptoms related to systems and bringing systems into balance. And that's how you get long term success for everything and know that like stuff can happen.

I was recently on a trip and I had some symptoms pop up and I just dealt with them and got rid of them. The end. That's a, that was empowering, right? That's empowering. I just, my goal is that you're not just relying. I was like, I don't love this reliant negative reliance on someone.

Someone else knows more than you about your body. That's not, that just didn't feel good to me. So thank you for appreciating these things. I'm really glad I asked.

[00:46:06] Kelli: It's very empowering the way you've made your program like you can tell that you're like me. I don't want you to actually need me.

You don't need Krista for the rest of your life. Yeah you can use this. 

[00:46:17] Christa Biegler, RD: As a parent, it's an exhausting feeling to feel like you have, it's like a lot, it's a technically, it's a lot of space to hold, and it's not that I don't want to, and that's why I work with so many people at once, and then I, then we're done, and then I work with another group of people, because I actually, I care about humans, quality over quantity, and so I really do want to know them, to be able to help them, to know the answers to their questions.

Cause I know enough about them. So that's, and everyone it's optional. Like people, I don't have to know everything about everyone, but you certainly have the opportunity to let me know as much as you want about me. I make it open ended. It's like we can do as minimum or as much as you want, so that's how I attempt to make it work for different personality styles. Is there anything else that you want to share, that you'd want anyone else to know? You gave some really beautiful pearls, which is there's always options. Symptoms are possible, but you can know how to correct them.

And what was the third one that you had?

[00:47:09] Kelli: Oh I think it was just like the around perfectionism and just that it doesn't exist. 

[00:47:14] Christa Biegler, RD: Don't tell the perfectionists. They don't believe that yet, but that's okay. Life is 50, 50 guys. Life is 50, 50. There is bad. And then we shift into the better as well.

But anyway, any last or closing comments before we wrap up this recording and thank you so much for coming on today. 

[00:47:30] Kelli: No, it's just, I've really enjoyed my time in your program and I can see myself getting healthier and healthier moving forward. Thanks to you. 

[00:47:38] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, that's awesome. It's really fun to have these kinds of conversations.

I feel like I don't really get to have them as much as I should be having them. Like, why wouldn't I have them more often? So thank you so much for sharing your experience for the benefit of us all. I hope those listening took some pearls and thank you for your kind of inspirational statements and kind of experience and journey whether someone's experience is linear or not.

Thanks for coming on.