It’s easy to get caught up in big goals, ambitious plans and complicated marketing strategies. But I know, the most powerful growth comes from the simplest moves.
In this episode of The Hayley Osborne Show, I share 7 practical actions every health brand can implement right now to strengthen their positioning, improve visibility, create stronger connections with their audience and set themselves up to WIN!
These are the small but strategic shifts that often get overlooked, yet they can have a significant impact on how your brand is perceived, remembered and trusted.
If you want to start having and creating more clarity, stronger foundations and a brand that stands out for all the right reasons to your ideal client, this episode is for you.
Tune in for a short, actionable episode packed with ideas you can implement immediately.
SUMMARY
0:00:02 – Introduction & Guest Background
0:02:06 – Carolyn’s Journey into Health & Wellness
0:03:49 – What Does Optimal Health Look Like?
0:05:02 – Health Patterns in Ambitious Women & Business Owners
0:08:04 – Looking After Yourself While Building a Business
0:10:28 – Daily Check-ins vs. Overwhelm from Long-term Goals
0:11:28 – Resetting After a Bad Week
0:13:30 – Fasting as a Reset & Gender/Cycle Differences
0:18:12 – Disconnection from Body Signals & Societal Pressure
0:21:40 – Where Carolyn Starts with “No Energy & Overwhelm”
0:23:52 – Knowledge is Power: Parallels Between Business & Health
0:25:11 – Simple Ways to Support Energy Naturally.
0:28:55 – Protecting Your Own Energy as a Practitioner
0:32:46 – Recognizing Emotional Labor & “Pats on the Back”
0:33:36 – Future Health Conversations & Quick-Fix Culture
0:37:26 – Individuality & Functional Testing
0:38:04 – One Key Takeaway for Listeners
0:39:09 – Closing Reflections & Mutual Appreciation
0:41:02 – Where to Find Carolyn
Hayley Osborne
Hayley, hello Carolyn, and welcome to the Hayley Osborne Show. I am so grateful and glad and happy, and like over the moon to have you as my guest today. I’ve just read out your stellar bio, but as I always do, I would love you to say hello and just introduce yourself in your own words to my listeners.
Carolyn Allen
Hello, I’m Carolyn. I am a naturopath, a nutritionist, and also a yoga teacher, among many other things. I just love all things health and wellness. So, I work with women of all ages, but in particular, I know that 35 to 55 you know, time where women’s bodies are changing, their hormones are changing, and we tend to blame hormones for everything. So I like to come in and have a look at what’s actually going on and help women to move through it with ease. I’m so glad you’re here.
Hayley Osborne
So to give some background, Carolyn and I met probably through two and a half, almost three years ago in Brisbane at an event, and we were kind of like moths to a flame to each other. It’s funny how that happens, isn’t it? When you like know that someone’s your people, you just kind of like, and then after that, we’ve kind of like just to give everyone a bit of a background, like we had to press record because we were just like, oh my god, this would be so good, let’s just press record, and have stayed in each other’s world ever since, stalking each other on Instagram and all the things, and then I’ve had Carolyn come in and teach in the membership that I had, and now, yeah, here you are. So I’m so glad that you’re here on the podcast with me. So I want to ask you first, what inspired you to become a naturopath and a yoga teacher, and I guess all of the things that you’re currently doing and working on, like, where does your inspiration come from?
Carolyn Allen
I guess, like, for the yoga piece, I started practicing when I was 15, and it was more because I was had such a fast brain, and I just started practicing, and at the time, because I’m 42 now, so it was a really long time ago, and I was, you know, in the company of, you know, adults. I was certainly not practicing the way, like, studios work now, and I just practiced all the time. And I guess that was more my introduction into health and wellness. I then went into the media. I was working in the media, but I was always really passionate about looking after myself, and all of my friends would come and ask me for advice on health related things.
