How to Build, Maintain & Repair Gut Health and Optimize Your Body Composition with Rachel Scheer

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Hi, I'm Amberly Lago. Thanks for tuning in to True Grit and Grace today. I have my friend Rachel Shear here with us. We've been in the studio, we're here in la and I've been so excited to have you on. She is a. Let me make sure I get this right.

No worries.

Certified functional medicine dietitian. And I actually, I did a poll on Instagram and people unanimously wanted to hear and learn from you because there's so many people that really want to heal their guts. They're either in pain, they're depressed, they're bloated, they don't have energy or confidence. All of the things. And I know with what you have been through, your whole story, you're the person that I go to because you have not only studied it, you've actually lived through this journey of healing your gut. So first I want to just say welcome to the show.

Thank you so much. I'm honored to be on the show.

Oh my goodness.

This is awesome. You Guys.

Oh, I just love you. I just. I'm so. Every time I get to be around you, it's just this energy. You have this energy about you.

What did I say about you?

Well, you know what? You are just a walking billboard. So if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast platform, you'll have to check out the YouTube video, and you will understand what I'm talking about. She's a walking billboard.

It's the biceps.

It's the go.

Yeah, you can't see those right now,

but you really, like, don't just talk the talk. You walk the walk. But I would like to get into really first before we get into, like, she's got so much value, and I have so many questions I want to ask. And I think it's very. Like today, what happened to me with not being able to get this one last prescription medicine that I'm on that I've been saying I want to get off this medicine, and today I couldn't get it. Like, my doctor gave prescription prescription. The pharmacy wouldn't, you know, fulfill it. It's called Lyrica. I'm really transparent on this show. I keep it real. And I'm like, well, my first thought was maybe this is my opportunity to take my gut healing even more. And so I was real. I'm like, well, this is perfect timing, because although I was crying in the car on the way here, I was like, oh, my God, what am I going to do? I'm like, well, I get to go talk to Rachel and she can tell. Tell me what to do.

Resilience.

Yeah.

And.

But you and your story, like, I want to go back a little bit so people understand, like, how serious this was for you. So you were doing fitness competitions, modeling, bodybuilding world.

I was a fitness model at the time. I actually grew up as a gymnast, and I was a dancer. So for me, my entire life, fitness had been just like a huge. A huge part of it. I actually grew up in a pretty dysfunctional home, which I know you can definitely relate to that. I was neglected as a kid. And for me, you know, in order to feel a sense of value and to get any sort of attention, I turned towards hyper achievement. And for me, it was, I know, becoming a gymnast. I was a dancer, and I loved it. For me, and we talked about. Even on the podcast you came on, you know, fitness is just something such an incredible outlet. I had my brother and my sister, and they went down really, really dark paths in their life. You know, drugs. My sister actually attempted suicide in her life as well, too. And she even was a victim of sexual abuse by some of my mom's boyfriends, you know, speaking very openly about it. But for me, I was very, very lucky that I had an outlet. And for me, that was fitness. It was dancing. I was on varsity dance team. I was a gymnast and I was a dancer. And I just became so fascinated about the human body and just seeing what I was capable of. I was like, oh, my goodness, I was never the best in school at grades or any of that stuff. Honestly, I had to bust my ass in everything that I did. When it came to dance team in high school, I would literally practice for five hours after school every single day just so I could make the team. You know, the same thing when I wanted to become a dietitian and get into a college, like Baylor University, I would literally just like, study for, like, hours and hours.

That's the grit, man. And that's. That. That is the key predictor of success, is grit. That's. Angela Duckworth wrote a book about it. I didn't know it until after I had written my book. I wish I would have read that book first. But grit, it's your hard work that

puts you in the. I busted my ass because I wasn't the best in the room. I was not the smartest. I didn't have the best memory. I wasn't the best in athletics. But I learned through all these experience, like, I could achieve anything that I really wanted to if I was able to work hard enough, almost to a fault, like I mentioned. But when I graduated from high school and I went off to college at Baylor, I was no longer on varsity dance team. We're doing gymnastics. And that's actually where I picked up weightlifting. And this is where the fitness freak that most people would call Rachel Shear six pack abs that really came to life, that built up my social media of a quarter million following really started to come about and I loved it. It was a way for me to showcase my mindset that I couldn't control what was happening around me, but I could control what was happening in here. And I could take what pain that I had that it was honestly suppressing and. And turn what I thought was into something beautiful, like my body, my physique.

So is that how you got into doing the bikini competitions and stuff?

I got into bodybuilding and I was like, holy shit, I am good at this. I am good at this. I think I had a little bit of some genetics in there, but like I said, I just busted My ass. And I wanted it. I wanted to become an IFBB bikini pro. So. So I just got super into weightlifting and counting macros. And for a while, honestly, Amberly, it started off as a very, very healthy venture of just me wanting to better myself. As I think most things that we do that we start out with, but me, I'm the perfectionist and I take things to the extreme. And even for me, it was coming from a place of I want to feel worthy, I want to feel loved, I want to feel accepted. So. So I pushed that and I pushed that even harder. And eventually, actually after I won first place at a national level show and I was at the point of where I was ready to step into being pro and compete at the pro level in terms of bodybuilding, I won that trophy. I actually got off stage and I went home. And at this point, I am probably 8% body fat at the time. Definitely not a healthy body composition overall. No.

I mean, maybe this is kind of personal, but at 8% body fat, were you still having your menstrual cycle?

No, I was actually on a lot of medications. I was on birth control, so I didn't have a menstrual cycle that was real anyway because of that. But I didn't have a men's, you know, any menstrual cycle that low of a body fat and I wouldn't have had one anyway just because of, you know, how low my body fat percentage really was at the time. But I found myself after winning this bodybuilding competition like actually at a very, very low place in my life. And I remember just like looking in the mirror and physically I was fit, but my hair was falling out.

You're kidding me.

My skin was like a complete wreck. I didn't have a menstrual cycle. Like I mentioned.

Was that because of you were depleting your body so much with nutrients or was it because of medications that you were on?

