People of Northwest Arkansas
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People of Northwest Arkansas
Lindsey Sabatini's Insights on Advanced Nursing and Wellness
Embark on an inspiring journey with Lindsey Sabatini, an advanced practice nurse practitioner from the University of Arkansas, as she recounts her path from Northwest Arkansas to a thriving career in nursing. From enduring multiple shoulder surgeries in her youth to balancing a high-pressure ICU role with family life, Lindsey offers a candid look at the challenges and triumphs of her professional and personal worlds. The episode is a tribute to resilience, celebrating mothers who pursue their dreams while nurturing their families. Whether it’s finding motivation for personal health transformations or navigating complex family dynamics, Lindsey’s story is a testament to the power of perseverance and the pursuit of balance in life’s many facets.
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Danielle. Yes, we have a really special guest today. We sure do. She is a local and she teaches at the University of Arkansas and she's also a advanced practice nurse practitioner. Did I get that right? Yes, that's right. Her name is Lindsay Sabatini. Yes, and she is here today and we're going to pick her brain about balance, which is like a fun concept, right, like everyone's seeking balance. So I don't know if there is an actual balance, but it's the quest for balance, so we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about health and wellness and then, just diving into, I want to know about the secrets of a long-term marriage, because she married her high school sweetheart.
Speaker 2:And by local you mean did you grow up in Northwest Arkansas, born and raised Nice? I'm excited to hear about that as well. I think it's fun when we have guests who have moved here and why they moved here, and then guests who have grown up here. Well.
Speaker 1:I feel like people that moved here are way more excited about all the growth and development than the people that are actually from here. They're a little more disgruntled, I feel like A little bit yeah.
Speaker 2:Change is hard If you think? About that change can be hard for people.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I'm sure that Lindsay can attest to that in the work that she's doing with people and helping them with weight loss helping them with getting centered, helping them with getting balanced in their life. So let's dive in, yeah, let's talk to her and hear a little bit more about what she does. And also she's one of our new sponsors as well. She is a new sponsor, so we just we align.
Speaker 1:I think we align she's. She has four kids. She's all about health and wellness and hormones, balancing your body, balancing life with husband, marriage, kids, business, owning your own business, entrepreneur which we're all about here. It's tough, yeah it is. We interview a lot of entrepreneurs and it's just a hustle, but it's fun. It's all about the journey, right.
Speaker 4:Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1:So tell us, speaking of journeys, your journey. So you're from here here. You married your high school sweetheart and you guys just knew like this is it, was it love at first sight, or first.
Speaker 2:I want to hear where she grew up, though, did she? Yeah, what part of? So? I was born in rogers.
Speaker 4:I grew up in springdale, oh, so yeah, I mean I've been in springdale since I can remember. I went to springdale schools until seventh grade and then I transferred to Shiloh Just needed a little bit smaller group of friends. It was hard to make different friends every time you move schools, and so I thought that would be best. And so actually, the entrance exam going into Shiloh is the first time I saw my now husband. He said it was love at first sight. I didn't even remember he was there until we. I remember him, but it wasn't, you know, until we got to know each other a couple of years later. But we've been dating since ninth grade.
Speaker 4:I mean, we've been together since then, and so it took a couple of years, but yeah, he swept me off my feet as much as you can as a ninth grader.
Speaker 3:But you know it was so cute Cheerleader football player whole thing.
Speaker 4:Oh, you were a cheerleader, yeah. So we've been together ever since we have four kiddos. I went to the University of Arkansas for all three of my degrees my bachelor's, master's and doctorate in nursing and have taught there since 2009 as a clinical instructor and I absolutely love it. So I love educating.
Speaker 4:And then I have been a practitioner since about 2012 and have worked in a couple different areas, but with four kiddos it was really hard to stay in the hospital setting and do the 12 to 14 hour shifts. I'm an IC nurse that's my background and I loved it. But having kiddos, yeah, the scheduling is a little difficult if you're gone for 14 hours at a time. And so we did more of a clinic type setting and fell into weight loss when I went through my own journey of weight loss after having kids and trying to figure out where my body felt the best and needed to be and the whole balance thing is just difficult, and so I fell into that and that's changed a lot in the last couple of years as those GLP-1 shots have come out Totally changed weight loss and that whole specialty.
Speaker 1:But yeah, and I do have questions about that later but before. That's awesome, though you said you worked in icu. Yeah, I just wonder does that leave a nurse or doctor with trauma in and of itself?
Speaker 2:because yeah, that seems like I'm not a nurse and I'm gonna answer for her.
Speaker 4:Yes, I can't imagine it it does. Honestly, I view death very differently, In a good and bad way, probably a little bit. For some people it is scary, but some people they need to rest, they need to go peacefully and that's difficult In the ICU, in the hospital. We're all about saving them. Sometimes the best thing for them is not that.
Speaker 2:It's hard.
