W/ ANNE MARIE GARLAND

BIO 

Anne Marie is a Nutritional Health Coach passionate in showing you how to make detoxing your body, home, and diet simple and successful. After being diagnosed with Celiac disease, she found healing by focusing on her health holistically; Not just cleaning up her diet, but also by reducing the toxins she put on/in her body, home, and relationships.

"Now I help other women kind of break free of the dieting mentality. And they do that through autoimmune protocols or elimination diets. We just figure out what the perfect diet is for them, rather than going more towards dogmatic diets: dieting and being told what to eat."

"From my understanding, your immune system is suppressed when you're pregnant. And so that's why pregnant women tend to get sick quicker. But because of that, it also can help women's autoimmune diseases go into remission during pregnancy."

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Allison 0:16
Hey there and welcome back to the How do you health podcast, the MSW lounge podcast weekly posting conversations with people who live healthy lives and kind of just talking about how they do it. We're turning health into a verb and we're super proud of that. My name is Alison, you'll hear my voice a little bit. But we also have Jonathan Mendoza, ER nurse practitioner and chiropractor at MSW lounge. Today, we interviewed Anne Marie garland from grass fed salsa. She is the nutritionist behind ditch your nutritionist, a self paced online program that allows people to configure their own dietary program based on their needs. And Emory is awesome because she really helps women figure out what foods work for them what foods don't and how to be able to read that in your body. We had a really good conversation with her it was a lot of fun. And we learned a lot of stuff. Emery is currently pregnant. So we get into that a little bit and it's just a really all around a great a great podcast. We had a lot of fun. So thanks Anne Marie. She is also the co host of the unbound healing podcast which you can go ahead and find I'll put that in the show notes. And yeah, so this episode is Episode Four of the How to you health podcast and we're brought to you as always by slender Ella, the liver detoxing, fat burning shot and flabs to fitness. Bringing you 20 minute workouts you can do anywhere. Today we are also brought to you by hemp 360 and they are a skincare and lotion company making all of their products from natural sources, specifically hemp, but they also use things like coconut oil and charcoal and coffee and depending on the product, a bunch of different natural and anti inflammatory things that will treat your skin well without adding toxins to it. Love them and they've actually given us a discount code that is good through October 15. If you use the code flabs to fitness to five at checkout you will get 25% off of your purchase on hemp 360 dot com so that is H e mp 360 dot com. Use the code FL ABS to fit an E SS two five at checkout and you will get 25% off your entire order on hemp 360 s website. I love their stuff. I've recently reviewed them and they're just an awesome company based out of New Braunfels, Texas. And since we're in Austin, it's kind of close to my heart that they're nearby. So check them out for sure and enjoy the show. We are live on Facebook and on Instagram now awesome. Hey guys, welcome to the How do you help podcast? Here we have john Mendoza, of course. And we have Anne Marie garland with us today. How's it going guys? Good. So y'all were just chatting a little bit. Got some good conversation heading yells way. First, let's just go ahead and start. JOHN, I know you're super into nutrition, so and has a pretty cool history with that. But why don't you just kind of give us your your overview and we always say how do you help? So in a nutshell, how do you help what brought you to wanting to live a healthier lifestyle?

Anne Marie Garland 3:40
So my healthy lifestyle actually started in kind of like a false sense. I guess it started with a with a static goals, which I think is how a lot of women kind of start their health journey. But mine was in college, I gained weight really rapidly actually kind of started in high school, but it really took a turn for the worst in college. And so I developed some very disordered eating tendencies, which lasted about three years, eventually even worked its way into a full blown eating disorder, which I don't really talk about very much something that I'm still kind of trying to process myself even though I'm on the other side of it. But it didn't really change until I got rid of some destructive or I guess I wouldn't say destructive but just unhealthy relationships in my life and started dating my now husband. So moving towards a much better, a much better relationship, much more supportive relationship. And once I did that, my health took a much better turn. So not only did my health improved, but also I was able to kind of work my way out of that disordered eating tendencies. able to work through my eating disorder. And I think a huge portion of that was my husband's support. But also it was his education. So previously, like all of my health and nutrition education came from like self magazine, and healthy living blogs and was all focused on calories. And after I met James, I started focusing more on my autoimmune diseases that I was diagnosed with, and like the health issues that I'm actually passionate about now. And a lot of that education came directly from my husband also came from the Institute and an integrative nutrition. So I got my health coaching certification there, and then furthered that education with nutritional therapy. And that's kind of where I'm at now. So now I help other women kind of break free of the dieting mentality. And they do that through autoimmune protocols or elimination diets, just figure out what the perfect diet is for them, rather than going more towards dogmatic diet, dieting and being told what to eat.

