Weight Loss Coach Angie Brown Harris and I discuss finding harmony in your body and rewriting the narrative around what’s possible when you have an autoimmune disorder.
I’m joined by Angie Brown Harris, Licensed Massage Therapist, NAMS Certified Nutrition Consultant, Mindset and Motivation Coach, and Functional Nutrition Lifestyle Practitioner. After being diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis in 2019, Angie wanted to explore holistic healing and discovered the world of functional medicine.
On today’s episode, we discuss honoring your inner voice, tools for feeling able and capable as you age, and how Angie is experiencing a new level of function and optimization with the help of LifeWave patches.
When Angie started to feel like her body was breaking down, she learned to embody the mantra, “rest is doing something,” which is something I think we can all relate to. She started listening to her body so that she could continue to do the activities that she loved while managing her health condition. But, she didn’t want to sign up for a lifetime of synthetic hormone supplements in order to do so.
Angie breaks down the practical habits and lifestyle choices that she’s made that have significantly improved her life. She explains the amazing effect that the LifeWave patches have had on her TPO antibody levels and daily wellbeing. In fact, she just ran her tenth marathon and has never felt stronger.
Listen in to hear how Angie has found harmony in her body and is rewriting the narrative around what’s possible when you have an autoimmune disorder.
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Dana Frost 00:07
Welcome to Vitally You, a podcast created to introduce you to the tools that will be your roadmap for feeling younger while growing older. I'm your host Dana frost, a wellness expert, life coach and energy medicine practitioner. Here's what you can expect conversations about vitality from the inside out with guest experts in the field of health, culture and spirituality and solo episodes along the way from me where I do deep dives into the topics of aging, heart intelligence, energy, medicine and your innate capacity to heal. If you want to feel younger while growing older, this is the place for you. Welcome to this week's episode of the vibe of the podcast. I'm Dana frost, your host and you're in for a treat this week. I have another functional nutrition and lifestyle colleague as my guest Angie Brown Harris. Angie is a licensed massage therapist, a certified nutrition consultant, mindset and motivation coach and functional nutrition and lifestyle practitioner. Angie is not your average person. She has run 36 half marathons, 10 marathons, two triathlons, and for fun on her 40th birthday, she ran 40 miles. Can you imagine being that committed to running and having to give it up. That was Angie's path. After she was diagnosed with Hashimotos. And she was trying to heal, she had to sacrifice running in order to give her body the proper time to rest and heal. Now, that's not the end of the story. Because 2022 has been a big year for Angie, she was able to start running again. She's going to share how she was able to complete another marathon and not only maintain our health but actually improve her health markers. Besides her many accolades Andy's most valuable quality is how she makes you feel at ease in her presence. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Angie, it's so lovely to have my fellow fn LP functional nutrition and lifestyle practitioner here on the show with me. Thank you so much for joining us.
Angie Brown Harris 02:23
It is truly an honor I got I do not say that word lightly. It really, really is.
Dana Frost 02:28
Yeah, well, thank you. And I would love for our listeners to know a little bit about your story how you became an FN lp. And I know you have a health story to share. So can you share a little bit about yourself, Angie,
Angie Brown Harris 02:42
absolutely. My career started actually as a massage therapist in my early 20s. And that was my full time gig for, I don't know, close to 2020 years. And then in my early 30s, I started on a personal growth and kind of empowerment journey where I had been an overweight woman, as you know, is a lot of our stories and trying to find myself and my fitness. And through that journey, I lost a significant amount of weight and gained and lost some before I really, you know, found a healthy body weight that I could easily maintain. And the last part of that journey was through a coaching relationship with a dear friend. And she helped me to really learn and understand more of how nutrition affected my body but only only quote unquote, with the intent to lose weight and maintain a healthy body weight. And through that relationship. She eventually came to me and said, Have you ever thought about coaching, I think that you would be really really good at this. And it was not something that I had ever considered. And then once I did, I was like this makes all the sense in the world to me like it marries everything that I have ever loved to do. So I became a health coach. I got a nutrition consultation certification and became a health coach and supporting women through their journey to a healthier body weight. And a lot of that I learned very quickly was not about a diet or a menu plan. It was about personal understanding and understanding one's relationship with food, and how we use food in ways that we don't necessarily always recognize. Several years into my health coaching practice. I got sick. I found myself super super fatigued part of my journey to fitness was I became a runner. My dad is an insane endurance athlete. I grew up I joke on the side of the road, handing him water and driving two miles and handing him water and driving two miles like we were the camel backs before there was a camel back. And that was my life. And