EPISODE SUMMARY
Guest: Blair Hayes
In this episode Blair Hayes, a Lubbock realtor talks about how taking care of her health has helped her reach her professional goals. Her journey starts with food. She has a Master of Science in Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics from Texas Tech and is a registered dietician.
Making choices based on her own needs and values. Everybody has their own idea of health.
Background of dieting and low-calorie processed foods.
How restriction leads to binging and yo-yo dieting.
What is the practice of intuitive eating? How to eat healthily and do what feels right for her body. It's a practice in order to break years worth of habits of dieting.
Focusing on making the best choices for yourself rather than a thought pattern that there are good and bad foods.
Taking a step back and looking honestly at her relationship with alcohol and its effects on the body.
Exercising for the right reasons.
Artificial sweeteners and migraines.
How success in business is tied to health and comes from many small conscious, positive daily choices.
To contact Blair Hayes:
Blair Hayes, REALTOR®
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Premier Properties
Cell: (806) 632-0615
Email: blair.txrealtor@gmail.com
instagram.com/blair.txrealtor/
To contact Ruth, go to https://www.blairclinic.com
ruth@blairclinic.com
https://www.facebook.com/rutelin
Transcript
Welcome, welcome, welcome to What Pain in the Neck. In this podcast episode, I have a very special guest that I have known for maybe a little over a year, or maybe about a year. We met through the Chamber of Commerce in Lubbock, and she's got some really inspirational things to say about taking care of her health.
That's why I invited her today. And we both agree that there's some issues around health that are easy to talk about, and some others that there's a little bit of stigma surrounding those topics, and yet they're really important.
And so, I've really come to respect this young woman here for her professional job. You have really excelled in your job, you're one of the top realtors in Lubbock, you've made some lists and won some awards, and you've made some really incredible choices regarding your health. And that's. It's the main thing we'll talk about today, this is a podcast about solutions to suffering. So welcome, Blair.
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Why don't you say your full name and then maybe introduce yourself, your business, your family, and just a little bit of background about yourself.
Okay. Yeah. So I'll start with my name. My name is Blair Hayes. I am a West Texas native. I've been here for most of my life.
Like you said, I am a Realtor here in Lubbock, and I've been doing that for a little over a year now. Prior to that, I graduated from Texas Tech University. I received both my Bachelor and my Master of Science in Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics from Texas Tech. I also completed my Dietetic Internship in 2020 at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, where I was able to, once I finished that curriculum, I was able to sit for the RD exam. So I am a licensed - I'm a registered dietitian. I just don't practice anymore. Cause like I said, I'm now a realtor serving Lubbock and the surrounding areas. So that's a little bit about my educational background.
As far as current life and family. Right now, my boyfriend and I have three dogs, three little dogs, and, you know, no children at this time. So that's - those three dogs keep me busy along with my job.
So I know that you have really excelled in doing your real estate job, just because I've seen you win awards and things like that. So, what made you decide on real estate, especially coming from more of a health background?
So, I don't really know. It was, you know, I didn't really have anybody in my life that was a close influence that was in real estate. At the time when I became licensed and got my master's degree, we were of course in the middle of the COVID crisis. So, finding a job was a little challenging and I decided to just take some time off to really figure out what it was I wanted to do, and I was working at a different job, and I realized at some point that the job I was doing, you know, of course, it still worked. There was nothing wrong with it, and I'm glad for the time that I took at that job, but it wasn't going to take me anywhere, really. And I wanted a job that had opportunities for growth that I would be able to, you know, make my own schedule, be my own boss and get to serve the community more. And so I decided to become a realtor. So, like I said, I didn't have anybody in my close circle. I just kind of decided about it one day and gave it a try and you know, here we are.
It turned out that you're really good at it.
Yeah, thankfully, I really really enjoy it.
So what are some things that your background in Dietetics that you're taking with you or how that's helping you in your real life. And even what is it that drew you to that field?