Speaker 4:I think every year I worked in the ICU is for 15 years. I worked bikes and barbecue and that was a hard weekend because of all the traumas and so bikes was barbecue a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 1:I was like I was wondering about that because I see all these like tiktoks, where it's. It'll be like a brain surgeon or someone like that, and they'll say what's the one thing you would never do? And it's always ride a motorcycle. Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And so many don't wear they don't wear helmets I want we were driving around the other day and are dealing with my daughter, because I have really talked to her about like we wear helmets on bikes and motorcycles and all that, and she were driving around. She goes mommy, there are a lot of people without, without helmets on and I was like we should make a sign and just put it in our car window your life matters, wear a helmet.
Speaker 1:It depends on it. Yeah yeah, it's scary. So that was a hard weekend.
Speaker 4:Yeah, always vice versa. It was a hard weekend and any big trauma it's all hard. Yeah, I remember the very last patient I had as an ICU, remember what the patient looked like. I remember the room they were in.
Speaker 1:I remember everything that went down right because it's just it's just what an important job that you had, because I always thought, when I'm in there, someone I love is in there. Pray for my doctor and nurse, because that's a really intense setting to be in. But you left that and now you're in clinical, which is probably not as crazy.
Speaker 4:It's not as crazy. It's crazy in a different way For sure, but I still teach. That's what I teach at the U of A. I teach critical care. Oh, okay.
Speaker 4:So that's still using that knowledge and using those brain cells in that way. But I teach others how to go into that if they want to, it into that if they want to. It's just part of their clinical rotation but it's their last kind of hoorah before they go. They graduate and take the NCLEX and go out. So yeah, I hope that you're teaching in a few years.
Speaker 2:My, my niece, is at the U of A.
Speaker 1:She's a sophomore and she's going into nursing oh, that would be great if you could teach her niece yeah she got her first fail on a test ever in her entire life in oh gosh, what class.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I think it might be something with anatomy, I can't remember. But she said like everyone in the class failed the test and the teacher was like it's fine, you're all going to do terrible at first and then you're going to learn it.
Speaker 4:And she's, we have to learn like 800 vocabulary words and the students have to learn how to study. Like they don't know how to study, yeah it's a whole especially after covid I feel, like everybody, I'm trying to teach my son how to comprehend things, and it's very different than just reading a definition. But what does that mean?
Speaker 3:and what does?
Speaker 4:he's like what and I'm like no. You have to be able to apply that application and it's very different, so college is so different.
Speaker 1:Now remember we had to buy textbooks do they?
Speaker 4:still buy textbooks or just use their laptop yeah, a lot of online resources.
Speaker 1:I feel so old, I'm like in my day we had to carry 400 pounds. I know I can't read on the screen.
Speaker 4:I still use a paper planner like I can't. I know that is.
Speaker 2:It's color-coded, it's great, but yeah, see, yeah, I use one too. Yes, paper planner, I have to write it.
Speaker 1:And I think you. I cannot type and learn. I have to write.
Speaker 4:I don't know for me. I used to write out my notes. Yes, definitely.
Speaker 1:Okay, so ICU, now your clinic and your clinic. I found this interesting because you do everything. You offer health and wellness, weight loss, aesthetics, but also a sick visit, right, right.
Speaker 4:So everything yes a little bit of everything. So definitely probably the majority of what I do is weight loss, and I know we'll get to that in a few minutes. But what I really wanted to do was help people and that's where the name came from truly balance their body from the inside out. So a lot of people they're like okay, I have this symptom and we just treat that symptom. But what we really need to know is why do you have that symptom? What is causing that?
Speaker 4:Is it an imbalance of hormones? Is it your cortisol level's high because you're super stressed and we need to work on that? Is it you have a gut problem or an allergy to a medication or a food or something like that that we need to limit in your diet and try to figure out why you're having that symptom? So, instead of just treating the symptom, find the underlying cause so that we can work through that, so that you don't have this lifelong just treating the symptom problem. Yes, maybe it's eliminating dairy from your diet or changing medications for X, y, z because it's causing this symptom, but I'm truly trying to find the root of the problem.
Speaker 1:And that's hard. That's hard. That is hard because I have had this experience my own life. I'm still on the quest to figure out if my daughter has been diagnosed by a lot of different doctors, different things, and they all question each other and don't think, and I still can't figure it out that's hard and so it's interesting because I don't know if it's a food allergy, an allergy or asthma. So, and I have some other friends going through this with- their children and it.
Speaker 1:It's hard for adults, but it's especially hard to find someone to help children. Yes, it is, and you don't know if it is diet or or environmental or yeah right. So I appreciate what you're doing because a lot of times and I love our doctors but, yes, they're good at treating a sickness right, but I've had some challenges in the health care world with finding the. They're just giving medicine for the symptoms, but I can't figure out the cause.
Speaker 4:Right, right Because, yeah, if you could easily make that go away for your kiddo, then it seems like it would be the number one thing we would do instead.
Speaker 1:Right Over and over and over.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Can we take a step back and hear a little bit about?
