We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful ALICIA POPE. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with ALICIA below.

Hi ALICIA, thanks for joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

I grew up as a sick kid. On top of just getting sick all the time, I had multiple surgeries, tumors, and embarrassing GI issues. This impacted my mental health, too, as I missed school and extracurriculars. Doctors told me that I was overly sensitive and to expect this as my life. I don’t think I understood what feeling good meant before the age of 22 when I felt a change while working overseas without access to processed foods and harsh household chemicals. It drove me to explore something different when I returned home.

Serendipitously, at the same time I was referred to an integrative medicine practitioner who evaluated my whole story and created a personalized plan for me. It felt a little “woo woo” to me at the time, but I was desperate. Her plan was challenging for a broke college student working 3 jobs, but I did it (mostly) and started to feel better. She taught me the power of food and mindset in healing illness.

That shift, and the idea that there were hundreds of other people just like me who had never even experienced feeling good, that changed the course of my entire life. Now I work to be that light for other people. We can all feel great, sometimes it just takes lifting up the curtain of illness long enough to see it.

Is there a heartwarming story from your career that you look back on? If so, we’d love to hear the story below.

I had a client who had been struggling with her health for nearly 20 years. She bounced around from doctor to doctor racking up expensive bills but continuing to lose function. She was dealing with multiple auto-immune conditions, which isn’t that uncommon. If the root cause of auto-immunity is not addressed, it tends to pop up in new places until we pay attention to and resolve the underlying issues.

She was already on a very restrictive diet and felt like she was doing everything “right.” We worked together for several months and in partnership with her doctors, we were able to get her off several medications that caused significant side effects. More importantly, she feels better, has more energy, and has found food freedom, being able to eat more foods and enjoy eating out with friends again!

I love helping people who have been told there is no answer find a better way that helps them live again! Unfortunately, for most my clients there is no magic pill or instant fix. It requires some trial and error and consistency with lifestyle. It’s a journey and I’m “in it” with people -helping to find that balance between a healthier lifestyle that brings results with the fun and enjoyment we need to keep it going long term.

ALICIA, 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?

I help humans use food and lifestyle to heal their bodies and regain their vitality. The body has an incredible ability to heal if we put it in the right environment. My specialty is finding the patterns between seemingly unrelated symptoms so we can address the root cause of health issues. Through online courses and coaching I partner with clients to identify those root causes and build a lifestyle that meets their unique needs. Lifestyle changes could include the food you eat, when and how you eat, beauty routines, environmental exposure, sleep, stress reduction and more. The key to successful change in lifestyle is building a lifestyle you actually want to live!

The body often knows what it needs, but we’ve been culturally trained to ignore those signals. Learning to listen to our own bodies can be a helpful tool in healing. I’ve published the journal I created for my own personal journey and now use with clients so that anyone can start on their own. You can find the journal on amazon by searching “Eat Your Way Clean Wellness Journal.”

My clients all have unique experiences, but some common symptoms are frequent colds or infections, bloating, upset stomach, GI distress, growing food intolerances, allergies, indigestion, insomnia, fatigue and a general sense of feeling crummy.

I know what it’s like to suffer in pain, bouncing from provider to provider without answers and feeling like there is no existence other than illness. But I also know the other side, the side without gut pain, headaches, muscle pain, or fatigue. The side where we get to live fully and have the energy to follow our passions! I’ve lived this story personally, so I know exactly how challenging and also rewarding the transformation can be.

On top of that, I’m a bit of a science nerd. You’ll find a lot of health coaches with a certificate after a few months of an online program, but I needed to really understand WHY things were happening and connect the dots between different conditions and bodily systems. I got my undergrad in molecular, cellular and developmental biology and am finishing my masters in human nutrition and functional medicine. I’ve also earned several certificates and taken several additional trainings in functional medicine practices.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

Listening. Each human is different, not only in their biological make-up but in their lifestyle and personal goals. Understanding bio-individuality and seeing things from the clients eyes helps to create a personalized program that not only works, but is enjoyable enough to be continued. Health and wellness lifestyle changes only matter if we can stick with them and envelop them into our daily lives. We can’t expect people to consistently do things they hate or get zero enjoyment out of. Yes, some changes can be challenging at first, but there needs to be some element of us liking the life we are creating, otherwise, what’s the point?

I’d say my super power in this work is being able to recognize patterns and find root causes. But partnering with clients to co-create solutions is what makes it possible to heal those root cause issues.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

If there’s anything consistent across people’s health journeys, it’s usually that they are not linear. On my individual health journey I’ve had to pivot on multiple occasions, adapting to changing circumstances and a changing body.

The same goes for my clients’ health journeys. We have to try things out and be open to what we learn. Functional medicine goes deeper than a simple diagnosis to prescription model and takes playing around with what works for each person.

This is also true in my career! I grew up knowing I was sick but not knowing why. My symptoms were widespread and severe and I was scared it was uncurable. For that reason I originally wanted to go to med school and work on traditional pharmacological cures. But I quickly realized those acute interventions weren’t for me in my pre-med classes. I still pursued biology because it was fascinating, but ended up following a career in the IT and Administrative side of healthcare. I spent 15 years leading large healthcare organizations through transformational technology changes, leading teams of up to 150 people through multi-year projects. I knew I eventually wanted to give back to the community in a similar way to my integrative medicine practitioner that set me on my healing journey all those years ago. There is so much power in lifestyle: our movement, food, and thoughts. That’s what healed me and that’s what I want to use to help heal others. I feel truly grateful to be at a place in my career where I can pursue this passion of helping others to find improved vitality with lifestyle.

But it wasn’t a straight line to get there. I ran a grain free cookie company, taught cooking classes and started a food blog. Eventually the light bulb went off that I wanted to teach others how to live their lives with increased vitality through implementing simple lifestyle tweaks so I pursued Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine. My seemingly varied background is helpful when working with clients because I have the recipes, the scientific background and the practical applications from my corporate career like diligence, agility, and both project and change management.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.eatyourwayclean.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eatyourwayclean
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Eatyourwayclean/
• Other: Google Business: https://maps.app.goo.gl/NT75HyW4zdSZcrXz6

Image Credits
Photos by Alicia Pope, Dianna Benavidez, Rebecca Durigan, and Jes Kimak