Nicole Garrott with Don’t Stop Living Wellness, shares her expertise as a holistic nutrition coach to help you live your best food life!
Here is the transcript from the presentation:
Ryan: But, Abby was kind enough to make an introduction to us today and us, so everyone I would like to introduce Nicole, who is going to talk to us, presumably about how nutrition can not only help us stay healthy, but also excel in our job.
Ryan: So, everyone, let’s give Nicole a hand.
Nicole: Thank you, thank you for having me. As you mentioned, my name is Nicole. I am a holistic nutritionist.
Nicole: I just started a business called Don’t Stop Living Wellness. My passion for nutrition started, basically my whole life.
Nicole: I’ve been interested in nutrition, nutrition since I was a very young girl. I always had issues with health, and probably, 10 to 15 years ago, I discovered I have celiac disease, so I’ve always had an acid reflux and all these other stomach issues, and I discovered I had celiac disease and that’s when it was newer.
Nicole: A disease, which is autoimmune disease, and it attacks your small intestines. I can’t have gluten, pasta, bread, unless it is gluten free, so I went back to school, did holistic nutrition, instead of being a dietitian, where I work in the hospital, because there wasn’t that much research on how to be, how to eat gluten free, so I decided to go to celiac, sorry, not celiac disease, the holistic route for that.
Nicole: The name of my business is Don’t Stop Living, because, if you can imagine, you go to restaurants, they serve pasta that’s not gluten free, a lot of them. If you go to your friend’s house, I can’t have cakes and cookies and fried chicken with regular flour, so with that, I learned how to cook on, basically, on a budget, as I do have three children, gluten free, so I named my business Don’t Stop Living, so you still can go out, have lunch and dinner with your friends and go to your friend’s house and not isolate yourself because of, you can’t eat certain things.
Nicole: So, within my business, I have a nutrition coaching business where I help people with those challenges of being comfortable to still live their life every day if they have a food allergy or if they’re trying to gain or lose weight, just to be more comfortable and have confidence within themselves. And I help stress management, and nutrition, and sleep, as well, and pain, within my business, and how to heal, whether that’s removing food or adding food to your diet, how you can heal if you don’t have energy or if you’re not sleeping, all of it goes back to food, so it’s a little bit about what I do.
Ryan: And so, Nicole, who are some of the best prospects of who you can help? And what are some of the ways that you’re able to help some of those specific prospects?
Nicole: Right now, we’re doing a lot with women, mostly busy women. Whether that’s moms or in the workforce, if they’re having issues that they’re always tired, they don’t know what, why they’re so tired.
Nicole: Take a look at their diet or their everyday activity and see how we can improve that. Or if they’re having stomach pain. I’ve been dealing lately the last month with parents that have autistic children or ADHD children, looking at their diet and their habits and seeing how we can improve that.
Nicole: If you are, I’m a mom, have three kids. My kids always play sports, their whole life. So, you know we’re always on the go. So, if my son’s at a basketball game, I can’t stop at McDonald’s or Subway and have a sandwich even though they have salads there, a lot of times I still can’t eat what they serve at those restaurants.
Nicole: So, I wouldn’t say meal prep, because I don’t really like that word. I call it meat prep. So, how you can prep dinner with meat and make different meals out of that.
Nicole: So, that’s what I coach, and that’s how I help women.
Nicole: And so, you don’t have to have your kids always eating fast food. But then you’re not sitting at the kitchen two to three hours every night to prepare a meal.
Ryan: Does anyone else have?
Jeannette: I was going to say I have. I’m not full celiac. I have a cousin who is, but I have a gluten allergy and people just do not understand when you say I can’t eat bread or I can’t eat pasta. Now, there are some, Barilla has a gluten free pasta, and I’m also diabetic so I don’t-
Nicole: Yes, they do not.
Jeannette: Can’t eat a lot of pasta because it’s just not healthy for the diabetic portion. But about every four or three months, we’ll have spaghetti one night, because my husband is very good about following my diet, so when he says I’d like to have spaghetti, no problem, we have spaghetti, but we do stick to the, the gluten free on those items.
