Get news from Weitz Sports Chiropractic and Nutrition in your inbox, and receive a free ebook on digestive health.
Show Notes:
Dr. Weitz: If you’re looking for clinically useful insights, not wellness hype, then this is the place for you. Welcome to the Rational Wellness Podcast, the podcast for functional and integrated practitioners who want to practice with greater clarity and precision. I’m Dr. Ben Weitz, and each week I sit down with the leading clinicians, researchers, and lab innovators to explore the science lab testing and clinical reasoning behind modern root cause medicine.This is a show focused on practical evidence-informed insights that you can actually use in patient care. Please subscribe to the National Wellness Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube. Please tell your friends and colleagues and if you could give us a ratings and review on Apple or Spotify, we would certainly appreciate it. Finally, to access the show notes and the full transcript, please go to my website, drweitz.com. Hello, Rational Wellness podcasters. Today we’ll be having a conversation with Amy Behimer on making Functional Medicine work. The science of making habit changes inevitable. Functional medicine, we often give patients powerful lifestyle prescriptions, changing their diet, ways to improve their sleep, reduce stress specific exercise recommendations, nutritional supplements schedules, but outcomes hinge on one variable, the ability to change behavior consistently.
Making Functional Medicine Work: Amy Heimer on Habit Change, Motivation, and Follow-Through
Dr. Ben Weitz introduces the Rational Wellness Podcast and interviews Dr. Amy Heimer, a pharmacist turned board-certified health and wellness coach who helps people with autoimmune disease implement sustainable lifestyle changes through a structured, science-backed approach to “habit architecture.” Heimer explains why behavior change is difficult, emphasizing that it is a learnable skill and that motivation is optional; she breaks motivation into belief, desire, and commitment. She outlines six research-backed reasons goals fail (including forgetting, goals being too big or not desired, lack of strategies that feel good, and no place to troubleshoot) and describes tactics such as “trust in the tiny,” planning, tracking, reminders, support squads, environmental design, and focusing on one to three “now” habits using a tracker. She discusses mindset, compassion over guilt, household-level change, and offers a quiz, membership, and referral options for practitioners.
01:03 Meet Amy Heimer
02:39 Why Change Is Hard
04:16 Science Backed Habit Skills
06:19 Motivation Wind and Rowing
07:29 Head Heart Hands Framework
14:58 Six Reasons Goals Fail
20:07 ABC Habit Playbook Strategies
25:12 Sponsor Break Apollo Wearable
26:46 Accountability Planning Support
28:56 Program Details and Coaching
30:31 Honesty Obstacles and Next Steps
31:38 Troubleshoot Obstacles
32:08 Small Habits That Stick
32:29 Practitioner Follow Through
34:30 Guilt to Compassion
35:57 Avoiding Overwhelm
37:40 Now Soon Later Tracker
39:11 Designing Your Environment
41:21 Household Support
42:26 Common Practitioner Mistakes
43:43 Strengths Based Habits
46:26 Why We Fall Off
47:11 Mindset Blocks Healing
48:08 Daily Date With Yourself
49:55 Rebuilding Self Trust
50:42 Emotions Create Habits
52:35 When Patients Disappear
55:18 Coaching vs Meal Plans
56:29 Wrap Up Resources
Dr. Amy Behimer is a pharmacist turned board certified health and wellness coach, and she specializes in helping people with autoimmune disease implement sustainable lifestyle changes. After her own diagnosis, she recognized that even the most precise. [00:02:00] Functional medicine recommendations fail without a repeatable system for behavior change. She now teaches a structured science-backed approach to habit architecture that helps patients move from knowing what to do to consistently doing it. Amy is the host of the Autoimmune Health Secrets Podcast. She’s the founder of Club Habit Hub, where she works with high information patients who want better outcomes without burnout. Amy, thank you so much for joining us.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111.
TRANSCRIPT:
Amy: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. I’m so glad to be here.
Dr. Weitz: Absolutely. So in the functional medicine world, we often give patients these detailed thought out plans, but unfortunately patients don’t always follow through. So why is behavior change so difficult?
Amy: Well, we’re human and we have human brains and. You know, you heard [00:03:00] and you read that I was a pharmacist and so a medication is not gonna work if we don’t take it. And all of the best habits in the world aren’t gonna work either if we’re not able to make and sometimes break them.
Dr. Weitz: And we, if we get rid of humans, AI, robots won’t pay the bills
Amy: already.
We’ve already cursed AI since we, before we hit record. Yes. So, yeah, pros and cons to both, but we’re human. We have human brains that I am sure your listeners are well aware are. Programmed to keep us really comfortable and keep us safe. And it worked in the past, but now in our modern world, it just doesn’t cut it anymore.
And so, we’re just not taught this stuff either. I mean, there’s a lot of shame that comes with people who show up and they have been telling themselves, I’m just not consistent. What’s wrong with me? Why do I, why can’t I stick with this? And it just breaks my heart because it is a [00:04:00] learnable skill to shift what we do, how we think, how we feel. And the more that we can recognize that, again, it’s learnable, then the less that we can identify as someone who’s just not going to cut it.
Dr. Weitz: So what’s the first step? How do people actually make some of these difficult lifestyle changes?
Amy: I, you mentioned it a couple times in my intro. We use the science, I mean, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. There are experts out there that are studying this. Some of the greats that you know are out there are James Clear and BJ Fog and Charles Duhig, and you know, your background is your beautiful bookshelf. I’ve never met somebody who hasn’t read these books and understands the knowledge and can comprehend in their brain why it makes so much sense.
But until we bring in some very real, [00:05:00] very available science-backed strategies, until we simplify it, until we learn to trust ourself that we need to adjust for our own personal body life preferences, then it’s always gonna feel a little bit out of reach. And I. Support is another thing. I mean, being able to recognize that, hey, maybe I could use a little bit of support to learn this skill, that there’s a gap right now.
