Christa 0:00
that experience in itself woke me up to the fact that like, Hey, this is not a one size fits all. Like you cannot say, Oh, you feel this way you must need this. Like, that's just not not true. And so again learning the hard way that we are individuals, and I do love working with people who are open to making lifestyle changes. Welcome to the wild and wild collective podcast where we believe empowered health is your superpower.
Sheree 0:25
We have combined our expertise in medicine and nutrition to bring you the latest research, expert insights and success stories of people on a mission to live a big life. So buckle
Christa 0:34
up and get ready to learn how to live wildly well.
Sheree 0:43
Hi, beautiful souls. I am so so excited to be a background second episode. And this time, I have the honor of interviewing my beautiful co host Krista, I'm so excited that we get to dive into everything about you today.
Christa 0:58
I know this is so exciting to share my story with you which you've heard most of it, but to our audience as well. So this is gonna be great.
Sheree 1:06
So I'd love to just dive right in and really get to know you and what brought you into the health and the wellness world, like where did your journey begin.
Christa 1:15
So there's many pieces to it. But as I look back on my life, it actually started when I was about five. So as long as I can remember, I wanted to be in medicine. And as I trace everything back when I was five, I actually was diagnosed with something called precocious puberty, where you start puberty, like really, really early, right. And so my mom recognize this, and I ended up having to go to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, Texas every three months until I was around 12. And they ran tests on me and you know, just to rule out anything going on that was maybe cancer on the pituitary. None of that was happening. But they did put me on a researching drug that they were researching to kind of suppress puberty because you know, five years old is too early for that, right. So that's really where it started. And to be honest, I was actually because it wasn't a life threatening thing. And because they were able to really slow that down, stop it and allow me to progress normally through my adolescence. I just loved being in the hospital I loved I loved all of it. I was fascinated by all of it I and so that's really where I first got lit up about about medicine, right? Like, isn't that a an amazing thing, how life is always working in our favor. So I was there, I wasn't scared, I knew it wasn't life threatening. And that's really where it started. So I don't really remember a time in my life where I wasn't just enamored and fascinated by the human body, and how to fix it and how the body worked and all of these things. So that's really where it started, how I wanted to progress through that. And you know, be a doctor, be a nurse, whatever, you know that that was kind of up in the air. But I knew that I loved medicine from the beginning.
Sheree 2:52
That's amazing. I'd love to know and like for our listeners that don't know what it is that you had, like, how did your mom even start to recognize the symptom? Like how were you feeling? How did it actually show up in your body?
Christa 3:07
Yeah, I'd love to share this because I think it's important if you have children to also recognize that but you know if you can remember being a little girl at the beginning, you kind of get these beauty like Tinder, you know nipples, right? You're like there's like kind of like a marble underneath them. My mom recognized that. Or I would complain like, oh, this, this kind of hurts. And when she looked, you know, suddenly five and she thought, Oh, this is this is something well, maybe a nine year old should be experiencing not five. And so that was the first initial response. And, and from there, she brought me into the pediatrician, we did bloodwork and my estrogen levels were higher than they should have been pre you know, it was kind of pre pubescent but too early on. And so yeah, that was the beginning. And God bless my mom, she really pushed for taking aggressive action towards figuring it out. At the time, we lived in Lubbock, Texas. So Houston was a track, but she somehow found out about the study, and they tracked my brain, you know, looking on pituitary and monitoring closely, my growth plates and bloodwork every three months, and then this medication that kind of suppressed all of that from happening so that I could live a normal rest of my childhood, and then you know, adolescence, and I was off the medicine and progressing normally. But, you know, I got to see all sorts of different things. And that was where it all started. And that's what my mom kind of was my resource early on.
Sheree 4:32
That's so amazing. And I love that you shared, you know, and I know it because it was because it wasn't a life threatening condition associated with it. But I know a lot of children that grew up having to go to hospital visiting hospital regularly, it can create a lot of trauma, right? It can create a lot of fear, it can create a lot of the opposite effect. And so I love that it actually switched it for you. And this is so fascinating. How can I learn more about this? Like, what was the defining point and you'd be like, Hey, I'm doing this something in this area in my life, like for the rest of my life.