Speaker 1:your journey. Daniel always wants to take a step back. I do. I love it. I'm always like forward.
Speaker 2:Well, I love people's stories. No, me too, and I love to hear why they do what they do and so what prompted you, what was the catalyst or the steps that kind of brought you to decide to go into nursing and to go into the healthcare world?
Speaker 4:So, honestly, it was in high school when I had several shoulder surgeries in high school, just from cheer and dance and dislocations and stuff like that. So, and when I really thought I knew I was going to go in the medical field, I knew that I just did not know what route until, kind of, I went through those surgeries several years in a row and I really saw how involved the nurses were and I love my doctor, my surgeon, like they're great, no, nothing against them, but they have limited time with you and things like that and so I really saw how much they were involved and how much the education part of it which is another part of me there but and thought you know what? That's what I want to do. I want to be able to be more involved in the care. I have more time with them, I can educate them, I can be there for them in different ways, and I really just wanted that path.
Speaker 4:It also helped that we had a nursing school up here and not a medical school. I could have possibly gone to medical school, but I really didn't want to leave the area. My family and friends were here and so, yeah, I went the nursing route and I actually went to NWAC and the U of A and doubled up and got done early and it was a little crazy because at the time the school I went to didn't offer any college classes Now they do, but so I ran through that. But yeah, so I found that through a hard time in my life when I couldn't do the things I like to do because I was out with my shoulder surgeries. But, yeah, that kind of led me there, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:So what is the difference between a registered nurse and an advanced practice registered nurse? What do you have to do to get to that certification?
Speaker 4:So a registered nurse is. Now you can have your associate's or bachelor's degree, but those are nurses that you can be in several different areas too. That's the thing about nursing. You can do so many things Like it is. I tell my students I'm like if you ever get bored in nursing, there's another route.
Speaker 4:In nursing so many things, but more of the, you do take the order from the doctor or the practitioner and you are taking care of the patient and applying those things. So think about like the bedside nurses at the hospital and or at clinics where they're helping people, like with my surgeon, the nurse that was in there with me, or so on and so forth. But the advanced practice nurse has the ability to prescribe medications and diagnose. It's usually a master's or doctorate. Now Some schools are doing one or the other, but they're leaning more towards the doctoral degree, which is what I got my master's first and had my practitioner, but then I finished with my doctorate at the U of A. So it's weird because they call me Dr Sabatini at the U of A as an educator, but I'm just Lindsay.
Speaker 4:Sabatini, but you do have a doctorate, but in the medical field they don't call me doctor. That's very confusing. My kids call me a doctor, nurse. They don't know what I am. I'm like that's fine, doctor, nurse, doctor nurse.
Speaker 4:That's cute and so yeah, it's really cute, so yeah, but I can diagnose, I can prescribe. I actually have my independent practice now, so I don't have to have a collaborating physician over me, which is a new thing in lots of states. Now you have to have a lot of practice hours as an advanced practice nurse and multiple reference letters and things from doctors you've worked with. But I was able to apply for that last year and so now I don't have to have a collaborating physician looking over me. Now I still speak to several and consult people that I need a second opinion on or whatnot, but but yeah, I'm just independently practicing now yeah, that's wonderful.
Speaker 2:Thank you for that explanation. That actually helped me a lot so.
Speaker 1:so weight loss obviously is always popular, and semaglutides are very they're very buzzy right now, like everyone is talking about these, I feel like and I have my own family members that take them for diabetes but they are approved for weight loss as well, and I think it's really interesting the way that it's evolving, because from what I've been hearing and you can tell me your opinion on this that with the way it's going, weight loss surgery may not even be necessary in a lot or most cases because of what we have now. They're like a mirror, if done right right, exactly right if done right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I agree. I think that um the class of the glp ones, which there's a couple different ones now, but it's going to change weight loss when more accessible and more affordable. Right now it's still a challenge in that right, it's very expensive. Right, it's very expensive but they work on your gut so that you just don't feel hungry. Now we have to do this right, though, and that's one of the keys is that I feel like some people take the medication and are like, oh, I don't have to eat, and then they're starving.
Speaker 1:No, you do need nutrition.
Speaker 4:You still have to eat, and so that's one of the things I'm really big on. You have to eat, and we calculate their minimum calories that they need to be able to function. But they also communicate with the brain, and that's one of the things I feel like is really hard for patients that go through the gastric bypass and things like that is that they still have what a lot of people call that food noise, and so, even though their stomach is small and they can't fit as much food, so it gets full faster they still have the stomach communicating with the brain, saying oh food, do I need it? Is it good, is it bad? Today, where am I at in my relationship with food, which is usually a roller coaster or like comforting, yes, it's comforting, yeah.
Speaker 4:And so with the GLP-1s it turns off that communication and so you're not having that food noise that's making you obsessed one way or the other. Usually with food, am I counting my calories? Am I avoiding food? Am I eating all the things today? And so people just say that food noise goes away, which is a big thing. So, even though after surgery maybe they have a smaller stomach, they still have that mental kind of back and forth.
