I see this a lot, people who say they are “doing everything right” and are still not feeling as well as they would like. Remember, I’m not your doctor, but I can be your health coach and part of what health coaches do is trouble-shoot, so that’s what we’re going to do today.

First of all, if you told me you were sticking to your squeaky clean paleo diet and still not feeling well, I would believe you. Many doctors think their sick or overweight patients are not being honest about their lifestyle choices, but a coach is always on your side.

If you came to an appointment with me and told me that you were doing everything right and not seeing improvement, here’s what I’d say:

Tell me what you mean by “doing everything right?”

Many people are simply referring to diet when they say they’re on track. Believe me when I say that diet is critical, but it’s not everything.

Functional medicine has six main pillars: diet, movement, stress management, sleep health, environmental toxins and community/relationships. That’s a lot to tackle and most people can’t have all those categories dialed in all at once.

Just because your diet is super clean, let’s just say Paleo for the sake of this example, that doesn’t mean that one of those other areas might be way out of alignment for what your body needs.

There is a lot to tweak and with some careful exploration, we can start to pinpoint areas you might want to address. Here are some ideas in each of the areas of Functional Medicine. This is by no means an exhaustive list of areas of exploration. Consider this a jumping off point. Carefully consider each category because at first blush, you may think stress isn’t an issue for you, but as you really consider, you might begin to see otherwise.

Movement

• Are you moving your body on a regular basis? This means every day. No, you don’t have to train for a marathon or lift heavy weights three times a week, but you need to be more active than sedentary and ideally, get your heart rate a little elevated more days than not.
• Are you over-training? Maybe you are training for a marathon and it’s simply too much stress for your body at this time. Chronic over-exercising causes chronically high cortisol levels (that’s the stress hormone) and that can wreak havoc on the rest of your body. High cortisol can mean high insulin, which means weight gain and possibly insulin resistance, it means higher than normal levels of inflammation in your body, it can mean poor sleep and on and on. Those who tend to be over-exercisers can have a very difficult time dialing that back. As your coach, I’d ask you to be honest with yourself and really assess the pros and cons of continuing your rigorous routine and perhaps adjusting it a bit for a time.

Stress

• Are you highly stressed – at work, at home, with family responsibilities, by your illness…and not handling it well?
  • What do you do to relieve stress?
  • What has worked for you in the past?
  • What is your favorite way to relieve stress?
  • How can you work that into your daily life?
  • Do you need to take some time off of work?
  • Do you need to hire a babysitter so you can have an hour of quiet? 

Sleep

• How is your sleep? How many hours are you sleeping per night? Maybe you’re one of those people who says you can get by just fine on 5 or 6 hours of sleep, but the science tells us otherwise. Most adults need 8 or 9 hours of quality sleep to be in their best state of health.
• What can you do to improve your sleep? Do you need to unplug from electronics earlier in the evening? Experts suggest at least one hour before bed.
• Do you need to curtail the alcohol consumption? I know it can make you sleepy and make falling asleep easier, but more likely than not it will disrupt your sleep later in the night.

Environmental Toxins

• Have you switched your personal care products to safe brands? What you put on your skin absolutely soaks through and is absorbed by the body. Remember the study that came out last summer (2019) showing that the chemicals in sunscreen were found in high levels in the blood stream? At the very least, don’t bury your head in the sand in this regard. Full disclosure: I sell Beautycounter because I feel it is the safest and highest performing brand. There are other safe brands – I have used many of them, but none perform nearly as well as Beautycounter – for me. Start with what covers most of your body or what you use the most of and switch to a clean brand of that product. Then keep going!
• Something as simple as a water filter can make a huge difference especially if your water supply contains high levels of fluoride or chlorine, among other compounds. I have the Zero water filter shown here and have been very happy with it for many years. Each filter lasts me about three months (and I drink the entire contents of this container in about a day and a half). Ideally, I would have a whole house filter, but that costs thousands of dollars and this costs less than $50. It’s a great, effective, inexpensive option.

Relationships/Community

• Supportive relationships (or the lack thereof) can make or break your health. Really. This can come about in so many ways, but here are a couple examples:
  • You are working very hard to stick to your Paleo diet to get your autoimmune symptoms under control, but your spouse is not supportive. He or she wants to eat their “normal” foods and simply won’t budge. The result: you cook two meals and have lots of junk in your home that you know you shouldn’t eat. And you know what they say about the flesh being weak. It’s just hard to resist when the offending foods are right in your face. Especially if you are having to prepare them. Nobody has time to cook two meals. And you shouldn’t have to.
  • You go out to dinner with friends once a month and as much as you love these friends, they give you a hard time about your health choices and so when you’re together, you always give in and eat the foods and drink the drinks that you know derail your health. (Did you know that gluten can exert it’s negative effects in your body for up to 6 months? So that one little exposure isn’t really little.)
• I’m not suggesting you get a new family or new friends, but consider how you might make some adjustments to these relationships so they’re working for you, not against you.

Diet

• We do have to come back to diet for a bit even though you probably have this area well in hand. More often than not, when working with a client, the conversation about diet begins like this:
  • Client: “My diet is really great. I’m totally paleo.”
  • Coach: “Wow! That’s amazing. Staying 100% paleo can be a challenge for many people.”
  • Client: “Well, I’m 100% paleo except when I go out to dinner on Friday nights. We usually eat French fries and have a few beers. It’s my one indulgence.”
  • Coach: “How do you typically feel after that night out?”
  • Client: “Not my best, honestly, but I think it’s fine.”
  • Coach: “Have you ever tried gluten free beer or hard cider?”
  • Client: “No, because I don’t think that little bit of gluten is affecting me. Besides, it’s fermented so that makes it less bad.”
  • Coach: “How have you been feeling lately – overall? Not just after that night out? Are your symptoms totally under control?”
  • Client: “Well…no.”
• When we’re really honest with ourselves and our health care team, most, if not all, of us will see that there is room for improvement in our diet. If you really are 100% paleo except for once a week when you eat the inflammatory oils (in the fries) and gluten (in the beer), then you’re not 100% paleo.  How about trying a week without those two foods? Maybe order a special coffee instead of the alcohol? Maybe you get a really nice steak instead of the fries? Is there some change you could make that would keep you from feeling completely deprived and allow you to see if that weekly indulgence is impacting your health? 
• This is just one example. Every single person’s experience is different. My objective here is simply to get you thinking about your own situation and how you might make a change.

Final thoughts: You have to be honest with yourself. Remember, this is not a diet, it’s a lifestyle change. If you have an autoimmune disease or another chronic health condition such as Type 2 Diabetes, managing your health with functional medicine is not a part-time endeavor. It’s full time and it’s forever. That’s why it’s hard. Let’s just say you really have most things in proper alignment for your body, but you just can’t make yourself stop going out for beer on Friday night. And don’t forget – you don’t feel well. That’s why you’re here. You have to make a decision – no one else can make this decision for you – do you want to be well or do you want whatever it is that you’re getting from that particular beverage? Could you substitute anything else for that beer and see if that makes a difference? What are you willing to try? How much is it worth to you?

If this article has stirred up some questions for you or better yet, some motivation to finally make the changes you know you’ve been meaning to make, I’d love to help! You might benefit from some one-on-one health coaching. You can check out all my package options here and even sign up for a free consult. No string attached. I promise! My whole goal is to help as many people be well as possible. I’ve found freedom from my autoimmune disease and I want others to experience that freedom as well.