And after about 10 years, I thought, you know what, I don’t want to be the person who doesn’t follow what they should be doing. And then, you know, you’re I have children, and then I’m, I’m bitter because I’m in a job I hate, and I was kind of bleeding that way for me, where I was like, why am I here, I’m so bored. So I just went back and I did my degree, and I worked really, really hard to study, and yeah, I was able to have my yoga teacher training kind of done and dusted and teaching, and then just really learning the foundations with, you know, what it takes to be a really good naturopath. I did a Bachelor of Health Science, so it gave me a really great evidence-based way of practicing, as well as kind of that traditional lens, as well. So I really like to bring it all together in that way. So I was just really lucky that I found that first thread, and I just followed it with yoga, and it led me to what I feel I’m supposed to be doing.
Hayley Osborne
So, you and I are both very similar, we both look after our bodies, inside, outside, train, eat well, and I want to ask you, like, I know. I think I know the answer, but for you, like, what does optimal health actually look like from your perspective?
Carolyn Allen
So, I think for me it is about focusing on the foundations, because I see a lot of people trying to optimize things without having those foundations solid first. So, are you eating whole foods? Do you have a really good bowel movement every day? How are your moods? How are your periods? How is your stress like that? To me, it is optimal. When we can have a look at that whole picture and work out, am I eating properly? Am I drinking enough water? How is my sleep? Am I exercising every day? So it’s less about trying to optimize everything and be perfect, and it’s more being honest with yourself, with am I focusing on the right things to get me started, and then bringing all the, you know, the shiny things in. But for me, that’s what true health is. All about is just getting those things right first,
Hayley Osborne
I think. Well, both of us own a business, and we have nothing but big goals and are high achievers, and I think you would see a lot of ambitious women in your world, and even business owners. But what health patterns do you see that are like the commonalities that come up, because obviously this audience that was to the podcast are business owners, and your answers, I think, will be like triggering, not triggering, but give a lot of yes nods. Oh yeah, I see that, I feel that. What do you commonly see, what patterns do you commonly see in highly ambitious women business owners?
Carolyn Allen
Definitely, like running on adrenaline, so they’ve forgotten what feeling rested feels like, that high cortisol, that kind of chasing their tails a little bit, and for clients, and I just had one where we spoke about you’re so used to being under stress that you don’t know what your true state is right now, and I see a lot of that, so a lot of skipping meals, a lot of, you know, dysregulation with blood sugar, gut health, I see a lot of people ignoring the, I call it like the knocks at the door, so this, they ignore the knocks at the door, and then what happens is we hit our 40s and those knocks become like a banging, they become harder to ignore, and that’s when we see people going, I’m burnt out, I can’t cope anymore, I’m feeling like everything’s just falling apart, and must be perimenopause, and for me, I look at and go, it might be your hormones changing, but there are so much more to hormones than just changing as we hit our 40s.
We have to look at that whole picture before we start, you know, blaming perimenopause for all sorts of things. We have to be honest with ourselves. Have I been eating the right foods? Am I eating too much? Am I skipping meals? Am I not eating enough? Am I, you know, coming home stressed? So I open a bottle of red wine and drink the whole bottle.
Am I not sleeping? Am I, you know, relying on sugar because it gives me that quick energy at 3o’clock after dinner, am I scrolling at night, you know, like I know for me I can easily get in the habit of a really full day where I don’t have much time to myself, and then at night, you know, you sit down and you’re like, now it’s my time, and you just like get your phone out and you start scrolling, and before you know it, I don’t know if anyone else is like this. I’m assuming they are, but you know, TikTok is like a vortex, and you just get in, and then three hours goes by, and you’re like, it’s midnight, and I am still looking at my phone. So that’s what I see a lot of really ambitious women doing, is just running on empty for too long, but then they crash.
Hayley Osborne
That’s scary, really scary. And I think let’s bring it back to you, because obviously you’re a health professional, and you obviously run a business, but you do spend time helping other people. And I think the question would be like, what have you learned about taking care of yourself while you’re building a business and serving your clients at the same time,
Carolyn Allen
Yeah, and I want to preface this by saying I’m not perfect and I’m all correct in my own behavior and my own health, and like I’m a qualified degree-qualified practitioner, you know, I know better, but I still fall off track. So, if you are the person listening to this and thinking I just do everything wrong, how am I going to get out of this? I also have to self-correct a lot. So, a lot of it is about not pouring from an empty cup, like you have to treat yourself as the main character of your life. So, even before children, you have to look after yourself, because then you’re looking after your children properly, and that’s a, or your family, and if you don’t have children, it isn’t – it’s like anyone around you, we tend to be giving at work too much, or so making sure your cup is full.