so I became a runner in the process of my health evolution. And in March of 2019, I had just run my ninth marathon, I had run about 30, I don't know 30, something half marathons at that point. And my body just started talking to me in ways that it never had, like, I felt like I knew tired, but I didn't understand what I was learning tired on a new level, my hair was starting to fall out, I broke out into hives, like it just had all these weird symptoms. And as many people's story goes, you go to the doctor, and they're like, well, it might be this, it might be that let's test you again. And a few months like you do the dance. Well, I had an intuition and a suspicion that what I had was Hashimotos. My father actually has actually motos, there's a genetic component to it. And when he was diagnosed about 25 years ago, his doctor said, I want you to have your girls pay attention, because it's likely something they are going to come up against at some point. So it was my suspicion that that was what was upon me. However, my doctor was not convinced because my liver was what was really my liver enzymes were through the roof. And so that was what my doctor was honed in on. And I said, I think my liver is a symptom, I think my liver is a symptom of a more systemic thing, will you test my thyroid antibodies, and ultimately, she did. And they were through the roof, which I decided to go down the functional medicine route for treatment. And through that treatment, I really gained a different understanding of nutrition and how food can affect one's health in a lot of ways. And I said, I need to learn more about I want to learn more about this. This is something that I could add to my practice to really support people who come to me to lose weight in hopes of improving their X, Y or Z health condition. So I went through FBS and ultimately got my FMLP certification. And that's the things that have helped me to manage my autoimmunity most effectively, I still run I just ran my tent marathon, it took me a little bit to get back to running because I had to honor where my body was and learn how to listen to it so that I could still continue to do the things that I want to do, and manage the health condition that I have. You brought
Dana Frost 08:11
up so many points that are important to touch on. And I want to go back, thank you for sharing all of that, because so many women are experiencing whether it's Hashimotos, or some some chronic disease that they have been told that there's no way out that, that they just have to live with the symptoms, and maybe manage a little bit with, you know, some sort of pharmaceutical medication. And your story really speaks to there's so much that we can do with our lifestyle, and we can we can get our life back. And I know that I know the fatigue, when you were talking about fatigue, I know that I know that level of fatigue, gosh, and I've had adrenal fatigue and, and I napped every day for a year, and I resisted that resting and I finally it was through it was through an interesting mentor. He's he's no longer alive. He was just such a beautiful soul, Rob Berkeley, and he said, Dana, and he wasn't a health coach. He was like an executive coach. And he said, I've coached so many people who have had this level of fatigue and the only way to heal is to allow your body to rest. And I don't know why my doctor had told me that it just landed in a way that I received it and I said, Okay, I'm gonna start resting. And that really was my journey through the healing process where I started honoring what my body was asking of me. I was I had been healing but there's this deep level of honoring what the body's asking for you like you alluded to when you went back to running. You had to do it in a way that you didn't sacrifice this physical Earth. suit that you have.
Angie Brown Harris 10:01
Yep, yep, yeah. And it really to speak to what you said, the honoring of what your body is telling you like, it's a learning, it's a learning process, because I think I was at least I don't want to speak for every woman, but conditioned to ignore what your body is telling you and just keep pushing, which is also my nature. You know, I come from an ultra marathoner that if you just keep putting one foot in front of the other, eventually you will get there, just keep pushing. And while that pushing serves me very well, in a lot of capacities, I had to learn and a mantra that I have adopted for myself, because we are again, conditioned to we always have to be doing something right. Like productivity, productivity, you have to be doing there's dishes to be put away there is, you know, a book to be whatever, there's things to be doing. Rest is doing something is a mantra that I had to learn for myself, because if I did not, listen, honor what my body was telling me, it gave me no choice, it would shut down. And I would not be able to do the things that I wanted to do when if I just took a nap. Or I sat in the recliner and watched some really trashy television for two hours on a Sunday afternoon, I could do all the other things that I wanted to do all week long. So learning to listen to the whispers that your body is is saying to you before you get the brick thumped upside your head is a journey and something I still continue to do.
Dana Frost 11:53
Very true. Yes, I'm right there with you on that. And I, I want to go back to this is I'm going to ask you a question. I'm asking you this. Because some people find themselves in a position. You know, weight is if we're carrying too much weight, it's actually it's a sign that something is going on internally. And so I'm curious, how much weight did you lose? And I'm only curious about that, because some people think I can never do it. And it's you know, I'm too far gone. Or they have this idea that they just can't do it do MMA? I mean, this is a very, very personal question.