And so, the way that I do it, you know, from taking it from page to practice is gathering up all the amazing work that’s out there. ‘Cause when something science back, what does that mean? It mean it, it means that we’ve been able to reproduce these results in different groups of people across different timelines.
And so that gives us some trust that hey, maybe we can apply this strategy, but we have to be willing to try it. You know, there’s six research backed reasons that goals fail. And if we know the reasons that goals fail and we have a strategy to get around each of those reasons, [00:06:00] then again, it becomes inevitable if we’re willing to keep showing up and keep trying and trusting that we are. You know, capable of doing it. First it has to start with the belief that you are capable of learning this, and we are capable of doing tough things in the name of feeling better and of course functioning at our best.
Dr. Weitz: So is any of this related to your motivation?
Amy: Motivation is a nice to have, but there’s an old Latin proverb that said when there’s no wind you have to row. And so I like to picture motivation as being wind at our back. Sometimes we’ve all had that feeling where we just are motivated. Whether it’s a new year, whether it’s a birthday that’s come up, maybe there’s a diagnosis in the mix. Maybe something changed in your life where you’re like, oh my gosh, this almost feels easy.
And that’s like wind at our back. But if, and let’s say when the [00:07:00] motivation fades again because we’re human. We need to learn how to row, we need to learn how to show up and do the hard thing. And it doesn’t have to always feel hard, but do the tough thing in the service of your, the bigger picture. We need to learn how to row.
And so, you know, that, that may be a good lead in into how to break down motivation, because motivation is a big word. It’s a big, you know, problem to solve. But if we break it down, it really has three steps. First has to be a belief that what you want is possible. So again, I talk a lot about mindset, which are the habits in our thinking, our habitual thoughts are our beliefs.
And so we’re not gonna feel motivated if we don’t have belief that the thing that we want is possible. So if you have a diagnosis, if you are you know, let’s say you have a diagnosis and you want to feel better, you want to maybe feel like yourself again or maybe even better. I mean, that’s a great goal to go for. If you don’t believe it’s really possible, then [00:08:00] it’s gonna be tough to show up and do the thing. First one is belief. That’s with our head, the second one.
Dr. Weitz: So if I’m dealing with a client, how do I know that they have this belief? Is it enough to just ask them sometimes?
Amy: That’s a really good question. I don’t think I’ve ever been asked that question but yes. I mean, sometimes we can think we believe something, but we’ve got to watch our actions so. You know, our actions are gonna be evidence of what we believe. A perfect example for this is there’s a strategy from, I call it my ABC habit playbook.
So again, this is the science backed way that we tangibly take goals that we have and we apply the science in a way to you know, actually meet them. And so there’s a play they called trust in The tiny, trust in the tiny is different than tiny habits or the two minute rule that people have likely heard about because it pulls in the belief piece trusting in the tiny ’cause.
Anybody, let’s say, no matter what your [00:09:00] energy, no matter what your physical ability, if you want to exercise more, let’s say, which is a staple of functional medicine, is moving our body in different ways and consistently and showing up. These bodies were made to move. If you’re struggling to make that a habit and make it consistent, if I told you, okay, what if we just start with 60 seconds or two minutes?
The reason we likely wouldn’t do that is because we don’t trust that’s really gonna make a difference in that moment. Our brain may offer, oh, that’s not gonna make a difference, or, I can’t do that, so I’m not gonna do that, or I’ll start tomorrow. If we are really believing that a tiny amount truly is the way that we are going to build momentum and get better and progress, then chances are we would do that 60 seconds, or we would do that two minutes. So, part of knowing whether we really believe it, not just with our brain, but do we believe it with our body, is are we [00:10:00] taking action towards the thing that we say we want?
Dr. Weitz: Okay, so the, so what’s the answer to the question? I’m talking to a client and how do I know that they’re motivated and to do this, that they believe that they can do it? Is it enough to just ask them?
Amy: Well, it asking would be one thing. Let’s go through the other two pieces. ’cause there’s three parts to motivation.
Okay. That’s the head, the belief. So that’s one place that if we realize we don’t, we aren’t motivated, we’re not doing the thing, that’s one possible place to come and work on that belief.
Dr. Weitz: Okay,
Amy: the next one is our heart, head, heart. Do we desire the thing that we want? Do we deeply desire what we’re going after? One of the reasons goals fail is that we set a goal, but it’s not really our goal. So we have to ensure that the thing that we are going after is something that we want. And if you think about it, willpower [00:11:00] is another word that gets thrown around a lot with motivation. Willpower implies that we need power over our desire, power over our will.
Well, if we are doing the thing that we really want to be doing and desire, we won’t need a bunch of power to overcome it. So maybe the belief is there, but maybe it’s for a habit or a change or a goal that we don’t deeply desire. So it’s coming in and finding a way to, to shift it or to build that desire deeper.
So that’s the second piece of the motivation equation. Head, heart, hands. You can tell, I like alliteration hands commitment. Have I committed to this thing that I want to change? Have I committed to this goal because, you know, have I really put in the the things I need to get a little bit uncomfortable?
Maybe it’s investing time, maybe it’s investing money. Maybe it’s investing something to actually put [00:12:00] ourselves in the best chance of success with a little bit of commitment. And so if we have this person that you’re mentioning and they’re standing there and they say, you know, what’s an example, let’s say, of something that they want to change, that you see often that maybe they struggle with?
Dr. Weitz: But they wish they’re trying to lose, they’re trying to lose weight, they’re trying to eat healthy and exercise and get to bed at a reasonable hour, et cetera.
Amy: Yeah. So, so we’ll stick with the you know, just one of ’em for simplicity of eating well. ’cause that’s so, I mean, over 70% of people every new year say, okay, I want to eat better, whatever that looks like. And so we have a better problem to solve if we see, if the belief is there, the desire or the commitment, and people can kind of know they if we really break it down like that, it may become obvious to them which one they need to build up.
Dr. Weitz: Okay.
Amy: Does that make sense?
Dr. Weitz: I don’t fully, [00:13:00] yeah I don’t fully get it.