Um, sleep, are you sleeping properly? Are you going to bed, you know, at 930 are you leaving your screen off when you’re in bed? You’re not like laying down thinking I’m going to bed early, and then you just spend two hours. Are you drinking enough water? These are the things that I really focus on. I move every day, and that can be like just making sure I get my 10k steps in strength training, running yoga every day, and this isn’t like hours on end of me practicing these things. It is like 30 minute slots, you know what can I fit in with this 30 minutes in my morning, and then just eating really well, and you know it’s not about distorted eating or.
Having to be perfect, but food fuels your body. You need good food to have good energy, and for me, I know when I’m not feeling well because I’m moody, you know. If I’ve been pushing too hard and I’ve been ignoring myself, I lean straight for the chocolate, because it’s that quick dopamine hit that I get, and that helps move my energy. And then I get into this spiral, so a lot of it is about me being honest with myself, and it is a daily check-in, like, how am I actually feeling?
Hayley Osborne
Oh, yeah, 100% it’s a daily thing, because you can’t, I think, if you aim for too far ahead, you just fall off the rails every single time, but
Carolyn Allen
I always say, look at the next step, not the staircase, for my clients, like we have to walk up those stairs together, and every step is an achievement. Don’t look at the top of the staircase, because that will scare you off, it looks way too far in the distance. So just focus on every day, like, how have I gone today? Am I feeling a little bit better? Have I moved my body? Have I had enough water?
Am I prioritizing, you know, whole foods? So just bringing it back to the basics again, but making sure that it’s a daily check-in and not, oh well, just forget about it today, just, just come back, and you know it’s not a pass or fail, it’s just an awareness, so that you can step up the next day.
Hayley Osborne
Do you have any tips on, I guess, re rechecking in with yourself, like, so say you’ve had a really terrible week of being unkind to yourself, what are some really good tips that you could give our listeners that will help them not have, keep spiraling to be able to get back into, like, snap out of it and start, you know, doing better? Pretty much.
Carolyn Allen
I always go for a walk. You will be far more productive if you step away from whatever you’re doing, and go for a walk outside to reset your brain, like it’s proven that this works. So, step outside, go for a walk. I also think getting out of the mentality of I messed everything up, it’s Wednesday, I’ll just, you know, get the goal the rest of this week, and I’ll start again on Monday. I always say to my clients, who cares, just start again tomorrow morning,
Carolyn Allen
And you don’t have to wait till Monday to have a good week, you know. Start again tomorrow, and by Monday, you’re going to be feeling 100 times better. So, it’s not that all or nothing, it’s kindness to yourself, it’s getting outside to just get some fresh air, and also try to minimize how much social media you’re taking in, because when you’re not feeling good about yourself, you’re going to start hunting for new solutions to the problem, and then that becomes really confusing, so you might be really, you know, comfortable with what you’ve been doing.
You’re focusing on the foundations, something happens, you’re off track, and you think there must be a better answer than the foundations out there. I’m going to start a new cleanse on Monday, and I’m just going to like that it tends to be a spiral, and it just becomes a pattern where you start, you’re always disappointing yourself, so stick to the foundations. Tomorrow is always a new day, and then just get outside and get some fresh air.
Hayley Osborne
Yeah, I love that. Just from a selfish point of view, I actually have a goal this year where I sort of set these goals every year that they’re always different. My husband and I do it together, and they’re on the whiteboard. I think I’ve spoken to you about this already in our many conversations throughout the weeks, but for me, I wanted to do 12 one day, well, 1224 hour fasts this year.
