#212 – Unlocking the Health-Wealth Connection

Hey, money bosses. Welcome to the show. I am so excited to welcome Melissa Deally. To our conversation today. Melissa, welcome.

Thank you for having me. And I'm so excited to be here and have this conversation. I

am too you know, I mentioned this before I hit the recording button. But I haven't really had anyone on my show yet that specifically talked about health in the way that you do. And so I think it would be really fair if you and you can do much better job than I will tell everybody what it is that you do and how you work with clients. Sure,

absolutely. And I love coming on shows that talk about money because I truly believe that health is your true wealth. And I help people optimize their health and be empowered in their health, through getting to the root cause of whatever health issue it is that they're going through. So often people will go to the doctor and they'll run all these tests. And then they'll get told though there's nothing wrong with you or it's all in your head or come back when you get sicker and no discredit to the doctors or healthcare system or acute care system is excellent. However, our health care system right now is operated as a sick care system. We're not helping people with the chronic illnesses that we have in our world today, which are triggered by lifestyle factors. And that's not what our medical system is looking for. Our medical system is looking to diagnose you with a disease, give you a pill and then send you on your way. And the doctors aren't trained in lifestyle factors. Whereas as an integrative mind body health practitioner, I'm looking at the lifestyle factors. What's your stress level? What's your sleep? Like? What's your nutrition? Like? What's your exercise like? And how all of this impacts how you're feeling in your body? And I also use the advantage of functional medicine lab tests, which get mailed to your home, which show us what's going on inside your body? What are your inflammation levels that what are your heavy metal toxin levels? What are your mineral levels that high stress has us burning through our vitamins and minerals. And then our nutrient depleted soil systems make it hard for us to actually get those back even when we're eating healthy without additional supplementation. But when you know which minerals you're low in, then you know which supplements you can take in order to bring your body back into balance. I look at what's going on inside your gut, you have Candida overgrowth, bacterial overgrowth, mold, or fungus. Because our true health starts in our gut. When our gut is healthy, our immune system is healthy, because 70% of our immune system is in our health. And then it can fight the viruses or the bacteria or the microbes that get into our body and we still stay healthy. So I absolutely love this work, I can look at your hormones to determine where they're out of balance, help women through menopause help young girls through, you know, those early years of their cycle being all messed up because of imbalances and even our young kids are toxic in today's world. And toxicities can impact our hormones. If our liver is overburdened, it can't detox excess estrogen. So I'm looking at the whole body, not just one piece of the body. And in looking at the whole body and getting this really clear picture of what's going on, then I guide people through their healing journey, I don't do it for them. I literally guide them, and they do the work. And that's the healing processes. It's in partnership. I'm not healing them, I'm not diagnosing them, I'm not curing them. Those are words doctors use, I'm simply guiding them, showing them where the body is out of balance. And then making it really easy or as easy as possible for them to bring their body back into balance through supporting them with, you know, recipes of you know, nutrient dense foods and giving them exercise plans based on where they're at. If they don't exercise at all, then I'm going to start them off really slowly. If they already have a trainer and they're doing great. It's like how do we maybe you're overdoing it. And we need to dial it back. Because I'm looking at the stress on your body. Right. And sometimes too much of a good thing is actually a bad thing. And so understanding that because the body always wants to be imbalanced is really important.

Yeah, this is it's, I am as you're describing all of this, they do and I'm like, okay, the listeners can't see us. But I'm like nodding my head. I'm like, Yes, this is all the stuff that I you know, happen to be exploring myself right now. So, we're, we're in sync here, for sure. But let's step back and just to kind of talk about all of these parts, because I think and again, I'm judging it from my perspective, because it took me a while to realize that what I think I need right is not available, right? Or I can get help and a traditional medical system here in United States and like for you, you were talking about particularly, you know, also maybe in Canada, so, like, how can someone um, To start to think about, alright, when do I reach out to a professional like yourself? Like, what do I, you know, what do I have to feel or what has to happen to me in order to like, Okay, this, this is not working for me the traditional way I need to go and look for stuff elsewhere.

