Why You Are Still Exhausted No Matter How Much You Sleep

Hope Pedroza  0:01  
We can still function as a human being. We just don't feel great, like, I feel really crappy while I'm doing it. I can do it. So I think that one is probably the most common that we just kind of brush aside, like, oh yeah, this is just me, or this is just life, or this is just hormones, this is just perimenopause, and which really you can do something about it.

Scottie Durrett  0:18  
Welcome to the momplex Podcast. I am your host. Scotty Durrett, my passion and purpose is to help other moms just like me rediscover their joy and step into their confidence as their kids grow up join me as I share my own experiences, my own mistakes and aha moments as I navigate this incredible journey of motherhood while trying not to lose my identity. If you are a modern day mama who is ready to live for herself, not just for her kids, and knows that is the best possible gift you could give, then you are in the right place. This is momplex. Hey, Mama, welcome back to momplex. This is the podcast where we keep it real. We say the stuff that is not being said in the carpool lines, it is going to be ridiculously raw, but incredibly helpful. And today is absolutely all of those things wrapped into one. Get ready to have your mind blown and your energy restored, because we're diving into a conversation every exhausted, overwhelmed, soul searching mom needs to hear if you're dragging yourself through your days wondering why you're still exhausted after a beautiful night's sleep and your morning journal and your beautiful, clean matcha and why your body feels off even though you're, quote, doing all the right things, then this episode is your wake up Call, because the truth is, it's not just your habits and your actions, and it's not just your hormones, it's not just your stress, and no, you're not failing. There is so much more going on beneath the surface, and you're going to walk away from this conversation feeling so much better informed. My guest today is the incredible hope, Pedraza, she is a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner. She's also a human design guide, a Reiki practitioner and host of the hopeful and wholesome podcast. She's basically the Dream Team of your healing. She's combining science and soul and subconscious magic to help high performing women just like you stop surviving and start thriving. And give you the blueprint on how to do that. We're talking about burnout, mineral depletion, emotional stuckness, your human design type and so much more. And you're going to understand why your body might actually be screaming for help in a language you haven't learned to decode yet. Until now, let's go, Hey, my beautiful mama, and welcome back to the podcast. I'm your host, Scotty durrette, but today I'm been counting down the days for this conversation. We have a very special guest hope, Pedraza, and I'm going to let her introduce herself, because her resume is jam packed full of experience, passion, expertise, her own journey, and it's all here to she is literally made to help you. And if you're that mom who no matter what you do when you wake up every single day, even though you've had the sleep and you've had the water and you took care of yourself. You're still waking up feeling drained and exhausted, then stop what you're doing. This conversation is for you, and so hope I'm so happy you're here. Please introduce

Hope Pedroza  3:30  
yourself. Thanks, Scotty. I'm excited to be here. This is gonna be such a relevant conversation, I think, for everybody. So I am a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner, which I know is a mouthful, but essentially, I am a functional practitioner, and I use functional labs to help people get to the root cause of chronic symptoms and the I predominantly work with women. I've worked with men before. Usually it's like my clients, husbands or brothers or brother in laws. That's usually how men come into my world. But women are predominantly who I work with. But my work really goes beyond just the physical, functional labs, because I also tie in human design. I mean, Human Design Guide. I tie in NLP, and I'm a Clinical Hypnotherapist, and I do, you know, emotional release, all these other things. And so it's one layer of it is the physical part we're looking at the labs, but the other part is the energetic and the emotional stuff that, like, I know we're going to dive into this, but when I really believe that, when we're talking about getting to the quote, unquote, root cause of chronic symptoms, whether that's headaches, bloating, weight gain, brain fog, hormonal, this, and that the root cause is it, there's always an emotional, energetic root cause. It's really not about the physical symptom. There's something energetically going on in the body. Wow, I

Scottie Durrett  4:46  
love that. I'm so thankful that you've done the work that you've done. I know you also have taken the hero's journey, right? Like you have literally walked this walk. And I think that's honestly how we come into this work, because we become so curious. You know that? First layer that you talk about that physical somehow that's been pounded into our brains, that if you weigh a certain number, if you have a certain BMI, and the scale looks like this, and you're drinking eight glasses of water, you should be good to go, right? And so a lot of my moms are incredibly regimented, and they care so much, right? They're very ambitious. They want to feel better. Then they are trying everything. But right now they're starting to, I don't want to say, feel like a failure, but they're so confused. Yeah, they're so frustrated. And I think there's a big piece of that information, that education, that you're talking about, that our emotions and our own thoughts and the energy, and you know how we're walking into the room, who we are, when we're sitting down to eat, who we are, you know, all of that really makes a big difference. And so I just want to go there. I just want to dive in, you know? And, yeah, why are all these moms? Why are they so exhausted and bloated and anxious, even when they're doing everything right? And they come to us saying, I'm doing