I've always just naturally had an interest in health and wanting to take care of myself. I think anybody wanting to pursue success, you know, you have to take care of the body that's going to get you there. And I do enjoy pursuing health and fitness. And to tell you the truth, a lot of what I learned in school, like I said, I completed graduate school. So I did almost six years studying this topic, and I would say most of what I learned in school taught me how to work as a dietitian in a hospital, which isn't exactly - That definitely wasn't my dream, and of course, clinical dietitians are necessary. I did rotations in the hospital, and I enjoyed my time there, but I didn't think that it was right for me. I wanted to make more long-term impact and again, my schooling was more geared to hospital short-term impact here and now and seeing, you know, many clients a day, many patients a day actually in the hospital.
So really what I've - the choices that I've made for my health have kind of been from my own interest in health and wanting to pursue health as you know, it suits me. Everybody has their own idea of health. It's a very subjective term.
Yeah, that is really important. That's one of the things that I love about what we do here at the Blair Clinic actually is the fact that the Blair method can account for the fact that every single person is different.
And I'm very interested in nutrition as well. And I've come to realize that there's so many plans out there, like people who are vegan and follow that, it works for so many people. And then you have all the way on the opposite end, people who are carnivores and they thrive on that and then everything in between. So what is it that you have found works for you?
Well I don't have a, you know, a solid answer for this one because I don't really follow anything at all to tell you the truth. A little bit about like my personal health background is I started strictly dieting when I was in high school. You know, at the time I thought that was health. I thought that restricting my calories and restricting my intake to as little as possible was health. I thought filling my grocery cart.
Oh, that's pretty harsh.
Yeah. I thought filling my grocery cart with diet items and hundred calorie snack packs and diet sodas and imitation butter sprays and fake, fake everything. I thought that that was health for a long time. And it really, to me, in my opinion, and based on my experience, I think strictly dieting like that is one of the worst things you can do for your health. And in that, I followed a pattern of Yo-yo dieting for about seven years I was in that. Again, starting in high school when I, you know, was really young.
Unfortunately, it's so common in our society.
It is very common. And one of the things I struggled with a lot was binge eating because if I wasn't completely restricting my intake, I was completely out of control with food.
I feel like sometimes that extreme calorie restriction leads to that because our body needs some fuel sometimes.
100% because really restricting your intake like that. If I ever felt like I had gone too far over, I had ate too much that day or, you know, even like a stressful day or being around certain foods that were really rich or something that I constantly crave, but I always restricted, I could easily lose control around food. And I do think that that is really common, it's really not talked about enough, but binge eating is the most common eating disorder in the United States compared to other eating disorders.
So clearly you went through a process of basically taking control. So can you talk a little bit about what that looked like, what that journey was like?
Yes, I know my journey took like an unexpected turn there, but you know it was, a long road to unlearn a lot of the things that I thought about health. And even though during that time I was in college, I was, you know, taking nutrition classes and learning about nutrition. And again, a lot of my courses were geared towards working in the hospital, but I had enough information to know that dieting wasn't good for me. It just really took I guess me snapping out of it to realize how bad it was and how much control food had over my life. So I was grateful, you know, not for COVID itself, but for the opportunities that it gave to just kind of get some time away.
So when you say snapping out of it, that means - what do you mean by that?
I didn't have like an epiphany or a big thing that made me decide to stop dieting. I just one day - I knew what I had to do.
So you knew what you had to do. Which was?
I started practicing intuitive eating. So this may be something you've heard about. It's becoming more popular. There are two dietitians who wrote a book on this. That was something that I was really interested in grad school and enjoyed reading and learning more about. In COVID, like I said, I decided to take that time, you know, not knowing how long we would be in lockdown or how long the world would be different. And I started practicing intuitive eating, where you essentially lift all rules around food. It definitely was more of a mental and emotional battle or journey, I should say, for me. And that got me out of the dieting mindset.
So essentially what I'm hearing you say, and correct me if I'm wrong, is you went through a process to tune into your own body and then just away from expectations and things you thought were necessary. So you did what you kind of felt was right for you.