Amy: Let’s, well, let’s, we can keep,
Dr. Weitz: yeah. Just so you know, this discussion is on the half of the brain. I don’t use very often.
Amy: Ah, got it. That is good to know. Well that means that probably half the people listening also need you to ask that question. Well, we’ll use a non-health example where, you know, I going to the moon, right. I have zero motivation to go to the moon. Zero. Okay. Do I believe it’s possible? Yeah. I mean, there are civilians that go to the moon. If there is a possibility for belief, if I commit to doing it and set out, do I think I could do it again?
There are steps you could take to be that person that goes to the moon. I have zero desire to go to the moon. I will never feel motivated to go to the moon. And so looking at why don’t I feel motivated again, that desire piece would be there. So I am not, I don’t want to [00:14:00] build my desire for that.
Dr. Weitz: Okay.
Amy: But if the person is, you know, wanting to eat different, but they, in their mind.
Think that they have it as to eat kale smoothies and to do it this way or that way, whatever those are, you know, maybe we need to start with something different. What do you want to be, how do you want to be eating different? Forget any protocol that someone says, what is the first step that you deeply want?
And sometimes building that desire can come from helping people understand what impact foods are having on their body. Helping people again, not have to feel like they have to power over their will because they want it when we want things. We have a pretty good, we have a pretty good way of finding our way to get it.
Dr. Weitz: Okay, so what’s the next step?
Amy: Okay. The next step, I mean, we could take this a few different ways. We could talk about, well,
Dr. Weitz: what, okay, go ahead. What should we talk
Amy: about? I was gonna say, we could talk about the [00:15:00] reasons that goals fail. Right? Okay. And so how, and how we step around those. The first reason that goals fail is that we just don’t set them. So how many people that you work with and that you you know, help ever have clearly defined what their goal is, would you say?
Dr. Weitz: I’d say most people it depends what you mean by clearly. What do you mean by clearly defined goal?
Like, they know, for example, they want to lose 70 pounds.
Amy: Okay. That’s a clearly defined goal. Okay. And you’re, yeah. So you’re getting people and they, this is their goal. So. That would be reason one. Any anyone listening, we can set a goal and we can always make it better and refine it, which we’re gonna do.
But the first one is just to have a goal. A lot of people don’t want to commit to a goal out loud, especially share it with people because it’s scary. They don’t want to disappoint themselves. So the second reason that goals fail is that we forget about it. Our brains are, they are [00:16:00] processors. They’re not meant to be storage containers.
So when we look at how do we keep our goals top of mind, how do we keep coming back to a. This as long as it takes without letting life distractions happen and what I call quitting on accident. A lot of times it’s not that we have chosen that we’re not gonna go after this anymore, it just kind of fades away because life gets in the way.
So having a system of reminders is key to ensure I am going to build this trust with myself, that if I get to the point where I set a goal, I write it down. You know, even just writing that goal down can boost the chances of meeting it exponentially. What we want to train our brain that when I write something down, I am sticking with it until either I reach it or until I shift it based on what I learned about myself as I’m going after it.
And sometimes it’s even okay to quit a goal, but we don’t want to quit a goal on accident. We want to quit it on [00:17:00] purpose. And again, close that loop with our brain of trust that. I’m not just going to throw this out there and I’m not just gonna let myself forget about it because that just erodes trust with ourselves and we start to build up that narrative, that identity as somebody who doesn’t who doesn’t follow through on goals.
Dr. Weitz: Now I would think if somebody’s setting a goal for example, the one I just used, I want to lose 70 pounds. I might think, well maybe that goal is too far away. It’s too broad. We need to break it down. Mm-hmm. And maybe what we want to do is say, I want to lose I pounds within the first two months, say.
Amy: That’s reason number three, that goals fail.
It’s too big or it’s outside of our control. And so when we have a goal, you’re exactly right. There is a place for the bigger picture goal that pulls us forward. Some people call this A-B-H-A-G, a big hairy, audacious goal. I call it a big picture goal. That vision, we need to have that [00:18:00] peace, but we also need to be able to bring it into the today.
So you and I, no matter what powers we have of food or lack of food or exercise, we cannot lose 70 pounds today. So we have to tie it to the behavior goal, the habit goal that we get to plan for and celebrate and track for today. So that could look like following this meal plan that could look like doing this.
Exercise, getting this amount of sleep, all of these things that we have a pretty good idea because of what the science shows and also what our support squad and what we know about our bodies are gonna get us closer to that goal. So yes, that’s reason number three is that’s got to again, be tied to what is the thing that we’re doing today.
Reason number four, the goals fail. Is that, again, back to this desire piece, is that somebody else maybe set the goal for us. Maybe that protocol set it, your [00:19:00] doctor set it, your spouse wants you to do something different. We have to find a way, find a goal that again, we deeply desire. There’s a habit researcher, BJ Fog, and he’s been in the game for almost 20 years and he says if he could boil.
Down all of his research. There’s two apps, habit absolutes, and one of them is that it has to be something we want, it has to be something we deeply want. So doing that check to say, is this a goal I really want deeply? And you know, if it’s not, if you look at it and you’re like, I’m not there yet, then maybe shift it to one that you do deeply want as your first one.
Again, to ensure, to get that win and to start to get that momentum.
Dr. Weitz: So let’s say they, they really believe they want this goal, but they’re having trouble doing the things they’re supposed to do.
Amy: Okay. Alright. So we’ve said it, we have [00:20:00] reminders, it’s in our control and it’s small enough. Those are reasons.
1, 2, 3. Reason four is that we desire it. Then we come to reason five, which is that we have to make the change in a way that actually feels good along the way. And this is the part where we have to pull in what we know about our human brain. And we have to, again, work with ourselves. And this is where the science-backed strategies come into play.
And I wish that we could say this strategy works for this habit every single time, but that’s just not the case. And so I use something called the A BC Habit Playbook, which is 20 different strategies, right? They’re science backed, they’re simple, they are strategic, and they are available to be mixed and matched depending on the opponent, right?
