Show Notes

 

 

Gut health plays a significant role in our overall health and wellbeing. A healthy gut microbiome helps with digestion, absorption of nutrients, regulation of the immune system, and even affects our mood and cognitive function. 

On the other hand, an unhealthy gut microbiome can lead to a range of issues such as gastrointestinal problems, autoimmune disorders, obesity, depression, and anxiety. Therefore, taking care of your gut health can positively impact your life in the following ways: 

1. Better digestion and nutrient absorption 
2. Increased energy levels 
3. Improved immune function 
4. Better weight management 
5. Reduced inflammation in the body 
6. Improved mental health and mood 
7. Better skin health 

Improving your gut health can lead to a more vibrant, healthy, and fulfilling life.

With one of her children being on the spectrum, Andrea, a mother of three, undertook a health journey with Cason. Following this, she pursued a career in functional nutrition and extended her online health and wellness business to assist parents in healing through food, thereby improving the gut health of both themselves and their children.

Are you still in shock that you are a parent of a special needs child?
This show is for parents who are morning the loss of the life and child they thought they would have. For parents who are tired, lonely, and see no hope in sight?

You will learn how to deal with your non-verbal child with a sensory processing disorder, seizures, meltdowns, haircuts, and family trips. Embark on a journey of consciousness, self-care & meditation.

My name is Chad Ratliffe. I am a single father of 5 kids 6 years of age (8-14) and 2 with special needs. 5 years ago, in a nasty divorce, my depression led me to drug addiction and hopelessness. Today, I share with others a life I never imagined possible.

Subscribe Now and take back control of your life

 

Email: rootcausewillness.andrea@gmail.com
APPLE PODCAST: 

DONATE: https://www.patreon.com/thenakedparentpodcast
WEBSITE: https://roccoblu.kartra.com/page/m5L98

 

 

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

suitcases, kids, parents, feel, nutrition, gluten, probiotic, bit, started, spectrum, gut health, naked, love, body, child, good, day, oxygen therapy, improve, chronic illness

SPEAKERS

Andrea Walker, Chad Ratliffe

 

Andrea Walker  00:00

Well, I think it's hard, right? Because our kids, especially kids on the spectrum, they're super picky. But I do believe that now we live in a day and age where other is so much more available to us. So the first thing that I would suggest and what we did first with casein is it's starting small. Don't feel like you need to take it all on at once, right? Like, you don't have to make all the changes at once because that does make it seem super overwhelming.

 

00:28

Welcome to the daily naked parent podcast brought to you by Rocco blue. The first ever brand focused on supporting parents and special needs children. A good parent nation is a group of parents with special needs children, who are willing to give honorable, stripped it all down and take a look at ourselves, our parents, our family and our plans create a life beyond our wildest dreams.

 

Chad Ratliffe  01:01

On today's show, we'll be discussing how your gut health can change your life. If you get it right. Hello naked parent nation and welcome to today's episode of The Naked parent podcast. My name is Chad ratliffe, and I'm your host before I introduce you to our guests today, let me start by sharing a message from naked parent nation. Naked parent nation is a worldwide community of parents and professionals raising children with all kinds of needs. We come together to share our Naked Truth support our fellow parents and inspire the inner growth that each of us needs to build the life and family of our dreams. For the parents that are struggling, we want you to know we will love you until you can love yourself. For your children we pray and send power from our collective group.

 

 Naked parenting is the process of moving from where you are to where you want to be. Naked parenting understands that the mind is responsible for all of our problems. As you shed the layers of your old programming and beliefs, you will return to the deepest truths of your own being. Do what you've always done and receive the life you're living or create the vision you want for your family. Combine that with an elevated emotion, support from our community. And you can live the life of your dreams and beyond. We have the power to create any kind of life we want for ourselves and our families. We do this by living in the naked present moment, one day at a time. If this is your first time connecting with us, I hope you feel the love that's here for you. Together we walk different paths side by side. So let us continue our journey as individuals and parents with a short meditation. That time we take for ourselves if we can do it twice a day even better. So something that we can do to help reduce anxiety is we can take a moment to use will to relax our bodies, we can soften tense areas in our bodies, we can find that tension in our belly and in our shoulders and find a good posture that feels relaxed and alert. So if you're sitting and you're sitting up straight with your spine erect, you can just let your eyes close, if that's comfortable for you. If not, you can look downwards and just put your hands on your knees or just relax them in a comfortable way.