Yes. And I know this, this is a conversation and we could spend 12 hours talking about this. There's a lot to that, but yeah that's part of my journey is going through strictly dining, Yo-yo dieting. And going up and down between dieting and binge eating for seven years to finally switching to intuitive eating. And now, thankfully, eating healthy and doing what feels right for my body, it comes naturally. It's a practice too, just like I dieted and had unhealthy patterns for seven years. I've got, you know, it took me a while to undo those patterns and learn healthy behaviors naturally.
Yeah. So how do you go about that switch? What kind of this to do in your brain? Or what kind of habits have you had to do? Or what does that journey look like? When you say practice, I have a feeling it literally means you practice something, you make a choice and you work on it, right?
Yes. So reading the book intuitive eating certainly was helpful. And there's so many more resources out there now than there used to be about intuitive eating. Honestly, just researching it as much as you can and to try and fully dive in to the lifestyle change. It does involve taking all rules off of food. So you can't look as foods as either good or bad. You take the time to kind of unlearn all the things that dieting has taught you and make it feel right for your body. If that makes sense. Again, it's very unique to everyone. So it's trying, it is doing a practice - if I ever notice those thoughts of, “oh, you shouldn't have that. That's a bad food,” et cetera, et cetera. I catch myself, remind myself that there are no bad foods and, you know, try to make the best choice for myself from there.
Yeah, that's great. So now that you've been practicing like this for a while, what are some changes that you've noticed in your own health and well being?
Well for one, health is a lot simpler. It's a lot easier to attain. Again, when I was trying to diet and hold to these super unrealistic ideals and you know looking back as much as I restricted that was very unhealthy. It's become easier to take care of myself and over time I have come to really enjoy and focus on a diet with you know, fewer ultra processed foods and lots of whole foods. It became about what I could add to my diet, what I could add to my life, versus what I had to take away, what I had to restrict.
Yeah, I follow a similar process myself. It's like, okay, eat, eat more fruit and eat more nuts and eat more seeds and eat more different colors and eat more protein and drink more water. And before you know it.I'm full and satisfied and happy. So thank you for that.
You posted a post on Facebook not too long ago and it was so freeing and honest and great. You said that you hadn't been drinking any alcohol at all. And again, that sounds like it could be a very restricting way, but the way you worded it, it just felt very free.
Yes, it definitely was. It didn't, it became more about what I was able to add to my life versus I was taking this thing away.
Yeah. And I've actually been through a similar process myself. I just decided I've been focusing a lot on my health and I got really kind of curious. You know, what is that doing? And then I discovered, you know, usually if I have a drink, maybe it takes away more than it gives me, maybe not sleeping so well, and might have a little headache in the morning and, well, which one do I want more? Is it something similar to that? Or tell me about your process.
Well, I'll tell you where I started, why I did it, because it has - It's changed over the last year. So it's been a little over a year since I cut out alcohol completely. So mid October of 2022 is when I made the decision and it wasn't something that I'd really thought about for a long time. It was maybe something that I thought about for just a short amount of time and I just decided to go all in. I'm going to say that's a theme in my life is go all in. If you're going to do something, go all in, you know, you have to do it completely or it's not going to have the impact that you want it to make. So I didn't set out to cut it out for a certain period of time. Previous, one of the first motivators I would say was I had been suffering from migraines and headaches and I kind of took inventory of my current health practices and daily practices. And I thought, “what could I improve? You know, maybe this isn't the thing that is going to magically cure headaches and migraines for me, but if anything, it's going to make me healthier, right?”
Yeah. I like that question. What can I improve?