A playbook is recognizing that different opponents may need different plays. We may need to bring different things for it. [00:21:00] And so with these different strategies, we put on an experimenter’s mindset and we come in and we say, okay, what am I gonna try next? And it may take two or three different strategies paired together, but it’s that willingness, it’s that commitment.
To keep coming back, keep showing up until we find the way that works and actually feels good. And we can do more examples as well for what that would look like. But again, it’s taking,
Dr. Weitz: yeah. What are some of these strategies?
Amy: So we already talked about one that trust in the tiny, right? So let’s say you have you want to eat better.
If you trusted that tiny changes make a difference today, that may look like adding two. You know, someone says, I don’t have time, I don’t have the energy to cook. You know, whatever reasons come up. What’s the tiniest version? What if adding a new spice to a meal that you’re already making to increase the diversity of your gut microbiome?
That is a tiny [00:22:00] version that if we trust it, it may lead to the next step and the next step. Or it’s a lot to look at an entire day’s worth of food or an entire week. So many people want to start with a weekly meal plan or say, oh, tomorrow this is the way I eat. What if we started with one meal? What you are making right now, what you’re grabbing at when you’re eating out, that’s just your habit.
That’s what’s, you know how to get those things at the grocery store. And so what if one meal at a time you plan, you decide, this is a meal I love to make. This is a way to make it in a way that fits my health goals. This is what I need at the grocery store. This is what I do with time. Tiny steps like that your body will habitually be doing.
That meal on repeat. And so trust in the tiny is one that works for every single area of lifestyle because again, when you compare it to not moving forward, and when you see the consistency build day after day, it [00:23:00] doesn’t look sexy until you see the results. It can bring,
Dr. Weitz: I always worry about doing partial measures are not enough to see results and therefore it’s difficult for the person to stay motivated if they’re not gonna see a change or feel a change.
Amy: Yeah. And that’s a little bit of that buy-in, that belief that this is a long game. And back to the reason number. Five of how we that goals fail. The reason that goals fail is that it doesn’t feel good if people have the mindset that they are doing this just to get to an end point where they get this bigger result.
That’s the antithesis of what we’re talking about. These are the changes that we’re not making them to then get to the place where we get to go back to the things we like. We’re making the changes in a way that we actually enjoy it. We don’t want to get off the train of [00:24:00] how we are improving and shifting our habits.
And then one piece to you know, look at what you said ’cause it’s very real. We also aren’t taught to look for the invisible wins. The non-tangible the less tangible wins, let’s say. So if we’re only waiting for that 70 pound weight loss to celebrate, we are missing so many chances along the way because celebration.
Is what leads to more momentum when we take action to celebrate an invisible win. An invisible win could be, okay, I added turmeric to this curry salad that I made, that extra thing. Yes, that may not have resulted in any weight loss, but it is a win and we celebrate it. So we make it real. We tell someone, we check off our tracker, we do something, our brain gets a little hit of dopamine.
That helps us come back the next day for the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. So yes, if [00:25:00] we wait for these big tangible wins, then we will have to rely on willpower. But instead we need to create them along the way.
Dr. Weitz: I’ve really been enjoying this discussion, but I just want to take a few minutes to tell you about a product that I’m very excited about.
Imagine a device that can help you manage stress, improve your sleep, and boost your focus all without any effort on your part. The Apollo wearable is designed to just to do just that, created by neuroscientists and physicians. This innovative device uses gentle vibrations to activate your parasympathetic nervous system, helping you feel calmer, more focused, and better rested.
Among the compelling reasons to use the Apollo wearable are that [00:26:00] users experience a 40% reduction in stress and anxiety. Patients feel that they can sleep. Their sleep improves up to additional 30 minutes of sleep per night. It helps you to boost your focus and concentration and it’s scientifically backed.
And the best part is you can get all these benefits with a special $40 discount by using the promo code Whites, W-E-I-T-Z, my last name at checkout to enjoy these savings. So go to Apollo Neuro and use the promo code Whites today. And now back to our discussion. How important is it? One of the hallmarks of if I’m trying to help somebody lose weight is asking them to write down what they’re eating.
And I know that just writing it down [00:27:00] has been shown to change the way people eat. And then they have to come in and show it to me. So they have to, you know, they have to be accountable.
Amy: Yeah. That’s a great segue into, remember we’re talking about this playbook with the plays, so it’s 20 total. We talked about trust in the tiny, what you just mentioned uses two plays from the playbook.
One is called from Mind to Matter. There is a very real thing that happens when we take something in our mind and put it to matter, pen to paper or screen, you know, typing on the screen.
Dr. Weitz: Right.
Amy: That it’s very real. We have a different relationship with it when we can see it. And so that is very powerful. The other thing that actually making a plan does is it’s a play called master planning. So again, there is a power. When we are able to look ahead and decide what we want to do as humans, we are the only animal [00:28:00] that has this prefrontal cortex. It’s the part of our brain that is the most evolved, and it’s able to plan, it’s able to look ahead and say, Amy, I know that in the moment you’re going to want those french fries, but I also know that you want to feel better and you want, again to lose this weight.
So in that moment, we’re gonna follow this plan where we’re gonna actually go with this. So master planning is another strategy that is going to absolutely play. So yeah, you’re very right when they have to when they have to tell you that it’s the science is working in the background, and another play is a support squad.
So you are serving as a member of their support squad. And that’s a very real thing that changes when we realize that people. Are there with us and our belief in them can actually shift, you know, their ability to to change and to grow.
Dr. Weitz: Where can we see this list of 20 [00:29:00] strategies?
Amy: So all 20 exist and it’s a very tangible, you know, within my membership, because it’s active, it’s teaching, there’s tools and we use it. On my podcast, Autoimmune Health Secrets, I often pull in a lot of the strategies for different types. But at currently I’ve thought, I’m like, how do I, does this exist outside of my coaching? I like it to you know, of course be done together. Because sometimes if you just see it, it’s kinda like, okay, what am I gonna do with that? But it’s the interacting with it that is powerful.