I like I like I'm really personally attracted to this way of, of health. And, and I can see a lot of parallels as to what I do in financial planning, right? So it's, I mean, it's essentially the same steps, right? In terms of figuring out how you can do better for yourself, right? There are UI tools that you can use. And so, you know, to tell you the truth, like I've, for years, I've been frustrated with just, you know, a traditional approach to health, it's like you go to the doctor, you know, for a relatively healthy person like myself, right? And you get all your physical done and you get your blood work done. And then and all you get back is like things things are well, you know, see you next year, and it's like, all right, fine, you know, I take that, you know, taking that for granted for years. I'm like, okay, great. I feel okay. But then as you said, some some symptoms starts to show up and you're like, Okay, well, I Have a headache today? Um, no big deal. I just, I'm just tired. Right? Right then, you know, days later or months later, it turns into some something else. And you know, the first time I really understood like, you know why looking at bloodwork results and like under kind of like almost like under a microscope to understand, right? And when you see a range on a piece of paper, like, there's, it tells you something like, it's not just okay, you got to fit in, in that range, right? So I, personally, I was just like, oh, my gosh, this is this is starting to make sense, right? Like why some of these things are happening. So can you just talk a little bit about the blood work process and other tests? I know, there's more that you can do. So that, you know, folks can kind of understand and to, if you can, like, where do you get those done? And how can you like, incorporate that with your traditional health insurance, if you have one. So, so

about the labs, they are there's different kinds of labs, who some of them are saliva, test your hormones or saliva, that's the best way to assess your sex hormones and your cortisol levels, which is assessing the health of your adrenals. And are you stuck in fight or flight or, you know, is your cortisol levels dropping at bedtime, so that you can get into a deep restorative sleep, so that's a saliva test. There's also blood tests, but you don't have to go anywhere to do it, you literally get in the box, everything you need, and you get a little lancets, you prick your finger, and then you drip drops of blood from your finger onto a blood card, and then you just let that dry, and you mail it back to the lab. And there's also a urine sample. So same as you would do with your doctor, it's first morning urine sample, and then you freeze that before you send it off by FedEx to or UPS to the lab. And then there's hair clipping. So the hair clipping one is for the mineral levels, and the heavy metal toxicity. And so you just take a little bit of hair from a couple different places at the nape of your neck, and you get a little scale in the box, a little paper scale, and you make sure you got enough hair. And then again, you put that in the envelope and you send it off. So these are all things you can do at home, you don't have to book appointments to go anywhere, the labs get mailed to your home, and the labs are ordered through me and I give you the links, and I give you the passcode because we don't want people just to order the labs and get the results and then not have any idea what they mean, right? The labs are only as good as you understanding the information in them. So you need someone who's qualified to explain the labs to so people order them through me, I give you the passcode. So you can access the site to order them, they get mailed to your home, in terms of it working with your insurance that isn't happening in our world today. For a few people, if they have health savings accounts in the US, they can transfer the funds to their health savings account, and then they can pay me that way. But everybody else it is an out of pocket expense that isn't covered by insurance, unfortunately, because the insurance companies are largely part of the whole medical business, which is all about driving revenues. And on the holistic side, we're not driving revenues, we're helping people to heal and once you've healed, then you don't have to come back, you're not dependent on us, you have the knowledge, you have the skills to be able to optimize your health. Sure, you might want to run your labs once a year as a baseline or once every couple of years. But we're not generating millions and millions of dollars from you. And so therefore, the health insurance companies aren't really interested in supporting the holistic side of health unfortunately.

Yes, and I'm I'm 100% behind that because I think you have on your website or quote that really stuck with me I knew about that, but it's like it just you know, kind of refreshing my mind where it says health is true wealth, right? And so as we're talking about this investment right in yourself, because height like how do you, you know, justify this like, Okay, I have to pay out of pocket on top of already would, you know, seems to be like a crazy cost for for health insurance. So but I as I always talk to all of my listeners like, this is long term, we're not thinking I mean, yes, we're trying to address situations that are present right now health issues, if you may have them if you don't think about long term because one of the biggest worries people have especially for retirement planning and you know, long term planning is what is my healthcare gonna cost? Right? And we chatted about this, Melissa prove it before the recording, but I want to bring it up because it's such a valid question like for someone who like me who's in their 40s It's rather hard to think about what you know what it will be in terms of costs, but I know it's going to be something gigantic. So let's kind of comment on this together because there's different parts to this right. In terms of, you know, health insurance costs, like I kind of think of what you do is more of the wellness piece And then there's also like long term care, or what we call that in the United States, right? It's a care of you know, you when you're in your old age, and that's concern for a lot of people.

happening. No, certainly not Yes. Well, you know, their response could be when life happens, it doesn't, right, we get to control this part for sure, like 100%.