 

And when you have that, find your center if you've lived that, that gaze up to the space between your eyebrows, the spiritual eye and with your focus on the spiritual eye. Allow your awareness to scan your body and see where you feel any sensations wherever you feel any tension. Breathe into it. And as you exhale, relax that area if your shoulders are tense, inhale and then exhale and relax your shoulders. And do that with any space, you feel tension now focus on your body breathing, your chest rising and falling with each breath. Now, I want you to imagine you're standing in the middle of the street, just outside your house with two heavy suitcases and know that one of those suitcases is full of worries about the future. And the other suitcase is full of regrets about your past wants you to take a moment, just standing there in the street, holding these heavy suitcases, falling your shoulders towards the ground. And then reflect for a moment on you regret.

 

 Feel the weight of that suitcase. And let your mind explore some of the regrets that are in that suitcase in the other one, explore the fear you have for things in your future. Now, remember, that the future is going to come no matter what as long as we're here, the future is going to be here. And most of the time, what we worry about never happens. It's why the acronym for fear is false evidence appearing real. And think of the past and feel how heavy your suitcases in think about how the past is over. The past can't be changed in any way. All we can do is learn from it and make whatever corrections we need to make that make sense so that we can become more skillful and become a better person. So you're standing in the middle of the street, you're feeling the weight of the suitcases and you're absorbing the wisdom of your own reflections. Right now.

 

 You're watching your reflections. Make a conscious decision. Do you want to drop the suitcase of worry about the future? And if so, simply drop it then you're standing in the street with the other suitcase so heavy about the past. Make a conscious decision. Do you want to drop it and if so, just drop it. Just drop it as soon as you drop the suitcases. I want you to turn base your home and walk back into your home and take your seat right where you are. And just fall into that seat. so relaxed. Feel the relaxation like someone coming home from a long trip dropping suitcases and just relaxing. Just breathe and feel that relaxation in your body feel that relief not having all that weight in both hands. Breathe into the natural well being that you generate Focus on that awareness. Now that doesn't worry or regret. Resting as if this is meaningful for you. Allow yourself to simply rest, feeling a sense of peace, joy, of well being a natural happiness, always your true home. With no more suitcases, no more worries of the future and no more regrets of the past. Simply being here in your body right now. With total relaxation, relaxation going throughout every limb, in your body, and throughout your mind. And with a soft smile on your face, and your eyes, softly smiling, allow them to open and come back into the room. And do that in whatever time is comfortable for you. And just know that you left to things that aren't serving you in the street. And you don't have to pick them up ever again if you don't want to. But today, we are going to add another huge tool or tools to your tool belt. We have Andrea Walker, she's a mom of three, her middle child is on the spectrum. After taking this journey with her son, it's been a health journey, she decided to become a functional nutritionist and expand her online health and wellness business to help parents heal through food and heal both their gut for themselves and for their kids. So Andrea, welcome to the show. Thank you for being with us.

 

Andrea Walker  12:18

Thank you, Chad. Thank you for inviting me. I'm excited.

 

Chad Ratliffe  12:21

Yeah, we're excited to have you. So you have three kids. Can you tell us a little bit about the ages just paint the picture a little bit more for us about who you are and about your family, of course. So

 

Andrea Walker  12:33

I have three kiddos, I have an eight year old, a six year old and a three year old. And it's my six year old who's on the spectrum. So I have two neurotypical kids and one neurodivergent. Nice. He is my sandwich, I call my little sandwich kid because he's right in the middle.

 

Chad Ratliffe  12:52

Your first child is male or female, female

 

Andrea Walker  12:54

got a girl first and two boys. And then

 

Chad Ratliffe  12:58

when did things start to look like you weren't planning for the second child. So

 

Andrea Walker  13:04

he was your typical baby. I mean, he was doing all the normal things, hitting all the milestones up until about 12 months. And that's when I noticed that things were he was kind of regressing a little bit. We lost eye contact, I would say his name. And before he would take pictures, you know those 12 month pictures that we all do every month, we take a picture of them. And after that, he just I would say his name and he just he wouldn't give me his eyes. You wouldn't look at me anymore. So that's when I noticed something was going on. And I took them to the pediatrician and I mentioned it to him. He hated her by the way he ate it or in that visit with terrible.