So I’m doing one today, which will be the June fast, and I’ll do 24 and depending on how it goes, it could end up being 36 or 42 depending on it, like the morning the next day after the fast, and whatever. What’s your take on fasting as a, as a reset, kick up the pants kind of like line in the sand, because I’m a real like all or nothing type of girl, and I feel like for me, like fasting is definitely because it’s challenging, and so it’s like you put your body through its paces in a fast, it’s like a hard reset, and then from there I’m, I’m kind to my body, not that I’m not, but it’s like it’s, it’s such.. I love it once a week.
Hayley Osborne
Yeah. Okay. What’s your take on
Carolyn Allen
it? So, yeah, I like.. I don’t want to sound like it’s complicated, but it is
Hayley Osborne
complicated for.. it’s different for everyone, right?
Carolyn Allen
Yeah, sitting in front of me, but you fasting would be. Excellent, and you just time it with your cycle, so you’re not going to fast like in your luteal phase when everything’s, you know, a bit upside down, and you’re not feeling, you know, you come and you’re shitty with the
Hayley Osborne
world. Yeah,
Carolyn Allen
like you want to fast that first two weeks of your cycle, so pick a day there. Yeah, really, like to do with fasting is I will wake up, I will have my breakfast, I will have a coffee, and I’ll have it done by, say, 9am and then I fast until the next 9am so I’m not waking up sleeping fast, and then just fasting the whole time. I actually, and I always do it on a Sunday, I always do it at the right time of my cycle. If I’m finding that just everything feels a bit too much, that’s not the sign that you should be fasting. You want to come to fasting when you feel like you’ve got a little bit of vitality there. And again, depending on when you’re, what your hormones are doing, as well, a lot of women in perimenopause, fasting is too much for their bodies. Yeah,
Hayley Osborne
interesting.
Carolyn Allen
And for menopause, you know, a lot of women post menopause, fasting is excellent, and they really like it, they can do it a lot easier than some women in perimenopause. But again, we’re also different, so it’s about having a look at what works for you and where you’re at, so yeah, it just depends on the woman sitting in front of me with fasting, but yeah, I personally love it, but we’re not men, so don’t,
Hayley Osborne
yeah, no, well, my husband has bigger audacious fasting goals than me, so he is going to do doing 10 three day fasts for the year, so one a month for three days, and then two five day fasts for this year, so he’s already done one, and now he’ll do the next one later in the year, so they’ve like far apart, but he was researching, like, the benefits of, you know, fasting, and, like, and I said straight away, men and women are so different, like, if I was to do a three day fast, I don’t think I could, I would be so angry, and just I couldn’t parent my children,
Carolyn Allen
They’ve got hormones, and they’re doing different things.
Hayley Osborne
I would just be a wreck.
Carolyn Allen
Yeah, I think so. Like, if you’re ever confused about fasting, hit me up, like, ask me a question. Yeah, details at the end, but yeah, I can point you in the right direction, or create a guide that will help, because it can be a little bit confusing when you hear something’s really good and your experience
Hayley Osborne
is not,
Carolyn Allen
it’s not feel like you’re getting any benefits from it, but in terms of like longevity, gut health, all those things, like we aren’t really supposed to be eating the way we do, how much we eat constantly, and so the issue is just doing a bit of a clean up before you, you know, tackle, yeah,
Hayley Osborne
Yeah, and I think a lot of like people get like you said there was those knocking like soft little knocks, something isn’t right, and then they become louder and louder and louder until you can’t ignore them until something, you know, you know, like I like to say, when my son gets upset that you know the cheese is falling off the cracker, like, and that’s what kind of happens, like, why do you think so many people, I guess, become like disconnected from their body’s early signals, and those signals of, you know, and then they look to, yeah, what, like, what, what, where’s that disconnect? Because for me personally, I’ve always been very in tune with my body and what it’s saying to me, and what it needs, and how to move through the day, and you know all of those things, but where’s the disconnect? Are we just moving in society?
Carolyn Allen
Yeah, we expect so much from ourselves, and the issue is we get used to operating in a way that you just like head down, bum up, get it done. We’re also being marketed, marketed too heavily with solutions with food, you know. There’s food that is not the food of the past, so you know, I’ll see people now. Well, I used to have that as a kid, and that’s fine, but we’re having these blood sugar dysregulations, and a lot of people aren’t eating properly, and so what I see is your, it’s a combination of being used to pushing through, taking so much on because you’re capable of it.