Hope Pedroza  6:02  
everything, yeah. I mean, that is the story of every client that I work with. It's like, I'm doing all the things, like, what is, what is the deal? And I think there's multiple, there's multiple things here, like, there's multiple layers that I would want to untangle here, because one layer, I do think there is. I mean, there is something to be said about the physical piece, let's be honest. Like there is. And I think sometimes we think we're addressing the right things, but we're really not, which is why I really love the functional labs that I that I use. And you know, getting getting your blood work at your doctor is fine, but if we're being honest, conventional labs like blood work with your doctor are typically to diagnose disease. It's not about function in the body. And so when I'm doing the labs that I'm doing, we want to look at overall functionality. How is your body actually functioning? And from there we can see, okay, how can we optimize it? It's not just Are you sick? Do you need a diagnosis, right? There's more to them. So I think that's the first thing. I'm really big on mineral testing. One of my favorite Labs is a mineral it's a hair called a htma, or hair tissue and mineral analysis, and it's literally taking some of your of your hair, but it's looking at your minerals at a tissue level. So it's a completely different than getting a bloodline, because you can, you can test your minerals with a blood lab, but this is a completely different look, different take on what's going on at a at a cellular level. So in really, we're talking about root cause, what's happening in the body. Minerals are the catalyst for everything. I mean, they're the catalyst or the cofactor for every reaction the body, every enzyme, neurotransmitter, hormone, you name it. Minerals are involved. So for me, I like to start there with the physical piece. But if we want to talk about the energetic and emotional pieces, this is a big part of it. I have had so many clients with that, that that story you're just talking about, like, I've done all the things, and they've even worked with other practitioners before. They worked with other, you know, a naturopath or other functional practitioners or whatever. But there was always something missing, and it's this energetic piece, like you said, it's it's the energy. It's not just what you're doing, but it's who you're being when you're doing it right. It's how you're doing it. It's the energy behind it. So I there's a difference between, I can sit at my desk and I can pound in, you know, three four hours at a time without getting up, and feel really good about it because I'm I'm excited about it and not sliding me up, versus sitting down for three or four hours doing something that feels completely dreadful and I feel completely drained after I do like, there's, there's a difference. There's the same it's the same work, but into the completely different energy. And that, that's the difference. That's that energetic piece.

Scottie Durrett  8:27  
I love what you're, you know. And I diving into the labs. I've actually never heard of the functional labs before, and I know there has been so much frustration with myself and with my friends. I'm 48 you know, perimenopause has come up and just knocked me out. Sucker punched me literally, yeah. And I was meeting with a doctor one time, and he just said, You know what, you're just a woman, of

Hope Pedroza  8:48  
course, welder, yeah, of

Scottie Durrett  8:51  
course. And I, I just said, You know what, yeah. And it was very basic, you know, I feel, and this is not to I know I'm not a doctor. I know that there have been some changes in the amount of time that they're able to spend with clients, and not everybody is trained in every single layer of the body. And so I love that you're offering this just to really go on a deep dive, because not only is it helping her understand herself in a completely different way. It's also giving us permission to really accept that our bodies are different, you know, you and it's on a cellular level, right? It's like how I process protein, how I recover from certain hormones, and like my hormones probably look so different from my best friend, who's also but that's not being educated for us unless we go out and seek it. And so with these functional labs, if they wanted to, it's how is this done with you if they don't live in your neighborhood, like or how would this

Hope Pedroza  9:53  
work? So the labs, I have three foundational labs that I run, and it's all done. I mean, my practice is for. Virtual. So I have clients in Europe and Alaska and Mexico. Like it's so it's all virtual. I order the labs. I ship the labs. You do the labs, you ship them back and get the results. So it's very simple. The htma, which I've already mentioned, is the mineral test, which is my favorite one, and it really is the most cost effective. I mean, it's like 60 bucks. It's the cheapest lab you could find. And it tells you so much you get so much data. The other ones that I run, I run a GI map, which is a really in depth gut test, it's a stool test. And then I run a Dutch test, which is a really comprehensive hormone test. So all of these are they're just going to look at things completely different than you know what conventional medicine is looking at and and this isn't to knock all doctors individual medicine, but I think when you know we're it's, it's two different conversations. When you're talking about disease versus function and optimization, like these are two different things. And I think when you know, if we really want to get down to preventing or avoiding chronic disease, and the things that we're experiencing turning into something worse, then that, we have to look at functionality, functionality versus like, do I need to diagnose something?