 

 The first thing she said to me was I think he's autistic. I was like, whoa, hold up. Like how do you know that? Like he just first of all, he doesn't like you and never did. And so I just walked out of there being like pits, I was mad. I was like how can this woman just throw the autism word at me like that. So needless to say, I found another pediatrician. And he was wonderful. He would got he got on the floor with him was playing with cars with him was really like in tune with them to kind of see what was going on. And at first recommended speech therapy. And we did that for a little while. But it was about two months in of speech therapy that I was like no, no something else is going on because we're not making any advancements.

 

 And that's when we decided to have him assessed. And we did all the things we did early childhood intervention through the school district got him in a pre K in our local school district for Special Needs speech therapy OT and then once he was approved with insurance and all the things we did ABA therapy, and we still do it And he was gradually getting a little bit better. We were working on social emotional stuff. And, you know, his outbursts. And he had a lot of the typical signs now that when I was told it kind of it was almost I had a little bit of a grieving process, but I wouldn't say it was very big, because I'm more of the type of person that's like, I don't care what you call it, like you can call whatever you want, call it, let's get him what he needs.

 

And also, I need to know why. What happened. And I think that's mainly because I do have a neurotypical child first, and with a second, and I was like, Okay, but what would happen here, get to the bottom of this. And I wanted to know more, and find out more and wanted to be able to give him the best quality of life possible, and fill the gaps right of what he needed. And that's when our journey with nutrition began. And it just all the right people were kind of put into place for me to get there. And after my third child, and he's neurotypical, I became an online health and wellness coach just doing fitness and nutrition for parents, because I had just had my third baby, I need to lose some weight. And so I got into the health and wellness space there. But on my journey with my sandwich, my middle, it opened up my eyes to so much on what nutrition can do, not just for me as a mom and my, and my mental health, but also for him. So yeah, so then all these little steps got me to where I am today with him. And he is he is just been life changing for our entire family.

 

Chad Ratliffe  16:54

I want to dig into the nutrition part and a little bit, because I really want to give our listeners a wealth of knowledge that we can so and some tips, things that they can do on their own and different things like that. Before we get to that, did you ever try to put your finger on what happened?

 

Andrea Walker  17:12

So when we it started with me calling a chiropractor, because I read on the internet that a chiropractor can help them. Okay, cool. So I call this chiropractor and she says, You don't want to talk to me. You want this other chiropractor who is a board certified neurologist, but also a chiropractor. So we went to him for a little bit. And then we went he said, You know what, he really needs to talk to this functional practitioner. So we met with her. And with her, we were able to do a lot of genetic testing, a lot of Gi testing. I mean, we went through the whole slew of tests. And again, because this is part of just me being like, I need to get to the root, what's the root of this? And what happened in that we did do a lot of testing on him. So he carries the MTHFR gene, which that gene and it's interesting because like over 80% of people actually have this gene and just don't know, it's our body. When we have that gene. Our bodies cannot process synthetic vitamins. So as a mom when you're pregnant, and you're taking your doctor tells you to take folic acid folic acid is a synthetic folate. So if you have that gene, that folate, folic acid folate is never getting to your baby. And folate is very important for brain function for that helping that baby grow their neurological system.

 

Wow. And so casein has that. My middle he has that. And so and I'm a carrier, and so it's my husband. And so what's interesting about that is it could have been any of my children, but it was only one. And so now knowing that I'm more mindful, right of what I give them because they have to have methylated vitamins. So I give them methylated vitamins. It's also harder for people who have that gene to detox. And so in that testing that we did for him, this is a controversial topic, but I do think that he was vaccine injured when he received the MMR vaccine and all the aluminum that's in that kids who can't detox genetically, right, can never get rid of that excrete that aluminum and aluminum is the only heavy metal that can penetrate the blood brain barrier.

 

And so it goes right to the brain and causes neurological dysfunction. And so he is test for that MMR at the age of five. He got it when he was 12 months at the age of five. It was the max he was never able to get rid of it. And so, from that point it was about detoxing, how do we get it out? And so we did detox baths. And, you know, we've just tried a bunch of different things just to get him to detox. So that was the first step with us in finding out okay, well, it is a genetic thing for him and his ability to not process those heavy metals and detoxes things like everyone else. So in our case, I do believe that it was a vaccine injury. And I know that that's very controversial, but I don't know, I was presented with the facts. And so you're showing me these numbers. And these numbers, say like this kid, he couldn't get it out. And so and in the ways that those heavy metals affect us, that's it's big.