Dr. Weitz: Okay. And is this a program for patients or practitioners or both?
Amy: Patients. Yep. So I’m not, I don’t have my pharmacist hat when I’m coaching. It’s for really anybody but people living with autoimmune disease is often who finds me. ’cause I like attracts like, I think.
And so, you know, it was the autoimmune diagnosis that really got me looking at things differently and realizing that I was going to need to do something different to [00:30:00] be able to take control of my health in this way. And so many people have autoimmune diagnoses probably about eight to 12 currently represented.
And the diagnosis is less important. You know, once we start working together, we all have our own unique goals we’re going for and just are able to come together, learn how to set goals, learn how to march towards them. And again, it’s functioning better is good, but the feeling better along the way is what propels us and truly what makes a difference.
Dr. Weitz: As a practitioner sometimes patients will not always be completely honest.
Okay. So they may report that all they ate was a salad and an apple for the whole day, and yet they’ve gained way,
Amy: you know, we don’t really have that problem, only because they are choosing to come and invest their time, invest their [00:31:00] resources. And so, you know, the honesty is real. I mean, there, yes.
Maybe somebody’s not being I haven’t encountered that because
Dr. Weitz: Oh,
Amy: okay. You know, there, there is a safe place, you know, versus maybe with a physician or with, again, a practitioner who may be telling them to do these things. It may be a little bit different but people who are coming to work with me, it’s like they, again, that desire, they know they want to do these things and they know that if they.
Share the obstacles ’cause that’s exactly how we personalize this. You leave, let’s say a coaching call with your plan, right? Okay, I’m gonna use this play, I’m gonna work on this. We talked about this. You’re gonna get a lot of information when you go to follow through on the plan and it goes wrong.
That’s when we come back and we troubleshoot. And that’s the last reason that goals fail is that we don’t have a place to troubleshoot. And so your very real obstacles that got in the way, that’s exactly what we use to create the next plan to keep going. And [00:32:00] really you’ll find some, you know, you start to learn the strategies.
Some habits stick quick. You’re like, oh my gosh, I kind of just needed this. And it worked. You know, if you’re pairing is another strategy that a lot of people use. When I go on a walk, I do this when I make my coffee, I do 10 squats, sometimes it’s just, wow, that was easy. And that feels like a habit.
And then others take a little bit longer probably because they’ve been very rooted for many years, or we may have an emotional tie to it.
Dr. Weitz: Okay. So, for practitioners who are listening to this, so, let’s say I’ve given the patient this plan with recommendations on what to eat and how much exercise to do.
What can I do to increase the likelihood that they’ll follow through on it?
Amy: You know, a few plays that work for a lot are ones we kind of talked about and encouraging them, talking through with them. What is the smallest version that [00:33:00] you are willing to do to get this ball rolling, to get this momentum going and really talking with them and normalizing that going from zero to 60 is not often the route for a lot of us.
So that could be one thing. Again, writing down their goal, sharing their goal you know, being there and encouraging them to share it with others in their life. Pairing it is another, like I said, pairing is a strategy that a lot of people talk about and works for a lot of people. But again, I think as a practitioner, normalizing that, Hey, this.
Stuff isn’t easy. Again, I, people come to me and they feel shame. They feel like they’re doing something wrong. And I think if we can drop that and again, look at it as a skill that we can create and get good at, then people are gonna keep showing up and realize, oh, I know that I didn’t reach it, but what did I learn from it?
Right? We’re always winning or learning. We’re extracting as much failure gold from those times. We don’t [00:34:00] reach it. And so I think yeah, normalizing that and again, helping ask what, why exactly do we think that it didn’t happen this week? And then again, finding a strategy to, for that unique person and that unique life, because all of these things only work if we can incorporate it into our real life, right?
I mean, energy is real. Symptoms are real. Jobs are real. Kid expectations are real. If you’re in the sandwich generation, you’re caring for two generations. The plan has to fit all of that.
Dr. Weitz: So if I’m working with a patient and they come in and they haven’t really done what they were supposed to do, and let’s say they feel guilty about it strategically as a practitioner, do I go, that’s great.
I’m glad you feel guilty. In fact, you should feel even guiltier. Or do we, I say, oh, don’t feel guilty. It’s okay. I know it’s hard.
Amy: I would say that, I would say the [00:35:00] latter. I mean, normalizing that the guilt is coming from a belief that they did something wrong. So what I would do right there, when we say, do people know what they’re believing, that is a place to spot of you feel guilty because you think you’re doing, you should be able to do something you’re not able to do.
Instead, a new belief. To consider planting a seed for and helping grow is, I’m figuring this out. I’m figuring this out because again, if we shift from, oh, I should be able to do this by now to, I’m figuring this out, we’re gonna feel a whole lot more compassionate, we’re gonna feel a whole lot more, we’re open to come tell you the truth.
We’re gonna feel a whole lot more curious to get different forms of support. And we’re gonna, that, that curiosity and compassion is going to fuel us to do more productive things than shame or guilt any day of the week,
Dr. Weitz: let’s say have a client and in order [00:36:00] to accomplish the health goals that we’ve set, I want them to significantly change their diet.
Amy: Okay?
Dr. Weitz: I want them to take five or six supplements several times a day. I want them to work on their sleep. I want them to. Work on managing their stress. I want them to do specific forms of exercise multiple times a day. How do we keep clients from feeling overwhelmed and get that compliance?
Amy: We gotta cut down potentially those number of things we’re changing all at once. Again, that overload, overwhelm is such an inflammatory emotion and it keeps us stuck and it makes us say, well, forget it. So you could help them strategize with what’s the first thing. What do we think is the biggest bang for the buck?
And first, I would say, what do you want to do first? Because again, that pulls back to the desire. If they have an [00:37:00] answer immediately, that’s the one, even if it’s not the one you would’ve picked. Just seeing the confidence that they can build by getting some momentum in the first one is gonna help with all the rest.
