How to see medications as band aid solutions for chronic diseases, and step into long term holistic work for lasting results with Arwa Hussain

0:00Hey Mark. Hey Katie. Hey you want to do a podcast? Yeah. Sweet okay. Welcome to the Umforget Yourself Show where we use the power of Lou and the proof of science to help you identify your blind spots and get over your own bullshit so that you can do the fucking thing you actually want to do. Absolutely. I'm Mark. And I'm Katie. And we're the founders of Unforget Yourself and the creators of the Unforget Yourself system. Look, being a business owner is tough with vulnerability and with humour, we'll be sharing with you the real stories behind the success of those brave and crazy enough to start their own business and to show you that you're not alone. Not from the accidental entrepreneur to the laser focus CEO. We have honest conversations about how they get to where they are today. We talk about the challenges that they faced and what they're currently dealing with in real time on the roller coaster. Long the way we want to show you that it's you. You are the most important asset in your business. Yeah you are. So let's cut the bullshit and start

1:02the show. Enjoy. Okay. Hello everyone and welcome to the show. Now just a quick interruption to your normally scheduled episode. If you wish more people knew you, trusted you and actually reached out wanting to work with you, this is for you. Most experts try to post more shout louder or chase attention. But the truth is clients don't come from content. Clients come from real connections and that's why we built the profitable podcast system. We'll help you create your own simple relationship with a different podcast that brings the right people into your world. It builds trust fast and turns amazing conversations into clients, content, impact and opportunities and all without you becoming a marketer or an influencer. So you don't need a big audience. You just need the right people hearing your voice, feeling your energy and thinking, okay I get you. I trust you. I need to work with you. So if you want a proven way that actually grows your business, not just your to do list,

2:04head over to profitablepodcasts.com and we'll show you how this will work for you. And now onto your scheduled podcast episode. So today we have this hour who's saying a clinical pharmacist and healthcare practitioner who helps women struggling with burnout, chronic fatigue, brain fog and stubborn weight to regain their energy and rebuild their health through functional and holistic medicine through personalized coaching and holistic interventions. Our guides women to uncover food triggers, improve gut health and move beyond temporary symptom management towards long term health and sustainable wellness. Now, our own journey through chronic fatigue, burnout, brain fog, stress and that stubborn weight demonstrates the power of transformation that can happen when you stop relying on quick fixes and begin addressing the root cause of your health challenges. Animal balancing life as a single mother, pharmacist and growing business owner. She's helping women understand they are not stuck and that lasting healing is possible with the right support

3:09and approach. Our welcome to the show. Thank you. That was so amazing. Thank you for having me. You're so welcome. Thank you so so much for joining us. So to kick us off, can you just expand a touch more on where you are today with your business and who is it? Tell me about these women that you love to work with. Yes, so I love working with women who are feeling dismissed, who are going through burnout fatigue, who are pushing through. They feel off, but everything at the doctor's office, they're being told that everything's normal, that your labs look fine, you don't need to worry about anything, but they don't feel fine. And they don't understand what to do or what's going on in their body. So I like what I like to do is show them what the body is communicating so they can get deeper guidance and support. Well, let's talk about this trust. I think it's a good word. We talk about trust a lot with

4:11yet marketing and business, but the trust with one's self is huge here. But for those women who they feel something's off, they know it, they feel it, they sense it. However, to be told, everything's fine. Labs look good. You're in the normal range. Now that can be so frustrating, it can be so confusing. How do you help these women to be able to start to trust themselves and speak up when they know they're wrong, but they're told otherwise? Right. So I would encourage them to, well, when I talk to them and they talk to me about their frustrations, I kind of validate it. You know, because it's important to let them know that I hear you and I know where you're coming from because I've seen this over and over. It happens to me. So I validate the feelings. And then I ask them to prioritize, like, what is your priority?

