Payal Mahapatra - A Holistic Health Coach

26/07/2025

Honoured, and humbled.

On July 16 2025, I was conferred with the honorary title of Doctorate in Science by the European Institute of Management & Technology, Switzerland, for my contributions in the field of Functional Medicine.

This recognition is symbolic, but deeply meaningful. It acknowledges the work I have done at CtrlAltZen to shift the narrative of health: from symptom suppression to root cause healing, from protocol to personalization, and from illness management to resilience-building.

Functional medicine is not just a framework. For me, it is a responsibility. To listen closely. To connect the dots. To see the whole person, not just their diagnosis.

This honour is shared with every client who allowed me to witness their journey, every teacher who shaped my lens, and every colleague who continues to challenge the conventional and hold space for the possible.

This is not a destination. Just a milestone.

Dr. Eli Hamadimann thank you for the kindness, confidence and encouragement!

Onwards…with gratitude and grounded purpose. 🙏

11/05/2025

🌸 Happy Mother’s Day from Ctrl Alt Zen 🌸

To all the mamas, moms-to-be, caregivers, and nurturers—today we honor YOU.

At Ctrl Alt Zen, we believe that mothers are the foundation of family health. But far too often, moms put themselves last on the list.
This Mother’s Day, we’re shifting the focus—because a healthy mom is a strong, resilient family.

Functional medicine teaches us that true wellness starts at the root—hormonal balance, gut health, emotional resilience, sleep quality, and sustainable energy. Whether you’re navigating postpartum healing, hormonal shifts, or just trying to stay grounded in the chaos—your health matters.

✨ You don’t have to power through fatigue, stress, or burnout.
✨ You deserve individualized care—not a one-size-fits-all solution.
✨ Your body is not broken—it’s talking to you. Functional medicine helps you listen.

This Mother’s Day, give yourself (or a mom you love) the gift of healing, balance, and renewal.

Let’s celebrate the power of women—not just as mothers, but as whole, vibrant humans.

19/04/2025

🥗 “Raw is healthy, right?”
Not always. For some, raw foods can actually feel uncomfortable, heavy, or even triggering.
At Ctrl Alt Zen, we approach this not with food rules — but with root cause curiosity.
Here’s why raw foods might not sit well with you — and why that’s not a failure, but feedback.

1. Weakened Digestive Fire
In functional medicine, we talk about your digestive fire — or your body’s ability to break down food efficiently.
Low stomach acid, sluggish bile flow, or enzyme deficiencies can all make it hard to digest raw foods, which require more effort to break down (especially things like kale, cauliflower, or raw carrots).
If the fire is low, even “healthy” foods become burdens.

2. Gut Imbalances & Inflammation
If you have SIBO, leaky gut, or gut inflammation, raw fibers can irritate the gut lining — leading to bloating, gas, or discomfort.
In this case, it’s not the food — it’s the terrain. Your gut needs time and support to heal before it can handle raw fibers.

3. Cold Foods Can Dysregulate the Nervous System
From an Ayurvedic and functional perspective, cold, raw foods can trigger a stress response — especially in people with adrenal fatigue, anxiety, or hormonal imbalances.
Your body might be asking for warmth, grounding, and nourishment, not raw “clean” crunch.

4. It’s Not Just What You Eat — It’s What You Absorb
If raw food causes fatigue or cravings, your body may not be absorbing nutrients efficiently. Nutrient extraction is compromised when digestion is off.
Raw food can nourish you only if your body is ready to receive it.

So what can you do?
✔️ Start with gently cooked foods — soups, stews, sautéed veggies
✔️ Use digestive support like bitters, lemon water, or enzymes
✔️ Heal the gut before increasing raw intake
✔️ Listen to your body over diet trends

Functional medicine sees this as an invitation —
not to eliminate raw food forever, but to understand your body’s unique needs right now.

📩 Ready to tune into your body’s deeper signals? DM us.
We’ll guide you from confusion to clarity — one root cause at a time.

15/04/2025

A little snippet for people on my page here…

I started working out very young. If my memory allows it, maybe I was transitioning from primary school to middle school to be precise. Summer camps, roller skating, table tennis, dance, cycling, swimming, badminton filled my school years.

