We recently connected with Heidi Hackler and have shared our conversation below.

Heidi, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

The defining moment in my career was going back to school and making a midlife career change ten years ago, at age 50.

After 30 years as a graphic designer and web designer, (the first 15 in the high-tech software world in Seattle including Adobe, Microsoft, and one of the first web design studios in the world, then 15 years, running my own design studio)… I was burnt out.

Technology was moving at Mach speed and I could not keep up as a Solopreneur. The final straw was when I designed and built a website for a client over a two-month period, and when their site went live instead of being excited they said “Why doesn’t our website do XYZ?!” When that XYZ technology had just been rolled out to the world the week before, was not in the specs of their project, nor did their site have any use for it… But they wanted it because it was the latest bell and whistle. I had had enough of whiny clients and did not feel like I was making a positive difference in the world.

Having been diagnosed with Celiac disease and several food sensitivities years before—which meant drastically changing up my dietary and lifestyle habits—I wanted to help others navigate that space more easily.

So I went back to school at age 50 to study nutrition and became a holistic health coach…

Heidi, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Sure. So studying nutrition and functional wellness wasn’t actually that far from my roots. I’m grateful to have had a healthy start to life… My dad was a seasonal park ranger who had me hiking among the Rocky Mountain wildflowers by age three, and whitewater rafting the Salmon River by age eight. 

My Mom introduced us to nutrition, holistic health, and alternative medicine as we were growing up. We ate super-healthy, green salads every night, lots of fruits and veggies from her vegetable garden, homemade whole wheat bread, and whole wheat spaghetti. We also lived in cattle-ranching Wyoming and ate beef almost every night of the week (thankfully it was grass-fed.) 

But no Twinkies, Snickers, or much of any sugar in our house. And I think my siblings and I all felt “deprived” of the junk food that our friends were eating. No one would trade for our lunches—meatloaf sandwiches on homemade whole wheat bread, a hard-boiled egg, an apple, and if we were lucky, a fig newton. 

So once I was in college, I went off the rails and ate whatever junk food I could get my hands on—like Captain Crunch Berries for breakfast, and neon-orange mac-n-cheese from a box for dinner. Yikes! With a diet like that, it’s no surprise my health started going sideways as a young adult… Little did I know back then, I was highly sensitive to dairy and eggs, and couldn’t digest gluten.

Fast forward 30+ years, in nutrition school I was really blown away by what I was learning about basic nutrition and wellness. Things that seemingly all humans “should” know about, but most don’t— so I started blogging about what I was learning, to share this information with friends, family, the world—anyone who would listen. Because I realized when we know these things, we can take back our own health…

For example:
* Birth control pills deplete you of B vitamins, (which can cause fatigue and digestion issues among other things). I bet most women on the pill don’t know that?! I sure was never told that by my doctors back in the day.
* The importance of being well hydrated for cellular and brain health and function (75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated, leading to all sorts of health issues)
* Your body recognizes every molecule in the food you eat, and determines whether it is friend or foe, real or artificial. When you primarily eat fast food, junk food, or “artificial food-like substances” and aren’t getting enough essential nutrients, your body literally cannot build healthy new cells. (92% of Americans are deficient in at least one vital nutrient.)
* 72% of people are suffering from unnecessary gas or bloating, thinking that it’s “normal”, and taking medication, rather than getting to the root of WHY it’s happening and resolving it. (Upwards of 50% have at least one food sensitivity and don’t know it. And food sensitivities are highly linked to symptoms like weight gain, joint pain, insomnia, and so much more.)
* The half-life of caffeine is 6 hours, this means 10 hours after drinking caffeine you still have some in your body. (If you’re having an afternoon latte or cappuccino that may be the reason you can’t sleep at night.)
* Your skin is a giant mouth absorbing everything you put onto it. If you wouldn’t eat it, don’t put it on your skin. If it contains ingredients you can’t pronounce, don’t use it.
* Phthalates (PFAS, forever chemicals) found in artificial fragrances in our every day health and beauty products, laundry soap, household cleaners, air fresheners, and more—are hormone disruptors that are leading to infertility, birth defects, and cancer. (Why are thousands of toxic chemicals allowed to be used in the US when they are banned in Europe and other countries?!)