It was a combination of a lot of things. And usually there's not one thing that causes the body to be off. There's a combination of a lot of different stressors for me. There was a physical stressor. You know, I was pushing my body physically to its limits. Low body fat percentage. I'm sure the trauma, There was an emotional stressor there definitely to, you know, the pressure, the stress that I was putting on myself. And then I even look back at my diet and although my diet was, you know, maybe macro friendly, there was a lot of things in my diet that were terrible for my gut and my Hormones. I'm talking like artificial sweeteners, those pre workout, those post workouts. Walden farm type foods. I don't know if you've seen that brand before, but it's like legit. Just chemicals. And I just cared about looking good. I had my six pack. I wanted to look good naked at the time, and I achieved that. But I was at the lowest place and my health just completely plummeted. Went to complete shit.

Do you know who Corey Everson is?

Mm, mm.

Oh, Corey Everson is one of my best friends. She was Miss Olympia. She was incredible. She's incredible. Heart of gold. I gotta introduce you. But in the bodybuilding world, what I always heard was the closer you are to death, the better your chances of winning.

Yeah, usually the person who wins on stage is the most unhealthy person.

Yeah. And you wouldn't think of that looking at all these muscles and these gorgeous bottles, especially with bikini models, because to me, that they're just, you know, you're beautiful. You're not like too, too muscular. I don't think you're just like, it's perfection. But yet you were unhealthy, mentally, at a low place, mentally, physically.

Hair was falling out. My thyroid had also plummeted. So I then had to get on thyroid medication because it was basically like non existent anymore. So hair falling out, skin was a wreck. Zero menstrual cycle. But honestly, Amberly, like, the worst part for me was my gut. And I started to develop all of these gut issues all of a sudden. And I was chronically bloated at the end of every single day. Literally looked like I was six months pregnant. I could no longer use the restroom at all. Like, I literally would have to use an enema to be able to go to the restroom. Like, the motility in my gut just, just completely, just shut down. Just shut down completely. And you know, for me, I'm like, at the time where my thought process was, is, I was like, why is this happening to me? I am the healthiest person. You know, I'm physically fit. Hey, I'm even a nutritionist. I went to Baylor for nutrition and dietetics. This shouldn't be happening to me. I'm quote, unquote healthy. I was definitely, you know, in denial. But I also didn't have all of the information. So I did what most people do is I went to the doctor, I went to a gastroenterologist. They did everything. The CT scan, the mri, the colonoscopy, endoscopy. They slapped the label on me of ibs, or irritable bowel syndrome, which in my opinion is a trash can diagnosis. It's really not a diagnosis at all. It's just an accumulation of symptoms based off of symptom clusters, very similar to depression, anxiety, even autoimmune issues. So I got placed with this label and given a medication and sent on my way. Same thing for all of my other symptoms.

It was just like stacked medication on

medication, more and more and more medication, really just managing these symptoms. And I was frustrated. I was frustrated because no one was really giving me any answers. No one was telling me this is the root cause of what was going on. I was just passed from doctor to doctor. Very similar to you.

I so feel you on that.

So much money into all of the medical procedures.

I was just like a guinea pig for all these treatments. And some of them were invasive. And I remember one time going in for a treatment and it made my nerve condition worse. And I went back in and the doctor said, well, you know, one of the side effects of this treatment is if we do the radio, the spinal radio frequency, you could be paralyzed. I was like, well, I don't want that. Why didn't you tell me that before? You know, but same thing. And then I would go into the doctor saying, well, how can I get off these medications? And they just want to keep giving you medicine, keep giving you medicine. But so I am at a place now, too, where I have been this past year, where I'm like, I want to get to the root cause, and none of this other stuff is working for me. There's gotta be something that I can do by healing my gut.

Yeah, yeah. And it really always does go back to the gut, which I want to talk about, like, what it takes to heal that gut. But it really took me, though, going that route first with Western medicine and even going to the Mayo Clinic. I went all the way to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, which is supposed to be like, the best of the best, because, again, I was disciplined. I was motivated. I was like, I'm going to get to the root of this. And they gave me no answers. And I was then sent to a colorectal surgeon. Now, at this point, because, as I mentioned, the motility in my gut had completely come to a halt. I couldn't use the restroom without literally using an enema anymore. So they sent me to this colorectal surgeon who then now looks.

So wait, were you trying, like, teas and pills to use acid, Miralax, all the things and nothing.

All the medication, prescription Laxatives even too, which just made me more bloated, hurt my stomach even more, you know, and then just like, oh, this is probably something that you've had for most of your life, was even some of the answers that I got. The colorectal surgeon literally looked me in the eyes and said, you will never regain function to your large intestine and we're going to have to cut it out and actually remove your entire large intestine. And what this will actually do is it'll shorten the, the transits of everything

through your gastrointestinal tract, even absorb all

the nutrients that, I mean, there would be, you know, definitely some malnutrition. Luckily you do absorb a good amount of it, just or the most of it in your small intestine, but you would still become malnourished. You'd have to supplement. But I was so desperate at that point in my life, I like highly considered getting the surgery. I remember sitting there with my boyfriend at the time and my mom in the office, like, ready to schedule that surgery. I just was like, I want to get on with my life. I just, I don't want to be in pain anymore. And I know so many people can relate to that. And just like being in that place of like desperateness, like, just let me get better. Is this the answer? Is this just going to fix it for me?

It is desperate. You get to a place where you're desperate, you just want to feel better, and okay, whatever it takes. I was even gonna go to Europe to be put in a two week a coma and be infused with ketamine. Oh, and the side effect is you can die. I was like, okay, sign me up. You know what I mean? It's like desperate.

It's amazing what you'll do when you're

like that desperate and that much pain in your well. So did you go home and think, wait a minute, I'm not doing this. What made you decide not to?

Well, actually, at the time I left the doctor's office, I was thinking about it. I was in the process of literally ready to schedule that surgery. But something came over me in that moment. You know, I believe it was God because I'm faith based and I really listened to my gut, despite how messed up my gut was at the time. But it said, you know, this is not the way. There's another answer. So I left and I literally became obsessed with learning everything that I could about the gut and the gut microbiome and how these little micro in our gut control everything from Our hormones, our thyroid, our brain health, our metabolism, our motility, the transit of food. And I just spent hours and hours on end, just like I did in high school, just like I did, you know, when it came to making my dance team. Just like, obsessed with getting better. And I was like, you know what? Nobody is going to do the work for me. I'm going to have to do it for myself. So I was a dietitian, and I just became obsessed with. With learning everything that I could about gut health.