Speaker 4:Yeah, struggle, I mean a lot of the time, and so I have actually a lot of patients who have had gastric bypass that come in and they've done well with it, but they're just having that constant, just struggle. And so I've put some of them on a small dose of the GLP-1 medications and it just turns that off, and so they're able to eat what they need to. They have to eat well, right, but they're not having that mental struggle, and so that's been really huge for them.
Speaker 1:See, that's huge because I have to see an endocrinologist. I have a thyroid hypothyroidism so I have to take Synthroid and my doctor told me, for weight loss, count calories. I'm like I know that sounds really easy. Yes, I'm really bad at counting my calories. I don't know what it is. I can go on all these other apps and do things I like hate counting calories. I don't know what it is. I can go on all these other apps and do things I like hate counting calories. I really can't. She knows I door dash all day. I do all kinds of things.
Speaker 3:All day I use all kinds of apps.
Speaker 1:But counting my calories, just like it's so cumbersome to me, Like it's so I don't know, I just I can't stick with it it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, for whatever reason, it's really hard and a lot of people you know if you're really going to count them, like you have to like weigh food, like it's tedious. Some people that's what they need to do. They need to be able to control that and for some people that's a healthy thing.
Speaker 1:I know some people that do it religiously, like they don't deviate, even traveling, which to me is so rigid. It's super hard.
Speaker 4:And some people have their 10 meals. They eat 90% of the time and they know, okay, that's that many calories, yeah, 100, 450, like done. But yeah, it's very hard. And when I was at a point where I needed to know how much protein I was getting and really was counting at a scale, yeah, like you have to, you really have to. You can't say, oh, that's 20 grams of protein, well, it may be 40 or it may be two, right, you have to know if you're going to do it, right.
Speaker 1:Do you have to eat a lot of protein when you take those?
Speaker 4:I've heard that yeah, yeah, we focus on protein. But I tell people, a lot of people cut carbs. I can cut carbs.
Speaker 2:I'm not a fan. I cannot either.
Speaker 3:I get like crazy.
Speaker 1:Yes, when I cut carbs, like I know I do.
Speaker 3:And it actually hurts my workouts too.
Speaker 1:Like I had no, like I can't no fuel.
Speaker 4:No, it's your energy yeah.
Speaker 1:I was like running an eight and a half minute mile Like just leisure, if I just want to go run in the neighborhood or something Not like my fastest. Just running in the neighborhood when I was doing keto, I was running a 12. I couldn't run like 12 minutes.
Speaker 4:It's what gives you energy and that's what I tell people. If you eat the right carbs, right, but the less processed the better, because your body didn't have to break it down as much, but that's what gives you energy. And so these patients that are on these shots or whatever weight loss journey yes, focus on protein. That's what's going to help you keep your muscle and build the muscle, but carbs are what's going to give you energy to move. Yeah, and if you don't eat the carbs, then you're sitting on the couch not eating and you're losing your muscle, and so that's what. That's one of the, I think, wrong ways people were doing this. They weren't eating enough and they weren't maintaining or building that muscle, and so they're getting that that gaunt looking appearance, or they're losing too much, yeah.
Speaker 2:So if I were to come into your clinic and want to do this, what would that look like as a patient? Obviously, there's the prescription side of it and getting the shots. And then what else do you offer your patients as part of a program?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so we come in and we talk through. Is this the right path for you, depending on where you're at? But first thing I do is obviously have to get your height and weight and all of that, and I also have a body scanner that you get on. It's like a scale on steroids. It has all kinds of functions. That helps me. It shows me your water weight, shows me your muscle mass, body fat, all that kind of stuff. It measures your minimum amount of calories you need to be eating, which is what we talked about earlier. It also shows your visceral fat, which is the fat around your organs, because you can even have issues with different organs if you have a larger amount of fat around them, because it's harder for them to function, and so lots of things there. And so I have to make sure you're a good candidate. Are you going to safely be able to lose weight? Do you have a good amount of muscle? Do you have, as far as your range, are you above the recommended BMI?
Speaker 4:Now, bmi takes some people very low. I'll be honest, that's not what we just need to be looking at. But I don't want people to become too thin on these medications. I'm not going to take people below the recommended BMI. So anyway it calculates all that for me, and so it's a fancy scale that we get on and then we talk through the medications Are you going to be able to eat enough calories? That's one of the things. I've taken people off the medications that are losing only muscle and obviously we're not eating enough and losing way too much in a month. Only muscle and obviously we're not eating enough and losing way too much in a month. I can probably 90% of my people lose a pound a week. It's recommended.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Maybe a little bit more at first, because you usually lose a little water weight, especially men.
Speaker 1:It's always men. Men always lose weight.
Speaker 4:Everything is going so fast. Yeah, they get more calories. It's so irritating, all the things, yeah.