And so again, you're right. It didn't feel restricting. It felt more like I was making myself healthier for me. Alcohol was what I would call low hanging fruit in my life. So I like I said, I took inventory of my current practices and daily practices and health practices and I thought what would be the easiest thing for me to start with and for some I understand that alcohol may not be easy to cut out. I'm grateful I wouldn't say that I had addiction alcohol, but I definitely abused it and a lot of the times I feel like I just drank compulsively and I'm sure a lot of people could If they took a step back and looked at how they function around alcohol, how they treat alcohol, they might realize that they're doing it compulsively as well, as in, you know, I can really identify, “why am I doing this? Do I really enjoy this?” You know, I was drinking before I turned 21. And then when I turned 21, I just drank because I could, you know, it was legal. So if we go out to eat, I had my ID out, ready to go, I could drink, you know. And that's a lot - That's kind of the way that the people around me did it as well. There are people close to me that, you know, they were drinking before it was legal. And then when they were legal, you just kind of start drinking everywhere you go because you can and it's so readily available.
Yeah. And then, everywhere you go, it's kind of expected that that's part of the “fun”. And I know you through the Chamber of Commerce and mixers and business after hours and things like that. And everybody just has a drink and it's kind of part of the event. And you know, a lot of people say, "Oh, okay, well, I just drink in moderation and it loosens me up.” So what are your thoughts on that?
I guess this would be - this would have to be - you know, it's unique to everybody. But for me, the way that I look at it is if I feel like I'm having to rely on it to “take the edge off”, or I “have to have it” in order to relax what in my life is causing me to be so stressed out or so on edge that I have to have a substance to get through my day.
And so that's the part where, you know, you may think you need alcohol. That's kind of where I would say a negative pattern can kind of creep in. And again, it's very normalized. To take the edge off with a drink, to have a glass of wine, you know, and I'm not saying there's necessarily anything wrong with that. Again, you have to look, you have to evaluate your use of alcohol for yourself. And for me, yeah, I wanted to create a lifestyle where I don't necessarily have to have alcohol to take the edge off. I'm not saying that. I don't have stressful days, but I want to be able to focus on positive patterns, healthy patterns of ways to de stress and take care of myself.
Yeah. So did you find that going off of alcohol really made a difference? You mentioned migraines and headaches.
Honestly, no. Sadly.
Yes. And actually, disappointingly, I had the same.
Yes. No, I mean, of course, I didn't have hangovers after a long night out, but it didn't have the intended effect. And over the last almost 13 months now that I haven't had alcohol, my reasoning and I guess my hoped out or what I want out of not drinking has evolved. So you know, first I wanted to reduce migraines and headaches. I wanted to be healthier. And now, like I said, it's freeing.
So it's like an emotional healthy pattern for you?
Mentally and emotionally. So yeah, I didn't necessarily have fewer headaches or migraines, but it kind of was one of the things that sparked change in my life. It was a big lifestyle change that came kind of hand in hand with another big lifestyle change. If you want me to, I can, you know, talk about that.
Sure. Sure.
So like I said, I've been a realtor for a little over a year. And it's transitioning into that career into this career has had to come with a lifestyle change, you know, in order for me to make this career successful. So beforehand, you know, I said I was working at another job. I was working as a server and bartender. So again, there's nothing wrong with that. I really enjoyed my time doing that. I just knew that something had to change. And with that, I had to have an entire lifestyle change because I now am waking up at the time we used to go to bed after the bar, you know, we were a 2 a. m. bar. So depending on how fast we could get out of there or how busy it was, you know, I go to bed anywhere between like 2 to 6 am. So of course I had to have a lifestyle change. And you know, like I said, a theme with my real estate business too, is I had to dive all in. And, you know, I'm grateful that I was able to let go of that job pretty soon after I started real estate. I just knew there was no way I was going to be successful at that career I have now if I'm getting bet in bed at anywhere between two and six in the morning, I'm not able to run a business. So that was a big lifestyle change for me at the same time as not drinking alcohol anymore.
So now you sleep at night?
Yes. I love going to bed early. Early to bed, early to rise is my thing.
Yeah. There's some interesting studies done on how your best restorative sleep actually is at night. It's not just the amount of hours. It actually makes a difference which hours you sleep too.
Yes, yes. And I am naturally a morning person, so I love being up early. I don't love it when my alarm goes off, but once I'm up and at them, you know, I'm happy to be awake and I'm the most productive and honestly probably at my happiest in the mornings.