Scottie Durrett  11:06  
And so I'm so excited that I'm actually going to do these tests with you. I can't wait. I just made that decision. But I love that everything can be virtual. And so when you're reading these, when you're getting back the results, then you're able to work with somebody and help them just translate this into their everyday life, right? So, yeah, if like, what is one thing that you feel like most women are overlooking when it comes to these I guess pushing through like, what do you feel like is the one thing you wish you could put your hands on everybody's shoulders and say, Look, I don't want you to ignore this. If this is coming up more consistently, if it's headaches or insomnia or what do you feel like? Is the body's one of the body's biggest ways to communicate that we need to try something different.

Hope Pedroza  11:52  
Question. I think, I think the most, I think two of the most common, and I will say this, I worked with women on the whole spectrum of symptoms where women have, like, 12,000 diagnoses of different autoimmune this and that, and some who it's all like mystery symptoms where the doctor can't really say what it is, because you're not fitting into this box, you know? So I think the most common, the two most common that that, I think sometimes, just like you said, you went to the doctor and they're like, Oh yeah, you're you're a woman, or you're getting older, they brush it off as you're a woman, you're getting older, whatever is brain fog and just energy. And I know energy is very broad, but I think, I think so often, especially as women, we're really good at powering through. Like, we're really good we have, like, this hidden generator under the surface where, like, we can hit that thing and we can power through, right? So we're so good at that, and so I think because of that, we're really good at brushing off when we really don't have energy consistently. We either wake up and we don't feel rested. We either have like fluctuations, spikes and crashes throughout the day. We're not sleeping well. We just low energy all day, chronic fatigue. Like, there's different variations of that. But I think that one is really easy to brush off, because we can still function like, we can still function as a human being. We just don't feel great, like, I feel really crappy while I'm doing it. I can do it. So I think that one is probably the most common that we just kind of brush aside, like, oh yeah, this is just me, or this is just life, or this is just hormones, this is just perimenopause, and which, really you can do something about it.

Scottie Durrett  13:25  
I'm glad you brought it up, because energy does get gaslit. Yeah, right. This is mom life, or this is a busy season we just got out of, you know, May December, which I heard, was coined, you know, it's busy, but I like that my May was busier than my typical December, yeah. And I know a lot of moms that I talk to, they're just, oh, if I can just get to middle of June, then I will feel better. If I can just get my kid to daycare, you know? And there's all these goal posts that are so far away, and so then what becomes normal is not feeling good, is kind of getting used to not having enough energy to do the workout or to enjoy your Moments with your kids, and that was a big thing for me to learn how to do, and now it's really coming through this like we're feeling good. Feels good, yeah? And that's a birthright, right? And I think that's a big sign if you're waking up and not having the energy, you know first, let's not even worry about tomorrow. It's just like, Do you not feel as good as you want to feel? That's your sign, right? Give hope a call so long term. And I don't want to be morose on here at all. But if somebody were to ignore these signs, the brain fog, the lack of energy. What are some things down the road that could potentially happen? And I know it's a general statement and we're just talking, but what are some things that could be going on underneath the surface that she might not realize? I'm glad you