Speaker 1:They get more calories.
Speaker 4:They lose all the weight. Yeah, it's the testosterone, which is another conversation. But that testosterone?
Speaker 1:Maybe I need testosterone.
Speaker 2:A lot of women need testosterone. Yeah, you know what? I've heard that as well. Someone else had told us that.
Speaker 1:Meg Green, the nutritionist. She told us we need testosterone Well.
Speaker 2:I love that you do all of that. So I have done the shots before. I did it a couple of years ago and I lost a lot of weight but I didn't have the support for like nutrition and exercise and that sort of thing, and then when I went off them, I like just gained it all back and then some, and I think that there is something to be said about having that support right full balance and I think that's really important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's hard for me to share that here on the air a little bit, because so I actually have an app that can little bit, so I actually have an app that can help. That's very personal.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I actually have an app that can help my patients too. So for my weight loss patients, it's super, super cheap. For patients coming from the outside, I have to build their programs and it's a little bit more, but I actually have a body balance app that helps them. I can build their workouts, they can track food oh, you do all. So it's everything. Yeah, yeah, and I can have them remind them to take certain supplements. If they're on supplements, I can remind them to log their water, so it encourages them to get their movement in and encourages them to count their calories. Or maybe just they're counting their protein right now. Maybe they're not even counting their calories, maybe we're just focusing on that, but it can really help them get where they need to be, especially so when they lose, they can maintain. That's the hardest part I can get you to lose.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the maintaining part is like I know how to lose it, but I'm really bad at maintaining that lifestyle. But I like what you do because I feel like sometimes healthcare can feel really not personal. You can feel like you're in, you're out and I I'm not saying that like I do love my doctors. They've saved my life right but at the end of the day, it's not like what they do.
Speaker 4:So I I really like what you do because you encompass it all right, like an all, and you seem like you make it very personal right, and even with the weight loss like yes, the glp ones are the kind of the majority of what I do, but there's also things that you can help patients if they're just like sugar cravers or if they're retaining water, like there's a lot.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of other things. I'm a salty. Yeah, are you sweet or?
Speaker 2:salty, probably more salty than sweet.
Speaker 4:What about you? Yeah, it depends on hormones, probably. Yeah, it depends on the time.
Speaker 1:Salty, I literally will just crave. That is true, exactly it does.
Speaker 2:It really does.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm always craving sweets, oh yeah, other than that salty though no.
Speaker 4:I'm the same way, chocolate yeah. A lot of us are chronically dehydrated, and that's another thing. That is definitely me, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I'm horrible. I know why yeah.
Speaker 4:I do enjoy wine Do you?
Speaker 2:You know what?
Speaker 1:When I see articles or I'm like scroll, scroll, I'm not going to read it. No, coffee is scroll scroll. I was reading the other day that Americans have what is it? It's healthy living fatigue or clean eating? Fatigue because we're so overwhelmed with information about this is bad for you. That is bad for you, yes, your water is bad for you Wait a minute.
Speaker 4:You told me to drink water.
Speaker 3:It's going to kill you now.
Speaker 1:It's going to kill you because it's contaminated you can't win, you can't win. You can't win, but everyone, I think, still wants to live.
Speaker 2:See for me, everyone wants to live.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a healthy life. But I think for me I'm not as obsessed as my kids used to call me the organic mom, which they don't know is really the almond mom. They told me there's almond mom and there's gummy bear mom and they told me I guess I'm a healthy balance, I'm the organic gummy bear mom. So I will buy like the snacks and stuff as long as they're organic. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's good for you. But I'm doing my best. That's my balance. Are you a little crunchy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I am crunchy. You are so much more bougie than crunchy. Let's be real.
Speaker 1:What I try to give them healthier alternatives. True that don't have my kids go crazy if you give them red food dye.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:Like they just get insane. Yeah, yeah, so I can't. It has to be like beet extract or whatever it is.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean it sustains everything yeah so.
Speaker 1:I'm just trying to like for me personally yes, it's not about the calories, but I'm just trying to be more mindful about making sure I get enough protein for me and my kids, and then I feel like I can give us those little higher calorie snacks or treats, which is not helping me.
Speaker 2:I've just given up with my children. If you will eat this, then we're okay. Yeah, like, our delia will not eat breakfast foods and we're like oh, she won't, I have one, that's hard even today I was like, okay, we got cereal, we got pop tarts, we got this, we got muffins, we got, I got, I got eggs and she's, I don't need eggs like I got. I can make you a pancake as a slice of toast. Did you? What want my arm?
Speaker 1:and my leg? Does she just eat dinner for breakfast? I don't.
Speaker 2:Like she probably would love to eat dinner for breakfast.
Speaker 1:Just let her.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's just like, whatever you want to eat, like we're just going to make this happen. You want a hot dog? Fine.
Speaker 1:Have a hot dog for breakfast.
Speaker 3:You want ramen.
Speaker 2:Whatever works right now.