And that is an excuse, right? As you say, Now, some things happen. Maybe you get in a car accident, and you need the acute care. And acute care is excellent. And that's why you have your health insurance to help for that, right. But the chronic illnesses, no action, in today's world, results in chronic illness, there's no two ways about it. Our toxic load is so high, our food is so nutrient deplete if we're not moving our bodies, if we're high stress, and we're not sleeping, I'm sorry to say chances are very high that you will end up with a chronic illness. If they do learn about all of these things so that you don't end up with that chronic illness and you take action to avoid it. You absolutely can. And I didn't know this when I was in the corporate world just eight years ago. So I was like everybody else. But in the last eight years, I've gone back to school and done so many courses because I found my passion. I love it. And I just started making small changes. Right? It doesn't have to be one big change made in one day. But you make small changes. And at the end of the year, you've made massive difference in your health. And you look back and I look at how I used to eat to how I eat now how I used to exercise or not versus what I do now, knowing so much more about my sleep and how I prioritize it. Now, all of these things you can make these small changes for huge outcomes.

Thank you for clarifying that part because I think it's I mean it is definitely overwhelming. And I know that just because I and looking at all of it myself, right? Interested, very interested in this topic, but just like finances, right? Clients, oh my gosh, I knew I have to do all of these things. But what would be like the first steps, right? Little small teeny steps. So that in, you know, when we put together, you know, the big picture and they can see that the plan. It's, it's very doable. So So talk a little bit about maybe more practically, how do you work with someone? We talked about the blood work and some of these initial tests that someone will do, but what does it entail? Like what is what has to be done on daily basis? How often do they come in and talk to you? And yeah, what does that look like timeline.

So my start now live well program is my program that takes people through an entire process of finding all the deficiencies, toxicities and then optimizing their health. So I don't just look at the physical body, but I looked at the mental, the emotional and the spiritual bodies as well, because by the time the symptoms have shown up in the physical body, they've moved through all these other bodies. But I always start with the physical body, because that's what most people are most connected to. And we start that healing process. And as soon as they start feeling better, they're like, oh, yeah, I'm onto something here, this all makes sense. And then they're motivated to keep going, right. So we start with a detox, a physical detox, because our livers are overburdened, and we have so much liver disease in the world today, just because of these toxins. And when we start getting them out of our body, we lower inflammation, people are feeling better, they're sleeping better, their brain fog goes away, their aches and pains go away, they have more energy. And then we will run the lab tests, because that's a reset for the body just in and of itself. So we run the lab tests at that point, and it takes about four weeks for me to get the results. And once I get the results, then I will show you where you may have heavy metal toxicities, or other deficiencies or other kinds of toxicities like mold, or fungus, or bacterial overgrowth, etc. And then we will start those protocols. At this at the same time somewhere in there, we will also start looking at your emotional toxicities, those emotions that you stuffed down for your whole life that you don't want to feel that you were told as a child, you know, boys don't cry or be a big girl or don't bring your troubles to school or don't bring your emotions to work or whatever those messages are that we've had in our younger years. And our unconscious mind is so incredible, it will store every single memory of every single experience we've ever had. So it's stored inside your body inside your cells. And over time that can build up and become toxic as well. We can release that by tapping into the unconscious mind. And so we clear all of that out, which then opens up space for you to step into what serves you now, right? We also clear out the mental toxicities. And this is really important too, because we have 70,000 conversations with ourselves every single day. What are we saying to ourselves? Are we talking ourselves into optimal health into success in our new business? Or are we talking ourselves out of it? Because whatever that conversation is, that we have most of is what we make happen because our thinking mind is so powerful. So I invite people to stop listening to that, because so much of what's running in our mind is actual Bs, and we're talking ourselves out of our brilliance, and start talking back to it or saying, cancel, cancel, cancel to ignore the thoughts that are negative that we don't want that are toxic. So in my work, I help eliminate those as well. We eliminate all the limiting beliefs. And then from there, we start to implant the space that we've created, the dreams and goals that you have. And we use SMART Goal Setting quantum SMART goal setting to do that followed by hypnosis, because hypnosis is all about creating the future that you want, right? And we make it happen more easily again, tapping into the power of our unconscious mind. So that's the process of the mental and emotional detox. I actually partner with a lady who's a reverend to help with the spiritual detox part as well. So anybody in my program, then I refer them to her at that point. But meanwhile, coming back to the physical body, they have now started their protocols. And I know in my experience in my younger years, even working with a naturopath and I love my naturopath I still work with her to this day because I want to bounce what's going on with my body of someone else that's impartial, right, and get their feedback as opposed to me having my own emotions tied into whatever I see in the labs and then that skewing how I react, right. So however, in working with naturopath I find they tell you what to do and then they expect you to just go do it. And for some people that's really hard. So I love to have more support. So I have follow up appointments so that people are coming back and they're seeing me, you know for at least two more follow up appointments after we've reviewed the labs so that we can discuss Ask how you're doing now that you've started your protocol, how are you feeling? What's working? Well, is there anything that you're struggling with so that we can make sure they're staying on track. And then we also will do another follow up appointment down the road, as we start to wean people off their supplements or their hormones, because now the body is coming back into balance, and they don't have to continue using them. Some supplements you do have to take for life, but not all of them, right. So I have these follow up sessions that are just included in the package costs so that you have that support. And then throughout the entire time we're working together, you can email me with questions and gain access to my knowledge, I put people on an app to support them, they can track how they're doing, because there's that accountability piece. It's like having me in the back pocket. Are you drinking enough water? How much are you sleeping, how much you exercising. And again, it's not you have to do it all at once. It's let's just start with the baby steps and build upon it so that it doesn't feel overwhelming. So I ended up it takes about a year to work with people through this whole program. And then very often people just want to stay on a maintenance plan with me and they'll meet me like four times a year, just to maybe they need to run another lab, maybe they just want to discuss something that they haven't managed to implement yet that now they're ready to implement. I just had a call with a lady like that this morning. She's like, I wasn't ready to hear it four months ago. I'm ready now. Right? So we got to do things in baby steps. And you know, I work with you and I meet you where you're at, and that allows people to be successful. And that's what I want. No,