Angie Brown Harris 12:30
I don't mind it, I don't mind at all. In my early 20s, I weighed about 195 pounds. And I currently fluctuate between about 145 and 150. So it was I gained and lost between about 195 and 175. For a long time, I did that swing for a long time. And then when I started with my friends who is a nutrition coach, I was about 175. And my goal was to get to 155. And then my body just kind of naturally landed in the 145 spots. Like I was not like oh my gosh, let me see if I can lose another pound. Let me lose, see if I can lose another five. It was just I had shifted the way that I ate and how that I approached food. And this is where my body naturally figured out was a good place to be. Oh,
Dana Frost 13:24
I love what you just said. Because that is I don't know if it's a secret or the key. I don't know what it is. But each person each body has a place of, in essence kind of optimal weight. Yeah, when we make peace with food, and when we use food as it's designed to be used, which is fuel for our existence here on Earth. And when we have that relationship with food, the body harmonizes itself.
Angie Brown Harris 13:58
Yeah. And it's a conversation that I have a lot with my clients actually, I had it just yesterday with with a client that I've worked with for a long time. And she was frustrated because she just been hanging out at this one weight and she wanted wants to get down to the lowest weight she had seen. And I said to her why is that important to you? What if where you are is where your body likes to be? What if you're not stuck here, but this is where your body is saying this is a healthy good place for me to be. And she said, I've never thought of it that way. Before I said, Well, this might cost me some money because you're going to not pay me anymore. You know, like that's really what I'm looking for. For every one of the people that I work with. You know, it's not about being as small as you can possibly be. What No,
Dana Frost 14:57
yeah, and it's not chasing a number you either. So this brings me to something that I've gone through over the past six months, personally. And that is my ideal weight hung around 128. Okay. And over the past year, it's more like 134 35. Uh huh, there was a part of me that thought there's something wrong, you know, there was part of me that was like, Oh, do I need to lose weight. And I just kind of tried to stay tuned in and, you know, what's happening. And, you know, I've got my labs, and I know all about food, and I know about labs and all of that. And, and, you know, I settled in, oh, this is where my body wants to be at this stage in my life, for whatever reason. I mean, I feel like I can do more squats than I've ever done. And I don't really work out. In this phase, there's, I'm not really working out a lot. I'm doing my yoga that's really for my joint health. And I do movement every day. But it's really free flow movement that includes using my body for some strength training. And I think in the future, I'm gonna get to some more purpose to string training, but I feel able and capable. And that feels really good. And it's there
Angie Brown Harris 16:21
anything better than that?
Dana Frost 16:23
I know. Yeah. So it was just this interesting internal process I went through of why do I think I need to be what what used to be optimal. Maybe this is where is optimal for me right now. And it was really it was liberating to settle into that and, and to not see it as, oh, this is, you know, gaining weight as you grow older, and you're just going to be here. Now I feel great. I feel functionally I actually feel better than I did several years ago, when I was thinner. This is a really rich conversation, because I think that it's just so easy to become focused on a number when it comes to our weight instead of how do we feel like zoned in on? How do you feel in your skin? How do you feel with the cells that you have right now our cells are continually turning over, we're sloughing off cells that are no longer working for us. And we're, you know, our body is creating more cells, and we're continually regenerating ourselves, if we can stay in a healthy state where we're able to let go, let go through elimination to sweat through just emotional release, let go of the things that feel heavy, not just physically, but also emotionally.
Angie Brown Harris 17:43
Yeah, and I remind my clients a lot like there is value in monitoring your body weight, it is not the only metric by which we monitor your success, your health, any of those things, that number that the scale shows us shows us your relationship with gravity, when you can really understand that that doesn't show you your value that doesn't show you your capability that doesn't necessarily show you a health state, it can if you're weighing 350 pounds or something like I'm struggling to walk up a set of stairs and tie your shoes like that's a different thing. But what's different about your life at 135 pounds versus 128 pounds? Are you moving your body in a way that you enjoy? Are you cultivating relationships and activities that bring you joy? Are you nourishing yourself in a way that is satisfying to you? Like those are not things that we can find on a scale?
Dana Frost 18:48
Beautifully said Angie, really beautifully said.
