#429: Tina Haupert is a Certified Nutrition Coach, Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner (FDN-P), root cause protocol consultant, certified personal trainer and the founder of Carrots and Cake, an online health and wellness consultancy that uses functional testing and a personalized approach to nutrition to help women find balance within their diets while achieving their body composition goals.
https://programs.carrotsncake.com/
instagram.com/carrotsncake
Balanced Bites Podcast #429 with Tina Haupert
Welcome to the new Balanced Bites Podcast! I’m your host, Liz, a nutritional therapy practitioner and best selling author bringing you candid, up-front, myth-busting and thought-provoking conversations about food, fitness, and life. Remember: The information in this podcast should not be considered personal, individual, or medical advice.
I have spent YEARS researching whether a good multivitamin is truly necessary for overall health. But the truth is, there are a LOT of opinions out there, including from people like me, who love to ask lots of obnoxious, overly detailed questions. But the truth is, if I’m paying attention to how I FEEL, my answer was clear: I will be taking my multivitamin. And it will be from the brand Needed. Needed third-party tests EVERY batch for performance and quality, which is incredibly rare in the supplement industry and also incredibly important to me! To get started with Needed, head to thisisneeded.com. Use code balanced for 20% off your one-time order or your first three months’ subscription. While you’re at it, add Stress Support to your cart. I’m loving that one, too.
“Now about today’s episode…
Tina Haupert is a Certified Nutrition Coach, Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner (FDN-P), root cause protocol consultant, personal trainer and the founder of Carrots and Cake, her online health and wellness consultancy that uses functional testing and a personalized approach to nutrition to help women find balance within their diets while achieving their body composition goals.
I’ve been following Tina for many years now, and she does a LOT of things. Foundationally, she helps women balance their bodies so that they CAN do…whatever it is they want to do after that. Compete. Simply feel great. Lose fat mass, which is really what most people are wanting when they say they want to “lose weight…” or change their body composition (and I’m going to expand on this in a moment).
But one of the things I love about Tina, in her work and in this podcast, is that Tina is very passionate about the fact that in order to change your body, particularly to lose weight, you’ve got to be balanced and healthy first.
So I’m going to riff on that for a minute, and then we’ll talk to Tina. I’m hearing that people really like my opening monologues, so I’ll try to do more of them when I’ve got the time.
So to open my riff, I want to point something out. There are LOTS of ways to “change” or “modify” your body, but the desire to lose weight is far and away the most fraught, the one that has the potential for having to face consequences in the short and long term that can actually leave you WAY worse than it found you. Now this might be a strange thing to say, but I was an English major in undergrad and we had to come up with topics to argue ALL THE TIME, sometimes even topics that felt fringe and unnecessary to argue, so let’s just go with this, what I’m about to say. If we dived into all the reasons people do things, from body modification like the more edgy and extreme tattooing and piercing, to plastic surgery, to even self-expression like extreme fashion and costuming, there are some folks who just do it ‘cause they want to. ‘Cause it sounds fun and interesting. There are others who do it because of a deep-seated emotional or internal battle they’re fighting that is not reflective of balance in their emotional or mental landscape. Okay. I am not saying that if you have tattoos or you like crazy fashion you are not emotionally balanced, or that the ONLY people struggling with mental balance are doing things like that. I am saying I have been pondering the issue of changing one’s appearance in any externally visible way for years now – pondering when it might come from a healthy, curious, contemplative place and and when it might not. And I’ve been specifically turning over this concept as it pertains to body recomposition, or weight loss, or fat loss, or whatever you want to call it – ’m going to call it weight loss here just because it’s a commonly recognized term and you, savvy listener, should know what I really mean right now; but weight loss, which is the type of appearance/body modification that is most often discussed in the mainstream right now. And it’s often discussed in the most negative, and sometimes the most confusing light possible.
We’ve had a huge swing, even in the health podcasting world, which I’ve been in for over a decade, from “here’s how you lose weight for any reason (or “lean out,” if you were in the Paleo/CrossFit world for any length of time)” to “do you really NEED to lose weight, or should you be happy with who you are” (which, by the way, my old cohost Diane and I PIONEERED that approach beginning like 8 years ago) to “any desire to lose weight is a sign of orthorexia, disordered eating patterns, mental health issues and it is a road to more of that, so here’s this instagram reel of me dancing and eating ice cream and buy my intuitive eating program”
and GUESS WHAT? The thing that might be a little extreme about that is NOT the dancing and ice cream part! We should ALL dance and eat ice cream! What is wrong about that is the insistence that any curiosity about changing your body is a sign of falling victim to disorder. And this is where this podcast medium is wonderful, because I can talk on this as long as I want and insert as much nuance as I want, which cannot be done in an instagram reel or tik tok video. And here’s my bulleted list of nuance:
- It is WONDERFUL that disordered eating is being talked about openly, specifically as it pertains to the type of desire for weight loss that is driven by insecurity, self-loathing, desperation, and a pattern of emotional and physical damage.
- Not all weight loss endeavors are driven by insecurity, self-loathing, desperation, and a pattern of emotional and physical damage.
- It is WONDERFUL that people are coming to love and accept their bodies as they are and find beauty where it has always been but where people have not been empowered to recognize it.
- Perhaps the crux of it for me. You can love your body as it is, and you can still be curious about changing it.
I’d like to give two examples that have been on my mind a lot lately and that is postpartum and perimenopause. These are two times when the body changes A LOT for very big, important, very different reasons along the same hormonal continuum. And I have LONG advocated, specifically in postpartum, that you just, at least, ignore what your body is doing and live your damn life; and maybe more ideally, love and understand what your body is doing and live your damn life. But you can also … one hundred percent, and I have seen this so many times now that I can no longer ignore it and act like it isn ‘t true…you can love your body AND take steps to change it. In fact, I think the prequalification for changing your body is to love it, accept it, be perfectly happy with it as it is.
I’m saying you can… troubleshoot is not the right word, because it’s not trouble…you can learn your body, bring curiosity to its processes, wonder about what’s going on and how you might change it and whether the cost-benefit ratio of that is worthwhile. Often, it’s not. Sometimes, it’s totally within range.
For me, and I’ll share more of my journey in my other podcast which is being re-imagined and will be posting new episodes VERY soon, For me, this curiosity, this interest in shifting a few things, looks like the very interesting collision between postpartum (I’m 3 years postpartum with my second) and perimenopause (which I am entering):
One. My body has begun to feel different than it did for 37 years prior to this moment, and it has given me a new appreciation and compassion for folks who are like…no, this is NOT my body. I have told people for many years to just do the right thing for your body, and let the chips fall where they may and I still believe that, for the most part, and I did that for a long time. I walked the walk. I felt great and accepting before, and I feel great and accepting now. You all know this about me. I have had nary a care about how my body expresses that balance that I’ve found over these many years of putting nourishment first. AND at the same time…BUT. This leads me to number
Two. I can look at trends in how my body has changed, the possible hormonal and environmental aspects of that change, and ponder and be curious about which aspects of my body are driven by true balance and which are driven by outside forces that are not within my control. I can ponder how I might modify those forces – from hormonal disruptors to stress – in the name of balance. And
Three. I can ALSO, totally separately and without emotional attachment, acknowledge the ground-level aspects of my body’s changes. Like, my clothes don’t fit. Should I buy new clothes, should I just wear yoga pants, or can I allow myself to ponder what it might be like to indulge my curiosity, make some changes, experiment as I have always LOVED to do. And at the same time, I can articulate my boundaries. I’m not going to be hungry. I’m not going to NOT have what I want. I’m not going to sacrifice emotional balance for physical balance. Not interested in that, period.
Okay. On this note.
I said in a past interview with Noelle Tarr on Well Fed Women that I’m learning, after like 12 years of being in the nutrition, nutritional therapy, health podcasting space, and probably thanks to some of those postpartum/perimenopause changes, that it is not my business to tell anyone that they SHOULD be comfortable in their bodies. Shoulding is sort of a form of shaming, really, in some circumstances…some people would come to me and for the vast majority of them, what they NEEDED TO HEAR was “no, you should trust your body, love yourself, and stop buying in to this pervasive idea that you should look a certain way based on trends, marketing, whatever. Just enjoy your life, eat nourishing food but also eat food that makes you happy, move enough to be healthy but not so much that you add stress to your system, and work on your mental health first” etc…
But other people actually came to me with NO emotional baggage around food or exercise, with a genuine respect for their bodies, genuinely curious about how they might nudge their bodies into a different space in a healthy way, open to experimenting (men call that biohacking, by the way…which, if we just use that word then everything is just totally copacetic, somehow it’s fine for men to tinker but if women are interested in that, it’s automatically pathological) …although for me, I don’t want to be associated really with either end of the spectrum, even though I do some *light biohacking* of my own…but guys, I’m also the person who was drinking raw liver smoothies like 10 years before it was cool, so…I’m just me
Anyway, I’m getting way off topic now. What I want folks to consider, and what I am actively pondering and experimenting with and getting curious about, is how do we keep the conversation around body composition and weight loss healthy and productive and responsive to what people need at the individual level? I think it’s completely possible, and I think people like Tina Haupert are the go-to resources to help us do that. So let’s get to know Tina, personally, as a health consultant with a thriving business that has helped hundreds even thousands of women through multiple channels, and as someone who can help guide you through a balanced health journey.