Speaker 3:We'll get vegetables in at some point we'll give you multivitamins.
Speaker 1:I know this is not the best answer.
Speaker 2:But there are certain like there's just certain multivitamin here, so you don't. Yeah, we have given our kids vitamins like for years since they were little like. Yeah, done multivitamins with just. She had a lot of food allergies when she was a baby so we started to get them like supplementing and we just kept up with that in our house. So, lindsey, you talked a little bit about you went through a weight loss journey what? Why don't you tell us a little bit about what that looked like for you and how that inspired you to get into providing services for weight loss?
Speaker 4:sure so of course, having kiddos up and down in weight. But after I had my last kiddo and during COVID I said I gained the COVID-19 plus more.
Speaker 1:But every now and then it's a COVID-19.
Speaker 4:It was more and so okay, so at that point and I haven't really talked about this so one of my kiddos, my third son, has special needs. He's amazing. We were told he'd never talk or walk. He runs and never shuts up. So we'll take it and so.
Speaker 4:But he, and he still has the mentality of a younger kiddo and so he wants to be held and stuff, and so I was at a point where I could not help him because I was overweight, out of shape, felt horrible, like joints hurting, and I was like I've got to get to a place where I can do as much as I can for him. So that's what gave me the spark. Everybody has their why, and if they don't have their why, it's probably not going to happen. So I was asked like what is it to feel better for somebody, for yourself, awesome, but there has to be a why behind it. And so that was my why, and so I started trying to learning the basics of the right way to do it, because I've done it wrong many times. Or try to crash diet that lasted three days, and then I wanted to eat my arm off.
Speaker 1:That's me like the past 39 years Gosh yes.
Speaker 4:Yes, I've tried one of I'm not going to name which diet, but literally before dinner I'd only had 100 calories and I was like I'm going nuts.
Speaker 2:Hangry, oh hangry.
Speaker 4:And so learn the right way. Learn to be able to calculate the minimum amount of calories you need, which is your BMR. There's lots of awesome calculators online you can use for that, but then you need more than that. So I always explain like that's the minimum calories you need. If you're in the hospital in a coma there's the ICU nurse coming out of me If you're in a hospital in a coma, your body needs that minimum amount just to function. So if you don't give it that minimum amount, it's not going to be able to do basic things grow hair and digest food and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4:And all my patients have heard the spiel because it's what I always tell. But if we don't eat that minimum, our body's not going to let go of anything. So there is chronic under eating, lots of people chronically under eat, and so, yes, you can not eat enough to lose weight, which is a a hard concept, interesting, very interesting. And so I remember my mother-in-law told me she goes, wait a minute. So if I eat too much I'm going to gain weight, but if I don't eat enough I'm not going to lose, and I said exactly. And so that's, it's a hard concept, anyway. So there's a fine. There's a little bit, of little bitty window. You have to be able to get your body where it needs to be to let go of fat.
Speaker 4:But I started learning that, calculating what I needed, started counting calories and protein and things like that, because I needed to know what I was putting in my body. And, yes, you probably need to do that for a little bit of time, but you don't need to do that forever, because now I can be like okay, I know if I eat that much, it's about 20 grams of protein or whatnot. And so after a while, your normal foods you can. Okay, I know from this place where I eat pizza, I can have a couple pieces and it's about 600 calories in this, because I counted it for a while. But for a lot of people you have to do that in some way. It doesn't have to be as strict as the scales, but you have to know how much you're putting in your body. But, yeah, my son was my why.
Speaker 4:And then, after I got to where I needed to be the right way, I was like, oh, wow, a lot of people have done it the wrong way 15 times in their life. Let's teach people to do it the right way. So there's my educator part coming out, wanting to teach people how to do it, and then I've worked at a couple of different clinics before I opened my own, and they were great, but I wanted to be able to do everything the way I wanted to do it, and so the best way for that was to start my own. So here we are, where they feel their best, and for everybody that's a different place. Like I said, the magic BMI you should be between here, some people, but some people don't.
Speaker 1:A lot of people don't. Yeah, I've heard that because there's a lot of female athletes male too that are at really high BMIs and they're clearly not right Overweight.
Speaker 2:Right Right, they're winning medals, right yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think for me like genetics.
Speaker 4:Yes. Some people are naturally thin, some people are. Look at two of my sons are very different built very different.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and they're great how they are, but they are, they're never going to be the opposite. They're ones like their grandpa, ones like their dad. They are built different. It's so funny for me to see that and to see them grow up differently. But yeah, they need different amount of calories and they have different amount of muscle and you can't compare them. I'm not going to make one the other. Yeah, it's so crazy and that's one of the things on my body scanner the muscle thing. I have a lot of patients with an amazing amount of muscle and they're like well, I want to be this weight. And I've literally told some of them you're going to have to lose some muscle to become that weight. Like you don't have any more body fat to lose, and so I said you're going to have to choose your muscle's awesome, but if you want to get to this weight, you will have to lose some and some well, maybe the number is not as important.