But that what you just said, no one was gonna do the work for me. I had to do the work myself. Exactly. Like that's what you have to do. It's like me, nobody was gonna walk again for me. I had to get up and learn to walk again. Nobody was gonna create joy again. I had to decide and start doing it. So I love that about you, and I love that that you have so much grit and determination and you learn so much about it. I didn't actually know as much about gut health and all of that until the last few years when I got sick of taking all the medications and started trying something to heal my gut. But for people who aren't familiar with exactly what the gut is responsible for. So you said your hormones, hormones, your

thyroid, your metabolism, they've literally shown that the bacteria in our gut control how many calories we extract from our food. Our bacteria in our gut are in constant communication with our brain. So when you are depressed, when you're anxious, very, very often your gut bacteria is playing a massive role because our gut produces about 70% of our serotonin that we produce. Most antidepressants are SSRIs. These are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which literally just help your body keep more serotonin in it. Where that is literally what the bacteria in our gut do. And if you think about it, most of us with the standard American diet, you know, which is, I call the SAD diet, processed foods, artificial sweeteners, you know, everything. Even though, like I said, my diet was quote, unquote, macro friendly, fitness friendly, you know, even got me to a good body composition. Like, it was terrible for my gut. It was processed foods, all of these things that were wreaking havoc on my microbiome. You combine that with, you know, emotional stress and the way actually stress affects our gut, as I always explain it, is. Think of stress. It's. It's a catabolic hormone. We've all heard about cortisol.

Oh, yeah, yeah. And you know what? When I'm Stressed, I start to shrink. Like, I start to lose muscle. And I've been away on trips where I'm doing events and I'm speaking on this day. And I mean, I'm grateful for that. But I'm just go, go, go. And I get back and I'll walk in the door and my husband will be like, you need to eat.

You know why that is? Because it's a catabolic hormone, right? It breaks the things down. So if you think about this, our gut lining, it's also a muscle tissue. So when we're in this catabolic state, when we are in a constant state of fight or flight. Now, stress can be so many different things. It can be dietary stress, it can be emotional stress, work stress, poor sleep, unaddressed trauma, but it also can be environmental stress. You know, you have toxic heavy metals, mold, a gut pathogen, but this causes this cortisol to become chronically elevated. And over time, it begins to break down your gut lining. Now why is that?

So is that leaky gut?

And that's what actually sets the tone for intestinal permeability. And our immune system as a byproduct starts to decrease. We start to pick up other types of bacteria, infections, and is a byproduct of a leaky gut, we start to develop food sensitivities. Food is typically not the root cause. Like allergies are something that you're born with, you can't get rid of. But a food sensitivity is something you typically develop because you have some degree of intestinal permeability where you're getting food, bacteria, toxins leaking into the bloodstream, causing massive immune and inflammatory upregulation. So now we have this, this leaky gut. But also too, this sets the tone for bacteria to overgrow in the body because our immune system has been lowered. We have all of these processed foods, these stressors. And the bacteria in our gut, they're listening, they are paying attention. And when we are in this state of stress and when we're not getting sleep, we're not getting sunlight, you know, we actually can create something called dysbiosis, which is an imbalance of that good and that bad bacteria. So now you kind of think about my story, right? Where I had all of this physical stress, I had this dietary stress, I had this unaddressed trauma too. And all of these different things combined. My gut lining started to break down, my immune system lowered. I started to get bacteria that started to overgrow in my gut because of all of the, the poor foods that I were eating that were feeding all of this bacteria. And then as a byproduct, the motility started to slow down because our thyroid slows down. Our hormones start to downregulate as well too. And the bacteria also play a huge role in the transit of food throughout our body. We actually have something called our body's migrating motor complex. These are cleaning waves and they sweep bacteria, foods and toxins to the, the lower part of the GI tract. And when we have a leaky gut, when we have bacterial overgrowth, this actually gets halted. Comes to a stop for a lot of people, especially in states of stress. Right. Because our body is also putting all of its energy towards our extremities, our muscles, because we're getting ready to fight or flee, where now all of a sudden also our digestive system is shut down, our gut lining is breaking down, bacteria starting to overgrow, and. And this is where all of these health issues start to come about for so many people. Now we have autoimmune issues because their immune system has down regulated and they're getting this immune upregulation and it starts to attack their thyroid or it starts to attack their colon, leading to something like ulcerative colitis. This leads to skin issues because the

bacteria even like eczema.

Eczema? Yep. 100%.

I mean, I have been really wanting one of my closest family members. Like I'm like, work on the gut health and that eczema will go. It's so much about your food. Then I also have a friend that just told me yesterday that I was talking to her about gut health and want her to try working on her gut and just the health of her gut. She told me she doesn't use the bathroom. Like she'll go for 10 days without terrible using the bathroom. And she's like, you know, been on medications and all this and it's just like shut down. Like she just doesn't use. But I'm like, that has to be something gut related.

Like that's 100 gut related. I mean usually at the core it's gonna be bacteria related. Definitely could also be, you know, thyroid related as well too. But again, we actually could divert our thyroid hormones, the conversion of T T4 to T3 through the gut.

Wow.