I love it. And your reaction to that. If one person is going through, right, because I'm thinking like, okay, family unit, right, like, and I have a small child, right. So like, all of these things, right? That you're learning and experiencing for yourself can be brought back into your family. Right? And absolutely,

absolutely. And so I love it when I work with people that are anywhere from the ages of 18 to 30. Because I know the ripple effect of that, right? That they're choosing to invest in their health at a time in their life where I know they're going to teach it to others. They may not be married yet, or they might have a partner that's learning. They haven't got children yet the ones that I'm thinking of, but they will. And they're making these changes in their life. And so their children are just going to grow up in this world of understanding this, right. And I think that's really cool. So yes, and even for my health, kickstart, and detox program, if I have like a husband and wife come and do the program together, I offer 50% off for the second person, because I want people to teach this to their family is such a right. And then there are two individuals, so there is different tracking, they're gonna have different questions. So I have to cover some of my time to support the second person. But I don't feel like I have to charge the full amount to have that second person come. And how amazing is that when families come and do this together. And I have had one, one family of four, they do their detox together every quarter. And it's so amazing to see, and their teenage girls. And typically we don't do the detox. And in kids under 18, just because some of the Ayurvedic herbs that are in the detox formula, haven't been tested in teenagers and children, right? Although they're used in India all the time by people of all ages, we're just more cautious in North America and say what hasn't been tested by let the family know that and they looked at the ingredients, they said, You know what we're willing to do this, and their kids love it. And so they keep doing it. Like these are 15 and 17 year old kids that they choose to do this with their parents, because they know how it makes them feel. And unfortunately, our kids are toxic, and they can be toxic at birth, because the moms are toxic. And so those toxins are getting into the placenta and into our babies. And there's a documentary called 10 Americans, and you can find it on the EW g.org website. And it talks about testing the placenta as the umbilical cord of newborn babies, and finding that there was over 200 toxins, and they tested for only 400. But we actually have 144,000 that have been introduced since World War Two. So the scary thing is, is if they tested 444,000, how many would they have?