 

Chad Ratliffe  20:41

I'm so glad you brought that up. It is a controversial topic, my son progressed. And three days after he had his MMR the lights went out, he used to pray with us, he liked to sweep, he smiled and pictures, and it's pretty hard to look at the pictures today, when you see your son looking at you and smiling, and I haven't seen him do that in the last 12 years. It's kind of it's a little challenging to look at.

 

And there's no scientific proof. But there are over a million parents online who said that, hey, right after the lights went out, and it's like, okay, I know that it would be chaos, if it ever came out that yes. In fact, the vaccine that we forced you to do fucked up your kid. They could never admit that, right? Like how they would never be able to, they just could never admit it. And that sad, because are we going to continue going on doing things that kids can't detox? Because we don't want to have to admit that maybe we weren't doing something, right. That's a whole nother show. But I'm so glad that you're bringing us this knowledge, so we can have like real data and facts. And can you tell us what's a difficult day look like when your son's special needs are kind of flaring up?

 

Andrea Walker  22:07

You know, he's, uh, he's gotten so much better, I have to say, with all the things that we've been doing, the difficult days are not difficult, like, we really haven't had very many, and I'm knock on wood. I'm very blessed that he has taken what we've been doing with him. And it's really transformed him tremendously. A bad day before, would be him. You know, I tell them, It's time to go and he's playing with a toy, and he would just throw it and just get so mad because he's not done. And he would have those types of behaviors. You know, he would get really mad at his siblings and push and hit and but I can honestly say that with everything we've been doing, it is like I have my kid back a little bit like, there are still like, things. language wise was is really a struggle for us is just risks like receptive language. The conversational piece is getting him to talk back and forth with us. But behavior wise, he's doing amazing. Yes, cool.

 

Chad Ratliffe  23:10

I could just feel the listener right now that isn't on the path they want to be on with their child. They've questioned what about nutrition before? Yeah, they hear you say that? I feel like I got my son back. And they're like, I want my kid back. But how do I what where do I start like, What in the world do I do if I want to start on this journey to get my kid back through nutrition?

 

Andrea Walker  23:44

Well, I think it's hard right? Because our kids especially kids on the spectrum, they're super picky. But I do believe that now we live in a day and age where there is so much more available to us. So the first thing that I would suggest and what we did first with with caisson is it's starting small don't feel like you need to take it all on at once right like you don't have to make all the changes at once because that does make it seem super overwhelming. Do it in in bite sized bits right chewable portions. With him it was first starting off with finding a multivitamin that was methylated that contained all the brain healing vitamins and we found a really great one. I can mention it.

 

I should have mentioned it. Simple spectrum vitamins, they're a powdered vitamin there for kids on the spectrum. So we put that in his lemonade every morning he doesn't even know it's there. And because again, it's getting it's hard to get them to take something because they're already so picky. And then I put him on a good probiotic Aspire nutrition and have a five in one powder probiotic also formulated for kids on the spectrum is created by Dad, whose kiddo is on the spectrum. And he realized the importance between gut health and brain health. And one of the biggest nerves in our bodies, the vagus nerve, and it directly connects our gut to our brain. It's just like when you get nervous about something, it's totally mental, but your stomach gets butterflies, it's because the gut and the brain are totally connected.

 

And so improving your gut health is going to improve your brain function in so many ways than just cognitive function, but even depression, anxiety, all of that. And so when our kids start feeling anxious, and they're overstimulated, and all of that, a lot of that has to do with the gut health. So we started small, we started with spinach simple spectrum, to get him as methylated vitamins, we started him on the probiotic, and we cut gluten. Gluten is huge, it's highly inflammatory, especially for children on the spectrum. Um, reducing the inflammation of the body is also going to help with brain function. And so inflammation is a problematic for any of us. So we all want to try to reduce inflammation as much as we can. Gluten is a biggie, a biggie. And even if you don't get sick to your stomach, casein was never sick to his stomach or complained of stomach pain or anything like that. That would make you think he had celiac.