Liz Wolfe: It’s just wild that I’ve never interviewed you before.
Tina Haupert: I’m so excited you reached out. It’s such like a fan girl moment.
Liz Wolfe: Oh my gosh. Me too. I’m so, I’m just so excited. And you and I have both been doing this for like, A stupid long time. Forever. Yeah, forever.
Liz Wolfe: And I’m just like, how have we never, how have we never done this before? It’s just, it’s dumb.
Tina Haupert: I know, I know. I’m super excited. Cause I was even saying to my husband, I’m like, this was the podcast that I listened to. It was like, I didn’t miss an episode. I probably listened to every podcast before you guys retired it.
Tina Haupert: So, oh my gosh. Why did you’re bringing
Liz Wolfe: it back? Yay. I know. I’m liking it too. It’s, it’s interesting. I think we built up so much goodwill with people. Mm-hmm. Um, that it’s been, I was worried about bringing it back and being like, are people still gonna wanna interview?
Liz Wolfe: Are they gonna wanna be on? But to hear from people that it was something that they listen to and Oh, yeah. You know, that they recognize it and they’re like, yeah, totally. I’ll come on. I’m like, yes, good. We’ve got some, we’ve got some good, like we still got some good juice or whatever. Oh yeah. A hundred percent.
Liz Wolfe: Which is awesome. And I’ve been listening [00:01:00] to you on a bunch of podcasts and you’ve got a great podcast voice.
Tina Haupert: Oh, well, thank you. I’m actually transitioning, I went down like a rabbit hole on YouTube. Oh my gosh. I don’t do that long story, but YouTube is like wild, wild west and I think I’m just, I dunno if I’m too old or just, yeah, I don’t wanna be a YouTube star, but bringing the podcast back.
Tina Haupert: So I’m hoping like the audio will get better. Like the show notes, the interviewing. So yeah, re refocusing my attention.
Liz Wolfe: Your podcast, stuff on
Tina Haupert: YouTube is, that’s the plan. Um, so I was doing it the other way around. So anything you’ve heard on the podcast is repurposed from YouTube.
Tina Haupert: But now I’m just gonna cut out the YouTube because Okay. YouTube’s like a thing, man. I just nod into YouTube. Okay. I get it. Yeah. , I’ve got a,
Liz Wolfe: A web tech guy. Who is awesome, and he’s been, , nudging me for a couple years, like, you know, YouTube, it’s a good place to build up some, and I’m I can’t, I hate YouTube. Mm-hmm. I don’t wanna do it. I do. There’s something I, I just feel like when I think of YouTube, I think of bots and, and strange p non-authentic viewership.
Liz Wolfe: And I think there might be something to that. It’s the same, it’s kind of the same way I feel about TikTok. Are you on TikTok?
Tina Haupert: I I’m there, but I’m not super active. Okay. I
Liz Wolfe: exist there. You exist there. Yeah. People are like, you gotta be on TikTok, you have gotta be on YouTube. And I’m like, do we though?
Liz Wolfe: Because our cohort, I think they’re just on
Tina Haupert: Instagram with us. Right, right. And that was my thing too. I was like, yes, I get YouTube because it’s like this big search and like there’s a way for people to find you. But I did a full year, like I had a contract with somebody. So I’ve done a full year and the people who are commenting, I feel like they’re bots or something like that, or they’re like 15 year old boys.
Tina Haupert: And I’m just like, this is not my target market, you know? Oh. I don’t know. I just, I just feel like what you were saying, my target market’s on Instagram and they’re listening to podcasts when they’re driving or doing the laundry or going for walks. I don’t know. I just feel like I should just focus my attention like where my people are.
Tina Haupert: So. Not dissuading you from YouTube, cuz it could be wonderful, but like, I just, I don’t know. It wasn’t me. I was like, I don’t wanna be a YouTube person.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. I don’t wanna be a YouTube person either. I think I had, I did have a channel for a little while, way back in the day when I was living on the farm and was doing these kind of short, kind of like funny videos, but that was before Instagram was a bit, I’m not saying they’re funny, I’m saying I was trying to be funny.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm. But now that’s kind of what happens on Instagram. Short funny videos. So I don’t need, like, I wouldn’t need it for that either. So I just think, yeah, there’s something that’s gonna happen for me
Tina Haupert: either. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like for like putting like long form stuff, it’s like helpful. So like, yeah, I did this like estrogen dominance workshop and like we put it on um, YouTube and now we’re selling it.
Tina Haupert: So it’s like, yeah. You know, a little way. It’s like, you know, a little like $15 like webinar. But for things like that I’m like, it’s fine. It’s fine.
Liz Wolfe: And I do, I
Liz Wolfe: Still like podcasts. I complain about this all the time. That, but there are so many of them now. It mm-hmm. Blows my mind that back when Diane and I started the Balanced Bites podcast, people were like, are there like too many podcasts though?
Liz Wolfe: We were like, no, I don’t think so. No. They were wondering if there were too many Paleo podcasts, but, but now it blows my mind cuz it used to be people, celebrities were so snobby about podcasts. Mm-hmm. Now freaking, what’s her name? Um, oh, she’s so funny. Julia Louis Dreyfus from, you know, Elaine from Seinfeld and from that show that’s really funny about her being a Veep.
Liz Wolfe: Um, she has a. Like nobody is too good for podcasts anymore. These, and it’s just a whole, whole different landscape. And it’s just, it’s just wild how much that whole piece of the pie has grown. But still that’s, that’s kind of where it’s at. I feel like Podcasts and
Tina Haupert: Instagram. Yeah. Yep. Yep. That’s where my people are.
Tina Haupert: At least I just, I don’t know. I just don’t think they’re on YouTube. I also have a nine year old and like I know his YouTube use and I’m just like, I don’t know, YouTube. And it was really expensive cuz like I had this like YouTube editor, SEO O guy, you know what I mean? And like it was just like top dollar for that.
Tina Haupert: And now I pay $400 to do my podcast a month and I’m like, it’s good.
Liz Wolfe: Podcasting used to be cheaper than that. You know, like you used to be able to just throw something up and like put it into the feed and now, you know, we wanna at least edit it to a point where they’re a little more listenable.
Liz Wolfe: I mean, Diane and I used to call in like, there’s some podcast, uh, platform that you would literally call in from your cell phone. And I think this was back when some people still had home phones, so. Oh, really? Adam? Mor It probably not. Probably not. I, I’m like 80 years old at heart. I’m like, back in my day we were still attached to the wall.
Liz Wolfe: Um, but we used to call in and the audio was terrible. It was all terrible. But people listen, but now people want a little more from it. So it is like, it’s a whole investment of totally time and resources and money and it’s just, you just gotta pick and choose. We can’t, we can’t be everywhere if we wanna do, do everything.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. We can’t do everything. Yeah. Um, okay. So one thing I would like for you to do, I’m gonna do a, a. Introduction before, an official introduction where I reach your bio. But I would really like for you to give the Tina Haupert, you know, life story because I know you started your business blog, all of that in a maybe a different mindset or with different goals, potentially.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm. Than what you, you have now so gimme that, gimme that timeline.
Tina Haupert: Yep. Yep. So yeah, I’ve been on the internet forever, so it’s been officially 15 years and it’s crazy just because, you know, the internet 15 years ago is the beginning of 2008.
Tina Haupert: I mean, you could slap anything up on the internet and people loved it. So I really just started my blog really as it was very much a personal blog. So I had just gotten engaged, I was gonna get married and I really just wanted to like shape up, feel great, look great for my wedding day. So it really was almost like this online journal where I kept track of all my workouts and my recipes and what I was eating and everything.