Angie Brown Harris 18:51
And I'm a weight loss coach? I mean, come on. Yeah,
Dana Frost 18:54
yeah. You know, as we're it's so funny, and I'm just gonna say this when we plan this episode, it was thriving with autoimmunity, because you do have Hashimotos. I do want to circle back to that. But I actually think this conversation about weight loss is something that's so valuable to women and men, as we desire to feel younger as we grow older. And to have the framework that is a healthy mindset about our way is a really important, I think point of conversation. So let's circle back to one. Okay, I just want you to tell our listeners, what is Hashimotos I know it's my mother has Hashimotos and I've been very purposeful about because I watched her symptoms and I watched how it impacted her and so early on, I harnessed the knowledge I had and guided myself in essence to avoid the expression of that of that gene or I don't know if it's an actual gene, but it's it does have some this genetic there's a genetic component. Yeah. So would you tell the listeners exactly what is Hashima autos.
Angie Brown Harris 20:00
So Hashimotos is auto immune hypothyroidism. So to sort of dumb it down for people is my body thinks that my thyroid is an invader. And my immune system is attacking my thyroid. So what I have more than anything is not necessarily a thyroid dysfunction is I have an overactive immune system, I have an immune system that is recognizing something that is not a threat as a threat. So what I do on a daily basis is support my immune system to calm down is to like come into this little more restful, hey, everything's okay, we're good, calm down, everything's fine state. And that is a challenge for someone like me, who is a little type A and go, go go, because that go provides for an elevated kind of inflammatory triggered state that keeps that immune system firing.
Dana Frost 21:15
That was beautifully described. So tell me, what are the things that you do to support your immune system? Because I do believe that I read that you had really shifted your thyroid antibody numbers at some point. Could you tell the listeners what are the you know, really just practical things that you do?
Angie Brown Harris 21:35
Yeah. So as I said, My dad has Hashimotos, all I've ever seen him do is take synthetic thyroid hormone. He is because he just has a traditional doctor. And that's all he's ever done. And he's exhausted and fatigued. And I would love for him to do things differently, but he can't change other people. So when I, when I initially got my diagnosis, I as I was waiting to see my functional medicine doctor, I dove into every resource that I could find podcasts, online resources, books, everything. And every one of them the very first thing that it said to do was eliminate gluten. And I was like, no. So I continued to look for the one the one resource that would tell me that I didn't need to eliminate gluten, and I still haven't found it. So gluten elimination was part of a big elimination diet that my functional medicine doctor had me do. But that is the one thing that is just absolutely non negotiable for me. When I eat it, people are often intrigued to learn that gluten for me when I eat, it doesn't ever show up as GI distress. It shows up as brain fog. It shows up as every joint in my body hurts, and I get super, super fatigued and I can't sleep. That's how gluten shows up in in my body. And I have taken a plethora of supplements kind of off and on over the years. Nothing's super, super impactfully. Rest is a big one, I have to honor the rest. If I run two days in a row, I have to rest on that third day. If I do something big and physical two days in a row, I have to rest on that third day. And I think second to eliminating gluten. The thing that has been unbelievable without question super impactful to me is the lifewave phototherapy patches. Like I cannot tell you what a difference those little babies have made for me without question.
Dana Frost 23:43
Okay, this is really interesting, because our episodes going to air one week after a solo episode of mine. And I did touch on the lifewave phototherapy patches. So Angie, can you tell me which patches you use and tell me how it's what's been the impact of these patches for you.
Angie Brown Harris 24:05
So I came to know lifewave patches last October, and I heard about them probably on an FN LP call with you and Monique and I ended up having a conversation with Monique about them. And I'm like, let me just let me just try like I know that any healing that I can do to my body needs to come from the inside out. And that is exactly what these patches which seems insane that you stick this thing on your skin and it makes a difference at the level of your stem cells. But I'm like, Okay, how many supplements have I taken over the years? Trusting somebody's opinion of them and I can't tell if they're doing anything or if they're not. So let me stick this thing on and see what happens. She also told me about the glutathione patch, which glutathione was a supplement that my functional medicine doctor had recommended to me. And I self admittedly am a terrible pill taker. It's difficult for me to swallow them, I have a hard time remembering to take them. It's just a challenge that I continually work on. And I'm like, if I can just stick this thing on my skin, and this can support my liver support my immune system. Let me just try What the Hey, so I ordered x 39. And glutathione was where I started. And within about a week, I remember thinking, Man, I slept well last night. Like, couldn't I just wake up in this rested state that I hadn't before? I would, I mean, I wouldn't ever tell you that I was a poor sleeper. Like, I was always a pretty good sleeper. But I would sort of drag myself out of bed in the morning, like, okay, here we go. But