Hope Pedroza  14:53  
asked this question, because, yeah, we're not trying to be morbid or anything, but I'm glad you asked the question, because I think this is the other important thing that I. Want every woman to hear, is that the longer you put off addressing the things that you're kind of brushing off as quote, unquote normal, the more these things are going to compound, and then you end up being the woman coming to me with 28 things wrong with your body, instead of just two or three. So I love that you asked that question, and it is important because, I mean, the body is great at adapting, right? It's great at adapting. And, like you said, it's, you get to this point where it just becomes your new normal, and we, you're it's like, when your nose blind, like, I can't really tell, but if I really sat and thought about it, I'd be like, I really don't feel that great. It's like, we get to that point, and when your body is sending you, like, the little, quiet, little nudges, like, Oh, it's just low energy. It's, oh, I haven't slept good. And I don't know how many, how long has it been since I've slept good? It's these little things, but then they start adding up to big things. Now that I haven't slept good in the past, I don't know, six months now, I'm waking up. Now my cortisol is all over the place. My cortisol is all over the place. Now my blood sugar is all over the place. If my blood sugar's all over the place. Now I'm gaining weight. I'm trying to figure out, why am I gaining weight? I'm eating all the right things, my address, adrenals are suffering now, my thyroid is suffering. So it's just this chain reaction, and it ends up, and I have seen it firsthand, because I work with these women where it's, it's literally coming to you with this laundry list of symptoms, when you know, however many years ago, it started out as just, oh well, I felt this thing, and I just never did anything about it, and thought I could. So yeah, I just, and it's not to like, fear monger or anything, but I think it's important to know, like, this is what happens, and this is why, when we're able to take the space, create the space, to really listen to our bodies, that and I think that's the biggest thing that's missing, is because we're go, go, going, and, like I said, us Women, we women, are really good at powering through, pushing through. We don't even take the space to really feel into our bodies. Like, where am I feeling? A little off.

Scottie Durrett  16:49  
I'm so glad we're saying it, and I know that. Again, I'm not trying to scare but I do want people to take their body seriously, sure, you know, and now that we're I'm knocking on the door of 50. The recovery time isn't as quick, right? I can't drink alcohol like I used to, you know, when I was 20, I walked San Francisco in four inch heels drinking tequila, and I got up the next day and went to work. Right now, if I smell wine, I'm out for three days. And so say we're talking to that mom. She's got three kids. She's working from home or no, she's working out of the house. She's just so busy. She's barely she's just on autopilot. She is just on autopilot. What is a way for her to just slowly start to create space to listen to her body, like, what's a ritual that she could add in in the morning or evening that will help her just, I don't know, hear something without feeling like she's got one more thing on

Hope Pedroza  17:40  
her, for sure, for sure. And I think that's such a good question, and it's such a good place to start. And I think this is like a really not sexy answer, but if you literally just take, like car about three times, maybe, maybe it's in the morning, at lunch and at night, and just sit, maybe you lock yourself in the bathroom, maybe you do one of those things, but you just sit and be with yourself and feel your body and ask yourself, you know, where am I feeling? Tension, tightness, pressure, pain, unease, like just ask yourself. Ask your body, where are you feeling anything like it. It sounds again. It sounds so simple, or basic, or Woo, or whatever. It can sound like that. But it is the most simple thing, because that's all the little things that are happening, little symptoms we have. It's just your body wanting to get your attention, and so it just, you just have to take the time to listen. So if you just take and that takes, like, three minutes, you take three minutes just to check in with your body. Two or three times a day, you'll start to hear the signals, recognize it's like learning the language of your body, like you're just giving yourself time to to learn it.

Scottie Durrett  18:49  
I love that learning the language of your body, and I also like how you're suggesting multiple times a day, because we feel different. Exactly right. So exactly I know. I used to crash in the afternoon, so my morning, if I only checked in in the morning, I feel great. Yeah, I feel great. I have all this energy. Nothing is, you know, sure, so and I love that. Just those and plus it's, it's so beautiful on a soul level, and on that subconscious level, our body, that little girl inside of us, she just wants some love and attention. And I think when we give ourselves that one to three minutes, even if we can't solve the symptom in that moment, there's something so powerful about us having our own back. That's it. About us creating space and saying how I feel matters, right? Because, as a busy mom, how many times are we asked, How are you doing? For sure, right? And I know if I am asked, I'm like, great, keep going. We got places to

Hope Pedroza  19:40  
go, definitely, definitely, well. And it's such a good point, because I think I'm glad you brought it up, because that's important thing there too. It's you're not doing these little check ins with your body to try to fix it, right then, it's not about fixing it. It's just listening, listening and learning. You're gathering data, gathering information. You're listening and learning. And. Then eventually you can gather enough data and listen to your body, enough where you can figure out, Okay, do I? Do I need to get support? Do I need to ask for help? Do I need to go find a practitioner? Do I need to, like, change my diet? Like you can go from there. But I think just just getting started is just checking in. It's not about finding a solution right then and there in the moment, just check in and listen. That's