We are really capable as women, we can take, we have so many plates in the. Yeah, and the, it’s not so much a deliberate, you know, ignoring of what’s going on, but it’s, it’s not as hard to ignore it in our 20s and 30s as it is, you know, our late 30s, 40s, 50s, when that, not that little tap becomes a bang, and that’s, you know, we are trying to do a lot, and the best thing that I say to women is a healthy menopause starts in your 30s. You know, it starts at 30. So, if you are, you know, looking after yourself, if you’re paying attention to the small things, like, oh, why, you know, when I get my period, I’m, you know, I’ve got all of these symptoms that happen.
Oh, well, I’ll just, you know, take the pill and just pretend it doesn’t exist, or you know, not looking at that root cause of what’s going on. That’s when it tends to become really loud later. So it’s ignoring things to push through, is what I think through no fault of people like I’ve done that, like I’m sure you’ve done it, when you’re just like I don’t have time for this little niggle, or just I can push through, but it’s just pulling yourself up and going, oh, it’s actually not normal that every month I feel this depressed symptoms going on, or my gut is always upset, but I’ll just ignore that. I just won’t eat this, or people often think, “Oh, my gut is playing up because it’s food related, and sometimes it’s not. It’s just a combination of things as well. So, it’s just looking at that whole picture and the root cause of why I
Hayley Osborne
feel like that’s just answered all my other questions, but I think one of the questions I wanted to ask, and it’s, it’s a general question, and I think it does come back to the foundations, as you were saying before, but if someone came to you saying something as basic as, I have no, I’m a business owner, and I have no energy, and I feel constantly overwhelmed. Where would you start?
Carolyn Allen
I would run some blood tests, I would have a look at, you know, just some basic things. I would have a look at, you know, I would work with them. So, we’d sit down for 90 minutes, and we would go through the whole picture, so pretty much from birth until now, and everything in between, we would go through all the symptoms that are happening, and I ask a lot of questions, you know, you might come to me with period pain and think, oh, why is she asking me about my gut health, or why she’s asking me about my, you know, whatever else, my skin, and then that allows me to kind of have a look at you as a whole person, and that will help me put the pieces together and work out.
Okay, you come with poor energy, you know, you’re feeling really depleted, you think it’s because you’re not sleeping well. I know that it’s because it’s a combination of, you know, your gut stress hormones, it’s not a low iron thing, because I, you know, that is also the thing where people go, “I’ve just got low iron, I’m like, energy is more complicated than that, so I would really encourage people to thoroughly look at their health, you know, we, it might be that we look at some hormone testing, some gut testing to look at your microbiome and everything that’s going on there. DNA testing is really useful as well, like you might be somebody who uses up all the B vitamins, you know, too quickly, and then you’re left depleted. We don’t know what we don’t know until we start to like diving in together. It’s often more complicated than I’m just not sleeping,
Hayley Osborne
and I say this all the time in business, is that knowledge is power. The more that you know, the more that you learn, the more that you read, listen to podcasts, you know, invest in yourself, the more holistically better off you are as a business owner, and you are then informed when things come your way, and I feel like it is exactly the same with your body, knowledge is power, so if you’re feeling like you know when, when you are healthy, your business flourish flourishes. So, yeah, when you’re feeling that off, or you know something isn’t right, that there probably is something that isn’t right.
And knowledge is power, so it’s really important to, I guess, just be in tune and seek help if you are not, yeah, because when you’re functioning at your optimal, everybody else benefits, and, like you said, you can’t pour from an empty cup. So I know that you, you’ve said so much, and thank you so much for just being able, being open to impart your knowledge. Knowledge and what you know, just with our listeners, but what are some really simple things that people can support their energy levels with, like naturally through the day.