And so even if it feels slow, it’s worth it. It’s hands down worth it because going all in for even a day, a month, two months in, in a lifetime, I, any day of the week, I would say we do it slow. We do it on purpose so that we never have to feel like we have to get off the train. This is the journey.
And we care less about how fast we go if we realize, oh, we’re getting there.
Dr. Weitz: So, if you were working with a client, do you just give them one thing at a time, say, Hey, I really want to change your diet, give you a bunch of supplements, have you work on your sleep, work on specific amounts and types of exercise, but [00:38:00] I’m worried that might be too much for you.
Oh, no. It’s okay, doc.
Amy: Yeah, that’s a great, that’s a great question. And the good thing about me as a coach is that I don’t have to be the ones telling them what to do. They get to tell me what they want to do, but the way we handle it is I have a habit tracker that we use, and it’s different than any other one I’ve seen because there’s something different.
It has a section called now, a section called soon and a section called later. It has a bunch more than that, but those three sections are key because let’s say you hand me seven to eight different things that you just mentioned. I recommend minimum one, maximum three go in the now section. The other ones, we don’t want to lose sight of ’em, so we stick ’em in soon or we stick ’em in later.
But being realistic, we want to keep that now from one to three. If people say, I want to do all seven and they’re actually making progress, great. Try it. But if they leave saying, I want to do all seven, and they come back and they [00:39:00] haven’t, then I ask, okay, what do we think about cutting that down and moving ’em to sooner or later and really just getting some traction and some momentum on the now ones.
Dr. Weitz: Okay. What are the most effective ways to design a patient’s environment? So success is more likely.
Amy: Environment’s huge. There’s again, what the habit research shows is that there are three ways we change habits. The first is called an epiphany. That one, we don’t really get to control. You know, we may get, you may get a diagnosis not you, but someone may be a smoker and get a diagnosis of lung cancer and instantly they’re like, I’m done smoking.
This is, that’s an epiphany that’s outside of our control. Sometimes people can read a book, you know, they can, and they’re like, oh my gosh, I’ll never look at this the same. That’s an epiphany. The second one is tiny habits. How do we break it down in this exact process? How do we do it in a way that is gradual and consistent and [00:40:00] works?
The third reason is our environment, right? So looking at our environment, it’s super powerful. Our physical environment, simplifying, you know, how do we set ourselves up? You know, if there’s a lot of clutter, if there’s a lot of noise and distractions, it can sometimes feel that way inside of our brain too.
So, simplifying, making things convenient and inconvenient. You know, if we set weights by the coffee maker so that we do three sets, a 10 while we’re waiting for the coffee to brew, that’s an environment that’s set up to help us get our goals. The exact same is true for inconvenience. If we don’t want to be eating that food, what if we make a personal policy?
It just doesn’t come in the house, you know, with so much love. So our environment is a key piece because we are going to easily, you know, be affected by things that are around us, especially in our site. Our site is a huge part of our brain space. And so just getting things out of sight or in sight is key.
I have a stretch ring that I [00:41:00] stretch my hamstrings when I watch tv. And if it’s sitting on my seat, I do it consistently every single time. If my husband moves it because he doesn’t want it out, I’ll, it’ll be a week later. I’m like, where in the hell is my Pilates ring? I want to do my stretching. So just really noticing what am I seeing and setting yourself up for success.
Dr. Weitz: Okay. Do you ever bring in the patients spouse or other family members to help?
Amy: Good question. I, the, again, research shows the unit of change that is the most effective is a household. So for my coaching membership, anybody in the household that wants to join can join for free because for that very reason, if you’re going, if you have two people that want to learn this and lift each other up, hands down, that you can come and do it together.
So yes, I do have spouses in it together. Some people don’t officially join, but they get them in on what we’re learning and they [00:42:00] teach them things. I mean, that’s one of the coolest things to do is, you know, in the medical community it’s learn one, see one, teach one, right? So, or see one, do one, teach one.
And so sometimes you can learn some good nugget of information. I always say this also like in my podcast, learning things is great, but we gotta do something with it. And the best way to do it is to go teach it to someone and see kind of the cool ripple effect that can happen when you do that.
Dr. Weitz: All right. What are common things that functional medicine practitioners do wrong when trying to help patients change their behavior?
Amy: You know, I mean, the one thing I say to folks, this is less about the practitioners, well, I’ll answer it this way probably not. Prioritizing, you know, maybe checking in and saying how does this feel?
Where do we want to start? And maybe normalizing that doing everything all at once. Flipping a switch may not be the way for a lot of people. [00:43:00] So that may be one thing I was gonna say. A lot of people will ask me, should I go get a functional medicine workup? Like at what point should that happen? And I always say to people, you know, functional medicine workup is, it’s an investment time, energy, money, and how cool is it to.
Spend a little bit of time on some of these basic habits that we all need, right? So cleaning up the top three things that you already know in your diet are likely inflaming. You getting some movement in how neat to show up to the practitioner and say, oh, by the way, I’ve already been doing this, and this.
That gives such a better starting place for the practitioner to say, oh, wow, now you did A, B, C. Now we can really look at D, e, and F,
Dr. Weitz: As a practitioner should I be trying to assess the patients person personality type or. The way they communicate. You know, some people use these different types.[00:44:00]
People are broken down into this person’s more of a verbal learner, and this person’s more of a tactile learner. Are those things that we should consider to tailor our approach to the person in front of us?
Amy: I mean, personalized approach is always gonna be a good thing. I mean, the more we can know about ourselves and the more we can know about each other helps,
Dr. Weitz: what’s
Amy: the
Dr. Weitz: best way for us to do that?
Amy: I use a strengths survey. It’s called the Via strength survey. And it’s validated, it’s a validated tool from the field of positive psychology. It’s in 72 plus languages, and it is, it spans all different cultures. And what it does is it helps. Give you a strengths profile. And so, strengths.