Yeah. Okay. So here's my question that I wanted to follow up with your journey of going off alcohol. Like, it seems like there's a stigma attached to not drinking. Like, oh, you must have been an alcoholic, or something bad must have happened, or, you know, poor thing, like, what are your struggles that your life had gotten so bad that you had to quit? Or who knows what the thoughts are. Can you talk about how you've experienced that? Or if you've experienced any of that? Or has it been all support and kumbaya?
Well, I'm grateful to say that it really has been a lot of support. I didn't expect the outpour of support that I would get, you know. Again, I'm grateful I didn't come from a place of addiction. I would say, yes, there's so much stigma around alcohol in general and especially someone who's young or, you know, it's definitely really heavily marketed to you. And it's just very normalized to just drink. Like I said, I felt like I drank compulsively and I didn't really think about, “do I actually like this?” So it's been amazing to get to take a step back and think about, “do I actually enjoy this?” And I didn't realize just how much social pressure is on people to drink, especially younger adults, to drink until I stopped. I did not realize how much pressure was on me at that until I was able to take a step back and kind of look at it from another angle. And honestly, it's really been freeing to be away from that pressure. One thing that would happen when I was drinking, you know, when we were out with friends, people who are drunk want you to be drunk too, you know. It's kind of like they want you to be in your circle, so I would have alcohol forced upon me, shots forced upon me even though I said, “no, I don't want it.” And it's been really freeing to say, “I don't drink. I don't want anything at all”, you know? And it's been really nice. And, you know, I was aware that - I mean, another reason that I made this decision is there is addiction that runs in my family. So I always kind of had that in the back of my mind is “I might need to be careful around this thing. I could be potentially genetically predisposed to having a dependency on it.” And while I never felt like that, I definitely abused alcohol and maybe I didn't drink every night or all the time, but when I did, I drank a lot and I didn't like that anymore.
Yeah. So is there a part of you that's less worried now?
Well, I guess so. I hadn't actually thought about it that way, but being that I could, you know, I've proven to myself that I've been able to cut it out for almost 13 months now. I don't know that I will be abstinent from alcohol forever, but I feel very sure going forward that if I do decide to drink again, it will be completely different from how it was before.
Yeah. So what it sounds like to me and listening to you is you've kind of gone through a journey in yourself to figure out “what am I about? What's best for me?” You've done that with your food. You've done that with your career. You've done that with choosing to not drink and you're back in control.
Yes, it has honestly been a huge self growth journey over the last year and alcohol was one of the little pieces of it, you know. There's been so much more and going back to one of your previous questions is, you know, what was the response I received and how did that make me feel? Well, honestly, I've become more sure of myself because I realized you don't have to have anybody's permission to do anything.
Yeah. You just go and do what's best for you.
Exactly. I didn't have to have a huge reason for wanting to make this big lifestyle change. I didn't have to have anyone's permission or approval. I just did it because that's what I wanted to do. And it was the right thing for me and being able to live unapologetically in that sense, you know, with alcohol has kind of really made me more confident in so many other things.
Letting go of alcohol was just one piece of the pie, honestly. Like I said, letting go of alcohol, it wasn't, “what am I restricting?” It's “what am I able to add to my life?”
So what have you been able to add to your life?
I feel like a lot. I'm really grateful for all the opportunities that I've had over the last year and all the things I've been able to do and I'm, you know, I'm only one year in, you know, again, alcohol is a small piece of the puzzle. So I'm just really looking forward to what - how else my life is going to change from this one small change. And so, you know, being able to get up early and have a morning routine, that's been so important to me. And that means I incorporate going to the gym and working out in the mornings. And thankfully, it's not from a place anymore of, you know, wanting to burn calories so I could look a certain way, which was unhealthy in so many ways.
And now I work out mostly for my mental health. Like, it is so important to me. And whether it be in the gym or moving my body in other ways, like we went, we've been on a couple of vacations this year to the mountains and so going hiking is so much fun. So being able to be more active and adventurous in those ways and getting up early to experience things like a sunrise hike. That's something that I don't know that I would have been able to do if I had been out drinking the night before, you know what I mean? There were so many experiences that I got to say yes to because I said no to alcohol.