Jon Mendoza 6:11
That's cool. So I know that you said you've been certified and as a nutritionist, and so you talked about doing that for an autoimmune disorder like a client all that but you said you have a couple. So do you mind sharing like what you're what you're dealing with?

Anne Marie Garland 6:26
Yeah, of course. So I've been diagnosed with several I was diagnosed with celiac disease when I was 21 years old. And so it was right after I graduated college, and my entire life, I was probably dealing with celiac disease. I mean, I like as a child was always complaining of stomach aches and never like nausea. And so my mom who's a nurse is now kind of kicking herself. She's like, Oh, yeah, like it makes sense. Now, you were always saying your stomach hurt. But not that I like felt sick or anything like that. But I was just diagnosed with IBS and chronic constipation. And then finally, like being in the dorms and sharing a bathroom with like, 20 other girls, I found out that going to the bathroom once every three weeks was not a normal thing, because nobody talks about constipation, or how often they should be going to the bathroom. So I found out that it wasn't normal that I was only going to the bathroom every few weeks, and things started kind of escalating. My health started deteriorating. It all kind of came to a head I was severely anemic, and my roommates took me to the emergency room because of severe stomach distension. I found I was severely anemic. I went back to my primary care doctor to kind of find out why they thought I had some type of internal bleeding. They talked about cancer and bone marrow testing. And finally a hematologist, which is a blood specialist suggested I go on a gluten free diet. And this was nine, nine years ago now. So I had no idea really what gluten free was at the time. He said, I think you have celiac disease. And that's what's causing this, go on a gluten free diet. So I did and within a month, my iron levels were all normal. And so then they tested me for celiac disease, which came back negative at that point, I'd already been gluten free for eight weeks. But the hematologist told me that with my like with as profound results as I had from being gluten free that I likely had celiac disease. So I've just lived my life. And that way I say that I have celiac disease, I don't really care that I didn't get a positive diagnosis. I know some people are very strict about that. But for me, it's like if you know something is working for you, why not just live your life in that way. I was also diagnosed with endometriosis when I was like 17 or 18, I was on birth control to kind of help alleviate those symptoms. Now, again, this was another like assumption diagnosis, I guess you could say because I didn't have an internal scope to confirm that I had endometriosis. And so that could be an issue. Still, it could not. But my periods I went off birth control again when I met my husband who kind of helped influence me in the direction of getting off synthetic hormones. And at that point, I was off birth control for several months and was experiencing still hormonal issues that I had been experiencing for a long time. And so I went to a integrative doctor and was diagnosed with pcls at that point. So instead of taking bioidentical hormones, I did a lot of research on different supplements I could take in different ways to help support my body and its own ability to like kind of fight that off and implement an autoimmune protocol and within a year different Dr. So I never went back to that same doctor who diagnosed me with pcls by went to a different one. He looked at my labs, my current labs with the labs that I had from a year prior. And he said that I didn't have any signs of pcls anymore, but based on my previous step blood test results who have diagnosed me with the same thing. So either I was mis diagnosed, or I healed it within a year. So you

Allison 10:26
said you did an autoimmune protocol? Can you explain kind of what that is?

Anne Marie Garland 10:29
Yeah. So autoimmune protocol is what I focus my practice on. Now, it's not what I started out doing. But this is the primary focus now. And the autoimmune protocol is an elimination and reintroduction, diet that helps to put autoimmune diseases and symptoms into remission. And the way it works is by eliminating a strategic set of foods that are known to trigger autoimmune diseases for a variety of different reasons, and those reasons vary depending on what the food is. But it's going to be a soy gluten, dairy grains, Nightshade, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, refined sugars, alcohol, so free of all these things that make it very, very difficult for somebody like me, who has disordered eating history to comply with, and it's, it's something that I feel like is very, in need of like having support through the process and grace with yourself. So not trying to do it with 100% compliance, if that doesn't work for you, and just having a lot of like freedom and flexibility within that template. And eventually getting to a place where you can comply with it. 100%. So you can really see the success that it can provide. So you

Allison 11:48
listed a ton of stuff that you can't eat. Yeah, this protocol, I find when I'm explaining AIP, it's a lot easier to say what I can eat. So it freaks people out less. So what do you eat on this protocol?