 

He is a carrier for the celiac gene, which if you know about genes that can be turned on or turned off. And so knowing that as well, is what we said, well, you know what, then I guess we're all going gluten free. Because if if he's got it, that means the rest of them have it. And I've got it. My husband's got it. So let's all just do it. So we went gluten free. And it sounds daunting, the gluten free thing. But there is so much variety. And a lot of what I do on my Instagram account, is share different options to go gluten free. So like what's my favorite gluten free pizza? What's our favorite gluten free bread, crackers, snacks, cookies. I mean, we I try to share as much as I can on my platform. So that doesn't feel overwhelming. He doesn't even know he's gluten free. He's six, he has no clue. I mean, even Kraft makes a gluten free mac and cheese like that kid has no idea that he's gluten free. Because it's all the same foods he loved before his dyno nuggets are gluten free. So I would say just start there, supporting the gut health with the vitamins, nutrition and the probiotic. And then gluten free. Number one, what

 

Chad Ratliffe  27:36

do you say about this testing? Do we need to do all of this testing? Should we be trying to get our kids tested? And if so which tests? What do you say? No, I don't

 

Andrea Walker  27:48

think so. I think it is it's expensive. And I am blessed that we are because of course it's not covered by insurance, right? There, aren't they, in my opinion, just want to keep everybody sicker. So our healthcare systems a little flawed in that sense. They just want to keep everyone sick. And so there didn't improve any of the testing. Now, I will say though, our last gi test that we did on him, our insurance did approve, which was good. So maybe they're kind of coming to their senses a little bit, but I don't necessarily think that you need to do that. I really do think that I don't know about you, but I'm willing to try anything to help my kid. You don't necessarily have to go through the testing I would just it's good to have a good multivitamin. Doesn't matter who you are.

 

Same thing with a probiotic. probiotics help us read gives us our good bacteria, replenishes the good bacteria helps us get rid of the bad bacteria. keeps our gut healthy. So probiotic always in the gluten free like, why not try? Yeah, try it for three months. See what happens. Give it some time. You know, this isn't going to be an overnight change. It was not overnight for him. This has been now we've been doing this for a year. Gluten free with him. And also incorporate just recently started incorporating another therapy for him. We're doing oxygen therapy. And over the last I would say six months. And then the last two months. He's gradually been improving more and more and more and going from he would say if he wanted something he would say laminate, please and then run off.

 

 You know, he was very, he was verbal, but not really. Now he'll come to me say and he'll look me right in the eye. Say mommy, can I have some lemonade, please? Mike, you can have anything you want. When he asked me like that, you know, it was it's incredible to see and he wasn't you would do parallel play. He was always on his own playing by himself. He never would ask kids to play at the playground or even he wouldn't even ask his siblings to play. Now he comes in and grabs this disturbances sissy, let's do a race outside. I mean, he never did that. Never. And it wasn't until we started making these simple, digestible changes for him. That now we're really starting to see his personality come out. He's sharing things. He's laughing. He's looking at us. I mean, it's just really been transformative for us. And so I don't You don't have to bet your question. You don't have to do the testing. I think it's worth a shot. I think for everyone, it's worth a shot just to see what happens. And I think you're gonna be really surprised at the difference that can make amazing

 

Chad Ratliffe  30:41

is oxygen therapy is that the barometric chamber? Yeah.

 

Andrea Walker  30:46

So it's the H bot. So it pressurizes. So there's, there's a little point in there where your ears pop, like you're on an airplane. And I have to kind of like, de escalate that with him a little bit. But we drink water, we massage our ears. And then once your breath past that point, and your ears pop, it's an hour long session of just 100% pure oxygen. It's really great for cognitive function. It's really great for healing the brain. And even my mom today, she said, Hey, that oxygen therapy are doing don't stop. I think it's working. So it's like, it's been also something. So my message to people really is like, think outside the box here. Like your doctor says ABA, OT, speech therapy. But think a little bit outside about what else can we do to help our kids and ourselves? So yeah, we do the H bot twice a week, we've got 40 sessions that I got for him. And we're doing it twice a week.

 

Chad Ratliffe  31:48

And you go to a location and yeah,

 

Andrea Walker  31:52

there's a spot close by they do oxygen therapy, IV therapy, red light therapy, cryotherapy. And it's just right here close to the house. And so I pick him up from his ABA and we go get in the spaceship is what we call it.