Jeannette: So, and people are highly offended when you don’t eat, well, I’m sorry, but you don’t want to see the reaction I’m going to have, when I go racing to the bathroom, so it’s, it’s very difficult and you’ve learned over the years what you can eat, what you can’t and you just have to be vigilant about it and stay on it every minute.
Nicole: Yes, that is a very good point. I struggled with that, kind of semi went into depression because, you know, you go over family’s house and they’re upset and get offended because I can’t eat at their house but they didn’t understand cross contamination. So, even if they do make a salad, you know, how did you prepare the salad, or if you make tacos, taco’s, a huge one. If you use the pepper- the package that’s at the store. A lot of that contains wheat, and people like, Oh well, I made tacos. I made you a Taco salad.
Nicole: I’m sorry, I can’t eat it, so it did somewhat cause depression until I learned how to, I’d usually bring something, if I go to someone’s house, I say, Oh well, I cooked this and then I eat that, so then they don’t get offended, so that’s how I navigated around that with my family. But that is a very good point.
Nicole: You feel terrible, if something, even if with a cross contamination. That’s very, very good point.
Jeannette: We attend a meeting once a month that has a pitch in dinner and I always take something that I can eat and if that’s the only thing, that’s I do, that’s what I do.
Nicole: Yeah, at least you’re still eating with them. So yes, yes.
Omotayo: OK, hi this is Omotayo again. Can you hear me?
Nicole: Yes, we can hear you.
Omotayo: OK, so it’s, for celiac disease. I remember that, I don’t have it and I don’t have the gluten thing, but I remember some years ago when I was trying to get pregnant, and I needed to understand, perhaps because I mean, they came up, they come up with a lot of phrases, or I think you have a hormonal imbalance, you have this, you have that.
Omotayo: So, I remember having to go back to my diet and trying to understand exactly what might be, and that was when I came across celiac and gluten and I was trying to understand perhaps, if I have any of those things, however, as I having children, so I would like to know, and this is a different, and I mean and that was back home in, in Nigeria, so here I would like to know what are the possible symptoms you are likely to see, to know perhaps if your child has a allergy to something, or has issues with their gluten, or I mean have, maybe, symptoms of celiac.
Omotayo: So that’s. I mean. you don’t wait till you have your reaction before you take action. I would like your opinion on that, thank you.
Nicole: OK, usually it just depends on if your child is having, after they eat gluten, if they’re tired, itchy, sometimes you have, people like to say eczema a lot, so looking to see if you have a dry patch or if you’re itchy or not.
Nicole: Stomach pain is a huge one, especially in children. If they’re having stomach pain, then we start to look at the diet and see what the child’s eating. If they have stomach pain or not. Rashes, vomiting and diarrhea is a huge one.
Omotayo: OK, and now I’m quickly gonna piggy ride on the on the stomach pain thing, because I know my daughter is always complaining that she’s always itchy, and we’ve gone through, I mean, we’ve been through clinics a couple of times, but I also understand that sometimes when I go to the hospital, you have to use certain words or you, I mean, I don’t know, but I feel that if you, if he doesn’t get to a certain point, sometimes your doctors don’t take action, because I remember quite a number of,
Omotayo: OK, so now the, at the last visit we had to change, they recommended a new cream for her because she’s always itchy. I mean, she’ll be like Mommy, I’m itchy and we just have a bath and, you know, so we are trying a lot of things and that’s why perhaps very interested in this.
Omotayo: And sometimes when she takes milk. I mean, that’s the only thing I’ve noticed, when she takes milk, she’s like Mommy, my tummy hurts and I’m like, OK, maybe it’s because we are in a hurry to get to school, you know?
Omotayo: So, I mean, but I also know that our grandmother has lactose intolerance. So, what question should I be asking at the hospital? Or what comments should I be making so that, I mean, they can take us serious, and perhaps if there is, I mean even if it’s lactose intolerance we can deal with it now, she’s 5 now.
Nicole: So, so, usually when something like that happens, you know, you’re still good to you, know, follow up with your doctor and they, you can talk to more about that doctor.