So it always goes back to the gut. Typically for anybody, when I see they address the stressors. So I always start with remove those stressors because you can't heal the gut. You can change your diet, you can do all the things, take the probiotics. But if the stressors are still there. If you're overworking, you're not getting enough sleep, if your diet is full of all of these processed food, I mean, it's gonna be a really hard time to heal. And, you know, so often you see, like, hey, just take this probiotic. It's gonna fix all of your gut. Well, there's nothing wrong with the probiotic, right? Like, take the probiotic. I'm not against it, but we have to deal with these stressors. We have to deal with the shit that's going on inside our head. We need to address, you know, our toxic thoughts that we're experiencing. Where are these coming from? What is the story? How is this showing up in my body? I'm a big believer that, you know, chronic stress trauma, it's really trapped energy in the body, if you really, really think about it. And we need to get that out of the body. And that's where, like, for me, a big part of my healing was really leaning into things like breath, work, meditation, fitness. And I know you and I have related to that in so many levels, but, like, when I have that high levels of stress, like, I need to. To move my body. Now, there's a big difference in the way that I did it back then, where I did it to an extreme, but it was also the combination. And for most people, it's not one thing. It's not like, oh, it was this one food. Oh, it was this one stressful day that I had this one stressful event. For most people, it's this, like, perfect whirlwind, this combination of emotional stress, poor diet. You know, when we're really stressed out, we have trauma. Guess what we do? We turn towards vices, we turn towards food. We start binge eating, we start leaning into that. And there are vices like alcohol and drugs. And yes, those also definitely disrupt the gut. Antibiotics, NSAIDs, those type of things, pain medications, but also interrupt the gut.

And antibiotics, Antibiotics, definitely. And as you're saying all this, I'm thinking about, you know, after my motorcycle accident, my body completely shut down, so my hair was falling out. I mean, chunks of hair. I had to end up cutting my hair. My hair was falling out. I stopped having my period. My thyroid levels were undetectable. My estrogen and testosterone were undetectable. Like, zero. Like nothing. And so everything was shut down. I was not using the bathroom.

It was like your gut was shut down.

Like, it was completely shut down from the trauma. So much medication being. Just think about being in a coma for that long all the medications they were giving me, and I remember thinking, well, I don't. They were like, you need to be on testosterone now. You need this thyroid medication. You need this antidepressant. Like, they were just giving me medication after medication after medication. And it was like, once I could start eating healthy again, once I could start. Start therapy and dealing with some of what was going on and the trauma. But I love how you say it's not just one thing that can start this. It's like a whirlwind of all these things. And then before you know it, you're like, holy cow, why do I look six months pregnant? What the heck is going on?

What is happening? And for most people who have gut issues, there's usually other things that are off, too. It's usually not just like, hey, I'm a little bit bloated. I'm a little bit constipated. Usually, you know, they have brain fog.

Oh, yeah.

They have anxiety, depression. They have skin issues. They have hair issues. They're constantly getting sick. I mean, all of these are indicators of an underlying gut issue that we're experiencing.

What about if you eat and every time after you eat, you get a stomachache? Is that like a.

It could be a combination of a couple of different things. It could definitely be a leaky gut issue. You know, a lot of people have that, and they have no idea that they do die.

Do you think I've heard that everybody has leaky gut?

I don't think everybody has it. I actually run microbiome tests on my clients all the time.

How do you do that?

It's a stool test. So they do a stool test at home, and I look at everything between.

So you look at poop for a living?

I look at poop for a living. And blood and urine. I look at all. I get all the fluids from you.

Oh, wow.

But I'll look at all of their bacteria in their gut. I'll look at probiotics. Good bacteria, they're missing. I'll look for bacteria overgrowth, their digestive enzymes. Very well. That person could have low stomach acid. They could be low in enzymes, and that could be causing their stomach issues. It could be intestinal permeability. I check that through something called.

So you can see all this through poop?

I can see all of this through poop. I'm a poop expert.

So you look to see if it's healthy bacteria. What about when you take an antibiotic? Is it killing off all that good bacteria in your microbiome?

Yeah, typically it's killing off, you know, some bad, but also some good bacteria. We consider dysbiosis to be an overgrowth of bad bacteria. This is going to be bacteria that causes inflammation, causes fermentation. So hyper fermentation, meaning, you know, you're eating all these foods and the bacteria are now eating it and they're producing a ton of gas. That's where most of the bloating that people experience actually comes from. It comes from not only what you're eating, but what the bacteria are eating, and they're eating what you're eating. And we're feeding different bacteria based off of the different foods that we're eating. So when we're eating sugar, artificial sweeteners, vegetable oils, we are feeding bad bacteria. That causes more inflammation, that causes, you know, an increase in bloating. But we also want to feed the good guys too. So I'll look at, in a gut microbiome, test the ratio of the good and the bad bacteria. And if somebody's really low on good bacteria and they're really high on, you know, that bad bacteria, I say they have what's called that dysbiosis. And we need to work on, you know, removing the stressors, whatever those may be, identifying them.

So you said the stressors are either things that we're physically stressed about, emotional trauma, or something like that.

Trauma. It could be just chronic stress, work stress, things like that, too. Poor sleep. It's not the little stressors that we experience. We're all human. We're going to experience stress. It's the chronic, chronic stress and unaddressed trauma where our body is immediately going into that state of fight or flight, like super rapidly.

So what are some of the things that you want? Obviously, I know like sugar, alcohol, artificial sweeteners. But let's say I'm like, I don't want to be feeding the bad bacteria. What are some things that you should not eat that might be surprising?

It kind of depends. So if somebody already has, let's say, sub dysbiosis, overall, this person actually may not tolerate a lot of good foods even too, like cruciferous vegetables, broccoli, asparagus, garlic and onion. These are actually what we call fodmaps. They're fermentable carbohydrates. They feed bacteria in the gut, but they don't differentiate. They feed all bacteria in the gut. So they feed good bacteria, but they also feed bad bacteria. So somebody who actually already has dysbiosis, they may eat a bunch of garlic and onion and be like, oh, My God, my stomach hurts. I'm blowing up like a balloon where

my mom cannot have onions or anything. So that means she's got bad bacteria.

It's very likely. Or a bacteria overgrowth. And there's something called sibo, small intestine.

I've been trying to get her to work on her gut health. Mom, if you're listening to this, you need to work on your gut health.

But it'll feed good bacteria, too. So let's say somebody has a healthy gut microbiome. They can tolerate more broccoli, asparagus, garlic, and onion. And for them, it's actually good because we're feeding more of that good bacteria. So. So that can sometimes be surprising for some people, but sometimes it's not always food as well. So vegetable oils, industrial seed oils, sugar, artificial sweeteners, wheat and dairy can sometimes be some big gut disruptors as well, too. So lactose is very fermentable to gut bacteria, so a lot of people just can't break it down very, very well. In general, wheat and gluten. It's also been shown to break down the gut lining and cause a little bit more of that immune. Immune upregulation. But sometimes they're things like actually household cleaners, because we don't just absorb things through our gut. We also absorb them through our skin.