Wow, that's amazing. But I do I very much applaud those younger, younger folks who are thinking about it, right? I mean, imagine what kind of a lifestyle and what kind of habits they can, you know, build for themselves if they start that early. So yes. As parents right or have children, whatever age they are, it's I think it's our responsibility. To lead by example, for sure, we've got to take care of ourselves.

100% I will say most of my clients are kind of in their 50s 60s 70s starting to realize, you know, life's, you know, maybe a little shorter than it was before, so they want to take more care of themselves in order to extend their health span, which is awesome. My oldest client is 91 and I'm working with her and she is in a nursing home. She and her son moved into the nursing home to help cook for her because her story is that she had diarrhea for a year. And he moved in because the nursing home food obviously wasn't working for her right. And then they were going from doctor to doctor to doctor to try to resolve it. And recently, they had a doctor diagnosed her with, you know, intestinal and or a bowel infection. And I'm like, but what does that mean, right? It's a name, but what does that actually mean? And then you put her on some kind of medication, and that made it worse. And so then I put her on a modified detox because she is 91. Right? So I don't need to stress her body out too much. In three days, I got message that her stool is starting to improve. And in 10 days, it was normal for the first time in a year. And she's continuing to do well, that the whole 21 Day Program, and now we are addressing, because we know that there's got issues. And you've probably never heard somebody talk on your podcast about bowel movements before but no, this is

all good. That's

the world, the world of health. And our gut health is so integral in our overall health, as I said earlier, because 70% of our immune system is housed in our gut. And so we have to address this for everyone. And I really applaud this woman and her son for doing this, because in many cases, people will be like, Oh, Mom, you're 91 What do you expect, right? And they just ignore it, and they write it off. And you know, they tried to get support through the nursing home, and they weren't getting the support they need it. And so they kept searching to find the answers until eventually they were referred to me. And in three days, they saw improvement in 10 days. Her stool was back to normal. That's huge. Oh, yes. So I love this work.

I love what you're doing. For sure. I think it's a everyone should consider, you know, one thought I was having, thinking about we mentioned this a little bit already on the podcast, but like, what a great way to spend your HSA health savings account and money's right, because, you know, insurance mostly won't, will not cover this, these expenses, maybe some labs, right. But think about that, right? A lot of clients ask questions like, well, you know, can I? What can I do with my health savings account dollars? This is it, this is probably the best use of those dollars, right? For these kinds of events. Yes, expenses you can have. Yeah, you sir. Is there a tool? Or is there a resource you want folks to like go to like, right this minute as they're listening, I know will include in the links like the link to your website. But I thought it would be like a starting point.

Well, like I said, the starting point that I start every client at is my health, kickstart and detox program. So I have a quiz, discover your toxic load that people can take the quiz to see how toxic they are. And don't be shocked if your number is high. That's normal. In today's world, it's just our reality. But the great news is that you're here, you now have the awareness around that. And you get to make a choice to do something about it. And that's when you can sign up for my health Kickstart program and have me guide you through a detox. And let's bring that number down. Because when we bring that number down, we are reducing your risk of any kind of chronic illness.

Right? Okay, I will include that in our show notes. And just before we close, what is the best place to connect with you, I know you also have a podcast. Let's mention that because there's a lot of juicy information there. I

do. And my podcast is called Don't wait for your wake up call. And you can find that on any of the podcast players. Or it's right on my website, your guided health journey.com. And I have a podcast button at the top there. And in terms of getting hold of me there's also a contact button and a book now button. So the contact button is email communication, you might have questions for me. And we can I can reply by email or the book. Now button is an opportunity to book in for a complimentary consultation. So you can talk to me about what ever issue you have going on, and determine if I'm the right person to guide you through your healing journey. And if I'm not, I am connected to so many other holistic healers and we all have our own path and specialty that I can refer you to them if I'm not the right one to work with you. So I love to help people find the right person for them.

That's fantastic. I very much appreciate the conversation today. I think this is definitely opening a door that has not been opened yet. And I am excited for that. So thank you so much, Melissa, for coming on.

Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate that connection and you understanding the connection between health and wealth and perhaps even as you work with your clients more having them recognize the importance of investing in their health and setting that money aside as you said, so thank you so much, Anna.

Oh, totally. I am going to one thing too. Before I close. I'm definitely going to include this episode and all of the recommendations in my financial plans Because that's like a resource that everybody should consider whether you're feeling sick or you're feeling great this this is it so thank you so much

thank you