Nicole: But what I offer is a consult, you can meet with me, we’ll look at a whole week of her diet and then see if we can find the trigger. And then if she gets better after I remove things, then I show you how to adjust her diet to accommodate whatever was triggering her.
Omotayo: OK.
Nicole: So, my information is, I’ve listed my information in there and I would love to speak with you one-on-one and go over her diet and then see what I can, how I can help you improve her eczema.
Omotayo: I see. OK.
Nicole: You’re welcome.
Ryan: Does anyone else have questions for Nicole?
Jeannette: I, I, just one more comment, I’d like to make. When I first discussed this with my doctor more than 10 years ago, she told me there is a test that can be run for the celiac or the gluten allergy. She said it is very expensive. It is not always reliable, so you have to do a lot of self-care at that point, where you modify your diet and you just, you make note of what you can and cannot eat.
Nicole: Yes, that’s a very good point, and that’s part of the reason why I did go into the field of the holistic route.
Nicole: Because if you can, if I can just sit there and talk to you and go over your diet and look to see what you’re eating, that you don’t have to spend a lot of money and have a lot of tests done. I have had so many tests done in my life since I probably was seven years old.
Nicole: I’m trying to figure out what was causing me so much vomiting and, and pain in my stomach and took them 20 years plus to figure out that I had celiac disease, less than 12% of African Americans have celiac disease and not knowing my dad’s family history, my dad’s biracial.
Nicole: I did one of the genetic tests, so I do have, so that was one of the reasons my doctors didn’t look for celiac disease and I started looking at my symptoms after all these tests, my mom running me back and forth to Riley Hospital to Saint Vincent.
Nicole: In my 20s, I started doing research on my own and then I discovered celiac disease and, and then that’s when I looked to see and asked my doctor to test me for it and he was very reluctant to at 1st, until I got so sick, my job took me off work for a month. And once they did that, they said OK, we have to figure out what’s going on with you.
Nicole: And then I did have it, so also dealing with, OK I have this. How do I eat? How do I deal with life? It was really emotional for me that I had struggled for so long, was I advocate for myself, and my doctor didn’t want to listen to me.
Nicole: So, you were correct, it’s very expensive. My mom still is paying on all my hospital bills. You know, for years of tests and taking off work, and I’m just grateful that I did advocate for myself and find out what’s wrong with me, and that’s why I’m here to help people.
Nicole: So, if it’s not to a point to where I was at, where I couldn’t even go to work but you’re just itchy or you don’t feel good, if I’m able to help someone else, then I want to do that.
Nicole: So, I’ve made this my full-time career now, it’s helping people with food allergies.
Ryan: Nicole, I, I know celiac and gluten allergies are fairly common and, and lactose intolerance, but what are some of the other common food allergies that exist, that are, I guess not normally caught, or things that you could help your clients identify.
Nicole: [Audio cut out] disease is one that can affect your diet.
Nicole: You kind of cut out on me, but I think you were asking me about food, other food triggers besides gluten and dairy, is that correct? Peanut allergy, we know that’s a huge one, so many people have peanut allergies.
Nicole: Red dye is one. A lot of people have red dye issues.
Nicole: Gluten, so those are some, those are some of them. I don’t, gluten, I hate that bread and gluten and dairy gets such a bad rap, but it’s just not easy for our stomach to process.
Nicole: Same thing with peanuts and peanut oil and it’s in so much stuff and we don’t know. And MS and MSG. And so, mainly I see a lot of people with those issues.
Nicole: We can, gut issues, weight loss, people saying they don’t eat. I, uh, I barely eat anything but I can’t lose weight, I’m, so I’ve had a lot of clients lately since we’re getting close to the holidays reach out for me to help lose weight and why am I not losing weight and I eat all the time.
Nicole: So, I take a look at it with them with that.
Nicole: And believe it or not, one thing that, broccoli a lot of people have problem processing broccoli and hummus.
Nicole: So, not necessarily just allergic to it, but it causes a lot of stomach pain.
Nicole: So, that’s another trigger that I’ve been noticing myself after I was gluten free and I stopped eating them.