 

Chad Ratliffe  32:06

Awesome. Yeah. How about parents? I personally have had my life turned around. Because of nutrition. I didn't realize how much poor nutrition was affecting me in a negative way until I improved the nutrition and saw what it did for me. Are you seeing the need for parents to start looking at their gut health? Yeah, I mean, what's happening? What how's that going? For?

 

Andrea Walker  32:35

Sure. I mean, we all know that chronic illness is just escalated, and especially in the younger kids, like kids, younger, younger parents, you know, people are coming down with these autoimmune disorders and chronic illnesses in their 30s. Somebody's been in their 20s. And I think a lot of that just stems from our poor nutrition. I mean, we were raised, we're microwave babies, you know, my, we were in an age where it might be a my mom was warming up food, and we were eating out a lot, and McDonald's and Chick Fil A's, all of that. And the preservatives, all that just junk that they're putting in our food.

 

 And it really does affect us internally. I mean, you have to think like what we put in is what we're going to get out. And if you put crap in, you're going to feel like crap out so in you just go day to day not even realizing really that like, Okay, how to you're sleeping poorly, your skin looks awful, you are just chronically fatigued and tired and having to drink like three cups of coffee a day, just to keep going. And that's not normal. Our bodies are not meant to be that way. And so what I a lot of what I do is just coaching people through meal plans and really eating the rainbow. And just trying to get a lot of good variety of foods. Cooking at home.

 

Again, cooking at home doesn't have to be against scary or daunting. It's all about planning, and really organizing your week. Just like you set your calendar with all your appointments, setting that time to prepare or plan what you're going to have throughout the week. And I tell all my all my clients and friends like if you fail to plan, you plan to fail, like Yeah, that's just it like you have to plan it out. So it's hard because we've been raised to just Oh, I'm tired today. I'm just gonna pick up some fast food just like my mama did you know? Or you're kind of raised in that and just the snacks that Doritos that candies, you know, my husband said that after a baseball game. His you know, his snack or his lunch was like a bag of Doritos and a Snickers bar. Yeah, no, that's not a meal.

 

That's not food that's going to help you feel better after you just played a full baseball game. And so So yeah, like it is a problem that we have and I really want to educate people on how to eat and the impact that it can really have on your Life, I don't even drink coffee anymore. I don't need it. I was a three cup of coffee a day person, and I don't need it anymore. I sleep good, I feel good, then it makes a big difference.

 

Chad Ratliffe  35:12

That's awesome. I read a study the other day and it said that of chronic illness 5% of chronic illness is something that somebody had at birth that like that's what they had. So which means that the other 95% was generated by up regulating genes and maybe the wrong way. So basically, it's saying that we are making ourselves sick. Yeah, now, that's scary. But the good news there is if we can make ourselves sick, then we can make ourselves healthy, as well. And so I love your message. I believe the message is that we can make ourselves healthy, and we can help our kids get healthy. And as we get healthy, some amazing things can happen. One of the things that we do just so that we can get more of your thoughts and ideas is we do a lightning round where you kind of do one word to one sentence answer two more questions. Are you up for trying it?

 

Andrea Walker  36:15

I can try. I can't guarantee it's gonna be lightning.

 

Chad Ratliffe  36:20

For whatever comes to your head, there's no, no wrong answer. Okay. So what's the best advice you have received?

 

Andrea Walker  36:28

Don't stop digging, keep looking for the answer.

 

Chad Ratliffe  36:30

What kind of course or retreat or training would you like to see for parents? nutrition, nutrition, nutrition? Yeah. Do you have a top resource or recommendation to share with other parents? Oh, you

 

Andrea Walker  36:46

know, I really like the food babe on Instagram. She talks a lot about just the toxic stuff that's in our food. And she also provides healthy swaps. A lot like what I like to do too. So I love her.

 

Chad Ratliffe  37:01

Awesome. What's the next thing on your list that you want to add for your individual well being? Oh,

 

Andrea Walker  37:09

I think that's like, I want to take a family vacation. We haven't done that in a minute. Nice.

 

Chad Ratliffe  37:14

What's one thing you think would improve your life if you did it or had it?

 

Andrea Walker  37:18

On a spot?

 

Chad Ratliffe  37:22

All right. Do you have a favorite product that you use for yourself, your child or your family that you just love and couldn't live without?