Christa 5:03
But like I said, I can't even remember not having this passion for it, despite the fact that I had to get blood drawn. And you know, there were some scary things, I guess. But I just loved the environment. I was just so curious. And it was like my calling found me early on because I was magnetized. I think you're right. Some people could have looked at the same scenario. And they're like, this place is terrible. I want nothing to do with this. But I think because it was already my purpose that it just magnetized, you know, the, the whole calling magnetized to me. So from that point, I really thought it was gonna go to med school, I was like, This is what I'm going to do. I want to be a surgeon, I want to look inside the body, you know, all of these things. Because I am a seven on the INIA gram, a Sagittarius, you know, my, I've always got wild ideas. And I'm like, Oh, maybe I want to adopt our deliver babies. And so then it shifted, and I wanted to do OB, and then it was like, let me go to nursing school, and I'll be a midwife. So I went to nursing school, I graduated in the year 2000. To age myself, and you know, during nursing school, I loved labor and delivery, but I really loved emergency medicine. So I decided to go straight into the ER. And that was really, really wild, learned a ton trial by fire, like you just get thrown in to see a lot, do a lot. I loved it. And then I thought I kind of want to go back to med school. So. So I ended up doing day like work the night shift at the ER and then in the mornings, I would get up and go to finish on my pre meds. So I completed all that I took the MCAT twice, I was ready to apply. And yet I was like I don't know, I really wanted to live in New York City in my 20s. And so I moved to Manhattan was a trauma nurse there for two years. And during that time, I decided that I was going to get married to somebody I had been dating first of all my husband now but you know, we've been together for on and off for about six years. So that really put the brakes on going to med school. But my passion didn't leave. Right. So. So that's kind of where it got a little sticky. Like where do I go from here. And as I got older, we had kids and going back to school, really, we got married, we had kids and going back to school really felt overwhelming until I thought you know what, I can go back to be a nurse practitioner and still learn more because I'm I just love learning. And so that's what I did and graduated from as a family nurse practitioner in 2017.
Sheree 7:35
How cool. I love that you followed the calling so well. And obviously dove dived into the ER and the trauma inside the New York like hospitals and stuff would have been moving full on, like, Can you touch on that a little bit? I'm just super intrigued because I know that it must get your heart racing, there must be so much that you go through during that time. How did that impact your journey and into wanting to be more of the note nurse practitioner and not go back to er once you'd had kids,
Christa 8:01
I love er, I love trauma I what I love is being able to see a problem, understand what's going on and then help, like make a definitive change towards the better, right? And so trauma or a heart attack or you know, most emergent things. As long as you recognize what's going on and you know, the solution, then you do your best to save that person. And yeah, it was a lot of high energy. Just we got to do this now. You know, a lot of emergent situations. I did get to deliver babies I did get, you know, I did all the things right. And surprisingly, New York City wasn't the most impactful it was more or started out in Tulsa, Oklahoma at a level one trauma there. And then to Norfolk, Virginia and worked in a level one trauma, there was a burn center as well. And you have really funny stories, really gory stories really wild and bizarre stories, stories that my husband absolutely will not let you share at the dinner table. But I'll talk about anything anywhere, right. And it's you get really connected to your crew that you work with. I love it. I mean, I absolutely love it if you didn't have to work long holidays, and I didn't have three kids to take care of I would go back to that in a heartbeat. But you know, you just have to follow your phases of life and where I am. It's still a deep passion of mine. I have such fond memories of all that just learning, learning and really seeing and helping really being able to make a difference in somebody's literal life at that moment was great. And you know, I go into acute care, I really stepped out of that world because it is demanding as far as weekends and night shift and holidays. And as much as I loved it. I also have to prioritize being a mom at this point in my life. And so I did not go back to acute care and went back his family practice. So very broad. Again, you can help a wide range of things going on. But it lacks a little bit of that excitement right? So thanks the next stage in my life. So, in practice, as family practice nurse practitioner, you see a lot of chronic things, you're managing blood pressure, high cholesterol, anxiety, depression, but none of those things really lit me up. And I also wasn't feeling like I could truly help people. Because, you know, I was having 30 year olds come in with extreme fatigue and weight gain and loss of libido. And we were replacing things with testosterone, the clinic I was at, we were doing HCG diet where you're only eating 500 calories. And I just couldn't come to grips with some of these solutions. And my curiosity piqued, again of like, How can I really get to the underlying reason? Like how can I really look at this person, see what's going on and fix them. So it sounds like what I'm doing now is very different from the ER and it is, but the principles are the same, that I want to be able to look at somebody recognize their situation and their body as an individual, and figure out exactly what's going on and how to solve it. For real, not just put a bandaid over a stab wound, like what needs to happen for this to really heal. And so I dove into learning functional medicine got certified in that. And that is the study of root cause medicine, where we dive into all the details and I get to nerd out like crazy on all the signs of the body. And it really lit me up again, even though I'm not in Breezy er setting my practice now I get lit up because I get to look at the individual and solve real problems.