And being able to really take a big journey mentally and emotionally by journaling more and reading more. I've read more books this year than I have in most of my adult life because I just never “had the time”. So I've been able to make the time for that. And being, overall I feel like I'm more grateful - I have more gratitude. I'm more charismatic and caring person overall. And yeah, there's been so many great experiences I've gotten to have that I don't know that I would have had had I not made the small change.
Yeah. So I think, an overarching theme that's come up in a lot of these interviews that I've done and that I kind of hear from you too, that making the decision to take care of your health, A, it doesn't have to be hard. And B, it's, it, it pays off big time. So like, your decision to eat different and not drink alcohol and just slow down and focus on and listening to your heart, none of that was expensive or difficult. And the other thing is what is allowed you to do is just be more yourself. And that's something that I'm really passionate about and it's something that I see here in the clinic that when people take care of their health, well, in this case, people get their injuries mended, but there's, you know, more pieces to the puzzle, people just become who they are.. And that's one thing that I'm really passionate about. Like if you, if you're not a slave to this or that or pain or addiction or Yo-Yo dieting or restrictions that you think society It's expecting of you, but you take the step of listening to yourself and this is me and this is what I'm about. It actually is easier and the outcome is happier. And in ur culture, there's such a, so much like, okay, eating right, oh, it's like such a burden or, you know, thinking about what doing what's good for us as if it's restricting, but really it's the opposite. Do you have any thoughts about that?
Okay, so I think that's a really good question. Yeah, like I said, this last year has felt more freeing than it has restrictive. And I think really one theme I can say here is you've got to start somewhere. And again, dive all in.I didn't begin my journey of going alcohol free to have a happier more full and joyful life. I did it originally because I wanted to reduce my headaches and while that didn't work I'm again, so glad that I did it and I've continued to pursue that and really, what I would say is not drinking alcohol is one small piece of the puzzle that has caused my lifestyle to - my entire life to change and head in a direction that I'm enjoying a lot more. So, you know, it may be something small that anybody can make a change in their life, starting small, that can have a big impact.
You can have a certain goal in mind, whatever it may be. To be a mother, to be a better parent to your child, to start a business, to do whatever it is you want to do. And you can have big dreams, but those are made up of a lot of small goals that you've achieved along the way. You know, a lot of small moving parts working all together. And I think sometimes, you wait, and I've been guilty of this too, you wait to be the perfect person for that role when the reality is that you just need to start doing some of those things, doing some of those pieces in your life that you imagine, you know, you would be doing when you're at that goal that you want to reach.
So like for me, to make this make sense, I'll give an example. So like I said, I began my real estate career right about the same time. I wanted to be successful. I wanted to be able to help others. You know, it's not all about me. But of course I wanted to be able to support myself by doing that. And to honestly enjoy things like getting to make my own schedule. Kind of being an entrepreneur in a way and running my own business and, you know, when I thought about what that looked like, you know, that didn't look like somebody who's out drinking till the bar closes at night, you know. That looks like somebody who gets up in the morning and works out and takes care of themselves and does things that improves their health, like cooking at home, eating more whole foods. And someone who is happy, who is charismatic, who takes care of their mental and emotional health. So I - looking back now, I realized that taking out alcohol allowed me to do a lot of those things that I imagined the most successful version of me would do. I didn't wait to become the most successful version of myself. I started doing those small things that the most successful version of me would be doing in my mind.
Yeah, that’s really beautiful. Just one step at a time and asking “what's the best thing for me?” And then I also heard you say, it's not all about you. And being a realtor is really mostly about meeting someone else's need. So have you found that taking care of yourself has made you better able to help others?
Yeah, that's a great question. Something that I may not have even actually really sat down and thought about. Of course, if you're battling anything, if you, like you said, if you're a slave to something, addiction, Yo-Yo dieting, anything like that, if you feel like you're a slave, it can weigh on your life. For me, I think that I've been able to be the best version of myself because I feel more free, I feel more charismatic, and I honestly, not that I don't have struggles to overcome or not that I don't ever get stressed out.