Nicole: I was like why am I having so much stomach pain and I found that it was hummus. Good old hummus.
Nicole: Because you go to hummus because you can’t have dairy and you can’t have wheat. And that’s something you can have because it’s gluten free and my stomach didn’t like it. So those are some things.
Cindy: Nicole, do you, have you seen people, because I have a gluten intolerance, I don’t have celiacs, but I went like, probably at least 30 years trying to figure out what was bothering my stomach and I figured it out myself. I did get tested for Celiacs, which I don’t have, but I also find that fresh vegetables bother me.
Nicole: Yep, that’s that broccoli. Yeah, you’re for some reason, your body can’t process and break fresh vegetables down, and that can cause you, and this is the worst pain, right?
Cindy: Oh, it’s terrible. I’ve gone through it for so many years. Once I cut the gluten out, it was like, amazing, my, that’s why I never even missed it. I, I’m not, I don’t have celiac, so every once in a while, I can have it, as long as I don’t overdo it, I have just a little bit.
Nicole: Overdo it, yes.
Cindy: But I can’t, I can’t do the fresh vegetables either. I can eat just a little bit in small amounts, just regulated. So, and I’m like, I love eating healthy food, so, it’s almost like I can’t eat like whole grains. Obviously, I can’t eat fresh, a lot of fresh vegetables, so it’s like, I’m almost, I feel like I’m kind of, I have to eat kind of junk food, if you want, you know, what, I’m saying so, I don’t, but it makes it very difficult.
Nicole: You still can, if you eat fresh vegetables, is it, have you try steaming them a little bit, is, how, how does your body do with that? If you steam it a little bit and not eat it raw?
Cindy: If I eat fresh, like not fully cooked vegetables. They, they have to be fully cook. If I eat a lot of them, it’ll bother.
Nicole: OK.
Cindy: It almost triggers it, almost like the gluten effect, yeah?
Nicole: Yeah, and that’s a good point. The difference between celiac disease where you can’t have gluten and gluten intolerance.
Nicole: So, celiac disease, for most people with celiac disease, you can’t even touch it, like, you can’t make your kids pancakes. I can’t cook out of the pot with gluten noodles.
Nicole: When you have a gluten, gluten intolerance, it just upsets your stomach. It’s not necessarily like you can’t touch it. So, it’s so I can’t touch anything with wheat in it. It bothers me, if, if I touch my face with oils, I have, uh, break out and finally my skin is finally healing from that because I would still eat- cooking it for my kids early on and not knowing that you, that I can’t even touch it.
Nicole: So, I can’t, you know, cut a piece of cake or do any of those things; and gluten intolerance, it just makes you feel yucky versus I’m actually affecting your small intestines, and your skin, and your body.
Nicole: But yes, I have had people that can’t process vegetables as well. So yes, that’s another thing, I’m, I’m also like that too. I can’t eat tons of vegetables or my stomach’s like nope.
Nicole: So yes, so just knowing your body, listening to your body, that’s a good, that’s a skill I should have said. Listen to your body, no, we don’t like that. Yeah, so that’s a good one.
Ryan: Nicole, with the holidays coming up and, and you know parties happening, what are some things that we could serve that, if we don’t know guests have these allergies and intolerances, what are some things that we could offer that are commonly good for people with these allergies?
Nicole: That’s a good question. So, turkey, most turkeys are gluten free. You can check it, but Butterball I believe is a gluten free turkey, and not putting the turkey, like my family always puts the Turkey inside of the pan with the dressing. So, then you contaminated the whole turkey, mom. She finally got it two years ago to stop doing that.
Nicole: So, if you have your turkey separate and not put it in, don’t add, like some people use broth. Let the turkey make its natural broth because the broth you added some of that has gluten in it, so just a regular cooked turkey and water and your fresh ingredients, whatever you use, that’s one thing.
Nicole: A ham, most hams are gluten free, so they can have ham so they can have their meat protein.