Scottie Durrett  20:20  
it. We're always wanting to fix things, right? We want to find the solution. And everyone and everything is coming to us all the time. Where's my belt? I need this signed? How can I get to soccer practice? Right? Like we are the default problem solver. And I think there's a lot of pride that comes from how much we get done, how much we carry. And I know for a long time I felt embarrassed if I wasn't enjoying life, loving life, feeling my best. You know, here I was waking up with these three beautiful kids. What else do I need? How could I not feel my best? And that was a hard that was a hard thing to accept, that I loved my kids, but I didn't love how I felt, and I was able to separate those two things, but it's hard. I know that a lot of mob women, we get a lot of praise. Yeah, I can't believe what you're doing. Yeah, you're unbelievable. I could never do what you're doing. And that's a hard that's a hard thing to let go of. And so talk about some of the, I guess, dopamine hits that she will get when she learns, when she starts taking care of herself, because that's going to replace those dopamine hits of the praise, right? Like, what are some of the benefits she's going to feel when she's working with you and you guys are really digging in and starting to figure out what her body needs?

Hope Pedroza  21:36  
Yeah, I love this. You framed it so well, because that's and I have a series of my podcasts I did earlier this year about that of how we as women tie our worth to our productivity and our output, and how that affects our body at a physical, mental, emotional level like that is such a deep it's such deep conditioning. It's such a tricky one to untangle and and you're right, it does end up becoming this dopamine hit of I did, I did so much today, and then you, like you said, you get the praise, and you get the I don't know how you do it all. How do you do it, you know? So I think for the reframe. So first, I think the first step of that the rewiring is we have to, and this is, it sounds so much easier than it is, but we have to be able to feel safe at rest. That's the first thing, because that's another thing our productivity and our output ends up being just a trauma. Response is we don't feel safe to slow down. We either feel like we're gonna feel guilty or lazy or whatever. There's a whole list of things we could go through there. Yeah, but it's just being safe. Feeling safe being at rest, resting like, can you feel safe doing nothing? Because I can guarantee you, the majority of us listening don't. So this is, this is a big thing, and then from there, I think that's the first step, like, for me, that's been the big rewiring for me. I realized that's why I did that series, how much I was tying my work to my productivity and my output. And so being able to find that, cultivate that safety, resting, that's the first can we, like, get a dopamine hit, doing that, sitting and doing nothing, or whatever it is, whether you're sitting outside or you're going for a walk, like, not being productive, like, do something that's not productive. And I did an experiment with myself last year. I ended up, I love puzzles. And so I ended up doing like, I think it was like, seven, 1000 piece puzzles in a matter of, I don't know how many months, but it was like, Can I, can I train myself to not be productive? And if I'm not working, I'm doing something around the house? Like, no, I'm gonna do something that has no benefit to my business or my health, you know, like, so that's the first thing. And then I think, you know, going back to your question about, you know, what are the benefits? I think the other big piece of this is, is, well, two, two things I want to say, the other piece, and we mentioned it before, is feeling empowered in your body, because you actually understand what's going on. Like that is a sense of empowerment. Yes, yes, that that. So we weren't given a manual. And I will tell you so many women that work, they don't even understand how their period works. They're 4548 years old that don't never been taught how their period works, and there's no shame, blame anything. Like we weren't given a manual Sex Ed was like a joke, least when I was insane. So like, you didn't none of this. You didn't learn any of this. So just understanding how your body works is such a an empowering feeling and is such a relief woman to under because then you can make empowered decisions for yourself. You don't have to rely on somebody else telling you what's wrong with you. Like, No, I know what's happening in my body, and I can tell you how I feel and what's wrong with me. Love that. So that's a that's a big one. I think for me, that's the most important part working with the women I work with, is I just want you to feel empowered in your body, because you understand physically, energetically, emotionally, mentally, I understand how my body works.

Scottie Durrett  24:52  
I love that so much, because that's gonna I love that phrase and that whole energy. Because if she's sitting in the doctor's office, or she's. Having a conversation with somebody, then if she understands who she is and what she needs from the soul, you know, full alignment, right? We're talking physical, emotional, spiritual, then she'll be able to have the confidence to advocate for herself and not That's it quiet, that voice, I think, for so long too, we don't want to be a burden, we don't want to be difficult, we don't want to look weak, and so we constantly quiet that knock. Like, hi, I need your attention. And she really understands how empowering that is. It's like, gosh, you know, I always tell my clients, I'm like, your body's your best friend. It wants the best. Yeah, all the time, every message it's sending us, even the ones that quote in our brain feel negative, they have a positive intention. I love that so much, and so I want to dive into human design. I'm obsessed with it. And it probably was one of those pieces of information that really talk about empowering in your own body and really helping you love yourself. It was one of those pieces of information where I was like, Oh my gosh, I now know why I've been acting like that since birth, right? I now understand myself. So talk about human design, how you got involved in it, and how it can help a woman and a mom in her physical journey.