Sheree 11:41
It's such a powerful world to be able to step into that real root cause resolution, it's probably the way I like to look at it right where you're actually able to you love the testing and the functional medicine testing and being able to have real answers in front of you that you know is going to help transform someone's life and it's such a such a powerful place to be in. I'm wondering, with your own personal health journey, did you find that going into the ER Did you find did I know from myself? Like I experienced burnout when I was trying to take on too many things like you being a new mom like finishing the ER then going back to study Did you find anything happened with your health during that time, or you were so self aware that you really just took took care of yourself?
Christa 12:21
I am one of those people that the high achiever Go, go go, everything's fine, everything's fine, even to the point where I deny my own physical needs. Like, No, we're fine. I had three boys in a matter of four years, you know, I did not get a lot of sleep. It was either a pregnancy, breastfeeding or all to get, you know, both all everything, right. And I didn't even find that I didn't really feel that tired at the time. I think I just run, run run until all of a sudden I have a breakdown. And that's what I have learned about myself in my adult life. I remember working in the ER, my first year, and just almost suddenly having extreme anxiety, like panic attack anxiety, very uncomfortable. And I recognize that now is I needed to slow down, I needed to listen to myself I needed to not be you know, working the night shift and then going to school during the day. You know, it was in my early 20s. And I thought okay, I guess I need an antidepressant or anti anxiety. I don't know what is this? Why do I feel so crazy. And this happened again, when I was in nurse practitioner school. Now at this point, I've got you know, kids wide range, you know, middle school, elementary school, I'm also in school, and I was at Target. And all of a sudden I felt really really strange. I'm like what is happening to me, so a little anxious Let me grab my bags and just walk to my car and as I'm walking to my car, I was feeling numbness and like really heavy on one side of my body. Get in the car and I'm thinking okay, this is weird. And I feel very anxious and strange. I looked in the mirror of course I'm doing like little like smile tests on my face in the in the rearview mirror. You know, I could smile so it wasn't really affecting my face. But my whole left side of my body essentially went numb and I couldn't really move it so I called my husband said this is really strange. I can't even think clearly I need you to come get me in this parking lot of target. And you know, he brought me home I slept I ended up getting a migraine. So I think what I had honestly what I should have called 911. Like, let's be clear, I am also it was like this will be fine. Should I call 911 with those symptoms. I totally recognize that and I did follow up that week with with doctors and get checked out but I think what was going on was a hemiplegic migraine. So I was under so much stress that my body literally was like we are done like the brain was just like, this is a problem. And so that's the level of denial that I've really operated out of up until the past, you know, maybe three to five years where I've taken a break and really dove into my internal world and it came at the perfect time when I was digging into root cause physically and then Recognizing within myself, whoa, you don't have to be anxious or depressed or have a hemiplegic migraine in the parking lot of target. You can do everything, maybe not all at one time. And so diving into that and doing some of my inner work, and really, which is how you and I met in some programs where we are really learning that inner work, actually is how I've created, you know, a healthier body, how I've been able to really work through Yeah, just as you get older, you know, the aches, the pains, the stomach issues, all of that. And you realize, Wow, how much of this is actually coming from my inner world, kind of coming up physically. And so I've applied a lot of that to my body, recognizing that my body is going to show up, you know, anxious and having migraines if I don't really pay attention to the whole the whole piece. So I've kind of learned that the hard way, right?
Sheree 15:50
I'm probably gonna butcher the name, but like, I think you said hemiplegic migraine. medical knowledge isn't great functional medicine, which is about literal chills when you were telling me that story. And for the listeners right now, what like, for me, I was thinking, oh, gosh, did you have a stroke? Because that, right, yeah, was gone? Or is that what hemiplegic migraine is?