Dr. Weitz: Strengths, you’re talking about S-T-R-E-N-E-N-G-T-H.
Amy: Yep. Strengths, meaning character. Strengths.
Dr. Weitz: Okay.
Amy: Right. So character strengths can also sometimes bleed over with [00:45:00] values.
Dr. Weitz: Can you email that to me later?
Amy: Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Yep. I’ll email you that. Okay. And the cool thing about having that is that we can use our strengths in this.
There’s a strategy from the playbook called More Me. And what that means is how can I look at this habit and use my unique strengths or my unique preferences to make this special for me? And that play time and time again works. And I see people get so creative with it. You know, I had one client who I just.
Love this story where she had to go on a walk on her to-do list on her tracker for decades. She never did it. She joined the club and she started doing these different plays and she realized she loves to paint. So she would paint these rocks and she would go deposit them in her town and she would then put on her list, go check on your rock, and what a like, meaning she got to go walk to get there to see if that rock that she put [00:46:00] there to brighten someone’s day was still there.
So she took her strength of appreciation of beauty and painting and creativity and made it work for a exercise goal that worked for her. I see you’re not, but you’re not buying it, but I mean, it’s cool you’re laughing.
Dr. Weitz: Okay.
Amy: Yeah. I mean, different strengths are really neat to see how we can use them.
For sure.
Dr. Weitz: Why do patients. Do well and then fall off the wagon
Amy: again. Just having that place to troubleshoot, having that place to maybe even consider that there is no wagon to fall off of that, it’s part of the process. You know, we’re winning and we’re learning and we’re human so we don’t just have a smooth ride, sadly, to, sadly to say that things change, our bodies change.
You know, even if you, I’m in my forties and I’m a different person than I was in my thirties and my twenties, and I’m gonna be different in my fifties and sixties. And so again, [00:47:00] learning this skill is the is something that’s gonna work over and over again. ’cause it’s not adhering to someone else’s protocol. It’s adhering to you and what works for you.
Dr. Weitz: What’s something patients don’t want to hear about why they’re not getting better?
Amy: For me, I can speak personally. I was doing all the right things. I was exercising, eating, quote, perfect. You know, everything that you could find in a science textbook I was doing. What I didn’t want to hear was that it was my mindset. It was what I was thinking, it was what I was believing. And that was the shift that changed everything. And that’s, you know, how I teach people is that what we think is habitual. And so we can apply these same strategies to how we’re thinking and how we’re feeling so that we spend more time of the day actually actually in those more productive feelings.
Yeah. Mindset was everything. And by the time people find me, a lot of them are on board for that. They’re ready to have a [00:48:00] new way to think about things and to feel different. But for a lot of people, and for me when I was early on, it was just, what can I do.
Dr. Weitz: If somebody wants to improve their health today, what’s one habit change that they could use to give them the biggest return?
Amy: All right. I like, I obviously don’t like one size fits all, but I do have a one size fits all for this. The habit of having a date with yourself every day, schedule a date with yourself, and then that way you have protected time that you practice habitually showing up for yourself. Then whatever you’re working on, you can use that time to do it.
You could meal prep if you’re working on food, you could exercise. If you’re working on movement, you could get out in nature in the morning if you’re working on better sleep. If you’re working on your mindset, you could journal or meditate. But if you carve out that this is the time for me and you protect it [00:49:00] fiercely, you protect it from the outside world and you make it a priority.
Then again, you can use that time for any of these lifestyle changes that you want to make. ’cause you have a spot in your day to practice them, which would, that’s what it takes is practice to
Dr. Weitz: come back. So is you just described as making a date with yourself, which to me, I don’t really understand, but is that the same thing as just making yourself a schedule and say, yeah,
yeah,
Dr. Weitz: at three o’clock I’m gonna go to the gym?
Amy: Totally, but it’s, yeah, it’s just an, to
Dr. Weitz: me that doesn’t seem like making a date.
Amy: Well, it’s an Amy language because if a lot of us, if you had a date with a friend, if you had a date with a doctor, which we would call an appointment, you’d show up because okay, there’s someone waiting on you. You make a date with yourself and you learn to show up.
So that’s just Amy speak of Okay. Of making it something you want to show up for.
Dr. Weitz: Let’s say you’ve had a habit of not. [00:50:00] Doing what you want to do. In the past you’ve tried to do the right thing and you’ve not been able to. How do you rebuild your trust with yourself?
Amy: The first is a belief that it’s, it was a habit not to be consistent, and now you’re learning how.
So again, it starts with that belief that it’s even possible, that it’s not, that you’re flawed and you really start small. You start with one thing and you start to build that skill. So bringing it back to trust in the tiny, showing up and quieting all the overwhelm and starting small.
Dr. Weitz: Okay. What about for practitioners addressing the emotional aspects of changing your habits?
Amy: That’s a big question with a lot of answers, but, you know, emotions create
Dr. Weitz: habit. As a practitioner, I’m very much into [00:51:00] the science.
Amy: Yeah. Well then there BJ Fog, he wrote Be Tiny Habits. I’ve already referenced him once. He said if he could boil down all the research, it’s that emotions create habit.
Emotions create habit. So you could, as a practitioner, check in, how are you feeling when you set out with this plan? And if they say, oh my God, I don’t know if I’m gonna make it, I feel doubtful. You know, if they’re being honest, we could say, oh, well let’s shift it up because we want you leaving here feeling confident or back to how when they’re done and they are, let’s say they come back and they haven’t met it.
If they’re feeling guilt, if they’re feeling shame, that’s going to not be productive. And so again, if they feel more compassion, they’re more likely to come back and keep troubleshooting to find a way that does work for them.
Dr. Weitz: How do you get them to shift that though?
Amy: Beliefs. So, so how we think and how we feel or how we think determines how we feel.
So if somebody is feeling doubt when they leave, it’s because they’re [00:52:00] thinking, wow, that is a lot that he just asked me to do. I don’t know if I can do it. That if any of us thought that we would feel doubt. So instead it’s shifting to what would I need to think to feel confident? And it may be some version of, I just need to worry about this one this week.