5:15What are your goals? And then we take it from them. You know, but it's important to validate and let them know that I hear you. You're not making it up. You know, this is real. This is valid. And you ballets, let's bust that myth around that. We said earlier, the doctors, the lab saying you're normal. That normal range is so wide and doesn't take into consideration other factors. So tell me about how that can be misleading because that can be maybe the most frustrating part. Right. So a normal range is where bills are mostly men. When they did the studies, you know, they looked at a majority of the men. And so it didn't really consider women. It didn't really consider women who are going through hormonal changes. Right. And the ranges are so wide. It doesn't look at functional. I mean, it's like, what is your body functioning? Yeah.

6:17So it's important to kind of kind of know where you're at. Like, you have to look at objective and subjective. How are you feeling? What are your subjective issues? Like, I feel tired, exhausted. And at the same time, you look at the objective data and you work on the total body together. Not just look at numbers. And then assume that, you know, this is okay, just because this, this, this, this, this, this objective doesn't match the objective. Yes. So that's kind of like the issue that I've seen healthcare right now is you come in, you do your blood test, you look at your numbers, everything looks fine, or the numbers will look fine. Here's a prescription, right? And then a few months later, you're on medication, you're still not feeling okay. Now maybe you have side effects. Now you're taking another medication for your side effects and it's becoming into this vicious circle. So I do see a lot of these women who take multiple meds throughout the years, they keep changing it, but they're still not getting better,

7:17which is why the inspiration of going into holistic and deeper health came to me. You know, because I've seen these patients and every month their prescription would just keep on increasing. You know, they would get this and then they would get another one. And now they have a side effect. It's right more than, right? More than, yeah, and it just seemed like a more like a bandage approach. Like you're using a med to alleviate something that's temporary that's happening, right? Versus looking at like, okay, are you, how are you sleeping? Like what are you eating for breakfast? Nobody will ask you that when you're at the doctor's office, right? Nobody has ever asked me, what do you eat for breakfast? What time do you go to bed? How often do you eat before you sleep? That is a super duper point because I think yes, we can throw rocks and shade at different professions or different practitioners, but in reality, a lot of doctors don't have time to spend with patients. They haven't got so lovingly. They don't have the time to ask the deep real questions.

8:19So that's a problem with the industry, not the specific person. There's much as they maybe want to. So they only get part of the story. I love that you said that. So it sounds so clear. You said, it's the subjective experience versus the objective data. So we cannot discount any more of the subjective experience. I know me. I feel this. Something is off. That, it sounds like for you is a an invitation to explore further. I don't know why this came to me, but I bought a property in UK years ago and they had a horrendous back garden and we had to sort of dig down, get rid of some soil under all this top soil and junk was a path and a deck. They had just thrown soil and grass over the top of something to be like, that will solve the problem, but it didn't. So maybe it's a different sort of analogy here, but I feel that that's to dig away and find, ah, here's what's

9:25really going on or here's how these hormone imbalances, these things are playing their part. So tell me about your, the invitation that you are given with your clients to explore further to find the roots, the real problem. Yeah, I mean, I do agree that there's more time with the clients when they work with you on one-on-one. You can spend an hour with them and go through every single thing in their lifestyle. You know, you have more time to explore versus being in the doctor's office. So I mean, doctors are amazing. They do their best, but you're right in terms of time constraints. What I would, I would definitely give more time. I do work with women for six months or longer, which I feel is much needed to go into like the deeper root causes. I'll explore everything from their mornings to, up until they go to bed, their lifestyle. I want to know what date, how they

10:25want to live their life, right? Because then I create a program that's tailored to us then, because if I just have a cookie cutter approach, nobody's going to work on it, right? Because it's just going to feel like a burden, like, oh, I have to do this, but I'm not really enjoying it. Like, I want women to heal, but at the same time tailor something that, that actually do, number one, they'll actually enjoy doing it. And it kind of, kind of catures around their lifestyle. And something that they want to do. Like, for example, some women don't like working up, right? Like, oh, I don't want to go to the gym and work out. So I'm going to say, well, how about we find something that you will enjoy? And then I had one person who actually enjoyed taking classes versus just going to the gym and working out by herself, she enjoyed like being in a class, being with a coach, and that motivated her, right? So instead of just forgetting about exercise, we found like these workarounds for them to do. And that's kind of like the big role that I want to play. Tailored specific to your lifestyle. I love that. So it's, it's gifts on a plan they actually