Speaker 4:Yes, exactly, exactly. There's a bigger picture and for a lot of people we cover the number. Yeah, I'm a person. I cannot weigh very often.
Speaker 1:I weighed the other day for the first time since may I have a friend like that refuses she'll be weighed but she will not look at them, doesn't want to know the number will not because it yeah, it messes with your heads and some people weigh every day, and that that's what they do.
Speaker 4:I have my best friend live weighs every day. Yeah, and that's how she maintains it. Awesome, yeah, can't do it.
Speaker 1:Can't, yeah. Okay, so you have four kids. And did you adopt one? Yes, okay, I thought you told me you adopted one.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so my three sons and just kept having our own. And so after him I was like I don't know if I can carry another one. And so I literally I was actually working in the ICU the day I had him and I was like, oh, I don't feel so good, I need to go check with my doctor downstairs. And I went downstairs and she goes yeah, you're in labor. And I was like, oh, at least you're in the hospital. No, no, I was like, no, this is not good. And I was like I need to go, like give report. I got to go. She's like you can't finish your shift. So I had to give report and clock out and go have a baby. And he was a few weeks early, had to stay for a little bit, yeah, so I went to work that day and didn't leave for nine days because he was in the NICU for a little bit yeah, medical stuff.
Speaker 4:And then I was like you know what I've always wanted to, like we're doing this and, like I said, we knew it from after we had our first actually before we had our first kid we talked about it. It was always something we wanted to do. So we started with a private adoption agency and then went through. We fostered some from kiddos. We were going to go that route and then actually just got a call one day and it was like hey, we got a baby girl. Do you want her? Yes, we didn't care what ethnicity, we just wanted a girl.
Speaker 4:And so we met her that day. It was awesome. Birth mom actually took her back for a couple of days. That was very hard, but we got her back a couple of days later and we've had her ever since and so and she knows now that she's adopted and that's an interesting conversation and my husband's twin adopted a baby this last year and so we can use that to talk about, because it was just one day she had a new cousin and it's hey, you know how? She didn't come out of her tummy, you didn't come out of mine, but you're mine.
Speaker 4:And so we've had a hard conversation.
Speaker 2:Well, how old is she?
Speaker 4:So she's six, yeah, and so she'll ask about her other mommy. I, yeah, and so she'll ask about her other mommy. I try to call her tummy mom, and there's a lot of different terms. That's a whole nother. Oh, what do you call? But she's the reason I have her, so I'm thankful for her and and that she made a decision that she needed to make, and Thank goodness, because she's safe and healthy. But but yeah, that's a whole nother.
Speaker 1:It's hard, that's a whole nother podcast. It is a whole nother podcast.
Speaker 4:Special needs and adoption is a whole other podcast because, yeah, there so, yeah, lots of dynamics in our family, but I wouldn't change it for the world, but yeah. So back to what you asked, my special needs son and I was like I've got to get to where I can be there for him as healthy as I can get, and so that's where I got.
Speaker 1:Resilient and you seem like a resilient person just your experience and and your life, and so it sounds like you're the perfect type of personality and mom for your family.
Speaker 2:I hope so right we're all making a little crazy.
Speaker 4:Well, and you're for your business too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for your business, I think you know, as we continue to do this podcast, we learn that there are so many layers to people right and while we can say, oh, that's another podcast, that's another podcast, that's another podcast, that's still a part of lindsey's story yeah right that's your story all of those things that you've gone through and all those parts are yeah, who've made you who you are today? Right and that's so cool. I'm like getting all I'm not gonna cry.
Speaker 1:Don't worry, brock, I'm gonna cry.
Speaker 2:You help people emotional and I think that there's something really neat about unpacking those things that are part of us, and as I get older, I talk about how I'm coming into more alignment with who I am as a person and there's just little parts of my life that I'm just like okay, this is okay, this is not okay, this is okay, this is where I want, this is where I need balance in my life, this is where I need to put my priorities and I think about all those different balance in my life.
Speaker 4:This is where.
Speaker 2:I need to put my priorities and I think about all those different things in my life. That led to where I am today and I love hearing your stories. I think it's really cool. Yeah, I want to talk to you about a lot of things afterwards, yeah yeah, hearing your why really explains yeah your path, yeah into, yeah something has to light a fire.
Speaker 4:A lot of times for me, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, exactly yeah. My teaching route, my yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I just love meeting and we interview men and women and I like to hear everyone's journey. We've met a lot of entrepreneurs and young or older, you know, pursuing their dreams, but as mothers, I love seeing other moms and pursue their dreams and their passions, because it's so hard to balance just being a mother to multiple, even just one child is a lot sometimes I've heard harder, because then there's no one to entertain them, it's just you?
Speaker 4:yes, that's what I've heard too but also marriage.
Speaker 1:So one thing I did want to ask, because she's been with her husband for a while now, high school sweetheart.
Speaker 4:What is the secret?