Yeah, that's crazy to me. And I actually did not realize just how powerful that was until I got out of the hospital after my motorcycle accident. And I told you I had untraceable numbers of testosterone, and they gave me a cream to absorb a testosterone cream.

And you're like, how is this like,

you know, how does this work? And I'm like, I slap it on, and all of a sudden, my testosterone levels are going up and up and up and up. I was gaining weight. I started growing black hairs on my arms. It was crazy. Wait a minute.

I don't want this.

I'm like, what the heck? Black hair on my arm. I was gaining weight. I went back. I was going to the doctor every month. I said, do you realize every time I'm coming back, I'm getting. I'm gaining more weight? And he tested my testosterone levels, and it was, like, way up there, like, the same as a man. I think it was, like, 550.

You were probably almost getting ready to grow a beard at that point.

Oh, it was crazy.

That's too high.

It was way too high. But it just showed it, really. After that, I was like, everything I put on my body, I'm absorbing And so that's why I'm like, okay, I don't know about that lotion. Just like lotion from.

I'm talking about like parabens. Those are big gut disruptors actually too. Glyphosate, which is a pesticide that we spray on food. Huge gut disruptor. I run actually a toxin panel on a lot of my clients that's an 8 year old. I want to do this and I'll actually see parabens, glyphosates, herbicides, pesticides. I actually.

Wait, how do you see this through the blood?

This one's actually through the urine.

Through the urine, you can see that?

Yeah.

We excrete toxins through our bile, our sweat, and our urine overall. So we can test the urine and actually see, you know, what toxins are in your body. And everybody has some toxins. But what we're looking at is, are the amount of toxins part of the root cause of your gut issues, your hormone issues, your autoimmune issues. Especially for autoimmune people. They need to test their body's toxic load. I did it on myself. I had some mild based food mold actually. So like there was molds found in foods like rice, peanuts, coffee.

Isn't it potatoes too sometimes?

Potatoes, definitely skin. I had glyphosate. I definitely had some parabens in there too. And then I had gasoline, which was so insane to me because I remember the day before my test and this is where it showed me how very similar to you how we absorb everything through the skin. Because I was pumping gas one day and I accidentally kind of got it on me. You know, that happens.

You're kidding me.

And I did the test a few weeks later and it showed up on my toxin panel. So I like, I absorb all of that. And that's terrible for your body. So you think about like these household cleaners and bleach and all of these

different things and they're not clean with no gloves.

They kill your gut feel for sure.

I scrub stuff with no gloves. I'm never doing that again.

Gloves. This is actually an Okie time to wear the mask, you know, with some of those type of things. But yeah, so household cleaners are definitely big ones. Besides food.

I seriously want to do this test. I mean, we were just so. We were just at a conference with both of our coaches.

Shout out, Bedros.

Yeah, shout out. And he was talking about he was feeling like super tired. Brain fog. I mean, he's saying this from stage, so it's not like I'm not telling you anything that he's not talking about. But he was talking about how he was feeling so tired, like, had trouble even remembering, like, okay, how do I get home?

Mercury.

And he had. What was it? Mercury.

Mercury toxins. So that's a. It's a heavy metal. So that's also.

And he was eating a ton of sushi. I mean, you can do this from, like, eating. If you love sushi, better watch how much sushi you're eating. So, yeah, with the brain fog, that's just crazy to me.

Yeah, that's actually one of the number one symptoms of people who have intestinal permeability, or dysbiosis, because our gut and our brain are interconnected. I've already mentioned how the bacteria actually produce a good amount of serotonin. But there's other ways that it's connected, too. So we have something called our vagus nerve, and it's the biggest nerve in the body, and it connects our gut.

They wanted to do a vagus nerve implant on me.

Yeah, they do that a lot for, like, depression, anxiety. They'll even do, like a vagal nerve stimulator.

That's what they wanted to do. And I'm like, okay, what is it? And they're like, well, it's basically brain surgery. I was going to have a thing implanted on my vagus nerve to try to control the CRPs. Yeah.

So think about this. When you have intestinal permeability and that vagus nerve that connects to the brain, it actually leads to a breach in that blood brain barrier. So now not only do you have a leaky gut, but you also have a leaky brain as well, too. So this is where toxins and other things start to cross that blood brain barrier, leading to. To brain fog, leading to neuroinflammation, Alzheimer's, dementia. These are also gut issues at the core. They've shown that low gut diversity, gut dysbiosis, intestinal permeability actually leads to some of these memory issues like dementia and Alzheimer's later on in life. It's insane. The science is insane, I have to say.

I mean, one of my fears was my pain that I. I don't even like to say. My. The pain would be so bad that I would start to get kind of foggy brain fog, not be able to think clear, like. But I'm telling you, as soon as I started taking some supplements, you know, eating even cleaner because I always ate pretty clean, but really started paying attention to it, like, everything I was ingesting, I started, you Know, really taking some supplements to help support my gut, it was like I could think clearer. It really started to help. But I still think I could improve on that even more. So I'm gonna have to give you some of my poop.

You'll have to give me some of your poop. But your gut lining can actually regenerate itself in as little as three weeks if you do have intestinal permeability, if you're able to identify the stressors and remove them. And your bacteria and your gut can also change in as little as three days based off of the food that you're eating. So, yes, the gut plays a huge role, but it can change so, so, so rapidly. So step one, remove all of the stressors, or at least most of them that we can. The big ones at least, that are leading to a lot of issues. Sometimes, you know, it's a working progress, like the trauma thing. That's not like, as, you know, a snap of the fingers. That's gonna be the continuous work that you do. For me, it was cleaning up my diet, first and foremost, addressing some of the immediate stressors in my life, the physical stressors, of course, as well, too, under eating, since I was at such a low body fat percentage. And then my healing journey ended up evolving more into the mental and the emotional side of it for me. And that work, as we know, really never, never ends.