I need to show up for this. I need to do this one meal. And so we really start to learn how what we’re thinking and believing is tied to how we’re feeling. And that becomes feelings that makes feelings more controllable and tangible, that we can actually pull the lever on those.
Dr. Weitz: What would be a practical thing that you could do for the patient who’s probably feeling something like that hasn’t really done the things they’re supposed to do?
They simply cancel and don’t show up
Amy: For my, my programs or your programs.
Dr. Weitz: Yeah. Like as a practitioner I’m thinking mostly I hope you don’t [00:53:00] mind, but for functional medicine practitioners,
Amy: oh yeah.
Dr. Weitz: We’ve got somebody, we set ’em up on a program and they just call up till last minute or whatever and they cancel and haven’t made another appointment and Yeah.
And then you’re sitting there going, ah, I know they probably didn’t do anything, and they don’t want to come back. And
Amy: yeah.
Dr. Weitz: What would be a good way to handle that from a a human perspective, but also a business perspective?
Amy: Yeah. I mean, that would be them. I, the way I think of that is that they’re, wow, they’re having a human moment that was hard for them.
And I would want to do everything I could to make them feel that they are welcome to come back and safe to come back. And that when they do, I would be there ready to help them. So that happens in my coaching world as well, where people, you know, will not show up for, you know, a couple months.
It’s a membership and I just want them to know, and I will [00:54:00] send them so much love that a, you, they may be outliving life good. You’re, you know, you’re using all the energy that you built up with the habits that we’re making. But always,
Dr. Weitz: but let’s say they’re sitting there thinking, or we, I, we think they’re thinking, he thinks it’s so easy, he just does it. He goes to the gym, he, you know, eats the food he is supposed to eat. He takes his 30 supplements, you know that. But I can’t do all that.
Amy: Yeah, I mean, I think this is a good example of support Squad. I mean, meaning that’s what I call, again, this is Amy, speak like a date with yourself, but having people for you and for them to match up for based on what their needs are.
So, you know, that’s why I became a coach and not a practitioner because, you know, as a pharmacist, I was used to do this, take this is the guidelines I wasn’t looking for that I have the time and the space and my strength is to say, let me tell me what you’re feeling. Tell me what you’re thinking and how do we get around [00:55:00] that?
So I wish I had a good answer that could equip everybody to go do it. But maybe the answer is, oh, I, maybe I could help this person find someone who. Who is trained and this is what they do, is help them with that piece of that confidence piece.
Dr. Weitz: So with your coaching, are you putting people on meal plans?
No. No. Okay. So your coaching is just about motivation and
Amy: it’s,
Dr. Weitz: and.
Amy: I teach, you know, of course, like what foods are healthy. Yes. We know some basics and movements and, but I help people follow through on what they want to be doing. So sometimes that’s because they have practitioner plans they want to follow.
Sometimes it’s just they know what they want to follow. Right? Yeah. So that’s, I’m, so
Dr. Weitz: in other words, for us practitioners who have patients who are having trouble getting motivated, we could have ’em see you to help with the motivation while we
Amy: can’t follow a [00:56:00] thousand and,
Dr. Weitz: Okay. I get
Amy: it. 7000%. Okay. Yeah, it’s awesome.
Dr. Weitz: Imagine I, and it took me an hour to just figure that out.
Amy: Yeah. Imagine sending someone off with a plan and you’re like, wow, they’re gonna learn how to do it. Like, that’s what I love. I want to Okay. I want to be there with them to help them do it.
Dr. Weitz: Yeah.
Amy: Yeah.
Dr. Weitz: Great.
Amy: We got there. That’s perfect. I love it.
Dr. Weitz: Okay, so let’s bring this to a wrap. What final thoughts do we want to lead people with?
Amy: Well, you know, I created a quiz. It’s seven questions, three minutes, and it helps you kind of pull up what you desire. So if you know you want to be doing something or you have too much you want to be doing, it helps give you the one place that you’re most likely to get your biggest energy, bang for your buck, the most likely that you want to be doing, which is gonna help with motivation.
And [00:57:00] when you take the quiz, I will be in your inbox with some of these most used strategies from the playbook to help you actually make some progress on it. So, you know, if, I think that would be a really cool way to do it. Or if you’re a practitioner and you’re listening you know, consider sharing the quiz with.
Your clients, because if they can do this stuff, I mean, the help you’re giving them is going to go through the roof.
Dr. Weitz: So had clients find you,
Amy: I have a podcast, autoimmune Health Secrets. I also again, on the quiz, I’m a reply away from any email that you get from me. But the quiz as well as my membership, can be found at www.amyheimercoaching.com.
And that is where you can find me and sometimes I’m on at Amy Heimer coaching on Instagram as well.
Amy: Yeah, absolutely. On my website there it says, for practitioners it says work for work with Amy.
And so there are medical doctors that use that. Again, any practitioner, there’s a referral form and you can let me know about someone and yeah, or email me amy@amyheimercoaching.com and we can talk about your specific needs. But yeah, partnering like this is where I think we are really gonna change the health of the world if we get the right people.
Yeah. Supporting these wonderful patients that know they want to be doing different things and that we can help them.
Dr. Weitz: That’s great. Thank you so much Amy.
Amy: Thanks for having me.
Dr. Weitz: Thank you for making it all the way through this episode of the Rational Wellness Podcast. For those of you who enjoy listening to the Rational Wellness Podcast, I would very much appreciate it if you could go to Apple Podcast or Spotify and give us a five star readings and review. As you may know, I continue to accept a limited number of new patients per month for functional medicine. If you would like help overcoming a gut or other chronic health condition and want to prevent chronic problems and want to promote longevity, please call my Santa Monica Weitz Sports Chiropractic and Nutrition office at 310-395-3111 and we can set you up for a consultation for functional medicine and I will talk to everybody next week.
And get a free ebook: "How to Reduce Digestive Distress"