Christa 16:15
Well, it can be very similar to what would almost seem like a TIA or trans ischemic attack, right? Because I got full everything fully back. It can present very similarly. Like that. Yeah, I hope that never happens again. And because I never want that to happen again. I'm really cautious about my level of stress, you know, really listening to my body or feeling into Am I walking around really tense Am I holding my breath Am I Am I literally just feeling like I'm being pulled to many different directions and pausing and giving myself some nourishing moments, because you know, those kinds of things can progress into we all know that right? That the heart attacks strokes, because your blood pressure is constricted, because you're so anxious and running on empty all of the time. So that was a real wake up call. Because it did feel very much like what I would imagine a stroke to feel like,
Sheree 17:05
yeah, it's so scary. And I think we often wait till something really massive happens in our life before we do something. And that's where I think both you and I agree, the functional side of things is really powerful, right? Because if you're actually addressing some of those symptoms, before it gets to the extreme, you're going to be in a far better position for recovery. You know, one of my favorite things is like prehab, before rehab, and I think that that's not just physical, a physical standpoint, in terms of going to the gym, it's pre having your body making sure that your optimal health, rather than waiting till you get to the point of burnout, or you're sitting in a target carpark, like eating out about your body
Christa 17:44
100%. And that's what I want to teach my patients, my clients to that we can prevent a lot of things our body's amazing to heal, but you've got to take the action to for yourself, right you've got you've got to take the action and be aware, first of all what the problem is. And so my own personal experiences have helped me, I think to, to really empathize and understand what my clients are going through, right, because I'm the same. And my experience has been really helpful. When we, you know, going back to the clinic where I was at, and we were giving hormones, you know, testosterone in particular, even to pre menopausal women in hopes to heal their energy. Now, I know there's many reasons why energy is low. And that's kind of my go to that's my passion is helping people feel energetic, right. But even there, you know, it's like, oh, let me do a little boost. Let me do a little testosterone. Let's see. And now I know it just it created more brain fog in me, it created more anxiety for me. And that experience in itself, woke me up to the fact that like, Hey, this is not a one size fits all. Like you cannot say, Oh, you feel this way, you must need this. Like, that's just not not true. And so again, learning the hard way that we are individuals, and I do love working with people who are open to making lifestyle changes, because it's just so important for me to be able to take the time and for the client to be open enough to discuss all areas of their life, when we're really wanting to get energy back and overall health back because it's multifactorial, and what might be right for you is not going to be right for me and vice versa, right. So I learned that just through my own experience.
Sheree 19:26
You touched on something really beautiful there anything that's where that holistic approach comes in, right? You're looking at the whole person you're looking at their lifestyle, you're looking at their nutrition, you're looking at their exercise, you're looking at what stresses they're exposed to you know, you're really looking at the person as a whole rather than what's the symptom. What's this one size fits all fix that we've been taught to kind of give out or handout like candy right we talked a little bit about the pill last time it's probably my might even a completely different different angle, right but but quite often told you have this symptom, here's this pill or here's this thing to take it And so treating the person as, Oh, I wonder what could be triggering that or I wonder what could be going on there. And you mentioned a little bit about doing the inner work and wondering if there's anything particular that stood out for you or, you know, if people are listening, what do you mean by the inner work? How is the mind that connected to the body? Is that like, what is this thing? Yeah, that a little bit more?
Christa 20:20
Yes, I think personal development and doing your own inner work is a journey, there's not just one course or one book, or, you know, one conversation, it is an it's not a linear journey. It's not like you lead from point A, and you arrive at point B, it's a and b or a circle, you kind of just go up and up and up. And you You keep kind of hitting on that same point. But each time you hit that point, you are that trigger in your life, you're just a little bit stronger. Right? And for me, it's been listening to my body, like really, like I love somatic work where you feel, you know, where does that anxiety feel in your body? Do you feel tight in your chest, you feel like you can't take a deep breath in? Do you have a headache? Do you have neck pain? Like, where is that and like, allowing that to just really, really feel that in my body, like, just sit with that feeling in my body, and breathe into it. And from that point, making a different decision on you know, how I'm going to schedule my day, or what tasks I'm going to bring on or, or whatever. So getting more in touch, I would say awareness, not only about my thoughts, and okay, I'm just thinking really negatively today. And that's affecting everything else. Like, let me just like, wake up to that and realize that's what I'm doing. And then also in my body, I tend to really feel a lot of things. And that's been powerful for me, because I can check in Why do I feel so tense right now? And then take a deep breath and like, recalibrate, right, like re reprioritize rethink through what I'm stressed out about. And so I would say the biggest thing that I have learned and applied is just becoming aware of what I've kind of been unconscious too much just my way of just like I said, I would shut things down, I wouldn't realize until the dam would break. Right?