Anne Marie Garland 11:59
Yeah. So it's, it's funny that you say that because I was just in one of my online programs, I was just talking with my, my students about about this exact same topic, going to a restaurant and stuff saying, I can't have this, this and this, what can I have on your menu? Instead saying, is there a way that you can make me as an example, is there a way you can make me filet a salmon filet with olive oil instead of butter, and then some sauteed vegetables that you saw today, an olive oil and sea salt, no spices? And that would be something where they're like, Oh, yeah, actually, we have all of those things, we can make that for you. Or maybe they can't. But those are just ways that you can like make it easier for you to be able to dine out and comply. Rather than trying to tell somebody these are all things that I can't do.

Baldo 12:51
I assumed people would give out a card. Like don't give me this

Unknown Speaker 12:56
card they were

Anne Marie Garland 12:59
right, which works, but then it's overwhelming for somebody else. And they're like, well, I don't even know this looks like completely overwhelming, I have no idea what you could eat. So what I eat when I am following the autoimmune protocol, and to clarify this, so this is a very strategic thing. So you, you eliminate these foods for a certain amount of time until a certain amount of healing has occurred. And that's going to look different for everybody based on how long you've been sick, for example, is pretty much the way to start. But after you get to a good place in your health and your healing journey, at that point, you would start to reintroduce the foods in a very strategic way. And what that does is it allows you to identify which of those foods are triggering your autoimmune disease. And so for me, I've been through this I tried it twice. As a vegetarian, I was vegetarian since I was a little kid, and didn't succeed either time, I lost no more than a week, each time it was just too restrictive and not capacity. So I focused on reintroducing animal proteins into my diet, and then try it again a third time with a different mindset and was just in a much better place with my history with food or my relationship with food, and had a lot of success within the first week. And I have different theories on why I found success so quickly and no idea if they're legit or not. I don't happen to have the mthfr gene mutation of like detoxing, I have the calm t gene mutation, but that's more for neurotransmitters rather than the way that you detoxify other things. So I think maybe I was just able to like process everything really well as it was coming out in my body anyway. So I felt really good within a week which helped motivate me to stay on it for for quite a while. Anyway, so now I'm at the point where I know what triggers my autoimmune diseases and I'm able to like customize my diet. Like, what AIP foods I can and cannot include into my diet and the way I look at foods and the way I kind of classify foods for both myself and for my students and my online program is you have your besties your acquaintances and your enemies. So your besties are the foods that you can eat all the time on a daily basis, get hang out with them all the time. The acquaintances you can see it social occasions and holidays and the enemies you avoid at all costs. And with the enemies, I do have some enemies that sneak their way into my diet. And then I have some enemies that are just like totally non negotiable. So for me personally, having celiac I have like gluten as an enemy that is completely non negotiable. I will never intentionally eat it. But then I have some enemies like nuts and seeds that don't, I don't tolerate Well, they make me pretty emotional. But if I'm like, Girls Night hanging out with my friends, and I'm in like a relaxed atmosphere, I have a snake, you know, gluten free cookie that has nuts and seeds, because I feel like that being with my girlfriends will help negate the emotional effects I get from nuts and seeds. And those cookies

Allison 16:06
are delicious. I go to girls night with and and they're wonderful.

Jon Mendoza 16:11
Yeah, I have a question with the concerning the emotional aspects. You keep talking about the gut issue, and I heard you talk about a genetic issue. You mentioned the methylation factor issue, as well as calm tea. Can you tell us a little bit about what you found? Because it sounds like you have some mental health issues that you've been dealing with? You mentioned that you disorder, tell me how fixing your gut health helped you with your mental health? You

Anne Marie Garland 16:36
know, it's I've never made that connection until you just now said this. So that's really interesting to me. I wonder how much of my former like eating tendencies were related to meat eating food side and tolerate well, and how a lot of those tendencies and the eating disorder were able to resolve themselves as I healed my gut. Because I know now what I didn't know then I actually just recently found out about this comm t genetic mutation. Is that what the content mutation does? Is it your body can't process or it doesn't detoxify your neurotransmitters? Well, and so people with the come to mutation have anxiety, depression, rage, now I don't have depression or rage, I have always had anxiety. It used to be a lot worse. But I've noticed that the cleaner ate eat and the more like magnesium rich foods I eat the better I feel because those helped me detoxify those neurotransmitters. So I'm curious. Now, if that had a correlation with all that,