11:30enjoy. So that they actually do it. So it's tailored to them. This is revolutionary, right? This is, how can that work better? It's, it's, it's so much common sense. I love it. Can you tell me about some, maybe some, an example of maybe these, these are hard moments that when you've been working with these women, they didn't realize this one thing that they were doing or this one thing that they were experiencing was actually like the gateway to hold on. We've uncovered something big here. You must have loads of stories like that. Yes, I'll give you one that happened recently. There was a woman going through burnout fatigue, you know, and there was, there was a lot of stress, right? Like, what's going on around the world? Financial issues, kids, right? All these things they've managed. So then, so then I said to her, I think there's, there's a lot of stress inside your body. You know, like you have external stress, but your body is fighting because there's stress in your cells. You have inflammation, you know, your blood sugar is out of control.

12:32And you have like, well, maybe it's more and more medical term, but your mitochondrial energy is low. Your cells have low energy. And your, your body is in internal stress. And I think it just hit her that she always looked at as a perspective of stress as being external. Like, oh, my kids have this and I don't have enough money and there's all these things going on in the world. But nobody thinks of stress as like internal. Like your body is going through its own stress. And you can control the stress that's going on outside of you. Sometimes, we can definitely control the stress inside of you by doing the activities, by changing your nutrition, by changing your lifestyle. You can definitely lower the inside stress, which will eventually help you lower the stress around you. And I think that was one of the biggest, I have moments for someone who realized, oh, my God, I can definitely control what I do with my body, even though I can control everything around, you know, or what people say to me. But so I think that was very liberating. You know,

13:36I was very invigorating to have that and understand that that that feels control. It's so empowering to be like, okay, we can barely control anything. We think we can, but we can't control other people or situations. We can't control the planet or the weather or the political landscape. We can influence and play our part in it, but we can never control it. The only thing that we can control is with ourselves. And it starts with like our thoughts and our emotions. Some people think they can't control that. You absolutely can with the right techniques and principles. You can have some level of control. Maybe not in the instant reaction with human beings. We are reactionary beings. But to catch ourselves as early as possible. So that control is stressful within the situation, the bill, the parenting, that's going to be there. But how I show up, how I let it affect me. This is part of the whole holistic approach that you

14:40take with these women. Yeah. And I want to say that, you know, asking for help. Like a lot of women feel like, oh, I don't want to ask for help. But that's such an empowering thing to do. Like I was one of those women who, but like, oh, I can do anything on my own. I'm very independent. I've been like, that's since I was 17 years old to care of myself. You know, and I was like, oh, I don't want to ask this person for help. It had changed significantly for me when I started asking for help. You know, I got a coach, I had a therapist, I, even though I'm a health coach, I have my own health coach as well. You know, and I had a trainer and it's just like other looking at other people's perspective, helping you and help yourself. You get more motivated. You have a partner where you have someone who can guide you. And I think that's a very helpful step that people can take, you know, as a, as a, as part of like, like, what if they can't figure things out? This is the number one step. Like, pause, slow down and ask for help. You

15:42know, because there's a lot of people out there who want to help people. And once you find that right person, they can really guide you into a much positive outcome. Well, it's nice to know that you can ask for help because especially women, mothers, partners, business owners, you're wearing so many hats that you think I can do this. I need to do this. And it's always helping other people, your clients, your kids, your partner, your family, your friends. It's all helping others, others, others, others. When really we, we need to be more selfish sometimes. So if that we can show up just as the amazing version of ourselves. So I love that you brought that. Please ask for help. You can ask for help. You should ask for help. I was telling you about. Pire time. Oh, I was in prioritize yourself first. Yeah. Because like you just said, what you just said, like we're doing this for this person. We're doing this for our kids. And where are we in the line? Like are we all the way at the bottom when yourself should be