Carolyn Allen
Well, taking time to walk away from your desk is a big one. I know a lot of people will just sit down, and before you know it, 12 hours have passed, and you haven’t actually had any water, you haven’t eaten properly. So, starting your day with a really good breakfast, so you know, 30 to 40 grams of protein, just a really balanced meal, so not just focusing on protein, but you know, have you had enough fiber, have you had enough healthy carbs, enough healthy fats, just making sure it doesn’t have to be perfect every day, but you’re starting your day with, you know, a good breakfast, and you’re doing that before you have coffee, so coffee won’t help your energy. First thing, you’re going to have your breakfast, then you’re going to enjoy your coffee, if you want to give yourself space between eating as well, like let your body actually digest the food.
You do not need breakfast, coffee, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, or search. And you know we all get in that habit where we’re like, I need two snacks and I need three main meals, and I need.. I just say, like, give your body space to digest. Make sure you’re having two liters of water every single day, at least. You might want to have some of that as a herbal tea, but we’re relying on water because that is going to be the best way to keep your energy up. Really good food, that’s quality food that isn’t too heavy, you know. You’re not going to have a burger for lunch and expect to have great energy later. You’re going to have, like, real again. It comes back to that balanced approach to eating enough water, and also just prioritizing.
Step away from your desk, you’ll be far more productive if you give yourself 10 minutes in the sunshine, and then come back and settle into the task, so they’re really small things. You don’t need all the supplements. The other thing I want to say is it’s really tempting, because I can confidently say you’re being marketed to with all solutions with supplements. You don’t know what you need until you work with somebody who has, like, studied and really can look at you as a whole person and say you genuinely need this, because your blood is telling me you need this. Yeah, but
Hayley Osborne
it’s the science,
Carolyn Allen
what you actually need. Don’t just, you know, see something and think, oh, I heard, you know, this is really good for energy, so I’m going to start taking it, because sometimes that will make you feel worse, or clash with your medication. There’s a lot to it, so really try not to be swayed by all of the ads that are coming your way, especially if you are tired, looking for quick fixes. Get back to those basics first, and then find somebody who feels like a good fit for you to have a consultation with.
Ask them the questions, like how can you be better supported, because ultimately that’s going to leave you in a position where your business will run better, because you’re feeling better and energetically when you’re showing up and you’re completely drained, everything else around you feels that drain, because that’s what you’re putting in and that’s what you’re putting out there to the universe and to the people, is this like real feeling of like this, you know, and it’s not attractive to you. I’m sure you don’t feel good about it, and it’s not attractive to your customers or the people around you. So, look after yourself first, and just nail those basics,
Hayley Osborne
I think. Yeah, health, I see a lot with the people in the health space, you know, you spend your days supporting other people to be healthy, and you yourself support people to be healthy every day. How do you, because that’s quite energetically draining as well, and I see it a lot. How do you personally, as a tip, protect your own energy and your well-being? Yeah,
Carolyn Allen
and again, I have to check in every day about this, because it was easy, like, to you know, I had a client the other day, and it was such a heavy session, a lot of heavy stuff was spoken about, and we had to, you know, a lot of things, a big, big road ahead for this person, and I just went to the kitchen, and I grabbed chocolate, and I just sat there, and I like, not that there’s anything wrong with chocolate, but if you have, like, kind of relying on things like that, it’s not going to help you to feel better, so I catch myself in the moments where I’m like, oh, I.
I’m craving this, and I, I sit with myself and think, what are you actually craving? Like, you’ve skipped lunch because you’re in this session, you’re going to the fridge, and the quick, like you’re eating chocolate because it’s there. Go make yourself an omelet, you know. Yes, have some water, go outside, so it is. You’re never going to be perfect every single day if you’re not checking in every day and thinking, what am I actually needing right now if I’m feeling drained, and the other thing is like trying to focus on your own path, putting the blinkers on and not seeing clients, then going on to do marketing stuff, where you’re looking at people who look like they’ve got the best lives ever, and they’re just seeing all of these clients and everything’s so easy.