Tina Haupert: So it was very much inspired by the, um, self magazine Eat Like Me blog, which is so funny to even go to back to that cause it was like these like dark photos of like, yes, I don’t even know, just like her meals and everything .
Tina Haupert: Because I was planning my wedding, so I was talking about making the little like place cards and like the save the dates and talking about shopping for my wedding dress and everything. So I think that’s really where I started to grow the audience because it wasn’t just like, here’s what I’m eating, here are my workouts, which people were really into.
Tina Haupert: Um, and of course that was like around like the time, like reality TV was really taking on Instagram hadn’t really happened yet. Um, but I was blogging two or three times a day, so it was almost like live blogging. Um mm-hmm. But that was such. Such a time. Yes. Being on the internet. Um, but yeah, I really started for fun.
Tina Haupert: Um, and over the years I just blogged about my life. I mean, I blogged about my wedding, of course. Um, you know, buying a house with my husband, getting our dog, who is very much still part of my life. Um, he’s checking along. Um, good getting pregnant my whole pregnancy, having my son. And then I did blog about my son for probably like the first year of his life, which could be like a, this could be like a whole nother podcast about sharing your kids or not sharing your kids on the internet.
Tina Haupert: Yeah. Um, but he was on the blog and I talked about my daily life with having a newborn, having a toddler, you know, things like that. And then over the years, um, more and more women just were reaching out to me, just ask you for nutrition advice. You know, like, what do you think about? Paleo, I was super into Paleo for a while, so obviously big fan of your podcast.
Tina Haupert: Um, but you know, questions about paleo, questions about CrossFit, what do you think about this? What do you think about that? And it was just like this weird transition into kind of like nutrition coaching. Um, not that I really charged for it, but just a lot of those conversations. And then, yeah, over the years Instagram came about, did the influencing thing for a long, long time, but really like where my heart is, I guess, as far as like helping women.
Tina Haupert: And what I ultimately wanna do is what carrots and cake is now. So I’m trying to make this a transition, but I feel like I’m jumping around a little bit, but jump around. Carrots and cake today is very much inspired by just getting to know women on the internet and. I see kind of my targeted market as me.
Tina Haupert: A lot of times. I’m like, if I’m living this existence, there’s gotta be another 40 theory. You’re W woman out there kind of living the same existence too and has, you know, been dealing with some of the same challenges. So now like I. I like, it sounds a little cheesy, but like, I like to almost be like that friend to people and really help guide people because I just feel like I have gone through so much as far as my health goes.
Tina Haupert: So I’ve ulcerative colitis. I was diagnosed 12 years ago and I, in the beginning I always said it just came out of nowhere. Like, I can’t believe I have uc. You know, I’m such like a, a healthy living blogger. How am I getting sick? So that was like really tough. But that whole journey of having uc really inspired me because I just felt like I was getting non-answers from doctors.
Tina Haupert: We were running blood work, everything was normal. I had major hormonal imbalance, like I felt like a crazy person at times. Um, and again, just working with conventional doctors, I love conventional doctors. We need them. They’re wonderful. I will never poo poo what they do. Um, but just the approach that I was getting and just all those non-answers really, I.
Tina Haupert: Really lit a fire under my butt to do things differently and help women differently. So I think now what we do at Carrots and Cake trying to make this transition is that we, um, offer functional testing to our clients. So we do gut testing, we do stool testing, we do mineral testing, we do hormone testing.
Tina Haupert: We’re a big fan of the Dutch testing, um, but helping these women run these labs and we run blood work. We love blood work too. Um, but using this data to really come up with a customized plan for these women to help them feel better, to be a better version of themselves. Because I do think if you’re not persistent and not an advocate for yourself, you can go to a doctor’s appointment and leave there.
Tina Haupert: No better, you know, not getting answers, not feeling better, just having doctors tell you that. You just have to deal with the symptoms or this is part of life. And that stuff just wasn’t, it wasn’t a good answer for me and I just never liked it. So now what we do at Carrot Cake is really help women through this and we use that functional testing and I would say probably like 90% of the women we work with wanna lose weight or change their bodies, which I get.
Tina Haupert: Um, but at the same time, I do think your body really needs to be healthy and balanced. So sometimes the steps that we take before fat loss is really, you know, balancing the hormones, getting your gut right, getting your thyroid into a good place because all of those things can kind of work against you when it comes to losing weight.
Tina Haupert: So we really just want our clients to be their healthiest selves, and then when they’re in a good place, yeah, we can focus on the fat loss and changing your body, but. That was a really long answer to your question, but I started in one place 15 years ago, very, very different, focused on me, me, me. This is what I’m doing in my life.
Tina Haupert: And now I think I’ve really transitioned to like how can I help people? How can I serve people? And sure, I still share my life on the internet. I think I’ll, I’ll always have people wanting to know what’s up with my dog and my family and how I’m decorating my house or whatever the heck I’m doing. So, but, um, but yeah, that, that’s kind of carrots and cake in a nutshell.
Tina Haupert: And of course there’s been cookbooks and podcasts and YouTube and a million other things that have happened over the years. But um, yeah, now we’re, we’re, we’re one-on-one coaching and functional testing and. It’s been a ride. It’s been a ride for sure.
Liz Wolfe: Well, I like that you have been willing to evolve and show that evolution since the beginning, and I think that’s part of what makes you so, you know, relatable, I hate that word, but relatable.
Liz Wolfe: You know, people wanting to follow you feel like they know you, and I’m so, I, I’m so in agreement with you in that I wanna be like that useful friend to people. I don’t want to, I don’t want to pretend to be some kind of massive authority on something. I wanna help people figure out their own stuff in the same way I’ve been on a journey to figure out my own stuff over time, accumulating different tools, understanding how to use them, being able to explain that to people, stuff like that.
Liz Wolfe: And that’s, that’s kind of what went into my book, which I wrote like 10 years ago. But the whole idea behind my book wasn’t. I know so many things that nobody else knows. It was, I have the maybe unique motivation to try and put all of these PE pieces together and if I can do that for folks and be useful in that way, I wanna do it.
Liz Wolfe: And so that’s kind of been informed my whole journey across the last, I don’t know, since 2010, 2011. And during that time, you know, people were reaching out to me more, asking me questions. And so at a certain point I thought I should probably get, I should probably get educated. I should probably get certified, became a nutritional therapy practitioner.
Liz Wolfe: I know you are a functional diagnostic. Nutrition practitioner. Yep. Yep, yep,
Tina Haupert: yep. Perfect. Yep. So, and we use functional testing really to help our clients. So, um, we’re big on the data piece, but then also like the real life, like, how the heck are we gonna do this from day to day? Um, and my whole team, we’re all moms, so like, I don’t wanna say like, moms are our target market, but I just think we have a lot to offer moms because I think, you know, we’re all busy.
Tina Haupert: We have a lot going on, you know, so, um, but yeah, the functional testing is definitely at the heart of our program. So what
Liz Wolfe: does that look like? I’ve had a couple of of interviews lately with people I really respect. You might know them. Um, Andrea Nakayama, um, Erin Holt, the functional nutritionist. And one of one things, I love her, one of the things we talked about, or I talked about with both of them is testing is really useful to a point, but there’s also a point where you can’t even get in the door without spending like 10 grand on testing.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm. So how do you strike that balance?
Tina Haupert: Oh my gosh. I talk about this all the times cuz I do a lot of, um, discovery calls with prospective clients because, you know, if you’re investing in our program, time, money, energy, like, I want you to feel good about what you’re doing. Yeah. So I always like to have a conversation with anybody that comes to work with us, but I don’t think you have to run a test.
Tina Haupert: I think the test is helpful if you are doing all the foundational things and you just feel like you’re spinning your wheels and you’re like, I don’t really know what’s wrong. Um, I think it’s nice to have a test to be like, okay, here are some, you know, hidden stressors in your body. Let’s figure out, you know, what’s going on here.
Tina Haupert: And then take appropriate action to help you feel better. But I say this to clients all the time, I’m like, there are so many free things that you can do. And I mean, some of like the foundations just going to sleep. Like, I can’t emphasize this enough. Like if you can get to bed before 10 o’clock, It’s gonna help so many things in your life.
Tina Haupert: And I mean, I was that person. I would stay up super late scrolling, watching Netflix, and I’d be up super early doing all my different things. I don’t e I don’t even know what I was doing, but I was not sleeping. I can tell you that. Yeah. But just some of those foundation thing, foundational things can make such a difference.
Tina Haupert: Like sleep, getting outside, getting some sunlight on your eyeballs, eating more protein, not eating processed foods with fake sugars. You know, like some of these things can make such a difference and really move the dial for you and they cost nothing or they’re super affordable. So I always kind of push people that route first.