Jon Mendoza 17:39
well, the reason I asked is because a lot of times we associate the brain as the, or the gut as the second brain. So the reason why is because you keep mentioning neurotransmitters like the duodenum produces more serotonin in the brain does like I think produces 95% of our serotonin. So if you have an intestinal tract that can't digest any food, it's no wonder why people are depressed all the time. I mean, they feel like, Hey, I love this brownie, or this, you know, this almond, Cookie or whatever, but I can't eat it, because it's gonna tear me up inside, and then it's not gonna make me feel good, and I'm gonna feel guilty about it. And maybe I even have a little depression. And you know, because of it. And the reason I asked about cleaning it up is because a lot of times when we eat food, we look at it as a fixation on love, or emotion, right? Like you talked about that, like, I know, in my family, if you don't have a third helping a food, it means that you didn't love them as much that day because you didn't eat their food, you know. So it's not, I don't know, where this association with loving food comes into play. But food is really nutrients, right? Like she talked about cleaning up your food and their enemies. And I love that aspect of when you say these are my besties. And I'm sure you have some frenemies on that list. If you have your outlook on it to where you say, this is something that gets along with me, not necessarily because it makes me feel better, but because it also is healing me from the inside, then you look at food differently. And so I'm pretty sure that even mentally the way that you view, like a salad versus what you used to back in the day, now you probably have it we say, Well, this is going to be something that adds to my health, not only with my gut health, but mostly my mental health, because now I know that I feel better when I eat this way.

Anne Marie Garland 19:12
Yep, exactly. There's a podcast that touched on this same topic from all in the mind. And it was about like the way the gut brain is connected. And it's something that I talked about my program too, because your vagus nerve connects directly to your, your brain directly to your gut. And so and they're said that there they transmit the bacteria from your gut. There's like this relationship between the symbiotic bacteria in your gut, and this nerve in your brain. And so it is something that I feel like definitely needs to be explored further into how mental health is related to get help.

Jon Mendoza 19:48
Yeah, no, I agree completely. And I find it to where, if people have an eating disorder, one of the things that fixate on is depression. And you you hear about these people who like basically Benji, not the anorexic ones, right? But the binge eaters they overcompensate they, he overindulge. And then they get rid of it. And there's this connection that you have to where this food, even though doesn't agree with you, you still kind of continue to that cycle of depression. And you know, when you start looking at it, you wonder why people can't get out of this cycle, right? They don't make a huge dramatic change. And so something like you did was probably a 180 from what you had been doing before. Right, right. But you said this is like 10 years ago, right? So like, you can imagine what gluten free products were like back then I'm pretty sure there weren't even gluten free products, right? You had to probably say, I'm just not getting bread.

Anne Marie Garland 20:35
Yeah, there was Czech cereal, really crappy bread.

Jon Mendoza 20:39
The cardboard stuff that fell apart? Yeah,

Anne Marie Garland 20:42
pretty much ate like any low calorie food. I could like 100 calorie bags, popcorn. And because you're

Allison 20:48
still dealing with the disorder of like, I don't want to eat a lot of calories at time two. Yeah, I was gonna say to you about like the depression and the eating disorder, kind of connection. Both of those conditions as mental states on their own are associated with low serotonin levels. So like, again, if you're binging on food that doesn't agree with you, so therefore, your gut isn't creating serotonin, then you're sad. Or if you start outside, and then you start benching to try and feel better, you get a hit of the happy hormone dopamine for a little bit. But then it screws up your gut and causes your long term serotonin to drop, and then perpetuates the cycle that way, it's like, anywhere you start, you're going to just kind of hop into this cycle that continues to push itself.