Hope Pedroza  26:16  
Yeah, I had a similar experience, which is why I ended up bringing it into my work. I was working with, just like a spiritual business coach at the time, and it was this little she wasn't a human design expert, like it wasn't a Human Design program, but she had this little piece in her program I was doing with her, and it was just enough to whet my appetite where I was, like, I gotta know, went down all the rabbit holes and then was found again. It's, it's so it was, it was validating. It was liberating. It was all the things. And so that, I think that was such a huge step in my own personal journey of understanding myself and also loving myself on a different level. I had, you know, backstory. I had years of disordered eating behavior where I hated food, I hated my body, hated myself, and so this was a big piece of my healing. And so for me, I understood, I was able to understand how understanding yourself at that energetic level helps every aspect of you, every aspect of your wellness. And so when I was working with my clients as a functional practitioner, I was recognizing like, okay, yeah, we can look at the labs and see what's going on at this deep level, but there's actually deeper things at play that I really want to help you with. And that was why I brought it in. I Okay, it was similar. What I said before is, I really feel like the physical things happening our body have this emotional, energetic root cause, and for me, human design was like the blueprint to understanding that. Like, yes, the empirical data from the lab is important because it's, here's what's happening. Like, I have data in front of me, here's what's happening. What's happening at, you know, face value. But then the human design is the blueprint for the for the why. So we can look at how your energy is designed to move through the body, where potential, you know, beliefs and patterns are maybe stuck stored in different areas of the body. And then we can work to decondition and release and reprogram, and we rewire all of those things to just help that life force energy flow back through the body. I

Scottie Durrett  28:07  
love how you talk about like it really helped you love yourself. And I also battled with eating disorders, and it's such a complicated relationship you have with yourself, right? You feel safer because you're controlling something, right? So you feel protected. But on the flip side, you're also, you know, you're neglecting yourself, right? You're really punishing yourself. And you know, I really believe there's so many pieces of information that can help us understand ourselves, appreciate ourselves, and really fall in love with ourselves again, you know, no matter what we're going through. And you know, I'm a I love Human Design. I'm very woo, woo. And I've gotten some pushback from people before I do clarity readings, and they don't understand how, you know, I can do that virtually. And it's like, well, let's bring in some science, because science and spirituality actually intersect very, very often, and their soul favorite thing I know, I you know, it's not just that these ideas are being pulled out of nothingness. I mean, they are really backed and I think, you know, when we really start to get down to the nitty gritty, we're talking about our energy, our thoughts, our connection to something that is greater than us, and how we're treating our physical body. Every single one of those things affects us on a cellular level, right? And I think that's so important when we talk about alignment, alignment is much bigger than I think it's being thrown around on social media. Alignment is about, you know, I try to, it's like, it's about your your entire, entire system, right? That's spiritual, that's energetic, that's emotional, and that's physical, all communicating, all working together, working toward the same thing, you know? And so it's a lot of times my clients will just, they'll say, just give me the habits. Tell me what to do differently. And I'm like, hold on, the habits are the last thing. That's the last thing we're doing. Because if your heart and your soul and your mind are not in Coll. Aberration. It's never going to work out, but you have to love yourself, right? Like you've got to want to fight for yourself. And so, and I, I think human design is it has a beautiful way of it can be very dense, but you can get some high level information that can help you feel like that is what I needed to hear. Thank you so much. And so when you're working with your clients, are you looping? Are you bringing human design in with the coaching? Yeah, okay,

Hope Pedroza  30:25  
yeah, yeah, yes. First step is always the labs for us to see exactly what's going on. So I don't have to guess, I don't have to wonder, like, here's what's happening in your body. From there, I would bring in the human design and kind of tie it all together. And I work a lot with you know? So in human design, there's the energy centers, right? Or it's kind of how the chakra system intersects with human design, and all of the energy centers correlate with specific organs and glands in the body which are specific for meeting certain hormones. And then from that's where I bring in mineral balancing, because now I know what minerals can support these glands and these hormones. So I mean, for me, like you said, how the science and spirituality that is my jam, like I love this the intersection of science and spirituality, and I love bringing that with my clients, like, that's, that's the that's, that's how it all fits together. And so it's understanding how your energy is flowing through your different energy centers, why, you know your adrenals are doing this, that and the other, or your thyroid. And let's look at your your throat center and see what. So it's, it's putting all those pieces together.