Tina Haupert: I’m like, let’s really get consistent and clear on these foundations and do them really well. Like do less better, you know, if you’re only sleeping and getting enough protein, I feel like that can get you so far. Um, but yeah, if you get kind of the, like a plateau or like you just don’t feel your best. Run some blood work, you know, run an H T M A, like a mineral test or something like that.
Tina Haupert: There’s, there’s ways to get answers. And of course I always push people too to like check out what’s going on with their insurance. If you can get it covered by your doctor, like go that route. Like you don’t have to spend the money on a functional test. And the great thing is, I think more and more conventional doctors are open to like a GI map, like a stool test or the Dutch test or something like that.
Tina Haupert: So I think depending on your insurance coverage or if you have an h s a account or something like that, it can cover some of these functional tests. But yeah, I, I don’t have people jump to that first. Same with supplements. I have so many soap boxes I can go on right now, but like, I just feel like the foundational things make such a difference before you start spending your money on the tests and the supplements and
Liz Wolfe: all that good stuff.
Liz Wolfe: So as a mom, I would say the paradox here is. These basic things that are foundational are sometimes the hardest just because we’re just dealing like this is the wild card stage of life where it’s like you don’t know if your kid’s gonna come in and be like, mom, I threw up in my bed. Or your husband’s snoring.
Liz Wolfe: And so even if you go to bed at nine o’clock, you’re awake six times during the night kicking him, you know, to get him to turn over. Which by the way, I have been trying to learn to sleep on my back for just for vain reasons, for not trying to like, not smash my face in all different directions while I’m sleeping.
Liz Wolfe: Cuz I’m a belly and a side sleeper. I try so hard to sleep on my back, I cannot do it. My husband is just like, literally leans back two inches and he’s like, he’s out. So there’s all those little things that interrupts our capacity to get in a really good rhythm with sleep or with protein or with whatever it is.
Liz Wolfe: So sometimes just one of those things can feel like such a big mountain to climb. So how would, how do you help people with that when something like just taking a supplement is sometimes it feels. So much easier, you know?
Tina Haupert: Oh yeah, a hundred percent. And I think that’s why we kind of excel with moms too, because we’ve been there, you know what I mean?
Tina Haupert: running around right now. So like, so for her to be like, you know what, you should spend three or four hours on a Sunday meal prepping. It’s like if you have toddlers, there’s no way you’re meal prepping anything on a Sunday because toddlers are lunatics.
Tina Haupert: Um, but kinda like I was saying before, like do less better and then also adjusting your expectations, because I do think this is a season of life where you’re gonna have broken sleep, you’re gonna have sick kids, like you’re not gonna have time to meal prep. And I think that’s okay, but also kind of adjusting those expectations to be like, I’m not 20 anymore with like no responsibilities.
Tina Haupert: Like I’m in my thirties, forties, and fifties and I got stuff going on. So like doing one or two things like every single week, like I was saying, like getting really consistent with just going to bed and then maybe the next week will add in the protein and like the protein stuff. That can take months to get consistent with that.
Tina Haupert: Mm-hmm. But having appropriate expectations about that, that you know, you haven’t been eating enough protein for decades of your life. You know, just to think in a week of committing yourself to it, you’re just gonna have this amazing new habit. It doesn’t happen like that. So just knowing, like to get consistent with like a protein goal could take you six months, you know, it could take you a really long time.
Tina Haupert: So really, like sometimes I say like talking our clients off a ledge. We also work with a lot of type A perfectionist personalities too. So there’s a lot of just doing everything perfectly, that idea. So again, kind of lowering people’s expectations about how much they can do. I think that’s where we’re really realistic about things.
Tina Haupert: We’re not gonna have you meal prep, you know, for two or three hours on a Sunday, or tell, tell you you need to work out five or six days a week. We’d rather have you commit to two or three workouts a week, nail it, , and feel really good about yourself. Cuz I think there’s also something there about.
Tina Haupert: Confidence and momentum. Yeah. And I do think like when you get to that point and you feel really good about yourself, I don’t wanna say some of those habits get easier, but they just seem more integrated in what you do every single day. So we’re big on like not overwhelming people, um, just cuz there’s a million ways to get healthy.
Tina Haupert: There’s a million ways to do it. But really like helping them slow down and identifying, you know, what is gonna be the focus this week that’s gonna help me move towards my goal without, you know, shiny object, object syndrome and supplements. And I don’t even know all the greens powders. It’s like a million things that you could do.
Liz Wolfe: All of it. I’m very interested in, in personality types and I didn’t used to be, but then Diane introduced me to the Gretchen Rubin for Tendencies framework. I got introduced to the Enneagram and just yesterday I was actually Googling like type A, B, C, D personalities because you people call themselves type A and the people call themselves not type A, and we kind of leave it at that.
Liz Wolfe: But I was thinking, what does this really mean and how does it inform our journeys? And, and part of what made me interested in that thought process, the thought experiment of kind of playing with these ideas was realizing that human beings are on different. They’re on different mental cycles. And what I was noticing is that the Type A folks are much more inclined toward repetitive motions, like doing the same thing, you know, having your greens every day a A for the long term.
Liz Wolfe: And then people like me, the type B people are like, I remember that for three or four days, and then I moved on to something, something else. The truth is, if we’re dealing in reality, I am not suddenly going to become a type A person where I’m doing the same thing every single day. So one of the biggest challenges I would imagine is meeting people where they are and realizing you’re not gonna create an entirely different personality or person just because the goal is there.
Liz Wolfe: You have to figure out a way that these things are gonna actually be able to integrate into people’s lives in a way that can increase confidence, that can increase people’s motivation, that type of thing. So when you are dealing with a type A person, Versus when you are dealing with a non-type A person, a type B person, someone like me tell me what the low hanging fruit might be for for each person.
Liz Wolfe: And you can maybe start with the type A’s, because that’s sort of the bread and butter. And I think oftentimes those are the people that feel like I can make a change. I’m gonna go, I’m gonna go talk to Tina because I think we can figure this out. The Type Bs like me would probably have reach out to Tina on their to-do list for six years before they would get around to it.
Liz Wolfe: So let’s start with the type A’s and the low hanging fruit there. And then maybe we can look at the, the, the poor, poor type Bs like me. Yeah,
Tina Haupert: yeah, yeah. So I feel like I’m kind of like a reformed. Type A, I’m kind of like a type plus at this point. So I type a tendencies, but I can relate to that, that I’m a little more low key with like my health, I guess health and wellness and stuff, I’m just taking it down a notch.
Tina Haupert: But my husband, a hundred percent type A guy, and he, uh, used him as an example. He wanted to do a bulk where he was gonna put on some lean muscle and then he was gonna lean out for the summer. And so for somebody like him, he feels really good about tracking his macros and hitting soup, like certain, like macro goals and things like that, but almost like some of those habits and things that you do every day almost make him feel safe and grounded.
Tina Haupert: So he really likes that routine. And there are some clients that come to us that they love the macros, you know what I mean? It like keeps ’em in line, keeps ’em on track. They really, really like that feeling. So somebody who’s more type A, we just kind of lean into that. Like, they like the habit, they like checking things off their list.
Tina Haupert: Um, so you know, We use macros a lot of times, but we’re also a big fan of like tracking your habits, like, you know, checking it off a list and like also like keeping track of biofeedback as far as like how you’re feeling, like how is your energy, how, how are your periods? Like, how’s your sleep? Um, so for them, we, we do have this nice little, like a really souped up spreadsheet, but there’s a lot of like checking things off the list, making sure you’re doing them and doing these things.
Tina Haupert: And for them it’s really good for them because they have that element of consistency built in. Um, so like the type A people, I feel like I can get into their brains, but there is an element also of talking them off a ledge, like doing things so perfectly and then being on track and off track. So I think a lot of times for them it’s building in strategies for when they like get off track
Tina Haupert: so there’s a lot of, lot of getting them out of that, like all or none mentality. Um, but for like the type B people, again, kind of like working with their strengths and stuff, but I think for them it’s really about. I don’t know. It depends on the person. Yeah. Like we really try to get to know our clients, but for them I do feel like it, we need to be a little bit more in communication with them to make sure they’re doing the things that they need to do.
Tina Haupert: So we have weekly check-ins with our clients that we do over WhatsApp. So you know, WhatsApp’s like one of those free voice messaging apps, like Voxer or something like that. Mm-hmm. Um, so we do weekly check-ins there, but outside of those check-ins, We talk to our clients all the time. So I think for them it’s a little bit, we need to be a little bit more in their face and then, you know, making sure they’re doing what they need to do.