My blog posts were recognized by the Chopra Center, and I am grateful for the opportunity to blog for Deepak Chopra’s website. (https://chopra.com/blogs/author/heidi-hackler)

My Happy Well Life health coaching business grew via referrals from friends and family, social media posts, and my blog following.

And I was happily helping people resolve their health issues. But something was still missing. I wanted more science—to help my clients with their health issues on a deeper level.

Following many Functional Medicine doctors and wellness practitioners on social media, I was reading their books, and attending their webinars, and what they were saying made so much common sense. I kept thinking “why doesn’t everyone know this stuff?!”

So I went back to school again four years ago, to study Naturopathy & Functional Wellness. And I absolutely loved what I was learning and how I was able to apply that in helping my clients on a whole new level.

One of the things that I believe sets me apart from other health coaches is that I teach my clients how the body works, to become wellness detectives, and to figure out what’s going on in their own bodies. Because no one knows their own body better than they do. If I have done my job well, they are able to diminish or reverse their symptoms. And no longer need to work with me.

Sadly, in this day and age we have been taught to think that doctors are god and big pharma is the only answer. And there is definitely a time and place for both. But for the vast majority of chronic illnesses, they do not help their patients get to the true root of what is going on and reverse it. “A pill for every ill” is not wellness, it is managing illness.

As a case, in point, I had a client who came to me suffering from chronic constipation for several years. She had seen many different doctors and a gastroenterologist, was on a handful of medications, and had been scooped up one end and down the other. Yet no one had been able to help her relieve her constipation.

So one of my first questions was to ask her how much water was she drinking every day. Her response was, “Oh, I hate water, I maybe drink one glass a day.” WHOA! Our bodies are 65-75% water. We can die in 3 days without it. Water is a vital necessity to life.

With some flavored electrolytes to help get the water into her cells (because salt, magnesium, and other essential minerals are responsible for hundreds of biochemical processes in our body every second)… we got her drinking much more water every day. Still not nearly enough to be considered well hydrated, but enough to get her pooping again every day. Sadly, none of the doctors or specialists she had seen had even asked her about her water consumption.

It’s not rocket science. It’s all about getting back to the basics. Eating well. Sleeping well. Good hydration. Moving your body daily. Pooping daily (or 2-3x a day—FYI, if you don’t poop at least once a day, you are constipated, and your body is unable to fully remove toxins.) Avoiding toxins as much as possible in food, our personal care and home cleaning products.

When we consider how humans have evolved over 200,000+ years, what we ate, how we lived, how we slept, how we moved our bodies—and the world we are asking our bodies to thrive in today— there is a total disconnect. Our bodies have not evolved in the past hundred-plus years to deal with all the stress, toxins, and synthetic food-like substances we are throwing at them. Our lifestyles and food choices are making us sick.

My goal is to help my clients understand what it means to nourish their bodies, in this disconnected world, and how everything you put into and onto your body is a choice.

To support you on your wellness journey I offer private Functional Wellness Coaching as well as my Revive & Thrive Group Coaching for women 40+. All my services are virtual.

I believe in walking my talk, leading by example, and living life to the fullest. My husband and I live aboard our sailboat with our two cats. We eat as healthy as possible, meditate daily, and make time for self-care, (which might include a swing or a popsicle!) I love connecting with Mother Nature to recharge my batteries and encourage my clients to do the same.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

As a health coach, you have to be resilient to help your clients get to the true root of their wellness concerns and reverse them so they can stay healthy. Bio-individuality means every BODY is different. There is no one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter approach to wellness. What works for one client may not work for the next and vice versa.

Sometimes it’s an easy fix (like drinking more water to resolve constipation). Other times I have to dig deeper, asking many questions to help my clients discover the roots of their wellness concerns.

One client came to me with difficulty sleeping. I ask my clients to track what they are eating and drinking, and how they are sleeping, and pooping (using my Food, Mood & Gratitude Journal). She was drinking 2 cups of coffee every morning.

So I wondered if that might be playing a role in her insomnia. She tried cutting back to one cup, and even going with half decaf… but that did not seem to help. After suggesting many different natural remedies for sleep, over several weeks, without success, I really felt like she was getting some caffeine somewhere.