Yeah of course, we all do.
Mhm. Generally speaking, I kind of enjoy the journey of each day because I have something to look forward to.was one of the things that sparked change in my life. It was a big lifestyle change that came kind of hand in hand with another big lifestyle change. If you want me to, I can, you know, talk about that. I have goals that I want to reach and I want to continue to grow and be the best version of me that I can be and that looks like getting up every day and practicing what it looks like to be the best version of yourself. So in that I think that it has allowed me to take care of others better. Because when I'm striving to be the best version of myself I'm the best version of myself for not only myself, but for other people that are impacted by me That includes my clients, that includes my friends, my family, my community, and I'm so grateful for the opportunities that real estate has opened for me to be involved in the community.
Of course, I enjoy being active in the chamber, like you said, that's how we know each other. But in that I've gotten to serve. So much over the last year. I mean, I serve on three different committees for the Lubbock Association of Realtors, and one of those is United Way. And so for anybody who's familiar with that, that's of course a really big charitable organization that helps the community. So, being able to do that. I also spearheaded a fundraiser that my office was doing. So I'm a real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Premier Properties in Lubbock, and we recently, last month, we did a fundraiser for Sunshine Kids, which benefits children with cancer and I helped fundraise several thousand dollars to go toward this charity, and I'm so grateful I get to be on the fundraising committee for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Southwest. So our Ronald McDonald House here in Lubbock, I am helping fundraise for the gala that will be taking place in March of next year.
So again, like, being the best version of myself has improved not only my life, but the people that are directly in my circle. My clients and my community.
I have one burning question, but before I get to that, if someone's looking for a house or they're involved in any of those charities, or maybe they're just wondering, “how do I get involved?” How do people get in touch with you?
Well, I guess the best way to reach me, you can, I'll give my contact information out here.
I do show notes as well.So I put it there but put it out there on the air if someone's listening in the car.
Yes. Well, you can follow my socials.I believe all of my, like my Instagram is BlairTXrealtor. So that's Blair, TX as in Texas, realtor. And then my Facebook, my business page is, you can search my name realtor with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, and you could also reach me by email. It's blair.txrealtor@gmail.com. Again, I'm sure you'll have the spelling and everything for everybody in the show notes. Yeah, really feel free to reach out to me anyway. You can message me on any platform, email me. You might have my phone number in the notes as well, and that's fine too. I’m open to talk to anybody.
And by the way, it's so fun that your name is Blair. So there we are at the Blair Chiropractic Clinic.
Yes, I know. I know.
So, okay, but the burning question that I have is, are you making progress on your headaches?
Yes. And that's been a journey as well. So again, I basically did an audit of my lifestyle and the choices that I was making. And I thought - you know, I had depended a lot on over the counter headache medicine and I wanted to pursue health more naturally and be able to rely on medicine less. Again, you know, there's nothing wrong with that if that's what someone needs or what they want to do, but for me personally, I'm concerned about side effects.
Yeah, and the thing about it is when it wears off then what?
Yep. It really became a cycle of dependency on over the counter headache medicine and at one point in time my doctor, you know offered a prescription, but it came with such a long list of side effects I decided not to do that. So pursuing naturally looked like, what can I alter, even if this, even if it's a slower process, even if it doesn't get me a quick fix like popping three or four Advil does, I'm gonna, you know, I was committed to figuring out how I could do this naturally.
So it started with taking no alcohol that didn't exactly work. And then I discovered something that I was consuming regularly was a big trigger for headaches and migraines. And that was artificial sweeteners. So, of course, like I said, for a long time, I thought diet products were the best product, so I just i I was accustomed to consuming diet foods. Even after I was practicing intuitive eating, it was normal for me to drink diet sodas. Crystal lights. Some yogurts have artificial sweeteners, protein powders, there's - artificial sweeteners are in a lot of things. And for anybody who may be concerned about this, who's listening right now, I would suggest looking into your ingredients. Aspartame is a very common one. That one is aka Sweet'n Low. I believe Sucralose is another one. That one might be Splenda is what that's known as brand name, but definitely do some research on all the different names that artificial sweeteners can be under because they can definitely hide those in products.