When I finished my grade 10, I enrolled into a gym. I was 15 then. One month into the gym and I met with a life changing devastating accident. It took many months and years for me to recover from it (and I still haven’t fully recovered). My nutrition was heavily challenged during those times and the need to keeping my strength up was crucial. I gave up the idea of a gym for a few years and devised my own workout plans. Cardio, weights, endurance was my evening routine through my college years.This went on for a few years till I completed my graduation.

Then I moved to a different city to pursue my post graduation studies and joined a gym. The gym was small and would be crowded hence I moved to a group aerobics class. Which again didn’t last a while since I finished my education there and moved cities for my first job.

My first job never allowed me the time and space to pursue my health in any form and probably were the only years I didn’t work out in the formal sense. I picked up my workouts once again after quitting that job. I hired a personal trainer in 2008. He was the first person I met outside of my family EVERY SINGLE MORNING! I used to wake up at 4am to meet him at 5.

We finally took a break mid 2022 because I was travelling non stop and the time differences were crazy to coordinate. I kept up with Pilates, badminton, walks and the home gym.

If you have read till here and are still wondering what am I trying to say? I HATE GYMS! 🤣 I am scared to be in gyms. I don’t like people in gyms. I would want to be anywhere but the gym.

And the reason why I am telling you this is because conquering that fear is one of my goals. I don’t shy away from hard work. Health is hard work. And I have been actively involved in some or the other form of fitness and it has always been outside of this place called ‘THE GYM’.

11/04/2025

💧Could dehydration be silently making us gain weight?
Strange as it sounds, the answer is yes. And the reason lies deeper than just “not drinking enough water.”
In functional medicine, we look at how the body responds when it’s out of rhythm — and dehydration is a perfect example.

Here’s what’s really happening:
When you’re even slightly dehydrated, your body activates a hormone called vasopressin — a built-in survival response that helps you hold onto water.
But vasopressin does more than that. It also:
🧠 Boosts fructose metabolism
🔥 Increases fat storage
🛏️ Slows down insulin sensitivity (hello, fatigue)
💥 Triggers a kind of low-grade metabolic stress
Your body thinks, “We might be in a drought. Better store up.”

And most of us unknowingly feed that loop.
We reach for sugary drinks or caffeine to feel better, but that spikes fructose and worsens dehydration — reinforcing the same stress response we’re trying to escape.
It’s not about willpower. It’s about chemistry.
Your body is doing exactly what it’s designed to do — it just needs a new signal.

Functional medicine helps you reconnect with those signals.
Hydration, hormones, cravings, fatigue — none of it is random.
Your body is always communicating.
Our job is to listen and respond with care.

💧True hydration isn’t just about water.
Your cells need minerals to actually absorb it — like trace minerals, a pinch of sea salt, or electrolytes.

At Ctrl Alt Zen, we help you:
🌿 Understand what your symptoms are really saying.
🌿 Support your body gently, at the root.
🌿 Build rituals that align with your biology.

✨ It starts small. Maybe with just a glass of mineral-rich water.

📩 DM me if you’re ready to explore healing that feels intuitive, not overwhelming.

04/04/2025

✨ Rituals are not routines. They are acts of self-respect. ✨
In functional medicine, we see rituals as more than habits — they are intentional, healing practices that align your body, mind, and soul.
🌀 Whether it’s a morning meditation, herbal tea before bed, or a gratitude check-in after meals — small rituals create big shifts.

Here’s why rituals are essential:

✔️ Reduce stress + inflammation
✔️ Support your circadian rhythm
✔️ Build resilience in the nervous system
✔️ Create a sense of control and emotional balance
✔️ Encourage long-term, sustainable healing

🌿 At Ctrl Alt Zen, we guide you to build meaningful rituals that work with your biology — not against it.
📩 DM us to explore how functional medicine can fit into your unique rhythm.

21/03/2025

Functional medicine is a growing field that has gained significant attention in recent years, but there are still some misconceptions surrounding it.

By addressing these misconceptions, we can help more people understand the benefits of functional medicine and how it can help achieve optimal health.