16:46number one, your health should be number one. Because if your health remains, then you can do for others, right? But if you are just burning yourself down by helping others, you're not really helping yourself. So yeah. And the advice to help the person you show up as is not going to be welcomed or even though you're trying so hard, and then it's going to another self-thin prophecy. So it sounds like what you've been speaking up so far is validate it, prioritize it, and then find the right way to take action on it. Validate, prioritize action. It's a such a simple framework, but I love how you guide women. I mean, tell me, what was it about this line of work, this holistic approach that made you be like, yes, this is my business, this is how I'm going to help all these women. What was that like for you? So I have always been like the clinical mindset person. Like I said, I've been practicing clinical

17:46pharmacy for more than 10 years. I saw a lot of gaps in the conventional medicine, and then I started to research more. I just wanted to know more. I've always been curious mindset, and when I was going through my own personal journey, I just started digging deeper. I learned about all of these different types of medicine, Chinese medicine, Eastern medicine, Ioretic medicine, and then I was like, oh my gosh, there's so much more out there than what we learned in pharmacy school and conventional medicine. There's so many things you can do. I like to be the person who can fill in the gaps between the conventional side because I know so much, and now that I've learned all about the holistic side, I can kind of be a bridge to those people who are stuck in the middle, or like, if we don't know what's working for them, it was not working. That's not what inspired me to. What stands out from your journey is that you're going through this as well. You're juggling all

18:50the aspects of business and life. You have such a purpose and a passion for this, which typically means people over-deliver, undercharge, their work on balance goes, they're trying so hard. How have you been able to balance this between teaching this, knowing this, helping other women through this, but also you can't discount yourself as well. You've been actually practicing what you preach continuously as you help other people. What it likes to hold those two sides? Yeah, I mean, it's not easy. I'm going to tell you, juggling everything, but because I've been through that phase in my life where I was so grown up, so it's lost, this was tired. I want to do this in a real way where I can make a real impact. At the same time, I don't want to go back to that part of me who was. I'm going to run a business, but I'm not going to push through and burn myself out. I know it might take longer, but I feel like I need to have a journey where I'm fulfilled,

19:50and I'm helping women to the best of my ability and not damaging myself in the process. Exactly. I know I can do hard things. I'm very confident. I can learn new skills. And my goal and my vision is to help as many women as possible, but right now I have to kind of look at my priorities and see what's best for me and what's working out for me. And so, yeah, it's slow. I'm still building it out. It's still on the side because I'm still a full-time pharmacist, but eventually I do see myself as having this as a full-time goal and full-time business. We have a lot of entrepreneurs start out, while having a full-time job, they start creating something on the side that they really love, but they can't afford to quit. They build on the side and they keep building. I used to watch a lot of short-tank. Some very motivated by that show. I know my why. I know why I want to do it.

20:52And I actually, I don't know if I told you this, but I did start the business a few years ago. And I had to stop because of a personal issue. I mean, I was going through a divorce and I had a little one and I felt like I wasn't able to handle it at the time. But then once I overcame that and I was on the other side, I'm like, you know what, this is something that I always wanted to do, but now I'm doing it more intentionally. I'm not just jumping in. You know, I'm doing it with more intention. I find a fine woman who also you have to remember that not everybody can help themselves. There's a lot of people who are just not going to do it. So I want to find people who really want to change, but they just need a guide and they really are willing to make a change. But there are just some people who are, they have just taken it as like, okay, you know, this is not going to change. This is normal for me. This is not going to live my life. And I mean, that's okay. I would love to help you, but I think it's eventually

21:55like it there. Right? So I try to find those people who are just ready, we're ready to receive the help. Yeah. Well, these, this, this, this feeling is evolution of, of ourselves. It's, it's changeable. We know it can change. It is not a something set in stone. Therefore, if it can change, you have the ability to do it. So the only question is, such as those people who are looking for help, how much longer are you willing to allow yourself to continue to stick with this? Stay here, rather than make that change and your evolution, your, your experience, I think how, how is this that pause and then coming back stronger and more intentional? How does this actually helps you become a better guide coach mental for, for these women? Because I can show up as 100%. You know, I've learned from my mistakes. And I think it's helped me from helping women preventing those mistakes. Right? That was the biggest lesson is what I tell them.