Tina Haupert: Um, but again, it depends on the personality, you know? So, um, but I think for us, like that’s what we do well. It’s just really getting to know our clients and like what their challenges are and like what their mindset blocks are. Because a lot of it does go back to that mindset and just how you approach things.
Tina Haupert: Like an Enneagram three, like I, I an Enneagram three know those people well. They have very different personality than like, An eight or a nine or something like that. Not that we do an Enneagram test with people, but I just know how people can approach help so differently. So it really is getting to know them and then supporting them where they need help, but then also kind of like pushing them where they’re already doing things well.
Tina Haupert: So, mm-hmm. I just think that WhatsApp communication is like so key for us. Cuz some clients we talk to them just about every day. Um, so it’s just a nice way to get to know them. And we always say this like, the more we know about our clients, like the more we can help them. Like if they’re not sleeping through the night or their kids are sick, you know what I mean?
Tina Haupert: Like it’s nice knowing those little details be because then we can help guide you and. Give you what you need as far as like pushing you in the right direction, but also like supporting you that we’re not making you
Liz Wolfe: less so overwhelmed. No, I think that’s huge because if you’re not really getting to know your clients and you’re not really in a relationship with the person you’re working with, you might as well just buy a plan off the internet.
Liz Wolfe: Totally. Right. It’s just not, it’s, it’s to be known, and maybe this is a, a feminine thing, but to feel known and to feel seen is. I swear like 80% of the battle sometimes when you really feel like the person you’re talking to is in your corner, understands you and what you’re going through. Of course, you know, that opens the door to people making excuses, like, I’m not immune to that.
Liz Wolfe: I’ve certainly done that before, where you have to always maintain the balance in the relationship where you as a coach are there for somebody, but you’re also not there for the more toxic excuses. Mm-hmm. There’s a difference between reasons. Reasons are valid. We can talk through reasons. We can try to learn to navigate the different reasons that something is more difficult for you than you expected, for example.
Liz Wolfe: But excuses, to be continually making excuses that are really blocking your progress is, I mean that’s another good thing to have a coach around for, to be able to say, I’m hearing you actually making some excuses right now that I think are really getting in your way and causing some interference.
Liz Wolfe: So let’s, let’s work with that. , I mean I think I’m old enough now at almost 40 years old to be like, yeah, I’m gonna make an excuse right now. And I fully own that. Mm-hmm. Just so you know, I didn’t do that cuz I was being really lazy.
Liz Wolfe: Another thing that I was gonna say about how you handle the, the client relationship, something that you said earlier was, we really need to get people healthy before we can work on chipping away some of the, for example, body composition goals.
Liz Wolfe: And I have to be very honest, for a long time I was very. If not against the idea of body recomposition goals. At least I became in today’s climate, very hesitant to validate or even discuss them because it’s mm-hmm. It’s tricky. It’s very tricky right now. But when I met Michelle Shapiro, who’s a registered dietician, she’s been on the, the new iteration of the Balanced Bites podcast a couple of times.
Liz Wolfe: She’s awesome. One of the things that she was saying with no shame was, it’s okay to wanna lose weight. Mm-hmm. You can, you can feel this way. It doesn’t make you a bad person, it doesn’t make you the opposite of body positive. Mm-hmm. But there is a mindset that needs to be in place. And the way I like to articulate it is being detached from the outcome.
Liz Wolfe: I dunno if that is applicable to the way you handle clients, but in my opinion, if you are embarking on a body recomposition goal and your mindset is, oh my God, if this doesn’t work, I, I, I will hate myself. I will be, you know, 10 miles behind where I started. This is just terrible. That’s, that’s a problem.
Liz Wolfe: But if you can get into a really healthy mindset, which is part of being healthy physically, is also being healthy, healthy mentally, then I don’t see any reason why people can’t start to just work with this body that they’ve got. , see what happens. And that can be really cool.
Liz Wolfe: So I would love to hear your opinion on how you handle all of that stuff and what it looks like for your clients. Yeah,
Tina Haupert: that’s a great question. And yeah, I feel like there’s a lot of chatter about that, like on the internet now and social media and everything and yeah, there’s like this idea that like if you lose, if you wanna lose weight or change your body, like you don’t love yourself or there’s not that body positivity.
Tina Haupert: Yeah, but I 100% like if you wanna change your body, it’s your body. You should be able to do whatever you want. But I do think, you know, working with a coach can be very, very helpful, but our approach is very responsible. Like we are not crash dieting people, we’re not doing crazy stuff and we’re really big on what you were saying, like the process, like not so much the outcome.
Tina Haupert: Like yes, you will get to the outcome, but if you can focus on those steps to get to that outcome and like really put yourself into the habits and the mindset and like really feeling your best. I do think the weight loss comes, but like when you go into it, so. Desperate to lose weight. I do think sometimes you take the shortcuts or you don’t do it the right way or you get into that like, yo-yo dieting, I see that like so, so much like you lose 10 pounds, you gain 15 pounds, you lose 10 pounds, you gain 20 pounds.
Tina Haupert: And like we just wanna get women out of that. We really want them to find the o their own path. Um, and I do feel like there’s like a lot of like fear around food or like fear of doing things the wrong way. And a lot of times I think it just takes. Getting to know yourself and like really slowing down and paying attention to like how certain foods make you feel.
Tina Haupert: How does this macro balance meal make you feel? You know, just like getting into some of those like, personal things. So a lot of times we are asking clients to literally slow down and just kind of be more aware of what’s happening and deciding if certain things are working or not working for themselves.
Tina Haupert: But, um, yeah, I, I do think like the weight loss will happen, but I think if your body is so imbalanced and out of whack and malnourished and things like that, and malnourished, I mean, just like from undereating, from dieting, from pregnancy, there’s a lot of things that just leave your body really depleted and you’re just not gonna feel your best.
Tina Haupert: I feel like when, you know, your, your thyroid’s working well, your hormones are balanced, like your body’s nourished, it makes losing weight so much easier. So the example that I give a lot of our clients is if you’re super duper stressed and your blood sugar is just. All over pla all over the place.
Tina Haupert: You’re gonna have energy swings, mood swings, um, cravings and things like that. And I just think those things can make weight loss so much harder. Especially if like you’re having cravings. You’re not motivated to work out, you’re not sleeping through the night cuz you have low blood sugar that’s waking you up in the middle of the night.
Tina Haupert: You know what I mean? So it’s like these like little. Or actually big symptoms that if they’re happening to you every single day, it just makes that process so much harder. I mean, the thyroid stuff alone, if you have low thyroid, which is super common when you hit your thirties and forties, it’s gonna make losing weight harder and you’re not gonna feel your best.
Tina Haupert: So for us it really is like, let’s get you healthy, and then when we’re at a good time to focus on fat loss, we will do that with you. We’ll support you, we’ll give you the tools, but let’s really get your body healthy first because it’s just gonna make the whole process so much
Liz Wolfe: easier. Mm-hmm. I’ve heard you talk about the, uh, a cut.
Liz Wolfe: I’ve heard you talk, I think I’ve heard you talk about that. Are, do you have like a body or a bikini competitive background, or is that just a industry term? Um,
Tina Haupert: Yeah, maybe industry term. I mean, I’m fascinated by these people that do like the bikini and physique things. I, it’s fascinating. I, I don’t wanna do that.
Tina Haupert: I like cookies and margaritas and stuff too much. I don’t see that in my future. But this idea of cutting, yes. So like I am, I’m a big fan of really planning your nutrition. So like, having these distinct faiths where you’re focused on a specific goal. Because I think a lot of women, when they wanna lose weight, they’re just like, I’m gonna cut calories, I’m gonna exercise more and I’m gonna do this until I lose 10 pounds.
Tina Haupert: Like, that’s the plan. And it, it works in your twenties for sure, but you hit your thirties, forties, and fifties and like, that behavior just doesn’t work. I almost feel like it works against you because you’re stressing out your body so much. And really what happens is we don’t have all these lovely hormones anymore.
Tina Haupert: You know, your hormones start to slow down. So I think adding that additional stress on top of your body can make it worse, make you feel worse. Lead to hormonal imbalance. Gaining weight. You know, there’s like all sorts of things that happen if you do like too much of that, that dieting and over-exercise.