So, it looked like me taking that out of my diet and stopping drinking diet sodas and protein powders that have that in that. Anything that had that in it. And that made a huge difference that was noticeable within a few days and unfortunately, I'm still having headaches and migraines. It seems like I'm very sensitive to that. Yeah, so I found out that one of the medications I was taking regularly, which was my hormonal birth control pill was causing headaches, so I went off of that as well. And that also really helped a lot.
Yeah, I had that same - I had side effects to that too.
Mhm. Many people do.
Thus, I'm a mother of four children. But yeah, that's - I wanted to be a mother.
So personally, my philosophy in eating is I want to know what I'm putting in my body. So if I'm reading those ingredient lists, - so I always read the ingredient list. Part of that is I know I've gone through a journey where I know I'm sensitive to certain things. Like for instance, I know I feel better if I don't eat gluten. It's not a diet Yo-Yo thing. It's just one for one. If I eat gluten, I don't feel good. And if I stay away from it, I feel better. Which I guess is kind of similar to alcohol in a way, when you drink alcohol, certain senses get depressed and there's a little hangover and all those kind of things, or it snags your energy. So for instance, I know I don't want gluten, but if I see a long list of mysterious ingredients and I don't know what it is, I'm thinking “I think I better not.” So, yes, well, I thank you so much for your insight and I just really think that you have inspired someone to get off the bandwagon of restricting themselves and dare to listen to their heart and focus on themselves and be free to be healthy.
So is there anything else that I haven't asked you that you want to say that we haven't talked about?
Well, I guess I will just kind of piggyback on what you were just saying about how it's not restrictive for you to not eat gluten, you just don't want to deal with the side effects, essentially. And I think that's one big misconception that people have about intuitive eating is, they think that once all rules and restrictions are off limits, you are just pounding down all the processed foods in the world. You can eat anything, so you eat everything.That's not exactly how it goes. Maybe this may be a conversation for another day. It's again intuitive eating is - and my journey with it, t's been a long, long journey,
It's definitely a subject that we could probably do two or three episodes about.
Yes. So over time, you know, it may start out with me at first, of course, wanting to eat a little bit more, a lot more of those processed foods once those rules were lifted but over time it’s evolved to eating food that makes me feel good. And I kind of think about, like, “is this food going to bless my body?” And that wasn't an original thought that I had. I heard that on a podcast somewhere. So somebody else came up with that. But it's kind of like when I'm making food choices, I now want to make choices that are going to bless my body, you know, and in turn, like we've talked about the choices that you make for your health affects so much of your life. So even something as small as what I'm eating in a day, it's going to impact my life in such a bigger way. So wanting to eat foods that bless my body and - yeah, like the other night that looked like the chocolate cake from Cheesecake Factory because that was a little treat that I needed and I was sharing that with my boyfriend. And we were, you know, food is bonding. You know, we'd had a great date night, so we wanted to end it with something sweet. So at that time, that blessed my body. But I can't eat that every day because I know that I won't feel good. And that's what's so freeing about that choice is it's not restrictive.
And you don't have to feel guilty or bad about it.
Absolutely not.
So something I heard on a podcast actually, Dr. Will Cole had an episode about eating food that you love and that loves you back.
Yes, I think I've actually heard that before.
And so, that's what I've been focusing on, I eat food that I love and that love me back.
Yes. So again, kind of like a recurring theme that we've said is, you know, it's not about taking away, it's about being free from some of these things and what you can add instead. And it certainly doesn't feel restrictive at all to tell yourself no so that you can say yes to so many other things. Including just feeling good, feeling better.
Yeah. That's beautiful. Yeah. I think that's a perfect way to end it. Yes. It's not about restrictions, it's about abundance.
Yes.