18/03/2025

A lot of people are still curious and confused in the ever changing jargon world of health. Instead of simplifying solutions, we feed egos with esoteric descriptions. Here’s a simplified conversation when people ask me if this is meant for them.

Functional medicine is a patient-centered approach to healthcare that can benefit people of all ages and backgrounds. However, it may be particularly helpful for those who are struggling with chronic health issues that have not been resolved through traditional medicine.

Some common conditions that can be addressed through functional medicine include:

- Chronic fatigue
- Digestive issues, such as IBS or SIBO
- Autoimmune disorders
- Hormone imbalances
- Mental health issues, such as anxiety or depression
- Chronic pain or inflammation

If you’re frustrated with the limitations of traditional medicine and want to take a more proactive approach to your health, functional medicine may be the right choice for you since it provides solutions that are tailored to your unique needs and goals.

Have you tried functional medicine before? What has your experience been like?

08/03/2025

It’s been a while since I have posted on social media. When I started Ctrl Alt Zen in 2017, I knew that social media was going to be an integral part of creating visibility for my work and I did dedicatedly follow that through, till perhaps early last year, and then the social media fatigue hit me. Not to mention, losing my father, incessant traveling, various personal debacles, an empty nest and keeping up with work left me with little to no energy to dabble with putting my life, views and thoughts in a place which felt uninspiring. Being on social media and networking is not part of my primary profession. It’s a necessary evil.

Nonetheless I have also realised that staying away from it completely is a luxury that I can't afford. Then why not break the social media fast on a day where women are being celebrated and commemorate a few things which were iconic, but I couldn’t bring myself to share with the world since I was grieving my father’s loss. Every achievement has felt banal and pointless.

LinkedIn reminded me recently that I joined the platform 17 years ago and it coincided with me being featured in Forbes India Magazine and being on the cover of Outlook’s Anniversary Issue alongside some really esteemed figures across various industries. The end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025 was replete with many big and small wins and in an ideal scenario I would be very happy to share such news with my community.

Women rarely have the flexibility, freedom and fervour to be strongly individualistic and detach themselves from their caregiver roles. We, in fact have to teach ourselves, to take dedicated time off, to place our emotions, mental and physical health first at times to be able to recover, recuperate, regenerate to be able to give back to the world. And that phase of teaching oneself can be very lonely without ideal and adequate support.

This I dedicate some of my wins to those women who have offered me silent strength through my struggles. Thank you!

https://ctrlaltzen.com/featured-articles/

31/07/2024

This month marks 7 years to me founding CtrlAltZen and no better day than to finally showcase some behind the scene changes, before we say goodbye to July.

Over the last few months, we have been spending countless hours working on a key part of our brand identity: our website. Despite having started this company a few years ago now, it has been quite the journey to bring you all a brand new, informative, and revamped website! I really loved the old website and had a bit of trouble letting go when we started working on the new one. It now contains more in-depth explanations about the functional medicine approach, a whole new interface, as well as new content for you to explore (videos, tips, advice, and maybe a free health protocol if you look in the right place)!

Please visit www.ctrlaltzen.com to take a look and book a health discovery call if anything interests you. Or, especially if you have struggled to find a place that really pays attention to even your minutest health queries whether its chronic or new. Let us know what you think, and happy exploring.

Discover holistic healing with Payal Mahapatra at Ctrl Alt Zen. As a dedicated Functional Medicine Practitioner, Payal offers personalized health solutions for optimal wellness.

08/03/2024

When CEO REVIEW magazine came to me for their women’s day feature, I took a moment to acknowledge and appreciate all the women in my life, who have nurtured me into the person and professional I am today.

While I take every chance I get to celebrate the multitude of star women ( I am lucky to know quite a few ), I was reminded especially so, to acknowledge a very special one today and who I dedicate this feature to.

Tracy Harrison is a woman like no other and has single handedly touched the lives of scores of other women either by changing their lives or by teaching them to impact so many others. Her perseverance, dedication and commitment to ‘The School of Applied Functional Medicine’ truly inspires me.

I hope I can forever have the opportunity and cadence to keep learning from her and be part of her tribe. Forever in gratitude 🙏🏼



CEO Review Magazine

https://ceoreviewmagazine.com/magazine/women-of-excellence-2024/