Tina Haupert: But anyways, my point was as far as like the cutting goes is that a cut is basically like a diet or like a fat, fat loss phase where you are trying to consume fewer calories in order to encourage fat loss. But that should really only be a very small part of your year. Like you’re doing this once a year, once every other year.
Tina Haupert: Like you’re not going from diet to diet to diet. Like this is something that you’re planning and it’s for a short period of time. So I spent, um, 12 weeks doing a, a cut where, you know, I was in this calorie deficit and I was focusing on my strength training and sleeping and all that, but I haven’t done a cut since 2019.
Tina Haupert: So like, it’s not something that I do all the time and I don’t encourage our clients to do it all the time. Like I always tell them they have to earn their cut. And part of that earning the cut is, you know, Eating enough, building some muscle, making sure your gut and your hormones and your thyroid are all happy before we go into that phase.
Tina Haupert: Because being in a calorie deficit, it’s stressful on your body like you are undereating calories, which yes, you will lose fat, you’ll also lose muscle, but it’s not something that you wanna do forever and always, like you really need it to be a short period of time. So when we’re cutting with our clients, they’re doing a cut anywhere from eight to like 16 weeks, but like after 16 weeks, they’re done.
Tina Haupert: We’re not gonna let them stay in that calorie deficit forever, because you know, when you’re undereating, you’re just under fueling your body. It leads to. Hormonal imbalances, thyroid issues, you know, being undernourished and all of that. So, um, a cut is just a small phase of this whole body composition change.
Tina Haupert: So, um, and it’s used for, you know, special situations. It’s not a for everything.
Liz Wolfe: I, this isn’t a fully formed thought and I have a lot of those non fully formed thoughts, but I was just thinking to myself, this, these ideas that I’m kind of starting to try to nudge back into the conversation after avoiding them for so long.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm. If I could find a way to call them, like s wrap the word fasting around them, then everybody would be totally fine with it. Yeah. You know, like, that would be totally fine. Oh, fasting that’s supposed to be good for you, right? Biohacking, let’s call it that. Oh, yeah. And in some ways there is very much, I mean, evolutionary precedent for short stints of calorie.
Liz Wolfe: Deficit. Mm-hmm. And in that way, I think it might actually be useful. In the same way we talk about fasting can be useful if you do it correctly, if it’s in the proper context, surrounded by other behaviors that are also appropriate for, for that particular goal. So, And one of the things that I was also thinking about as you were talking was I think my, one of my first aha moments around this was when I interviewed my friend Brittany Briney, who’s a former bikini competitor for my other [00:37:00] podcast, which is going through a rebrand, which I’m, I’ll tell you more about Off the Air, which I’m very excited about.
Liz Wolfe: But she was talking about all of the different things she did for the bikini competition, and I was looking at her thinking, if I didn’t know you and I had brought all of my preconceived notions to this conversation, I would’ve thought you have to be a dis. You have to be to disordered orthorexic.
Liz Wolfe: There’s, you have a toxic relationship with food. You can’t possibly be healthy in that body. She’s one of the healthiest people I’ve ever met. She’s not only fit as in fit for almost any challenge athletically, she is also physically healthy, mentally healthy. And just an overall example of how you can incorporate things like that into your life with curiosity, with detachment, and without.
Liz Wolfe: You know, any super intense emotions around the outcome. So that was when I was first like, oh, maybe I’ve been wrong about this and this type of thing isn’t bad for everybody and maybe these things can be implemented. I’m not saying bikini competitions are inherently healthy. I think there are a lot of disordered behaviors that go into those things.
Liz Wolfe: But just realizing that these types of things, some people do it just cuz they’re interested. Hmm. It’s not because they’re like, I have to be at this percentage of body fat. They’re just kinda like, I wonder if I could, I wonder if I could push that envelope and then go back to normal for the rest of the year.
Liz Wolfe: And it’s, and its possible. And it happens. And that’s not what you’re talking about. I’m, I’m taking this to, to its extreme, but knowing sort of how people’s brains are wrapped around this idea of you should never be in a calorie deficit. You should never try to cut weight. You should always just be happy with where you are.
Liz Wolfe: And just slowly kind of forcing my mind out of that mode to realize that not only are there certain evolutionary precedents for stuff like this, that the body can actually really thrive if properly planned. Um, but also that these things are going on and people are really benefiting from them and, and people are healthy and feeling really good.
Liz Wolfe: I don’t know where I was going with any of that, so just, you know, we’ll just cut out the last five minutes basically. Right.
Tina Haupert: No, I think that’s great. I mean, cuz I, I just see so many extreme things happening on the internet and, you know, there’s some people out there that promote some not so healthy approaches and, you know, going back to the whole idea of having like a cookie cutter approach where you just get like a set of macros and you starve yourself for however long.
Tina Haupert: Mm-hmm. And you just lose the weight. Mm-hmm. I mean, I always joke, anybody can lose weight. You just eat way less than you’re eating now. But I do think there’s a responsible way to do it where you’re not gonna damage your body. You can change your body, but in a way where you are. You know, fit and healthy and strong, and you’re not just, you know, skinny, I just think there’s a right and a wrong way to do it.
Tina Haupert: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with changing your body as long as you are doing it in a way that is not going to harm your health.
Tina Haupert: So that’s what, that’s what we do. We just try to help women. Get through these different phases, but really prioritizing, their health
Liz Wolfe: yeah. Oh, I love that. And all of these interviews, I, I basically just searched your name on Spotify and was listening to a bunch of interviews that you’ve done, and you, I mean, you absolutely embody that in, in all of the conversations that I’ve heard you have with folks and all of their different questions that they’re throwing at you.
Liz Wolfe: It’s like, okay, we get everybody healthy first. There are ways of doing this that are catered to the individual and we can do it while we’re prioritizing mental health, physical health, all of the above. So what I think we should talk about now in our last 15 or so minutes is the getting people healthy part.
Liz Wolfe: And I in particular would love to talk about minerals, and I know with the Yes, yes. Let’s talk about minerals. And I know that’s a big topic of conversation these days, but I don’t think a whole lot of people are really plugged into it and understand how important minerals are. So give us a little bit of a primer on minerals and, and why they’re important and how you use
Tina Haupert: them.
Tina Haupert: Yeah, I love minerals. I like, I nerd out so much. My husband, I talk about minerals so much that my husband made me a shirt for Christmas that says minerals are boron. And I’m just like, oh my goodness. Amazing. Minerals are not boron. I mean, boring anyways. Minerals love. So, um, I, I’m a, a root cause protocol, you know, consultant, I did that whole certification with Morley Robin.
Tina Haupert: Yeah. So like, just fascinating, fascinating. Um, so many interesting things. But I think the reason I like minerals so much is that they’re very accessible, you know, in the sense that like, You just focus your attention on eating different foods that are high in these minerals. And this is another, you know, quote, unquote free thing that you can do.
Tina Haupert: But really like prioritizing some of like the electrolytes and, um, what they call the macro minerals and things like that. Um, you have to eat, you know, you have to eat 3, 4, 5 times a day, so why not just buy the foods that are high in these minerals? And then also just working with a lot of moms and type A personalities, they tend to be, you know, a little bit stressed out, chronic stress, and then also pregnancy.
Tina Haupert: Like you’re, you’re nourishing a baby and like mm-hmm. Once you deliver that baby, it just leaves your body really malnourished just because that baby has taken so much from you. Babies are great,
Tina Haupert: But we just see so many women who come to us who have been dieting, super stressed, couple babies, um, and they’re just, their bodies are depleted, so they’re just exhausted and like they don’t have energy.
Tina Haupert: And just coming from a personal standpoint, when I started paying attention to minerals and electrolytes, I just feel so much better. Like, I have energy, I’m happy, I’m balanced, I’m motivated. So I just see what they can do. Um, so we run, um, the H T M A, which is the hair tissue mineral analysis, which sounds kind of crazy, but I was talking to, um, my husband’s cousin about it who worked for the c CIA and all that.
Tina Haupert: And he, I was telling him about the H T M A and everything and he was like, oh yeah, we use, we used hair to drug test people. Of course you can get like information from your hair. And I was like, yeah, that’s a really good point. But. Dead tissue, but it’s almost like a record of your mineral status. So like, as your hair grows, it’s almost like the ring’s on a tree, like tell a story, but you can see what’s going on as far as your mineral status goes.
Tina Haupert: Um, so this test is super simple. You just cut a little piece of hair, you know, if you have long hair, you’ll never miss it. Send it off to the lab. And we get some really good insights about what’s going on with like, your overall mineral status, but also the ratios of those status or
Tina Haupert: the ratios of those minerals can give us insights into different systems of your body.