Jon Mendoza 21:34
Well, we're ingrained into this, this idea that we're so fixated on food, because the same receptors in the brain that go for pain, or opioids, and all that are the same things that go for chocolate and sugar and sugar. So like, if you like, think about it, like I stopped drinking, like six years ago. And, you know, beer was like my go to drink. And so it was all sugar, right? So when I stopped drinking, my brain was like, we need sugar. Like we need it somehow. So I went on to tell like on a telefax and drink tons of Dr. Pepper after that, because my brain needed those receptors to work again. So you know, you you wonder why there's such a heavy connection to food is because we only need that food for nutrients, but we need it in order to function. So like we need dopamine and serotonin levels to be there. And if our gut is being disrupted, because the flora and the gut is not able to absorb all the nutrients we're taking in then no wonder we're gonna have poor levels of serotonin will walk around all depressed all the time,

Allison 22:26
right? Yeah. Speaking of hormone levels, too. I just wanted to bring this back to an a little bit she, if you guys can't tell on the videos, because she's very tall. She's 27 Weeks Pregnant? How tall? Are you? Five 511 so she doesn't look as pregnant as she is. She stands up and in the videos, you really can't even tell. Um, so you said you had pcls. And then you kind of use your food to heal. heal yourself a little bit through that. Like, did you find? Have you been testing hormones? Like how did you come to be able to

Anne Marie Garland 22:58
be pregnant now? Yeah, so I had a miscarriage that my husband and I tried to start, we decided to start trying last year around I want to say like September and got pregnant really quickly. And then I had a miscarriage in January, and we don't know what caused the miscarriage. But we anyway, so at that point, my James actually got me a Dutch hormone panel for our anniversary gift in April, which everybody thinks is hilarious. Because he said, Well, this will help us to have a baby will know like what your hormones are doing throughout the month, we'll know if it was like low progesterone or something that triggered the miscarriage. And we ended up getting pregnant before I could even take the test. So I obviously don't have any trouble conceiving. So I'm guessing that AIP is working really well for pcls for me, and for endometriosis, and that fact, and this one's stuck. So we're hoping that everything continues to go well, okay.

Jon Mendoza 24:06
Well, I want to ask you some real quick. So do you have like family history of pcls and like the polycystic ovarian syndrome is the tip the name actually of this? And the reason I find this very interesting is because we're talking about hormones in this. The drug gets given for that women is Metformin, right? And Metformin is a diabetic drug. So I was wondering, like, do you have diabetes in your family?

Anne Marie Garland 24:30
No, no, there's no diabetes in my family. And there's a very on both sides of my family. I have autoimmunity issues, but nobody was diagnosed with celiac. So it just kind of manifested in a different way for me, I guess.

Jon Mendoza 24:44
So you're the very unique blend of all these weird genetic things that are popping up from this, like this mix of pcls endometriosis, which is also a uterine disorder to rise and like an overgrowth of the lining, right, which makes it harder to get pregnant as well. Yeah. And it's painful. As well, right? So you're telling me that the diet that you switched around not only was for celiac disease, but it was helping you with possible endometriosis and pcls. And now you're saying it's also keeping you pregnant on top of that?

Anne Marie Garland 25:13
Yeah, so actually, I can't take credit for that. Because my first trimester was horrible. I was hardly eating any food. And what I was eating was not AIP at all. So I had a lot of white potatoes, and like gluten free waffles, that's pretty much all I could eat. So I can't take credit for AIP keeping me pregnant, and like keeping this Pregnancy Healthy. But previously, I was following AIP. Pre prior to both conceptions, I was following AIP and I specifically did that for health like for consumption health. So yeah, that's that was the intent and the reason why this potentially could work is that endometriosis is debated, but it's it is to be considered an autoimmune disease as as pcls. And so both of those, the autoimmune protocol would ideally help know

Unknown Speaker 26:09
something. Sorry, go ahead.

Jon Mendoza 26:10
Well, I was gonna say should really watch your blood sugar now and like, do they? Do they monitor that closely? Yeah,

Anne Marie Garland 26:14
I usually have low blood sugar. Um, I'll have to take the blood sugar test. So I have a glucometer that'll have to test myself with in the next week to make sure everything's good with pregnancy. But yeah, blood sugar hasn't really

Jon Mendoza 26:28
ever been an issue for me. It's just been too long, though.

Anne Marie Garland 26:31
My dad got my dad has hypoglycemic too. So which is interesting, like pcls

Jon Mendoza 26:35
is an insulin issue, right? So it might be that you have you eat so well, that your insulin never spikes too much, right. And so you always have like a really low blood sugar. So you probably get hangry a lot, right? When