It never ends. Just when you think you're done, you're not. Yeah.

So I think it's starting with removing the stressors that you can at the beginning, and then it's also then identifying what is off, essentially. And that's where I think the functional medicine testing is great. When I went to all of those different doctors, I was blown away that nobody was talking about the microbiome or leaky gut or these microbes in our body. They weren't talking about how it's connected. It was, here's depression, here's the medication. Here you can't go to the bathroom. Here's a prescription. That's a tip. Oh, your hormones are balanced. Here's birth control. Or here's testosterone. Oh, your thyroid's off. Here's a thyroid medication. And I wasn't getting the level of care. And the reality is, is we have a food industry for one, that pays no attention to health, and then we have a health industry that pays no attention to food.

So that's powerful right there. That's so true.

I'm a big, big believer that right now there is a massive gap, too, between the wellness community between Western medicine and even the fitness community too, because as I mentioned, the fitness community says, just eat less, work out more, focus on your macros for a lot of

people and tell people what macros are. If people don't know you're like, macros, what is that? I don't know what, Mac. I was never, even though I was into fitness, I've never counted macros. And in fact, just two days ago, I was like, I'm gonna just see what my macros would be. I'd never done that.

And it's important, don't get me wrong. But it's only a piece of the overall equation. And I think it's a disservice to look at only one of these different areas. And there's nothing wrong with medicine. Medicine also can be very, very powerful and it can help a ton of of people. But know when you're going to the doctor, you're going to a physician that practices medicine. So if your goal is to heal and get to the root cause, that's going to be going to a different provider. So I'm never here to demonize Western medicine. You know, if you get in a car accident and you smash your leg, go to the Western medicine. Please do not come to somebody like me. Like, that's where you're going to need medicine. You're going to need all of that kind of stuff. But when you deal with these chronic issues, ibs, autoimmune conditions, anxiety, depression, we

need to get to the root.

We need to get to the root cause ultimately and figure out what's going on. But macros, to answer your question, these are carbs, fats and protein. Carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram, protein has 4 calories per gram, and then fats have 7 calories per gram. So actually, these macros make up our total calorie intake. So I know a lot of people, let's say, who just focus on, you know, eating good food. Maybe they do remove all of the, you know, the artificial sweeteners, the processed foods, but they're like, oh, my God, I can't lose the weight that I want and I can't build muscle. Well, they need to probably focus a little bit on their macros and where that's at. Or vice versa, though.

Like, that is the amount of protein, carbs and fat combined based on your body fat, what your body needs.

So we need to be getting enough proteins to support our body's skeletal muscle, muscle mass. As my good friend Dr. Gabrielle Line would say, you're a good friend as well too. Is muscle is one of the most important organs, I'd say besides the gut. But muscle is anti inflammatory, it's anti aging and it helps actually with glucose disposal. And we only can support that through getting enough protein based off of how much skeletal muscle mass we have or we want to have. And then also through resistance training.

So.

So. And I love.

I'm sorry, I'm interrupting.

I love.

Cause I mean I love watching your YouTube videos and your Instagram posts. Y' all have got to check her out on Instagram. Check out Rachel Shear on Instagram and also Rachel Shear Nutrition on Instagram. But I love how. And we'll get into this more too. But I love one of how bold you are and gorgeous and standing there in your bikini. I love it.

I still got the bikini girl in inside me. She has not gone away.

She's got that like side pose going. I'm like, golly, that's talent.

She has not laughed. But I will say in the wellness community, right, where we're just focusing on eating good healthy foods, we may be missing the ball when it comes to getting the body composition we want losing that weight. So we do need to look at macros. But then the people in the fitness community are just focused on macros. Get enough protein, we don't care where they're coming from, we don't care if it's processed protein.

You're just focusing on how many macros you're getting. And lifting heavy. That's what I was going to say in one of your videos. I was like, I just lift really heavy, like as heavy as I can.

Just eat, eat less, hit your protein and lift heavy. But then you could have these hormone issues, these gut issues and all of these things like I had. So this is what I mean, where I think there's a big gap right now between Western medicine which just looks at medication, it's very band aid based approach. Where then we have like the wellness community with functional medicine that pays no attention to like body composition and macronutrient intake. Or then the fitness community that doesn't really look out like gut health, they

don't care about the chemicals in that pre workout drink.

They don't.

I mean it was like pulling teeth to get my husband off of this pre workout drink that I was like, chemical, chemical, chemical, chemical. And then I was like, okay, he's

not going to glow in the dark.

I mean, yeah, right. And. And so I finally got him to take something that's all natural and he loves it, so now he's ordering it. But so many of the things in the fitness world are so unhealthy. I remember talking about they don't care what kind of food it is, as long as it's got the macros are right. I remember my nutritionist a long time ago was like, you need four. You can eat four of their, like, soy hot dog things.

I thought it was good for you.

Yeah. I'm like, what is this? I don't know. I can have four of them. Yeah. It was kind of like Frankenfood.

Frankenfood.

Yeah. But just like, yeah, I think there is a gap, and if we could all just kind of work together, but more focus on that root cause.

And that's, like, the mission that I'm honestly really on is bridging the gap between all of this. So, like, the people who come to work with me is we're gonna go into, like, the macros. I'm gonna do all the testing with them. I'm going to also help them with what's going to be the best diets and the foods that work with their body. We're going to address their gut health and work on getting their gut into a good place, and we're going to find the root cause, and we're going to also coach through some of the mindset things. And if you were to go to a nutritionist, a personal trainer, you were to go to a physician, a life coach, this would cost, I don't know, $10,000 at least per month.

So.

So we're really doing all of these different things for our clients. And, you know, this is kind of like, my mission that I'm on is really bridging the gap between all of these different worlds, because we need all of it. You know, people want to feel their best, look their best. You know, we talked a lot about on, you know, the podcast that you came on on mine about, you know, building confidence. And yes, there's a level of, like, we want to look freaking confident and look in the mirror.

It affects how you do business. And I'm gonna say this, and I'm probably gonna get a lot of hate about this.

Do it.

But you know what? When somebody is coming up to me and they're telling me they're an expert in whatever field that they're in, but they look like crap.