Nicole: You can do a salad, and not do croutons in the salad. Just do a nice vegetable salad. And then, if you check, most Italian dressings are gluten free. An Italian dressing, that’s a good thing to have a salad, turkey, if you do fresh mashed potatoes, where you peel them and you add the milk in it and don’t add anything else in it. Just a little salt and pepper. Mashed potatoes is good.
Nicole: What else do I normally have?
Nicole: That’s something easy you can go to. I think those are my top ones. Hummus, even though I can’t have that. That’s a good one to have, and just make sure your tortilla chips, if you serve it with the hummus, or, like Cindy says, she can’t do fresh vegetables, so maybe have an option to have gluten free tortilla chips to dip the hummus in. That’s something quick and easy to go to.
Nicole: Now, so many stores, you’ll see the GF on it for gluten free. I don’t, I’m not a big fan of, I can’t, I’m not gonna say I can’t afford, I don’t want to spend that amount of money on whole like Whole Foods or Fresh Time.
Nicole: So, Meijers and and Aldis are my best friends, because it’s not expensive, so you grab something there for them. They probably will cry. I usually cry when I go to people’s house and they have something, they’re like, this is just for you and no one else can touch it, it’s not contaminated. It makes me feel so special.
Nicole: So, that’s a great question because just the little things you know, if you really watch how you cook things and the seasoning, don’t add a lot of crazy seasonings into it.
Nicole: It’s really emotional for people because you can’t imagine the, the emotions they worked up before they came to your house, like people are gonna be asking me why can’t you eat this? Why won’t you try this? And it, it really affects you.
Nicole: So, if you know someone in your family that is gluten free, not to like broadcast that everyone that’s there, but maybe tell them it’s like, hey, if you know I’m inviting my friend Cindy. And if you don’t see her eating you’re dressing mom, don’t get offended. She can’t have it and don’t make weird conversations with her about it like she’s an alien.
Nicole: So, that really helps if you do that around the holidays. Just kind of prep the people that’s going to be around if you do have someone with food allergies, so they don’t feel outcasted.
Nicole: That was a longer answer that you asked me, but I thought I’ll throw that in there real quick.
Ryan: So, a follow-up question, since you mentioned cross contamination, how do we make sure that if we’re cooking both products, or both, both foods in the kitchen, how do we make sure that we don’t inadvertently introduce the allergen into their food?
Nicole: Maybe if you use a different spat, like maybe your red spatula, different color one, and say OK all the red ones are only for these foods, because those are gluten free. Do not use this for anything else, and maybe put that on a different side of the counter, and like this is the area for these foods that we cooked.
Nicole: I know and, 1st in my house I used to label it, had a labeler and I’ll put gluten free and my kids didn’t read the label, they didn’t care, they still used my toaster. So, maybe putting it to a different side of the counter and letting everyone know, and then maybe using a different color, like red is like, you know that’s a vibrant color.
Nicole: Don’t use this, the red silverware. You can get those at the Dollar Tree for a dollar and people know not to use that on anything else.
Nicole: And, you would not imagine the things that we are seeing when it comes to seasoning. And so many season packs, so many seasonings that you buy at the store has wheat in it. So, you may think your famous chili is gluten free and it’s not because of the seasoning that you put in it if it comes out of a container, it’s not a onion or green pepper or fresh vegetable that you use or garlic.
Ryan: Does anyone else have any questions for Nicole?
Ryan: Alright, well let’s give her a hand for her presentation today.
Nicole: Thank you guys.
Ryan: Awesome, Nicole. Your presentation was very helpful and thank you for joining us to share and one last time, how can someone get in touch with you if they want to learn more or are ready to have that conversation about changing their diet?
Nicole: I’m available, you can text me or call me, I listed my cell phone number in there, it’s [redacted]. That’s my direct number. I’m on Facebook and Instagram. I’m learning how to navigate through that. But I am on Facebook a lot and I do record myself cooking things and different fun meal ideas on Facebook.
Nicole: I’m trying to get more savvy with that now and I do have a Gmail account you can e-mail me also and I put that on here also. So yes, please feel free to reach out to me.
Ryan: Awesome, all right, well, Nicole, thank you for your presentation today.