Anne Marie Garland 26:46
it's gotten better. When I when I was diagnosed with PCs, I was also diagnosed with insulin resistance. And what I credit my like success with with getting that under control was butter coffee. So I drank butter coffee ate a really low carb diet for about a year, it worked really, really well. For me, I know, it doesn't work for everybody. But I drink better coffee probably like four to five days a week for breakfast. So I did intermittent fasting, I made sure that I ate a lot of calories throughout the day. So it wasn't a low calorie diet, it was just pretty much low carb. And honestly, until I got pregnant, I might me and my husband were both eating pretty low carb, in general. But I'm very much like an intuitive eater. Now, this is something that I've kind of developed over the last couple years with AIP. And so there, I don't track anything anymore. And so I just go through periods where I'll eat an entire bag of Jackson's lawsuit ketchups because I feel like I need the carbs. And that's what feels good to me. And then I won't have anything like super high starch for a few days after that, you know, I just kind of go with whatever, whatever feels good. And pretty much as soon as I was done with it with like, once I got tested for pcls and found out that that was better. And that my I wasn't showing signs of insulin resistance anymore. I kind of just stopped craving butter coffee and started eating breakfast again. So I feel like if you if you can tune into like what your body is actually telling you, it will like guide you in the right direction. Right?

Allison 28:22
I was just gonna ask something you mentioned in our last Girls Night A couple weeks ago, you can correct me if this is no longer the case. But you were saying that since you've gotten pregnant, you haven't noticed as many autoimmune reactions because your immune system is kind of tampered with when

Anne Marie Garland 28:35
you're pregnant. Can you like elaborate on that? A little bit? Yeah, so from my understanding, I'm not an expert on this, but for my understanding your immune system is suppressed when you're pregnant. And so that's why pregnant women tend to get sick quicker. But because of that also can help women's autoimmune diseases go into remission during pregnancy. And so every single food that I have realized triggers my autoimmune disease I've been able to tolerate without any issue since I got pregnant, but the only thing I haven't tried is gluten.

Jon Mendoza 29:07
That's so cool. That makes sense. Like if you think if you go to a room I talk, I know you mentioned hematologist, but let's say somebody showed up like a positive ama, like oh, now you got to see the rheumatologist. They would put you on auto immune drugs that suppress the immune system, right. And so like tamoxifen is one of the ones that they give. prednisone is another one that they give to but like they always if you listen to commercials on TV, if they have like an RA, for example, they say at that area and the side effect could be weak immune system, if you get a susceptible ammonia or something like that, like then it's going to lead to possible side effects that would include an infection. So like, when you compromise your immune system, it's amazing because you're almost like, teetering back and forth with your autoimmune disorder. Right? So like, if you look at it, you're managing it right? So it might not ever go away. But you know that you can manage the symptoms based off of what your body's telling you. But I mean, what happens if someone doesn't recognize that? It's not normal to go to the bathroom for a whole week? You know, like, what do you tell people who are living with chronic pain or gut issues? And that haven't they've seen all these doctors and said, well, they told me everything was fine. Like, what do you tell them?

Anne Marie Garland 30:17
Well, I tell them outside normal, like if they if they aren't feeling energized and excited, then it's not normal. they're experiencing some type of either chronic inflammation or chronic pain or they just aren't as healthy as they could be in others a better way around that are interesting that you're bringing this up now because in my podcast, I have a podcast called the unbound healing podcast. It's geared towards autoimmune and chronic illness. And we do something each week where we have a, like, what we're up to, and our weekly updates. And I was actually just thinking the other day, I forgot to mention it when I recorded today, but um, about how I feel really happy. Like, every single day, I feel very happy with my life and very fulfilled. And it's not because of job satisfaction or relationship. It's just because I feel very healthy. I feel like even when I feel tired, because I didn't have a good night's sleep, I still feel really great. And that's not something that I could have said 10 years ago when I was dealing with chronic fatigue, and reflux. And I was getting winded just by walking because I was so anemic. And all of these things that at the time, I didn't even realize were an issue. A lot of those I didn't know, were issues until somebody told me they were issues. I started being on medication. And then we'd go off the medication and it would come back and I'm like, Oh, yeah, like I. So for example, when they tested me for celiac disease, they didn't upper gi and found out I have a very large hiatal hernia. And they so they put me on a they're like, Well, do you get reflex? Do you get heartburn? I said, No. And so they put me on an acid blocker. And when I found out what it was actually doing, and that I probably shouldn't be on that I went off of it and immediately got reflux. And I was like, I remember feeling this my entire life. But it was one of those things where I didn't know that I wasn't feeling good at that moment. And so now I just feel like if you're not happy in your day to day life, and it's not triggered by something that you can like, identify, then I would assume that you probably aren't as healthy as you could be. And you could benefit from changing your diet, changing your lifestyle changing your mindset. Yeah,