Oh, yeah.

And I say that, like, they don't look healthy. You know what I mean? They're puffy. They've got bags under their eyes. They don't look like, yeah. I'm like, dude, unless it's an overweight personal trainer who's lost £100 and they're inspiring me that they lost that weight. But I'm like, when I see somebody that shows up and they look healthy, they look like their skin's good, they're glowing. Not saying that they have to have 11% body fat. No, that's not healthy. No. But that they look like they feel good. I want to learn more. I want to learn from that person. I trust what they're saying because I know they're like, okay, you look like you're taking care of yourself. And I know that sounds kind of harsh, but, like, when I have somebody that shows up and they look healthy and they look like they are ready to go, I'm like, that's a go getter. That's somebody who cares enough to take care of their health.

They have self respect, enough self respect. They have enough self respect for themselves. And self respect is, you know, choosing to eat foods that love you back. It's choosing to move your body every single day. It's choosing to be intentional with the books you read, the podcasts you listen to, the people that you surround yourself with. Ultimately, you know, that's what self respect is, in my opinion. And, you know, to your point is, I want to take advice from somebody who has walked through what it is that I'm trying to achieve. You know, I'm a living, breathing example of that.

And I love that you say self respect. That's such a great way to sum it up. Because. And I say this because, look, when I got out of the hospital, I didn't look healthy. I looked like I'd been through a war. People wouldn't look at me and go, oh, she's healthy. I mean, I looked like I'd been through a war, but self respect was. I still, even in the hospital, shaved my legs, couldn't get up, couldn't get out of bed. I had a halo. I would shave my legs. I would put makeup on, I would brush my hair, I would sponge bath myself. And I kept getting in trouble because I would even paint my toenail on a leg that I didn't even know if that was going to be the day they were going to amputate it or not. But I'm like, but at least I'm painting my toenails.

So.

So that's what I mean about showing up with self respect and looking your best. Not perfect. You don't have to be perfect, but that you Care enough. I went to go get my dad and take him out of the house and he just had a back surgery and we're working on his mindset and stuff. And he said, well, you know, it's a lot for me. I shaved today and I said, dad, you need to be shaving every day. I said, you need to shave, you need to get up, you need to get your clothes on, you need to make your own food. Like that's self respect. Yeah, you know what I mean?

100%. And I think when even like going back to like the conversation about like vices, ultimately those are people who don't have self respect for themselves.

Oh, I'd lost mine. That's why I had a vice, you

know, and that is essentially at the core of, you know, how trauma operates as well, too. Right. We turn towards vices. We don't have that self respect for ourself, essentially, you know, respecting our body, like I said, choosing to eat foods that really, really love us back. It's respecting our body ultimately at the core of everything.

How do you think you start to get that self respect?

I think first getting that self respect is dealing with the inner dialogue. You talk a lot about leaning in and confronting everything being very, very real and just honoring what is the reality for yourself. So paying attention to the fruits that are there in your life. So if you are somebody who is overweight, who's depressed, where have those fruits come from? Those fruits have come from our habits, and those habits have come from essentially our thoughts. And where did those thoughts come from? Probably something that has happened in our life. So we start to pay attention first to the fruits in our life and we own it. We have ownership for that, which it's scary to really look at that and, you know, just really, really look in the mirror and look at the reality of where we're at.

It is hard. And I mean, I was, I was 25 pounds heavier. Like I went from being 20 pounds lighter than I am now when I first got out of the hospital to completely disrespecting myself. And I weighed as much as I weighed when I was nine months pregnant. And I, I was just like, how did this person who was a fitness lose respect for myself? My gut was all off. It was terrible. But I think it is getting real with yourself and deciding that you want to eat better foods. Make sure you're not, you know, spilling

gasoline, you know, well, that was an accident, 100%. But I think like, once you're really, really real upfront with yourself, you Then get to choose what the story is that you want to be running the show. Because there's been a story, right, running the show for so long that was probably based off a trauma. And for most of us, it's. It's not true. For me, you know, a lot of, like, my story running the show is if you achieve X, y, or Z, then you'll be worthy, then you'll be loved. And it was such a lie, Amberly. But that was the story that I was holding onto, which led to the fruits of burnout. All of my health issues. You could say that was my vice. For some people, it's food. For some people, it's alcohol. But we turn towards these different things based off of our habits that created our thoughts and our feelings. So I think once we can really understand where the story is coming from, then we get to choose the story that really is the. The truth. And I think that's what is really, really empowering, and that is start taking that first step towards building that self respect. What is the truth? The truth is I'm loved. I am capable. I've proven it to myself over and over and over again. I've proven it to myself. When I said, hey, you know what? I want to get into Baylor. When I want to do this, I was able to do that. But I also am worthy and loved because God is my savior. And there's. There's a lot of that. So I get to create that meaning to it. And once we recreate that story, the way that our brain works, though, is it's based off of facts. It's going to look for evidence. It's going to look for evidence. Be like, yeah, no, but what about this? And what about this? This tells me that that's not true. So this is where we get to prove it to ourself with small wins. This is where it goes back to. I'm going to start fitness. I'm going to start working on my body. You stack that win, you start being intentional with the foods that you're putting in your body. You start stacking that wins. So you choose, even though if you don't feel like it, and I promise you at first, you probably may not believe it wholeheartedly. You know, you're like, all right, I am so loved. I'm worthy. And there's like this little inner voice in your head being like, that's not true. But you're like, okay, you know what? But I am going to act in spite of thoughts, feelings, moods, and emotions. And you do that and you give yourself that little bit of tough love, and after a while, you're not like, hey, you know what? I crushed that workout. I feel so much better. You know what? I'm feeling better with the food choices that I'm making. And all of a sudden you start to see these wins and you start to believe this story that you've been telling yourself, and you start to really reprogram what the truth really, really is. And I think that's how we start to create, create that self respect for ourselves. But we have to really first confront what is the root cause. I'm always there about the root cause in the first place. Where did this story come from? You know, and really, really try to understand it. Choose the story that we want to believe to be true, then prove it to ourself with small wins. And I think it's not like a quick fix.

Right?