Tina Haupert: So we can get insights into the thyroid, to blood sugar, to your stress, to, um, hormones, things like that. So again, it’s like, it’s not a diagnostic test. Like we can’t like diagnose you with low thyroid or blood sugar issues, but it gives us clues and it gives us kind of that. Jumping point to start making changes.
Tina Haupert: And for a lot of women, like we just give them a food list and we’re like, get more foods that are high in potassium. You know, get more sodium into your diet. And really sometimes these small tweaks with their diet make such a difference. They just feel so much better. And I just feel like it’s such like an easy test.
Tina Haupert: You’re cutting hair, sending it off to the lab, and then you’re just focusing on good nutrition, which I think we all need. Of course you can supplement, like we’re not opposed to supplements, but I just feel like you have to eat. So like why not buy? More potatoes or more, I don’t know, bananas or I just keep thinking potassium foods.
Tina Haupert: Cause I feel like all the tests I read, everybody’s low in potassium. So Yeah. Yeah. I’ve been hearing that more potassium.
Liz Wolfe: I’ve been hearing that. I’m gonna ask you about potassium, but I have to tell you a quick little story about my hair tissue mineral analysis. Yeah. That I never did because I’m a type B personality procrastinator.
Liz Wolfe: This was probably eight years ago, maybe more than that. I ordered the tests Morley’s whole thing I was gonna do. Oh yes. Whatever Morley was doing at the time. And it was, I think, BL some blood testing and the H TM A, they sent me the thing, I cut the hair and I never sent it in. Mm. For like I, I had it sitting there for like two years.
Liz Wolfe: Then finally I was like, eh, it’s probably not relevant anymore. And I just threw it away. So that is the challenge with us, extreme type B individuals. It’s just we can’t, I mean we take like two three of the steps and then it’s like, nah. Yeah. I guess I’m not doing that. It’s so pathetic. Okay. Anyway. What was I gonna ask you?
Liz Wolfe: Oh, I was going to ask you, as far as the the minerals go, are there any like shortcuts that you give people? I know the food is so important. I love the idea of eating more potatoes. I could do that any day of the week. Yep. I love the food-based strategies, but sometimes I do feel like there are certain things that will just push people across the threshold where they feel like, I’ve got this dropper full of stuff, or I’ve got this supplement I can take and that is gonna help me.
Liz Wolfe: Get some proof of concept while I get all the diet stuff in line, dietary stuff in line, while I figure out when I’m shopping, so I don’t run out of potatoes and bananas and sweet potato and all of that stuff. Are there any little shortcuts that you give to people like Sheila Eat or mineral drops, that type of thing?
Tina Haupert: Yep. I’m a big fan of Mineral Drops. I personally take them. Um, we also we’re big fans of the Adrenal Cocktail, which I’m sure you’ve heard this one. Mm-hmm. Go around on the internet and I’m, I’m a big fan of that. I mean, I have so many women say they take this adrenal cocktail and they’re like, I feel energized and happy and things like that.
Tina Haupert: It’s just vitamin C, sodium, a little bit of coconut. It’s like a really easy way to like, get some of those minerals in. Um, but yeah, I’m a big fan of the Mineral Drop, the Adrenal Cocktail. Um, I think L M N T is like another one that people really like, which mm-hmm. I think is like a nice way to supplement things.
Tina Haupert: I don’t think it’s like the only thing that you should be doing. Um, but yeah, I think some of those are go-tos. Even just like salting your food, I think can make such a difference. And I think we’re all afraid of salt. Um, but if you’re stressed out, I mean, Salt, potassium, magnesium. These are like some of the first minerals that our bodies lose when we’re stressed out.
Tina Haupert: Um, the example I give our clients, so I used to do the whole marathon, half marathon, you know, so much running back in the day, ah,
Liz Wolfe: you are type A, oh my gosh, yes, accomplished so many things.
Tina Haupert: I’m very much retired from that. Amazing. But when you do these endurance events, like your skin will literally get salty.
Tina Haupert: And I mean, that is your body in a stressed out state losing minerals. And if you were to collapse at the end of that marathon, half marathon, triathlon, whatever you’re training for, like somebody would come over to you like a medic or a nurse or whatever and give you electrolytes. So like, it just makes sense that every single day we’re just living this like chronically stressed out life.
Tina Haupert: We’re exercising, we’re sweating, like you need to replenish that stuff. So I think even just focusing on like a. A mineral drops or like an electrolyte powder or something like that can make such a difference for helping you feel better. Of course, the food would be the free option, but you know, if you’re somebody that just wants like a quick and dirty, like let’s get these electrolytes into your body, um, you know, doing one of those powders or drops or something like that.
Tina Haupert: I do the drops every day. I love ’em. Mm-hmm. They’re great.
Liz Wolfe: I mean, it can be, it can be a useful bridge, you know, so you feel like I’m be, I’m doing the productive thing while I work up to whatever it is, especially me. I’m not great with the cooking. I have a couple key recipes, but, but sometimes I just need a little something that I’m taking, that I’m taking that moment out of my day to put three drops of whatever it is into my water, and then that moment of my day maybe can transition into something else.
Liz Wolfe: Like for me personally, starting with those little steps is, is helpful. And by the way, major professional regret for me, number one, is not branding the heck out of an adrenal cocktail because whoever figured that out, I hope they’re making bajillions of dollars because literally all it is is like orange juice and a couple things mixed together.
Liz Wolfe: And who doesn’t love that? Other professional regret is not putting a salt heavy electrolyte mixture into a little travel stick and marketing that, so well, well done on that one. Rob Wolf and, and, and team for, you know, he deserves everything, all the good things because he’s like the, the old original gangster of, of the paleo thing and, and all that.
Liz Wolfe: So two major professional regrets, but that’s just an aside. Well, I’ll just keep podcasting and hope you know that I get rich off of podcasting. Do you think that’s, do you think that’s possible?
Tina Haupert: Anything’s possible.
Liz Wolfe: Anything, anything is possible. Maybe if you’re a type A, maybe not so much when you’re a type B like me.
Liz Wolfe: Um, this is a random question about the H T M A. Can your hair be dyed to do the htm? A technically
Tina Haupert: not. So we just have. Ideally it would be, you could just grow it out. So we tell clients eight to 10 weeks, like the longer you go, the better. Cuz hair grows at a rate of about, like about an inch per month.
Tina Haupert: Mm-hmm. But if you’re somebody, so I, I have the grays, you know, I’m not a young spring chicken by any means, but I just used to dye the top and the front, you know what I mean? Like that’s always what I do, that area. But in the back it’s kind of like the natural hair. It just, yeah, we don’t, don’t bother with that.
Tina Haupert: Um, we can, we can reach that far back. Yeah. So you could always cut from back here where it’s kind of like the natural hair, but yeah, you should, ideally it would be like eight to 10 weeks worth of growth, so I just time it to like when I’m getting my hair done, so like the day I’m getting my hair done, I’ll like do a, a sample and send it off.
Tina Haupert: Yeah,
Liz Wolfe: that makes sense. And is that something that you do intermittently or like to test and retest?
Tina Haupert: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So I’d probably do it and with clients too, probably every like six months. So I just feel like it gives you time to see the change. Um, so yeah, typically our program’s six months, so we’ll have them test in the beginning and then, um, depending on how they sign up for the program, they get a free H T M A at the end of the program.
Tina Haupert: So it’s like a good six months between tests, but like everybody sees improvement. It’s like if you just focus on the right foods and, you know, getting in those minerals, like, we always see improvements. So it’s, it’s an awesome test just because I just feel like anybody can do it. You don’t have to go to like a doctor’s office.
Tina Haupert: You don’t need a blood draw. Like you literally just cut your hair.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. Just send it off to the lab. Yeah. And why, I mean, at this point I don’t, when the last time I got a haircut was so, I mean, I can spare a little bit of it. Mm-hmm. No big deal. All right. I wanna ask you about potassium, because we’ve heard about how salt is actually really important, how we wanna not restrict sodium, but people are talking about potassium these days, and I would love to hear more about potassium from you and why it’s important.
Tina Haupert: Yeah, so potassium. Potassium is a favorite. I mean, I do love boron. Boron. Boron too.
Liz Wolfe: Let’s talk about boron. That’s a big one too. People are talking about.
Tina Haupert: Yeah, I mean, born, it’s just, I just feel like it’s one of those things, again, it’s like overly or, you know, overlooked. A lot of times it’s really good for, you know, hormonal balance, estrogen, testosterone, production, um, and it’s so cheap.