Sheree 22:06
Yeah, thank you for sharing that. Because I think it's something that we don't quite often comprehend or look at, or even think that our mind can be that deeply connected to our body, even what you're saying with the negative thoughts, right, and how much that can impact us. And I know, you talked a lot about energy being like such a big passion of yours and the fatigue. And you obviously worked with a number of people, as a nurse practitioner on that, as well as being one of your main focuses now with your clients and patients, if you were to think about like three things that people could really focus on right now is like some tips for people to support the energy levels, if they don't really know where to start, especially, you know, whatever time of year, you're listening to this, but most people's energies is one of the biggest things that this app from, and it's all, in my opinion, one of our biggest currencies in this world. So how can we support our energy better?
Christa 22:54
Yes, I love I love this talk. Because it's true. I mean, if you don't have energy, you can't show up how you want to in your business with your family. You can't even enjoy a vacation. Like I can remember having a getaway with my husband, we went to Vancouver, we went up to Whistler to ski. And I had such bad brain fog and anxiety just just by you know, it almost takes you three days vacation to even start to feel like yourself again. And to feel like oh, I don't, you know, energy. And that's not who I am. Like, I love to be adventurous and energetic. And so it's my passion to help people get over that move through this get over, it's not a good word, it's move through this, learn enough about yourself so that you can acknowledge yourself and move through it. So you know, of course, there's the foundational things that we talked about in health, you know, making sure you're sleeping enough, making sure you're drinking enough water, making sure you're not eating a bunch of crap food on the fly, like making sure you're eating real food, those things are very basic, but they go a long, long way. And we don't acknowledge a lot of times that you know, our bodies age and our minds don't catch up. So I can say this, because I'm about to be 45, which is wild, but my brain is still 32 Right? Like I don't I can't even like I can't even look at that and say like, that's my answer. But when you don't treat your body, you know, you were not 10 years old that your 10 year old should be eating or drinking like that either. But but we're just not. And as you know, when we're adults, we really need to be cognizant that our body responds to what we're feeding it fuel wise, or you know, hydration, alcohol, processed foods. So those are the basics. But I think boundaries go a huge, huge way because when we talk about toxins, and you know, we're going to do a whole podcast on toxins, probably this one too. Toxins also spread out into emotional toxicity, relationship toxicity, toxicity that you know, in the way you're speaking to yourself. And all of that is really draining on our energy, right if we feel a threat, whether that's from a fight with our partner, or our children, or just the stress that that we're putting on ourselves, the body sees that as no different than any other threat to the body. And so constantly in that fight or flight mode, by the way that we're thinking in the way that we're perceiving our world. And so when you really serious about having amazing energy, we cannot let go of that either, right? Like we have to be able to talk and be real with ourselves and find spaces that you're safe to communicate with how you're really feeling, to move through it, to acknowledge it to to ask that feeling what it really needs. And then to honor that part of you, do I need more sleep? Do I need to not go out without group of people? Do I need to not have that phone call? Do I need to stay in tonight versus going out because I'm just you know, I've reached my limit. And as an as a high achiever, as somebody who's always wanting to be, you know, FOMO is real, okay, for me. And I think one of the benefits for me with COVID in us all being separated for a while and me kind of feeling like, oh, okay, we're all staying home. So it's okay that I'm home because everybody's at home. It taught me some really brilliant lessons that I'm actually okay, being by myself, I'm actually okay to sit on the couch and read a book like I actually feel better. And then I feel more expansive and have more energy and feel like I can really show up bigger and better for my friends or my business, because I'm honoring that part of me, right? The space. And so energy is a multifactorial conversation. It's not just a one size thing. It's it's a lot of things. But again, that's very individualized, right, I can tell you all the basics of like, you have to check all these boxes. And then beyond that, it gets a little bit more specific, which is why I love it, because it's like, everybody else that has a little unique thing of you know, that we need to figure out,
Sheree 26:46
I think, yeah, so so so so clear on like, the physical things you can do. And then like you say, the toxins like that could be toxic exposure to things, not just from a physical level, but mentally, emotionally and setting those really clear boundaries. And just to reiterate what you just said, in terms of the foundational stuff, people undermine it so much drinking enough water, I can't tell you how many clients that we both worked with that. If they just did that the energy would improve significantly getting extra sleep, right? Why do we wear it like a badge of honor? Oh, I only got four or five hours tonight, or I'm managing to run on such a short amount of sleep. It's like, you're not doing your body any favors. No. detrimental to your health. It's crazy. So I'm hearing boundaries is key. Making sure you're getting enough sleep making sure you're drinking enough water. And for those in New Zealand, we're looking at like two to three liters. Do you want to say it in answers? Because
Christa 27:43
I, I'd say 60 to 90 ounces in the US.