Scottie Durrett  31:20  
I wanted to ask you about this earlier. But minerals, what are what are minerals? How are they affecting us? How is this playing into our health? Yes, I don't know anything about it.

Hope Pedroza  31:31  
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And this important question, so minerals are considered the spark plugs in the body. And so I mentioned earlier every, every reaction in the body involves minerals, whether they're the cofactor, the catalyst, they play a role in in some way, shape or form. And so minerals are at a cellular level, like this is what's happening in your body. And so your your hormones, your neurotransmitters, proteins, amino acids, enzymes, like all these things, these directions, happening in the body, require minerals and a certain balance of minerals. And so when I'm looking at mineral, we're doing the mineral testing, we're looking at some of the like, there's a couple dozen different minerals that it measures. And I'm looking at these minerals that, you know, just looking at the basic mineral levels. We're looking at heavy metals, we're looking at toxic elements, because all of these also play a part in how minerals are functioning in the body. And then we look at ratios between specific minerals. So all all minerals have special relationships with each other. They're either antagonizing each other or they're synergistic with each other. And so from there, looking at ratios, we can see what's happening with your thyroid, your adrenals, your blood sugar, your liver, your gut, your hormones, your immune system, and all these other like every part of your nervous system, essentially, and and from there. And again, this is why I love putting the minerals together the human design, because the minerals are what's happening at a cellular level, okay, the human design is what's happening like at a DNA level. And then we can just put these deep pieces together, and it's just perfect.

Scottie Durrett  32:56  
Wow, that's thank you for Yeah, that's so fascinating. I love the way this is all working, you know? Because I really again, going back to what I said at the beginning, my my community, they are unbelievable. They are the hardest working, most passionate, dedicated women and everybody that works with me. They are asking for help. They are screaming for help, right? Like they are not just throwing in the towel. And it does become very frustrating, right? We all want those little wins to help us stay motivated, to help us keep going. Yeah, and a lot of times we run out of energy trying to, you know, I can do it, I can do it, but you want to feel like what you're doing is actually propelling you forward, no matter how, how quickly or how slowly your body needs to take it. And I love what you're doing, because it's giving women an alternative to the maybe few things that are out there that, oh, you need to go into a calorie deficit and just work out harder, or you need to be taking certain shots. That's the only way your body's going to be losing weight or getting, you know, or you just have to live with it. And, sorry, this is just how, like, go buy some bigger clothes and just, you know. And I have always had that type A personality that, gosh, if I want to do something, I'm going to do it 110% but you want to see the movement and the shifts. And I think what you're bringing to the surface is that it's a bigger pitch, it's a bigger puzzle. It's one of your 1000 piece puzzle.

Hope Pedroza  34:24  
It is, I'm telling you, I did a whole podcast episode about this. Like, this is why I love puzzles, and this is why I do what I do. Like, it is so connected. It's really Yeah, it's yeah.

Scottie Durrett  34:36  
So for the busy mom who's listening and she doesn't have just, where should she start? What is step one? If she's listening and she's like, raising her hand, saying, Yep, this is me. Tell me what to do. What should I do next?

Hope Pedroza  34:48  
So I think, I think first is going back to what we said earlier, was starting with those body check ins. Like, I'd say that's first and foremost. Like, can you just create the space to listen to your body? That's first and foremost all. Ways two. I would say to if we're talking about, well, I'll say two things. If we're talking about, like, what to do next, from a from a physical perspective, fiber and protein are always I'm gonna say this is what most women don't get enough of either of those. So I'd say prioritize fiber and protein. I would say we're talking about minerals really, prioritizing magnesium and potassium, those are the two I see most commonly deficient in women. And then I would say, from, you know, an energetic, emotional perspective, I would say, just, just, just dabble in human design, like go online. You can get a free there's a million sites at this point. I always recommend my human design.com I feel like she does the best job of really simplifying it, because it, like you said, it's, it can be very dense and go down 85 million rabbit holes and like, Yeah, but my human design.com you need all your birth information and just just get the basic high level, like, your type, your authority, your profile strategy, like, just starting with those four, even if You never learn anything else about it, but those just start there and let that be the the next part of your, your journey of understanding yourself at a deeper level, just understanding those pieces. I

Scottie Durrett  36:13  
love how you said just understanding yourself at a deeper level. You know, if there's, gosh, it's such a beautiful way to wrap it up too, because if your body, if you've got the brain fog, the extra pounds, the lack of energy, this is just your body saying, look, there's just we don't have all the information that we need. It's not that you're failing or there's anything wrong with you. It's just saying, hey, what we've been doing, it's it's just not what we need anymore. We need something different. Let's go figure out what that is. And I always say, like, trust our body so much. It just, it's so wise. It knows exactly. Talk about the blueprint like that is your best GPS system ever. What is one thing you wish more women knew about their own power to heal? I guess. What would you wish that women knew if she's sitting here thinking, Okay, I'll start with the check ins. But I still don't, I don't know that I can do this, right?