Jon Mendoza 32:37
that's, that's cool. I mean, as we encounter more and more autoimmune disorders, it no longer is it just lupus, we're looking for Ra. I mean, we're talking hundreds and hundreds of disorders. You keep talking celiac, as an autoimmune disorder. pcls. I mean, hashimotos is a very common one, you know, and, and I, I gave myself gout, you know, from poor eating habits. And that's like an autoimmune disorder for me, too. So like, even low back issues, could that be considered an autoimmune disorder, possibly, to some extent, you created it, and your body's like, gonna have to deal with it for the rest of your life. But, I mean, most people don't realize that there's a way to make themselves healthier by simply changing their diet. And then the thing you keep referring to is like, you know, the autoimmune protocol. And if somebody were to say, hey, like, I want to make this change, because it might help me with my knee pain, or my back pain my skin, I mean, most doctors are not going to tell them about this protocol, right? Most doctors do not know what this is, right? So they have to search out someone like yourself, who maybe has lived the story and says, Yes, this is a protocol to look for I so you said like you do like online seminars or training lectures, like stuff too. Right?

Anne Marie Garland 33:45
Right. So I have one program, and it has two different routes. One of them is through the autoimmune protocol. But there's also a standard route that is more similar to like a paleo template. Either route will take you through an elimination phase, or reintroduction phase and then a customization phase. And they're both focused on gut healing and anti inflammatory aspects and so would help anybody who's dealing with either an autoimmune disease or who is dealing with, there's also mindset component to it. I'm the way that I got my training through II n focuses on something called primary foods, which are actually not foods at all and it's other factors in your life that are impacting your health, aside from food. First time I was actually introduced to that though, was when I went to a nutritionist, and she is actually I can credit her for my breakup with my previous boyfriend. And

Jon Mendoza 34:43
she know that

Anne Marie Garland 34:44
Yeah, I told her, um, actually, I think I told like a friend who is still seeing her to tell her But anyway, um, she told me she's like, Okay, well, you're getting sick every single night after work. I'm like, Yes, that's that's what's happening. And She said, okay, and it's happening after you get home. I said, Yes, I lived with my boyfriend at the time. And she says, well, what's happening at home? That was the first time where I thought like, well, crap, this is only happening when I'm around my ex boyfriend, like, What? What's happening here, and I just started realizing like this relationship is unfulfilling, and it wasn't that it was like a like abusive relationship or anything like that. But it was not fulfilling, it was not supportive to me. And so every single day, it was this anxiety and this depression, about going home and spending time with this person that wasn't right for me. And it was just this moment of clarity. And I ended up within like a week or two breaking up with him. And then within a few weeks, I met my husband. So that was just kind of the story there. But anyway, so there is it within the program. Aside from food, there is this all this other aspect of fulfillment throughout the rest of your life and how that's impacting your health. And with autoimmunity, specifically, with health, specifically, the two primary issues, I would say even over food that I see that are impacting people's health is their stress levels and their sleep. And for me personally, when I dialed in my sleep, these last couple years, it was such a huge health transformation. I mean, it was so profound the difference between my former sleep habits and now and how different I feel from getting like a poor night's sleep to a good night's sleep. So I would definitely say like focusing on that aside from the foods, but really tailoring your diet finding out like what foods you're eating that are causing an inflammatory response to you. And you can do that very easily by putting yourself through a very strategic elimination diet that's suited towards your health goals and your symptoms. And then through a strategic reintroduction phase, and tracking everything along the way. So that's what really makes my program different than things like the whole 30 for example, is we have interactive worksheets and food and mood trackers. So you are tracking every single thing that you're eating, how you're feeling before, how you're sleeping, what your stress level is like. And that way you can go back and see like, okay, avocados seem to always make me like every time I eat an avocado at lunch, I'm feeling like sleepy in the afternoon. So maybe having that much fat at lunch isn't benefiting me. So then you can try to like reformat your diet to have more carbohydrates rather than fat at lunch, or, or maybe it's dinner, but everybody is different, and everybody's gonna respond to foods differently. And that way you don't just find out like what food is causing inflammation for you, but what foods are making you feel your best and feel really great. And those become your new besties and besties can be best suited at different times of the day, like maybe tolerate more carbohydrate really well at night, and it helps you sleep better, which makes you feel better. So it helps you guide you through the process of identifying all those different factors. What's your program

called? Did your nutritionist,

Jon Mendoza 38:05
nutritionist I thought your nutrition?