I would wake up actually feeling rested. And so that was just huge, like, Okay, I'll keep wearing these things. And then not long after I started wearing x 39. I think it was last November when the national convention was that they announced x 49. And I did not get to go to the convention. But Monique shared X 49 with me and the information and how about muscle recovery. And I was heading into training for my 10th marathon and the first marathon that I had trained for post autoimmune diagnosis. And so I thought, if this is something that I can do to help my body recover and keep my system in such that it will keep me from going into a flare during this time. This is something I'm worth giving, giving a shot to. So I started wearing x 49. And then I added in the Aeon at night to just kind of help with the anti inflammatory state as I was increasing the number of miles that I was running, and such. And I got to my marathon without having a flare, I ran, I felt like a million bucks. It was it was amazing. Here's the kicker, here's the big Goldstar wait three weeks before my marathon. So peak of training, right? Like, highest number of miles that I'm running is my annual exam with my functional medicine doctor, and I have my blood drawn, and I have my antibodies tested. A year ago, I'm going to give you actual values because people some people may listening may know what they they are. So a year ago, my TPO was 1960. And my TPA
28:02
was six, something six something
Angie Brown Harris 28:07
this year, my TPO was 298. And my TPA was 29. The one thing that I have done different in the last year, the one thing is add those lifewave patches to my regimen. Wow. Wow, I take a probiotic, I take my Cynthia or my Armour Thyroid, like I have a very low dose of actual thyroid hormone. That's the one thing that I have done different is adding lifewave patches, and it made all the difference in the world.
Dana Frost 28:45
That is amazing. And that is a testimony that needs to be shared. I'm so glad that you shared it with our listeners because it really is the power of healing at the speed of light.
Angie Brown Harris 28:56
And from the from the inside out
Dana Frost 28:59
from the inside out. Yeah, the patches are not transdermal there's nothing going into the skin, the patches are using the energy system. The Nano Crystal technology sends a signal to the brain. And the brain signals the body to create these biological shifts. It's very powerful technology, I really believe it is the technology for the future. We know from other practitioners outside of lifewave using stem cell technology and light therapy are those are two technologies that are the future of medicine. And we are both in the power of a simple patch patch and go. Yeah, it is it's very, very powerful. So I mean, how exciting Angie to go from body break down to healing your own healing journey. And then really over the past nine months to experience a whole nother level of function and optimization.
Angie Brown Harris 29:58
Yep, yep, it It really, because when I, when I got my diagnosis, initially, my practitioner my, my functional medicine doctor, like I was not running at all, we needed to just like full, we were doing all the things to calm my system down as a whole. And so I was not running at all. And when I was released to run after a couple of months, she said you can run but no more than twice a week, and no more than an hour at a time. And that first two miles that I ran was like, oh, like it just, I don't run because it makes my pants fit. I don't run because it burns calories, right? Like I run because it feeds me I run because I love it. And so to have this thing, which is also how I process life, and what is going on when I have have something that I need to deal with, I go for a run and had this thing that he needed to deal with. And it couldn't do the thing that I do to deal with the things. And so it was really, really difficult for me. And so every little baby step that I could make it back to was like, okay, and I ran a half marathon and that was going well. And then I tried to train for a marathon and my buddies said, Nope, not ready, not doing it. And so then COVID hit and racist weren't happening at all. But then when I decided, Okay, I'm going to do this, again, everything that I can do to support my system. I'm going to do and to have these patches just be really the scaffolding, which with I built the rest of my sort of health care regime on is been a game changer, game changer for me.
Dana Frost 31:42
Well, Angie, you just have such a beautiful story. And I know that you are a skilled practitioner, and we will make sure that your contact information is in the show notes so people know where they can find you. Yeah, so Angie, would you tell us what does feeling younger while growing older mean to you?
31:59
What does feeling younger
Angie Brown Harris 32:01
while growing older mean to me? It means being able to do the things that I love to do that I know, nourish me on every level and doing it on a part of unapologetically forever. That's that's what it means to me.
Dana Frost 32:26
I love that. Thank you so much, Angie, it's just been such a pleasure to have you as a guest on the vital your podcast. Thank you.
Angie Brown Harris 32:32
Thank you.
Dana Frost 32:34
Thank you for joining me on the Wajdi liyu podcast. Now next week, I'm going to come to you for another solo episode to share my experience at my 40 years of Zen training. And that's going to be followed by my one year podcast anniversary. So if you have any conversation requests, please let me know. And if you're enjoying these conversations, please hit subscribe and download spread the love with the review and share it with your friends. Your feedback is music to my heart. And till next week, I am streaming love from my heart to yours