Look, keeping your blinders on and just focusing on, I’ve just served as a practitioner, or whatever you’re doing, and I’ve really given a lot to this person, and I’m feeling a little bit like I’m depleted right now. How should I look after myself right now? And I think if you’re always asking the question, you will start to make it a priority, like you know, I am 130 today I’m going to go for a big walk before I pick my son up, could be working, you know. I didn’t have any clients until this afternoon.
I could spend the next hour just smashing out an article or doing something for my business, but I know that I will need that hour to clear my head, and that’s okay. You’re not, not every minute has to be productive, and if you are going from really intense one on ones to then trying to run the business and look at the marketing side of things, and then flipping to this thing, and then that thing,
Hayley Osborne
and then parenting your children,
Carolyn Allen
you have children, it’s energetically quite hard for us to flap around, and again, it’s that check-in, so that we avoid, you know, the bang at the door. This is this example of the knock at the door. These are the kind of days when you can just do that quick check-in and say, you know what, not going to go and, you know, eat that packet of chips to try and, you know, get that boost. I’m going to go for a walk. Have I had enough? Like, have I had lunch today? Have I had any water today? And that’s what I feel helps me as a practitioner, just that check in and being really kind to myself as well. So, just approaching it with that feels hard, or I’m feeling really tired, I’m not going to push through to the next part of my day. Yeah, moment,
Hayley Osborne
I think it’s really important to understand what your body is saying as well, and also like pats on the back when you have those, you know, you’re having those big conversations, but you’re also navigating like a in the future for whoever you’re helping a really positive outcome, and so you’ve, you’ve kind of like you’re part of the way through helping people achieve their goals, and whatever that looks like for them, and so that’s that’s huge to be able to help people to be healthier, to show up with, you know, therefore more kindness in the community, and just, you know, helping everybody do better. I think, looking ahead, what health conversations do you think that everyone needs to be having more often these days?
Carolyn Allen
I think, like, there’s a lot of conversation around, you know, GRP ones and quick fixes, not that. Sorry, I should prefer what’s a
Hayley Osborne
GRP
Carolyn Allen
one. Sorry, like a Zen Pick.
Hayley Osborne
Oh, I think nothing about that stuff, but yeah,
Carolyn Allen
There’s a lot happening at the moment with people who you know, whether they’re taking it or not. My role is never to judge someone, it is to kind of wait with where they’re at, you know. For a lot of people as well, the conversation needs to be, you’re not coming to me perfect, and then my job is to optimize you. You’re coming to me with, you know, whatever is happening for you, your, your mind, your body, even sometimes your spirit, like, how are you feeling really low? How do we come up with a plan that will get you to where you want to go without, you know, steamrolling you, because it has to be appropriate for the person and their vitality, so I could, I was, I know where I want you to go, but I’m not going to tell you in the first session.
All my ideas, we’re going to really like baby steps again. It’s a staircase of what’s the first step. Let’s get that first step done. So, a lot of the conversations I think with health will be around. And undoing a lot of damage, you know, I am seeing a lot of clients who are taking different things, peptides, you know, ozempic things like that, where we’re having to look at some of the issues that that’s brought up, you know, for a lot of people this has been an opportunity to release weight that they haven’t been able to, but I also have people who now have issues with losing weight, and real, like a real fear around putting it back on, or that stagnation that happens with the medication, and then worrying about coming off it, so it’s almost like a new wave of distorted eating that’s happening, so it’s undoing a lot of that mess and that food noise that can come about, so for me it really is about, okay, what’s actually going on, what are the foundations underneath what you’re doing, are they okay?