I teach my clients to become wellness detectives, tuning into their own bodies, looking for clues and cues (a.k.a. symptoms). So I asked her to think about everything she was eating and drinking throughout the day. As it turns out, she had completely forgotten to mention her 3 PM latte every day, when she was dragging and needed a quick pick up!

WOW!! That afternoon hit of caffeine was preventing her from sleeping seven hours later. And she had never thought to tell me about that latte, because it was such an ingrained afternoon habit, it didn’t even register.

However, before just cutting out that latte we needed to address WHY her energy was crashing every afternoon in the first place.

I noticed her lunches were packed with carbohydrates, that quickly spiked and crashed her blood sugar… leaving her feeling depleted.

So she agreed to try eating more clean protein and healthy fats for lunch (eg: a salad with chicken breast and avocado) which would keep her satiated and fuel her body much longer. She no longer needed that afternoon latte to stay awake. Within two days of stopping her afternoon latte, she was sleeping like a baby again.

In the end, it was a relatively simple fix that reversed the insomnia that had plagued her for years. But it took digging deep to find the issue.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One lesson I had to unlearn to really help my clients heal surrounds the use of supplements when to use them, and when not to use them.

In nutrition school and in some of my initial functional medicine studies, I was taught a lot about different types of supplements to alleviate different symptoms.

But this can also become a more natural version of “a pill for every ill”. (I myself have been to several naturopaths in my life who loaded me up with 10-15 different supplements for this, that, and the other thing. And I hate taking pills!)

However, you really need to consider WHY is the symptom there to begin with? The body is not dumb. It does everything for a reason. Parts don’t suddenly go bad for no reason at all. We don’t have ancillary body parts. (Nope, not the tonsils, not the gallbladder, not the thyroid, not even the appendix) They all play an important role in our bodies and in staying healthy. So you need to try to hang onto them if at all possible.

The thyroid doesn’t go rogue on its own. It is just the messenger that something else is out of balance in the body. Don’t shoot the messenger. Dig deeper to find out what is out of balance, and why. And then work to resolve that. The body’s default mode is homeostasis or balance. Many autoimmune conditions and hypothyroidism can be reversed naturally, despite what you may have been otherwise told.

When you take a supplement (or even a medication) to resolve a symptom, you may ultimately be removing a clue as to WHY that symptom was there. And if you stop taking that supplement, does the symptom return? Then have you really fixed anything? Or is it acting more like a Band-Aid?

There are of course a time and place for some supplements, and I take several myself. But I also encourage my clients to understand exactly WHY they are taking a certain supplement. How is it benefiting them? How long should they be taking it for? What should they expect the outcome to be from taking it? And if they don’t feel a difference when taking it or not, is it really necessary or helpful?

Another thing to consider is that if blood labs show you are deficient in some nutrients (for example, B12, B6, zinc, iron, magnesium, etc.)— you need to ask WHY is the deficiency there in the first place?

Are you getting enough of that nutrient in your diet? If not, maybe you need to improve your diet before supplementing. Food is medicine and it is always best to get your nutrients from food whenever possible.

If you are getting enough nutrients from your diet, then maybe you are not digesting or absorbing the nutrients from your food. And if you don’t have enough stomach acid or digestive enzymes to digest and absorb the nutrients from your food, then will you be able to digest and absorb the nutrients from supplements either?

By the way, it is far more likely you have too little stomach acid than too much stomach acid. (Despite what you may have been told—too much stomach acid is extremely rare.) Many people over age 50 do not have enough stomach acid. And low stomach acid can actually be a cause of acid reflux.

These are the types of things I love to help my clients get to the root of and resolve naturally, and with as few supplements as possible.

In fact, one of the requirements in my naturopathic and functional wellness studies was to work with a client without any supplements or blood labs at all. This was a wonderful challenge to see how the body can heal itself when we step out of the way and give it half a chance to heal. (Example: providing optimal nourishment, optimal hydration, optimal sleep, moving your body, making time for self-care, etc..)

Nice chatting with you Heidi. How can people learn more about you or get in touch?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://happywelllife.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happywelllife
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HappyWellLife
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/happy-well-life/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@Happywelllife
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/happywelllife/