 

Andrea Walker  37:29

Oh my gosh, yes. So definitely the Aspire probiotics and the simple spectrum vitamins. Those are amazing. And I don't think we don't go a day without those.

 

Chad Ratliffe  37:40

Awesome. Where can the listeners find you online? So

 

Andrea Walker  37:46

I'm on Instagram, it's Andrea dot g dot Walker? And then same thing with Facebook. And yeah, that's where they can find me.

 

Chad Ratliffe  37:54

Can you send me those so they can put it in the show notes? Yeah. So that they can find you. If somebody still feels like engaging in the world of nutrition just feels like too big of a monster? Can they work with you? Do you work with parents or families or kids? Tell us a little bit about that. And, and like what a first step might look like? Yeah,

 

Andrea Walker  38:21

absolutely. So I, at the very beginning of all of this, I had partnered with a company that provided nutritional plans and fitness programs. And so that's to get the parents started. And then once I started digging deeper, and going through this journey with case and I realized that there is a gap that we need to fill, and when we start healing ourselves as parents, it trickles down into our kids, our kids are watching every move that we make. And I want them to see a healthy mom who eats well and prioritizes her mental and physical health.

 

And so definitely parents can come to me and I can help them with that. And then what we do is I'll coach on how we can integrate that into their family life with their special needs kids and making the changes for them. So I kind of like to talk about it all because it really is a family affair. You know, when you want are on a health journey. Everyone is.

 

Chad Ratliffe  39:21

Yeah. And what's the best is the best way for somebody to reach you to message you on Instagram or Facebook or whatever

 

Andrea Walker  39:30

they can. Yeah, they can reach me on there. They can send me an email to I can provide an email for them to shoot me an email, Instagram or Facebook.

 

Chad Ratliffe  39:37

And what is the email for those that are listening and then we'll put it in the show notes as well.

 

Andrea Walker  39:41

It's root cause wellness.andrea@gmail.com

 

Chad Ratliffe  39:46

Awesome. I've learned a lot I think you've given a lot of information for the listeners. I really appreciate that kind of in closing something that is just been on my heart or with this discussion? I would love to see every family improve their nutrition for themselves and their children just a little bit, right? Like if you don't need a huge overhaul like How about just 5% or 10%? Better, right? Just some kind we can always improve. But what do you say to the parent who's just there almost like in the food addiction? I mean, they just have, they need the sugar, or they need the night binge. And they just feel like they can't get a grip on it, like, what did they do? They

 

Andrea Walker  40:37

can, it is all totally a mental thing and try it. Like I said, not trying to be overwhelmed by it. So I like to provide healthy swaps. So if it is like, they have to have the sugar before bed, like, yeah, I gotta have a piece of chocolate today. Or let's swap that for something else, something that is better for you. So I have a lot of those little tools in my back pocket. It can happen. I mean, a lot of us felt that way at the beginning. Like we're just like rock bottom, and we were so stuck in our habits. It doesn't take that long to change a habit. It really doesn't. And just having the mindset of like, okay, I have to make a change. It has to happen. Because if not, what's the alternative?

 

Chad Ratliffe  41:22

Yeah, just your day, year after year? Well, you've been, you've inspired me, I know you've inspired our listeners. I love how you're approaching nutrition and health for your kids and your family. Your kids are lucky to have a mom who's so engaged. And I would love to stay connected and just continue to explore what's possible for ourselves in our kids, and then reconvene on the show at a later date and kind of have an update episode if you're up for it. Absolutely. I would love that. Okay, so we'll look for your contact info so we can put it in the show notes. We wish you and your family an amazing life. Until next time, and thank you so much for spending some time with us today.

 

Andrea Walker  42:08

Thank you, Chad, you too. Thank you.

 

Chad Ratliffe  42:10

Take care. Bye.

 

42:16

This concludes our show for today. And I'd like to personally thank you for spending the time with us on a topic near and dear to our hearts. If you'd like to be part of the naked parent nation, and help us reach those parents that are struggling and overwhelmed, there's no better way to help them by subscribing rating and reviewing the show on iTunes. iTunes highlights the shows based on these metrics. And the more the show gets highlighted, the more opportunities people will have to be introduced to the show where they can hear that message of hope, or that tip that can change everything. So follow the link in our show notes. And we hope to have you back here tomorrow where we'll do it again. From the team here at the naked parent podcast we wish you the life you've always dreamed of and then some so long