You know, what’s.. how’s your gut health? How are your hormones? How’s your liver? So, I would like to think that the conversation is heading more towards a holistic root cause. Again, I am not a Pollyanna. I know there’s big money to be made with certain things, but my role is to help the people who you know are so off track, but meet them where they’re up without that judgment, because I think a lot of people will be come to me feeling a little bit ashamed, and I, it hurts my heart when people feel that way, I’m like, don’t worry about it, like, we all, we all get off track, and we, everyone will have something that they’re working on. You don’t,
Hayley Osborne
absolutely. So, yeah, there’s a lot,
Carolyn Allen
there’s a lot, and there’s a lot of social media has a lot to answer for, with some damage that’s been done, it’s the confusion as well for a lot of people with what the right, you know, with what the right way to go is, so there’s like a real, oh my god, shiny objects, you know, oh, I should be doing that, nope, nope, keto is right for me, nope, nope, I’m going to go on Ozempic, nope, nope, I’m going to, you know, carnival diet, you know, I see so many things, I’m like, yeah, God, like, just
Hayley Osborne
stop the noise,
Carolyn Allen
yeah,
Hayley Osborne
yeah, I think stay in your lane, no one else is in that lane, and just
Carolyn Allen
me as well, like, yeah, enough functional tests when I run them, DNA tests, gut health tests, hormone tests, so you are a unique person. No one is like you, and no plan should just be generic. You should look at what’s actually going on with you, your blood, that you know, your pathology, and then come up with a plan that’s tailored for you, that you can easily do, rather than always feel, you know, you’re deprived of something.
Hayley Osborne
Yeah, I think you just answered my last question, which was, if we could walk away, if every listener can walk away with something and implement one thing that would positively impact their health and therefore their business, and you know it’s a chain reaction. What would it be? And I think that’s the answer.
Carolyn Allen
Look at yourself as a look at yourself as a whole person, like you are perfect the way you are. You do not have to optimize anything. You can look at yourself and think, I might have A, B, and C going on, but I’m going to work through them. I’m still a beautiful human. I just have to work through some health issues rather than always thinking I’m not enough. You don’t, you don’t come to a practitioner, you don’t come to a practitioner perfectly. You come with what’s going on and allow somebody to meet you with where you’re at, and then just everything will get better. There’s always a way, is what I say to my clients. There’s always a way to feel better, always.
Hayley Osborne
Oh, I love talking to you so
Carolyn Allen
much. I listen to your podcast every week. You are too
Hayley Osborne
kind, and you send me the nicest messages to you when you love an episode like this one was fire, I’m like, you made my day.
Carolyn Allen
I would probably send you one weekly, because it’s just a song, and you know it’s really nice to put things in a simple way, where you know some of the more complicated ways of marketing are just it’s simple, and in the same way I like to operate, like, yeah, just take a breath, like just get A, B, and C done first.
Hayley Osborne
Do you know what’s going to happen now when you go on your next walk, and you’re like, “Oh, I’m just going to listen to a podcast, you’re going to hear yourself on my cook. Oh my god. That’s why that happened to me once. It happened to me when, yeah, I was on Claire Woods’ podcast as a guest, and I used to listen to it all the time. And then I was in the car one day, and that happened, and I was like, “That’s me. Oh, my god, so funny.
Carolyn Allen
My son will be like, he loves listening to me.
Hayley Osborne
Oh, he’s
Carolyn Allen
like, can we listen to you again on this? That is so
Hayley Osborne
cute. This, I’m like, well, maybe my kids might be like that one day. Hopefully they don’t. I don’t think they actually know what I do. Yeah, okay. A few years away, yep, yeah. So he’s pretty similar to me. He’s into you. I know my kids are into themselves and each other, just like.. oh boy. Alright, well, if my listeners want to know how to find you, can you please let me know about your website? Where do you hang out the most?
Carolyn Allen
I’m always on Instagram, although top tip, I did install Aura, like it’s an app that blocks you, so you can put blocks on. So I started to block my evenings, and last week I read two books, because I blocked, yeah, I did. I read two books. Normally I’m like a book a month lately, and I didn’t have anything to scroll, so that you can find me the Balanced Naturopath, or if you want to go to my website, it is Carolyn Allen health.com Yeah, but it should all be in your, your notes. It will be
Hayley Osborne
all in my show notes.
Carolyn Allen
A question, or you know, needs anything answered, just send me an email. You’re welcome to. I love hearing from people, so even if you don’t want to book in, still you’re welcome to ask questions.
Hayley Osborne
That’s really lovely. Thank you so much.
Here’s how you can find the lovely Carolyn and work with her:
You can Book a free 30-minute consultation at www.carolynallenhealth.com
OR visit @thebalancednaturopath on Instagram.