Hope Pedroza  37:04  
I mean, I think you kind of just said it right then. I think we really do underestimate the power that we have within us, like the power and the wisdom that our bodies hold. I think, I think especially when we're talking about women, I think a woman's intuition is unmatched. I think that when we like when we're talking about taking the space, if we really take the space to listen to our bodies, this, that can be the first step to really opening up that connection with your intuition. And your intuition is going to give you the right answer every single time. I love that. And I think, you know, the medical gaslighting thing is a real thing, like, there's articles and statistics on this, and women are the victim of this more way more often than men. We you can go look at, oh, okay. And I think because of that, we have learned to question our intuition and question our body and question that the signals and the signs we're getting from our body, and question ourselves. And I think that is a whole rabbit hole. It could go down right now my head, I'm like, my head, I'm like, I want to go this way. I could talk for another three hours on this, but I'll ring it back in. I think that. I think what I want to leave the moms here listening is, is that is, your body is more powerful than you could ever imagine. We have every piece of wisdom inside of us. It is. Just sometimes we have to kind of peel back the layers and, like, excavate things to bring it to the surface. Because there's, you know, there's conditioning and things, thoughts, beliefs, patterns, all that that just kind of hide it. Because I think that sort of thing you mentioned that a second ago, we can feel like sometimes our body's just working against us, and our body hates us, or our body's broken or whatever. And I think if we can approach it with more compassion and grace and curiosity, rather than judgment or frustration or like just urgency to figure it out and get it fixed, I think that's the key there. And when we do that, then we can tune into our intuition and let it tell us, okay, what? What do you need? What, what? What are you asking? What are you asking? For

Scottie Durrett  39:05  
me, such a beautiful reminder that our intuition is never going to steer us wrong, right? And I think if you're a sitting in that doctor's office, if you're sitting in front of that person, and there's this ting in your stomach saying, no, no, no, I just This doesn't feel right, trust that right, because I, and I'm always of the then keep asking questions, right? Like, keep going till you find the person who says to you the thing that you're that's it, right? And if it's hopeless, I want to make sure we tell everybody how to reach you. But, you know, I think it is such a beautiful offer. If she's frustrated with what she has in front of her and where she is, that you that doesn't have to be the final say, right? Like that's our signal to say, great. Keep searching, keep going, till you get to where you want to go. How can she reach you?

Hope Pedroza  39:47  
Yes. So my website is hopeful and wholesome.com. My Instagram is at the hope Pedraza. It's the social media that I'm on the most. And then, and then, I do have a podcast, hopeful and wholesome. Hence you can listen to vital. Talk a lot about these things we just talked about here, so you can learn. And, yeah,

Scottie Durrett  40:03  
perfect. I'll put all that in the show notes, but if she wants to just go, give you a follow and she can shoot you a DM, and that's where y'all can talk about if these labs are the right next step for her. If that's okay, perfect. Well, you're incredible. I could talk to you for three more hours, so I'll probably have you back on if I'm now curious about what your brain was doing, thank you so much. I'm really excited about this episode. And again, if you are waking up not feeling as good as you want to feel, that's your signal to reach out to hope. And there's all the solutions for you there. So thank you so much.

Hope Pedroza  40:39  
Thank you. Scotty,

Scottie Durrett  40:42  
hey, Mama, thank you so much for listening before you dive back into the beautiful chaos of your life. Please take this with you. You're doing better than you think. You are not alone, and you do not have to do this on autopilot. If this episode helped you in any way, please share it with a mom who needs to hear it, because we grow faster when we do it together. And if you have a second, leaving a five star review helps momplex reach more mamas who need this kind of real talk and support. If you want more support and guidance or just someone in your corner, be sure to visit scottydirt.com to learn more. Get in touch with me or dive deeper into this work until next time. Mom, Trust yourself, trust your gut. You already know what to do, and you are exactly the mama your kids need. I love you. I'll see you next time you.