Sheree 27:47
And then you said making sure you know you're eating those whole real foods. And honestly, if you take anything away from this episode, apart from the beautiful journey that Chris has been sharing, it's like putting those foundational things into practice and then looking at where you can maybe say No, I know that I work with a lot of people, people that are people pleasers, and I'm a recovering people pleaser myself. So it can be a real challenge. And maybe there's a whole episode we do on that as well.
Christa 28:13
Yeah, no, it's real. I mean, especially if you're a social person, like I am, you know, I, I want to have community I want I want to have all that. And I realized that I was doing that oftentimes at the expense of my own rest or my own happy and my own real happiness, right, like, because I do want to be out and doing the things but over time, if it's combined with too many other things going on in your life, it can be detrimental. And yeah, that's there's been a lot of lessons over the past three years with all the things you know, even moving offline, or moving out of the office because I was in in a clinical setting. And now I work mostly virtually. And so just being aware of like, hey, now it's time that I really need to be in person. And then the benefits of being able to work virtually is that I'm not running around and doing all that all the time. So it's I've found it to be a pretty good balance for me to kind of keep me in check and not overdo. Because overdoing is a pattern.
Sheree 29:08
Such a good lesson and insight tear. I think a lot of people have reflected over the last couple of years of what works for them what didn't work, what did we do during the pandemic and as much as it was in an awful period of time, there were a lot of gifts if you if you can find the gifts amongst it to really reflect and I totally feel you on the pharma side of something definitely, definitely one of those people as well. If we think about you know, you talked a lot about the energy pace and that being such a huge thing for you. What does wellness or optimal wellness really look like will mean to you as as a person and in what you do with with your beautiful clients.
Christa 29:45
Optimal wellness to me is being able to do whatever you want to do with your body with ease, right? So if you want to whatever you wanted to do whatever adventure you're wanting to do, you should be able to do that with I mean, within reason, obviously, I'm not going to run, you know, a three minute or three hour mile or marathon, I'm sorry. But I think your day to day your vacations, how you want to spend your life, you should have the capability to do that. So, for me, it's like if I'm finding that maybe my fitness level has gone down, and I'm really huffing and puffing on the peloton, or I've gained a few pounds, where I just know like, I just don't feel great if you know, gut issues, or if I'm having a lot more anxiety or things like that. It's like what am I doing in my life, like, that's not optimal health. To me, optimal health is feeling for the most part, like you can think clearly. And you are in a pretty level mood most of the time. And like I said, you can do what you want to do with your body. And so those are my personal goals. And when I'm working with clients, it's the same, like they should be able to live their life fully. That is, we have one life. And I think, for me, I love to work with people that are fun and adventurous. And I want those fun and adventurous people to feel good, because I want to hang out with you. And I'm also I think, going back to living in New York City, it was one of my favorite places on the planet for many reasons. But one thing that really stood out to me is like beyond, there's such a melting pot of amazingness here, like people really going for it, people really stepping into their zones of geniuses and doing whatever their dream is right. And to me, it just was so energizing. And when I think about the importance of people's health and having optimal health for them, they have to have that burst in order to step into that beautiful magic that they have. Because if you don't feel good, if you can't think clearly, if you're riddled with anxiety, or your body is just you feel exhausted all the time, you're not going to show up wherever your purpose lies. And I think that each one of us are just so amazing. They have something to offer. And so that's my why that is not only for myself, but for my clients to really help help them live a full, a beautiful life and feel great in their body and in their mind and the way that they think and how they think about themselves.