Tina Haupert: Like if you bought like a boron supplement, it’s like super affordable. Although it’s, it’s kind of down, down the line as far as like what’s. Most important for the minerals, you know what I mean? But potassium is a macro mineral, so it’s, it’s a big one. It’s important, it’s an electrolyte. And then also like, I just feel like I see a lot of GI issues, like a lot of gut issues.
Tina Haupert: Maybe it’s just who comes to us, you know, me having ulcerative colitis, maybe I just attract those types of people. But you know, potassium is one of those things that you’ll lose if you have GI issues too. So I think that’s maybe why I often see it low on htma. Um, but yeah, it can help you feel better.
Tina Haupert: And then also there’s some really interesting studies out there. I think I actually shared this on Instagram, that, you know, getting enough potassium can actually make you feel like more satisfied. Um, which I think is really interesting. And suppose this study that I saw, it was like secondary to like protein, and I thought that was really fascinating.
Tina Haupert: And the requirements for potassium are really high. I wanna say it’s like 4,600 milligrams or 4,800 milligrams per day. That’s a ton of potassium. So like, if you use like, Chron, meteor, MyFitnessPal, where you can like track how much potassium you’re getting. Like you really have to make an effort to get that much, like you really have to like nail it as far as all those high potassium foods.
Tina Haupert: Um, but I just see low potassium in so many women and just adding, you know, more potassium to your diet can make you feel more satisfied, make, give you more energy. I just feel like there’s like so many pros to it. Um, it can also make your cells more sensitive to thyroid hormone. And I see so many like low thyroid situations going on with clients and that a hundred percent can make you feel tired and you know you’re not losing weight because the thyroid’s messed out, so messed up.
Tina Haupert: So there’s just like so many reasons to get. More potassium. Big fan of potassium.
Liz Wolfe: Big, big fan. Big fan of yours, potassium. And so when, so when people come into you, and I guess we’re at the part of the show now, I’ve only got you for a few more minutes, but can you give folks an idea of what your intake process will look like, how you get to know your clients?
Liz Wolfe: And then once they get a feel for that, just let us know how to find you and how to work with you and we’ll wrap it up.
Tina Haupert: Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. So we definitely have a lot of, you know, touch points with our clients in that onboarding process, because, like I was saying, like gathering all that data, getting to know you, getting to know what your goals are, you know, all of that’s really important.
Tina Haupert: So when you sign up, well, there’s an option to have a discovery call with me. So there’s definitely, you know, a conversation there, just making sure it’s a good fit for the two of us. And then once you sign on, there is. You know, some paperwork and things to fill out and then we mail your test to you and all that good stuff.
Tina Haupert: And then you have an intake call with our other F D N practitioner. Her name’s Jennifer Woodward. She is lovely. Um, but you have an intake call with her and she really just reviews your medical history, your symptoms, again, get clear on your goals, but just another conversation, you know, just to get to know you.
Tina Haupert: And we’re big on like case notes and taking notes and really getting to know our clients. Um, and then after that, um, we have your review session where we go over the tests, the interpretations, your protocol, all that good stuff. So we really help explain things to you. Like, I don’t think you need to know everything about everything, but I do think like having some education on what’s happening in your body and why you are doing certain things.
Tina Haupert: Like why am I making this a priority? Why am I drinking adrenal cocktails? I think it’d be really motivating for. Helping you do the things that you need to do and be consistent with it because you kind of have a why behind it. Um, and then once we do that review session, it’s on Zoom and you know, we, we have another chance to talk to you and everything.
Tina Haupert: You go off and work with one of the coaches on my team, and that’s really where the accountability, the support happens. That’s probably where we’ll like dig in a little bit more with like the diet changes and the mindset stuff because you’re talking to your coach every single week. But yeah, we do weekly check-ins every single week.
Tina Haupert: Like there’s a day we are talking to you on WhatsApp, we are making a connection with you. Cuz some people, they’re good. They’re like, once a week they talk to us and they’re good to go. Other people, like they, they need us like every day, every few days. So, um, our clients are welcome to reach out to us pretty much 24 7.
Tina Haupert: I mean, we, we wanna hear from you. So there’s a lot, lot of talking, a lot of talking on WhatsApp and then also after month four of the program, we have almost like a check-in call where we just see like, how are you doing? Are you making progress? Do we need to. Make adjustments to your supplements. So there’s another like, kind of like intake, not an intake call, but another call where you’re talking to either Jennifer or me, um, or we’re just making updates to your protocol and then you continue on with your coach.
Tina Haupert: And then at the end we have a wrap up call with you because you know, at the end of the program we wanna make sure you have progressed. And then also when you’re finishing with us, or if you decide to continue working with us, I have clients, I joke that I’m gonna die with them. They’ve like worked with me for like three years.
Tina Haupert: Like we just keep trucking along. Um, but at the end of the program, we make sure you’re feeling good about everything. Like sometimes we’ll make updates to your protocol, but we want you to feel like you can do this on your own. Um, so we never like leave anybody hanging and there’s always kind of like a game plan for a client, you know, coming off our program and going off on their own.
Tina Haupert: But yeah, ton tons of FaceTime with me, the other coaches, the other practitioners. So it’s a group effort for sure.
Liz Wolfe: I love that. And not that you need my stamp of approval at all, but. There are not very many people doing this, which is why I’m so excited about it because yes, I do feel like if people want to change their body composition, work on their health, do all of these things at the same time, do it, but with a really seasoned guide with someone who can really keep you on a good and productive path, because sometimes we don’t see ourselves clearly when we’re in it.
Liz Wolfe: It’s really hard for us to see ourselves clearly, and to have a group of people who are so there for you, like you are with your practice is just so awesome because you just don’t, I just don’t know of very many people doing what you’re doing, which is why it’s so exciting to me. Yay.
Tina Haupert: I love to hear that.
Tina Haupert: And yeah, my team is awesome. We, we are literally talking to each other all day long about clients and things and all that. But yeah, I mean, I just feel like if you’re somebody that’s struggling or you just kind of feel stuck, I just feel like the coach can get you so much further. It’s like that second brain, that second set of eyes, just a look at what you’re doing.
Tina Haupert: Because I think a lot of women come to us and they’re already doing a lot of healthy things, you know, like they’re not, you know, coming from like ground zero. Like they’re already doing a lot of healthy things. It’s just they need some tweaks. And I think also coming into this like 35 plus age where, you know, the perimenopause hormones, like so many things change.
Tina Haupert: I think it’s just helping guide people. And it goes back to what you said right in the beginning, you know, like, I’m not a doctor. I’m not a therapist, you know what I mean? But I lived this and did all this myself, so I’m just more than happy to, you know, share things with people and help guide them on this path because like, yeah, doing it by yourself, like you can do it, like you can find anything on the internet, read the books, listen to the podcast.
Tina Haupert: But just having somebody that has just a plan and approach for you, it just can get you so much farther further and just, you know, not have you deal with all that frustration. I mean, I just, I lived that frustration for so long. Mm-hmm.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm. And it’s the, it’s the brass tacks. It’s the, it’s the minerals, it’s the tweaks that you were talking about.
Liz Wolfe: It’s all of that. But it’s also that in relationship with somebody else that is so transformative, and I am such a reluctant admitter of this fact. With work in particular for me, I’m a solo entrepreneur. You know, I do everything on my own. I have finally hired someone, and I have never gotten so much done than when we are sitting down face to face with each other.
Liz Wolfe: Things that I’ve been putting off for weeks and months get done in the blink of an eye because I’m in relationship with somebody working towards the same goal. So I, I think it’s all of that. And I just, I, I love what you’re, what you are doing. I’ve loved following you. I would also like to beg you to come on my other podcast pretty soon to talk about the 35 plus crowd, how this specifically applies to them.
Liz Wolfe: And I’ll beg you, well, I’ll, I’ll schedule you, schedule you for that later. But yeah, love what you’re doing and really appreciate you. So how can people find you and work with you?
Tina Haupert: So I am carrots and cake everywhere, TikTok, YouTube, all the places I don’t even wanna be. I’m there. Um, The main places I hang out are on Instagram and my podcast, which is also the Carrots and Cake co podcast, but it’s carrots, the letter N, and then cake.
Tina Haupert: So, but I’m, I’m easy to track down as I say to people. Yes. Got it. All
Liz Wolfe: right. Easy to find. Easy to find you. Well, good folks, go out, look for Tina. Look for carrots and cake. Thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it. I can’t believe it took us this long to do this, but so glad you came on. Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
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