Anne Marie Garland 38:06
Yeah, so it's, um, it's putting me out of the job. So I teach you how to design your own diet. And it's a template that you can reuse as many times as you want. And it's a self paced ebook that you can do if you are very highly motivated. It's not it's a six week program. So it's not easy to go through on your own. If you feel like you need more support. I do have online coaching that goes with it with supplemental video lessons and group coaching calls and an accountability buddy, you get signed with an accountability.

Jon Mendoza 38:40
Yeah, guys.

Yeah, that sounds awesome. That sounds pretty inclusive, much, much better than when you hear a doctor say, hey, go and eat better go exercise. Well, what am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to eat? Right?

Anne Marie Garland 38:53
Right. So well, and even going to like if somebody were just to say, Okay, I'm just gonna do the Paleo diet. Well, there may be foods that so I communicate with you, I teach you why I personally may never want to eat corn on a day to day basis because of this reason. And this reason, these are Why don't feel it's a health promoting food. But just because I that's very important to me does not mean that that's going to be really important to you. And so it's important for you to identify how you react to that food. So you know, like, do I want to include this on a day to day basis? Or do I want to just include this occasionally, or not at all, depending on how you tolerate the food personally.

Jon Mendoza 39:35
Yeah. So you're teaching someone to listen to the body how they respond. Yes. Which is empowering that person with education to realize that food is my medicine. How is this medicine treating? What's the side effect from it? Exactly. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. I like that. So, um, I love this. This is great because i i'd say I'm proud of everything that you've been doing. Because if You have not one, but three possible autoimmune disorders and you're able to not only get pregnant, help your celiac issue, and at the same time just feel better mentally, like you're doing that all through your own path. And you've done it through nutrition. And you're an inspiration to people out there who are going through the same issue. Because unfortunately, it is very common for a female to be constipated for, you know, 234 days, you know, it is an issue for them to not be able to get pregnant, it is an issue to have an eating disorder and be depressed. And these are common issues that most people don't address. And if they do address it, they have the courage to speak to a doctor, they just gave a medicine and none of that's going to fix that issue. Right? So you went out of your way to say, look, I was tired of going that route. I'm going to do something even if I can't fix this Yeah, I'm gonna imagine much better than just the medicinal route. And and you've done it and you are spreading the word and other people who have these issues can come to you. And you can help them as well, which I think is incredible. So you're changing the world through food again. And that's, that's really cool. The goal. That's the goal. So the blog is August

Anne Marie Garland 41:03
Grassfedsalsa.com

Jon Mendoza 41:04
Okay, awesome. And then we can find you Facebook, Instagram, all that good stuff. And your podcast again.

Anne Marie Garland 41:10
My podcast is unbound, healing. Awesome. So

Jon Mendoza 41:13
you're in Austin, but if people needed to see you, like, you know, maybe out of state or whatnot, they can find you online.

Anne Marie Garland 41:18
Yeah. So I don't work one on one with clients anymore. But the way to work with me would be through my online program.

Jon Mendoza 41:25
Very cool. Very cool. So, Anna, thank you so much for coming today. And we really had a great time. Thank you all for listening.

Anne Marie Garland 41:32
Thanks so much, guys.

"If they if they aren't feeling energized and excited, then it's not normal. They're experiencing some type of either chronic inflammation or chronic pain or they just aren't as healthy as they could be and there's a better way around that"

"And so it's important for you to identify how you react to food. So you know, like, do I want to include this on a day to day basis? Or do I want to just include this occasionally, or not at all, depending on how you tolerate the food personally."

You can find the How do you Health? Podcast on Twitter @HDYHPodcast, and use #HDYHPod to submit speaker ideas, health questions, or topics you want discussed!

You can follow Anne Marie on Instagram @grassfedsalsa or visit her website: www.grassfedsalsa.com

SPONSORS:
MSW Lounge
Slenderella® Gut
Flabs to Fitness, Inc.

CREDITS:
Host - Jonathan Mendoza, MSW Lounge; Allison Wojtowecz, Flabs to Fitness, Inc
Guest - Anne Marie Garland
Podcast production - Allison Wojtowecz (Flabs to Fitness, Inc. - www.flabstofitness.com)
Guest coordinator - Baldo Garza
Intro song - Benjamin Banger