Sheree 32:05
So, so powerful, right? And I couldn't agree with you more when it comes to optimal Harvey, I really think that people, we've almost accepted the standard of living as like this normal, right? Like, oh, we just don't have energy, or we just don't, you know, we carry a few extra pounds and like, oh, well, I guess that's just how I am. I'm getting older. And oh, I just, you know, don't feel as good as I do in myself anymore. And or, you know, I can my bloods came back as normal. And so that must mean that I'm okay. It's like, but if you're not feeling okay, and your body if you're not feeling optimal, and you're not able to do all those things that you really want to do to be able to live your best life. Right? To be cliche. It's something I think, is it part of your intention with this podcast, and certainly is with me like to be able to help people get to that next level as well.
Christa 32:52
For sure, I think my whole goal in communicating with all of our listeners is to always offer empowering information. Because I think when you don't you don't know what you don't know. And oftentimes people are, they don't realize how bad they feel until they start to feel better. And then it's like, oh, my gosh, I didn't realize I could feel this great all day. That's, that's amazing. And so not only that, they don't realize, like you said, like, oh, I guess I'm just getting older, or my blood work is normal. Like those just aren't acceptable answers, and we get to feel good our entire life. And so my goal, and I'm sharing this with you as well, in all of our conversations is just to really empower people in what's available to them, you know, what are options? And how can they self advocate for better health overall? Yeah, that's definitely my mission, because and that's my draw also to functional medicines. Like, like I said before, it's not just the band aid, it's really like getting in and figuring out exactly what's going on. So that we saw that and you can move forward and not have this chronic nagging issue. So good.
Sheree 33:59
So good, I love it. Now, if we change gears a little bit and get to know you a little bit better, I wouldn't, I would love to know or, I mean, I know you probably well, I would love for the listeners to get to know you a little bit better. We know where you're based now kind of so if you will list out a little bit more about that. And yeah, what you love to do in your free time where people would typically find you like what you said you have adventures Tell me more.
Christa 34:27
So I live in Texas, I am in the San Antonio New Braunfels area about an hour outside of Austin. love hanging out in the Austin as well as great community there do most of my work virtually. So all of my clients are kind of spread all out in my free time. So I will say I love to eat I love all of the foods. So you know, I'm not one to say you can't eat this or that you know everything in moderation because that's my own motto. I do love to work out. I mentioned my peloton before we have a gym here we kind of put that together during COVID and it's just kind of we just expanded on it. because it's quick and it's easy and so I love lifting weights and peloton and then I love to travel. So I, we've been to Europe, we lived in Asia, actually, my husband was military. And we lived in Korea for three years in total at growing up. My father was also military. And we lived in Germany for three years. So got to experience a lot of Europe. And so I think early on, my travel bug was just like, Okay, I have to see the world. So I've been lucky to see quite a bit but that desire is never satiated. So any chance I get to travel, I will take it love to ski. So grew up while in high school, I was in Colorado and learn to ski, my husband's a skier. So we try to ski about three times a season. And that's where I'm headed next month. So skiing is a big passion of mine. Love that. Yeah, I love like I said, I love community. And I love to combine that. So if I am on a trip with good food and skiing with friends, like that's heaven.
Sheree 36:08
So good. So good. I think that'll definitely be something that we have to organize for the two of us to be able to join in on that. So I know that I can escape and I come along.
Christa 36:19
Well, my other passion is EDM music. I love going to concerts. I love just letting it just rip right let's just to get wild where some crazy outfit, the glitter. I love the energy of those concerts. So I love a good music festival. I love EDM concerts. So come with me.
Sheree 36:40
I'm there for I'm so we're there for and I think you know, we'll get into this in an upcoming episode. But that's part of where the wild and well comes in right? away into your side. For sure, is there anything else that you really want to share with our listeners or any last messages or words that that you have for those that have managed to stay with us and listen to your beautiful journey and learn more about you.
Christa 37:04
I'm just excited to have you all along on this journey with us to you know, as we curate people who are really, you know, coming up with new ideas, or they are living their passion in the health world. And we cannot wait I cannot wait to share all of these conversations with our listeners. Again, just with our main mission to empower you to inspire you to really just guide you along your beautiful life. And I'm super excited about this journey.
Sheree 37:34
Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing with us today. And I'm excited to be on this journey with you and thank you all for listening and we hope that you tune in next time. Take care guys. If you love this episode, be sure to leave us a review, download and subscribe.
Christa 37:49
If you know someone that could also benefit from this conversation please share. That's how we spread empowered help.
Sheree 37:55
We'll see you again for another episode of The Wild and wild collective
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