22:57Like, this is what I went through. So I want to help you avoid that or prevent that if they're at an earlier stage. And I say to them, like, what do you, what do you visualize yourself? Like, what are your goals? What do you want to be in six months? You know, there's a lot of women are going through it, but they don't really think about the future. They don't really think about health-wise. Like, you can always elevate your health wherever you're at. Right? Even if you feel like, I am at the worst possible place in my life and I'm not going to get any better, you know, I can't lose all this weight. I'm 100 pounds heavier. You can, there's always an answer. You can always elevate your health from wherever you're at. Even if you're taking five medications, you can still go down. You can still reduce. You can still improve, you know, and be in a much better shape than you were a year ago, two years ago. Sometimes it takes time. It's not overnight. But you have to have, you have to understand that it doesn't happen overnight. You have to understand that you have to put work into it. Right? You have to sweat, put your sweat blood into your ears.

23:59Do the work and you will come out much more resilient, stronger, and I can promise that because I've seen it happen, you know? I've seen it happen to mess up. I've seen it happen to other women. I've seen so many transformations. So anything is possible. Yeah. Well, the mental and physical health is the only thing that you actually have. It's the only thing you have. Everything else is external. Everything else can come and go. These are the two things. Mental health, physical health. Without this, you're going to struggle every single aspect of life. And these are all, as you said earlier, we can empower ourselves to help us with this. So that blood sweat and tears you spoke about. You can either give your blood sweat and tears to be unhealthy and struggling and do things the wrong way or you can use your blood sweat and tears to do it the right way. It's a choice. What do we say yesterday on the podcast? Everything's hard. Being in a relationship's hard. Being single is hard. Being unhealthy is hard. Being healthy is hard. Everything's hard. Pick your heart. And as you said, and this sort of

25:05stands out, let's go full circle, but do it in a way that you actually will enjoy so that you actually do do it. That's, that sounds like that's the essence here. That's the ultimate vision. Exactly. Beautiful. Well, for those women who think that sounds incredible, I want to at least explore a curious about how, how you can help them to, what would you say earlier, validate, understand, prioritize exactly where they are. Hear them in that moment. I mean, look for a solution. How do they reach out to? How do they find you? Sure. So I'm on all the major platforms, but right now I'm mostly connecting with everybody on Instagram. I'm at the sensitivity coach. Just feel free to DM me the word mark. So I know you're from the unforgettable podcast. And I would be happy to connect and share a free resource. Fantastic. If you're curious or think it sounds incredible, please jump on Instagram,

26:10reach out, start the conversation. Yeah, same arc, send you, but have, have some fun, be open, and take it from there and enjoy it. So, beautiful. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing the only amazing work that you do and sharing what you've seen in this, in this time, but also a little bit behind the scenes. So what it's like for you as, as you're growing, as you're evolving, as you're helping more and more women. So thank you so much for being here. You're all well, it was a pleasure. Thank you so much for hosting. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you. All right, everyone, that's a wrap. What a great episode. I love it when we can empower people. So if you're listening to this and you're thinking, actually, hey, I'd love my own podcast that actually does something for my business. That's exactly what we help with. Not content for the sake of content. Not yet another thing that you need to do, but a system that brings you clients, referrals and partnerships, all through fun and engaging conversations. It's simple, it's efficient and it's effective. So if you're not quite sure how

27:11a podcast would fit inside your business or maybe you've tried it before and it didn't quite work, that's usually a strategy problem, not a podcast problem. So I'd love to show you what that looks like when done right. If you want, email me directly. You can speak to me at mark at unforgetyourself.com. That's mark at unforgetyourself.com and let's start the conversation. And in the meantime, we'll see you on the next episode. Hey, Katie. Yeah, Mark. Wanna do an outro? Sweet. Hey, thank you so so much for listening and making it to the end. Yay. You. So what happens next? We ask them the things that podcast we're supposed to ask at the end of an episode. Can you please rate, review, download? Subscribe. Yeah. But why is it important? Because that's how our podcast gets noticed. Some people find us. It is and we want all their earballs. All the earballs all over place. We do. Nice. Yeah. So please do all those things. We'll be ever so grateful.

28:15And then more people here, you're a beautiful voice. Oh, you're awesome. Oh, yeah. See you next time. Bye.