You know, there has been many times in my life where too I've, like, you know, I haven't followed through on a commitment and something, but you know, that feeling, and I know we talked about it on the podcast, you came on. Like, that erodes your confidence. But you know what, you take that lesson and you take that next step forward, and then you get to look back and say, you know what? The last time this happened, I was able to move forward and move past it and extract these lessons from it over time. And I think this is where true healing really begins to happen. We start to respect our body through the foods we're eating, through the books we're reading, the people we're surrounding ourselves with being just very, very intentional. And then I think the last thing is really, really then choosing to serve. So I've now taken my entire journey from my own trauma, you know, my own choices that manifested in, you know, this extreme side of fitness, to losing my health, almost having my large intestine remove, to then, like having to heal my entire gut, you know, become just a gut health expert. And now I get to help people do the exact same. So every day now, I am reminded of like my entire journey and just like the purpose for it all, and I get to pay it forward. And I think that's the mission that we're all on is like, how can I take this pain that I went through, reframe it, recreate it, step into this new version of myself and help somebody else do the exact same too.

Well, you are helping so many people, and I want people to really be able to learn more and get to work with you. I Don't know. I mean, you do so much. And I know that you have a whole team of dieticians and coaches that work along with you. Your business has just exploded because people want to feel better. And I actually want to have you check out my poop.

I'm like, we're gonna test the poop, guys.

Here's the poop. I'm gonna be a little like, okay, here you go.

I don't test the poop. The lab does. I just get the results.

Okay. Okay.

I won't actually be dealing with your poop.

Okay, then I'm in. Count me in. But I want that. I want the urine test, I want the blood, I want the whole thing. And like I said, we keep it really real on this show.

Okay?

So I asked the question questions that I know people are like, well, how much is that? I want to work with her. So if I come in and I want the full workup, because I do. I want to know what toxins that I have because I've worked so hard on getting healthy. But you never know, like, am I eating too much sushi? Whatever is going on, how much is it? Do you have a program? Tell me your different programs and then how much is it? Like, can I work with you?

Yes. So I do some one on one coaching, but I also have a team of registered dietitians, and they can do everything that I can do. And as I mentioned, it's a combination of everything that I've mentioned, between the fitness side, the nutrition side, the testing, you know, the coaching. It's everything all in one.

So they'll come, they'll get to. It's a whole program. They won't just get, here's your nutritional plan.

They get no cookie cutter nutrition plans, cookie cutter fitness program.

They get a real person that's gonna show them how to move their body, walk them through it, be there to coach them. This is freaking brilliant.

We coach everybody for a minimum of four months, but honestly, six months is usually the ideal time that we work with somebody for because again, we are addressing their root cause and we're trying to heal instead of just put a band aid over the issue. And we want this to be long term and successful, sustainable. And the money that you would pay, you know, to go to all these different people and trying all these different things, I mean, typically we're gonna pay it, you know, in some way. We can either pay it down the road, paying for our health, you know, as, you know, like when you're health, you lose your health, like you will pay all of these medical bills and medications. And for me, the biggest thing is like the confidence, you know, my time, my energy, all of those things.

Freedom.

So much better or so much worse for me even than like the financial side of it all. So the one on one coaching does all of the testing and it's coaching for four to six months. My dietitians are awesome. They're about half the investment to work with one of them than it is to work with me. But we actually are launching here, coming up, our gut health repair program which is more group based coaching. And why I'm so excited about this is, you know, I started this mission because I wanted to help as many people as possible, but there is only so many of me and we can only do so many one on one. So this group coaching model was really meant to do everything also minus the testing. It does not do the one on one testing, unfortunately. So that does have to be one on one. But the gut health repair program is actually going to walk everybody through what they need to do to remove these gut triggers to heal the guts, get rid of bacteria that's overgrown, reinoculate the gut, heal it. But also the fitness side of it. They get the fitness programs, they get the coaching on the macronutrient tracking, setting their protein, their carbs and fats, calories, and then we're doing group coaching calls throughout an entire three month period. And this is about 1/6 of the cost as it would be to do the one on one coaching and all the testing. Of course, if you're somebody who has like a ton, a ton of health issues, I do recommend doing the testing because it's going to give you that much more information. But the goal is to help as many people as possible. So I actually have a code that you can give any of your listeners. You can just use the code, Amberlee, and they can get 10% off because this week we have actually launched the first gut health repair program. But you can also do the one on one testing to meet to work with me. It's a little bit more of investment. It's typically around 15,000 for a full six months with all of the testing. You know, it's very, very hands on with everything that I mentioned there. And then it's about half the cost to work with one of my coaches for six months. But we do have four month options and we do have payment plan options as well too.

That's incredible. Well, tell them the website the best way to find this and you, yes,

you guys can Follow me on Instagram, rachelsheer and my practices at Rachel Shear Nutrition. So I have two pages. You can check out my website@rachelsheer.com and be sure to check out the show notes and use code Amberlee if you're interested in joining our Gut Health repair program.

Yeah, you guys look in the show notes. I'll have all of her information or handles and also check out her podcast, Sheer Madness. Sheer Madness. I just had the honor of being on her show, and she's had huge, like, iconic people on the show, so I feel really honored to be on your show. I just. I mean, I seriously, I love you. Like, we met, and we've just, like, been. I'm like, sisters. I say sisters. It could be mom and daughter, but I'm gonna say sisters.

It is sisters, 100%. But, I mean, moms.

That's right. That's right. We always have fun. But I'm just fascinated with all that you share. But even more than that, just your heart, all the love that you put into what you do. You really are the definition of what it takes to be gritty with a touch of grace. I am not kidding you. So thank you for sharing your heart, your wisdom. I love learning from you, and I'll be giving you some samples soon. But y'. All. Yeah, follow. And you know what? Take a screenshot, or if you're watching on YouTube, take a screenshot and share it on your Instagram. Because when I see that, I want to give her a lot of love. Tag me. Amberly lagomotivation. Tag Rachel at Rachel Shear or Rachel Shear Nutrition. So we see it. And when I see you tag me, I share it, too. So thank you for coming on the show and thank you for tuning in. We'll see you next week. Sa.