Speaker 1:to a long marriage.
Speaker 4:So we've had our ups and downs, obviously, but honestly and we've talked about this a lot the last couple of years and it's been a struggle to mentally get to this place of where we still have to date each other and we still have to give time to talk and communicate and be silly together and all those things. And for a long time that was the mom guilt of okay, wait, I'm going to leave my kids to go do this. No, I should be with them, but I'm not going to be my best and we're not going to have our best marriage if we're not focusing on our marriage. Does that make sense?
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, and so in the last couple of years we really made sure that we're going on dates that we're couple of years, we really made sure that we're going on dates that we're, you know, going on a little mini trip for a night or two or whatnot, just to be able to have a conversation, literally cannot finish a conversation. It's funny at this point. Oh yeah, we get inter, yeah, four words into a conversation. We're like, okay, just kidding, like I'll talk to you later or we'll text each other. We need to talk about this tonight, or I mean, it's in silly things. We try to do silly things like send each other silly things on social media.
Speaker 4:We do a lot of that just silly throughout the day yeah, yeah and so and Neil and I do that we might be in a relationship too, me and my best friend will have conversations on Instagram, facebook and be texting each other all the same time, oh yeah yeah, so, so really, yeah, getting in that mentality of it's not taking time away or it's not taking away from your kids or your other priorities, it's one of your priorities Because, yeah, there have been times where we couldn't or weren't focusing on each other and we're butting heads about things and then also communicating about what's important for him. Some things are important. I'm like I don't care about that, but he does. So if he wants to play Tetris filling up the dishwasher, he can. I do not care, but that is what he likes, like silly things, like that.
Speaker 4:Some things you just have to okay.
Speaker 1:Let it go.
Speaker 4:Yeah, let it go. Yeah, so some things I'm just like okay, I'm just going to I concede, yes, yes, okay, I will do my best playing your version of Tetris doing the dishwasher, but that's not important to me. But it's important to me so little silly things that just irk us and but we love them and so we'll do our best in that area so that they don't get frustrated about the silly things. But yeah, so, yeah, really spending time with each other and communicating has been our go-to, and we've even had people the last couple of years that have been like well, you're spending so much time away from your kids and we're like, well, but we're doing well and we're giving our kids the best us.
Speaker 1:So it's working. Yeah, and so that's been our. Oh, my kids try to guilt me. My husband and I are about to go and we can get away. My 10 year old daughter last night goes.
Speaker 2:you don't want to spend time with us on vacation. Oh my gosh, those little manipulators. Listen, I have more fun on vacation without you.
Speaker 1:Listen, I love you, but mom and dad need some mom and dad time, but my 7-year-old is fine with it. My 10-year-old loves to lay it on thick. She gets the icing knife and she just thick guilt, like she just makes a little guilty cake for me and just she knows it works with you, so you need to stop and then I still go, yeah, yeah you're like mom's gonna go crazy if
Speaker 4:I don't have a little I don't even have a moment to think. Most times I'm like what was I doing One day when they get older?
Speaker 1:they'll appreciate that their parents were happy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and my older one is real old too, really are figuring that out and seeing that. Okay, mom and dad need a minute.
Speaker 1:Oh, they're getting yes.
Speaker 4:And I'm really good now about saying, okay, I need 10 minutes of quiet. And I'm really good now about saying, ok, I need 10 minutes of quiet. I just I got to come down from all the things of the day or crazy that happened that day, and so communicating with them too, and they're like, ok, mom needs 10 minutes. I'm going to go fold laundry in the peace and quiet even for a second Just give me.
Speaker 1:I want to set up a cot in my laundry room. Yeah, I need a little wine fridge. Oh, a little I. That's my closet. The wine is coming, I'll go sit in my closet and do yoga.
Speaker 3:They know if they come in and mom's stretching in the closet. Get out of here, get out Even my husband's like okay everybody go Give her a minute.
Speaker 2:This has been a fun episode, so we really enjoyed getting to know you, lindsay, and look forward to getting to know you a little bit more off air. But if you could tell our listeners how they can find you and what your social media handles are, we're going to include this in the show notes as well. But thank you for being on our show, sure.
Speaker 4:Thank you. Website is nwabodybalancecom and on Instagram it's nwabodybalance. So the periods between and I have my personal one, like my practitioner, one that I do some more education on and stuff linked link to that one too. And yeah, that's where they can find us. And we're in Fayetteville off of Sunbridge is where the office is, so pretty easy location to get to. But the address is on the website.
Speaker 1:Thank you, lindsay, thank you Thank you. Hey, thanks so much for listening today.
Speaker 3:If you liked what you heard please consider subscribing to the podcast an episode. You can also follow us on Instagram at people of NWA. Thanks so much. People of Northwest Arkansas with the two Danielle's produced by me, Brock Short of Civil Republic Productions. Please rate, review and like us on any podcast platform where you listen. For more information about today's guests and the show, please check the show notes. Thanks for listening.