Willow Wellness, Kristin Frane, FDN-P

01/18/2024

Right before Christmas, I experienced interior knee pain (MCL). Thjs pain woke me up at night and I would limp for the first hour upon waking. I considered some root causes for the pain (hello Christmas cookies) and I took a tumble from a ladder moving Christmas lights. Even though I didnt feel pain when I fell or after, I knew it could be a delayed response.

I went to my osteopath and he freed me of all pain in one quick session and it has not returned. While working his magic he found a nerve that had been over activated in my back. He held the spot in my back until my body released the tightness and instantly my knee pain was gone. That visit cost me $125 and I used my HSA dollars. Had I gone in for a 15 minute doctor visit ($325), I likely would’ve been referred on for X-rays, an MRI, a cortisone shot, and it never would’ve solved the issue which was basically a spasm is my back that I never even felt.

I know this is woo woo stuff, but I challenge you to consider how alternative therapies can heal!! I have stories.
*I took this picture when I was in Savannah, Georgia this week

12/17/2023

https://youtu.be/_FtSP-tkSug?si=p7i_3IlWOeLScXoq
We watched this video in Yoga Teacher Trainimg last night and I loved it so much! Got to keep “er moving or the cement sets in and it’s hard to regain that mobility back ever. Love this 5 minute video (warning: human cadaver in video).

The entire Integral Anatomy Series is available for viewing on YouTube.https://www.gilhedley.comV1, pt. 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K68kC9R7THcHere, I ...

12/15/2023

Supplements! While diet has the biggest impact on your health, sometimes supplements are important since our food is not as nutrient dense as it once was and it’s hard to get all your nutrients through diet. As a holistic health practitioner, I am able to run a mineral test and I was surprised to learn I needed selenium, K2 and even more magnesium than I was taking. It’s nice to not have to guess!

One thing I know for sure though is that most people need magnesium. Our soil has been depleted of magnesium so most people need it. There’s so many different forms and I experimented to find what works best for me. Most people need fish oil too.

And quality matters! I only choose pharmacy grade supplements and I’d be very leery of purchasing supplements from a big box store.

What supplements do you take?

11/18/2023

Body care products, toothpaste, sunscreen, cleaning supplies, body fragrance and home fragrance products can be a big source of stress, which can lead to disease and dysfunction. There are so many products on the market (not legal outside the U.S.) that contain chemicals that can disrupt our endocrine system - certain products raise estrogen levels causing a major imbalance in our hormones which in turn can lead to estrogen dominance (weight gain is just one symptom). I like to use www.EWG.org to check for products and their toxicity. If you want to improve your health, this is a great place to start. Whatever you put on your body or smell in your home ends up in your bloodstream so it's important! I like DoTerra for fragrance, Dr. Brunners soap (or home-made soap), and Primal Health tooth powder products to name a few but there's a lot of great options out there.

The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to helping you live your healthiest life.

11/15/2023

With my new holistic health practitioner license, I have access to Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGM’s) for myself and others. I tried one out for 2 weeks and here’s what I learned about my blood sugar:
Exercise:
-When I went to Crossfit fasted, my blood sugar (BS) went up
-When I did Crossfit with food in my belly my BS stayed stable
-When I did long high heart rate cardio, my BS went up
-Walking the dogs my BS remained stable and dipped a bit

FOOD:
-rice my BS went really high (but still in range)
-potatoes my BS remained stable
-apple my BS went up (but still in range)
-apple and blueberries in one meal, my BS went way up
-apple with peanut butter my BS remained stable
-I tried an alcoholic drink and my BS went up
-I decided to try dessert with 20 grams of sugar and my BS went above the safe range
-veggies, meat my BS remained stable

Look all I learned about myself in 2 weeks. I rarely eat sugar and now I can directly see the impact on my body and I’m a healthy person. This is also tells me that if I ate a high sugar diet I would be really suffering with health complications. I loved learning how my body reacts to various foods and activities!

11/12/2023

When my friend took this picture of me a month ago, I immediately wanted to delete it, because as Sir-mix-a lot says “Baby Got Back”.
As I reframed my thoughts I had a few realizations:

-here’s a healthy 53 year old, hasn’t had a cold or illness in 20 years, has birthed 3 healthy children and still occasionally has negative thoughts about her body
-I have been unconsciously holding beliefs that “I’m not good enough” and those beliefs are from years of media/social media influences and comparisons. How could it not affect me?
-Hey, people pay for butt implants so I need to appreciate what I have. All living bodies are a gift and beautiful.
-If I don’t appreciate this vessel I’ve been given, who will? I’m blessed with great health no matter what my body shape.

I’ve been undergoing yoga teacher training and I’ve been learning a whole new level of body acceptance and I’m grateful for the experience. I hope you can also learn to love your body - it’s so important for overall good health!

11/01/2023

Looking for a way to add liver to your diet? I mix it in with all sorts of dishes and no one knows the difference!

11/01/2023

One of the biggest things you can do for your health is to get some good sleep! Studies show that going to bed between 9-11 is ideal and sleeping 7-9 hours is a good goal. Avoiding blue lights (screens) and bright lights 2 hours before bed are essential for a good nights sleep. If I’m going to be around screens I wear these TruDark glasses (they work!). I also read a before bed (non-digital books) so I use an amber. light bulb. Exposing yourself to the sunrise, sun at mid-day and at sunset are great techniques for setting your circadian rhythm. I hope you sleep well tonight my friends!

10/25/2023

The #1 thing you can do to improve your health is to eat healthy food. Real food. Pre-packaged foods have been designed to make you overeat. If you want to learn more, I challenge you to read Salt, Sugar and Fat and you will be alarmed at some of the Frankenfoods we are eating and how they are designed them to make us overeat.

Cutting out sugar is the best place to start for overall health improvement. The movie Fed Up (Prime) really opened my eyes. Sugar is hidden in so many products and excess sugar causes a whole host of health issues. Did you know that that 3 tablespoons of ketchup or one cup of Prego has the same amount of sugar as 3 Oreos? When I completely gave up sugar 9 years ago, I had a rough detox of 3-5 days but then instantly felt better and looked better (good-bye inflammation). I challenge you to look at your sugar intake and try to taje it down.

This week, I challenge you to cut up vegetables for the week! If you have your veggies ready to go for a salad, you are more prone to eat healthy. I cut veggies on Sunday so I’m good to go for the week. I add in protein (chicken, tuna, ham and sometimes bacon). I use Primal Kitchens salad dressing since most of the commercial dressing contain bad oils (more on that later).

One last tip! When you are eating, make sure you are in a relaxed state and really chew your food well. Our gut is not able to handle food that is wolfed down and not chewed well (this leads to leaky gut).

So here’s your weekly challenge: look at your sugar intake, prep your veggies, and chew your food in a relaxed state.

Let me know what you think!

10/25/2023

The #1 thing you can do to improve your health is to eat healthy food. Real food. Pre-packaged foods have been designed to make you overeat. If you want to learn more, I challenge you to read Salt, Sugar and Fat and you will be alarmed at some of the Frankenfoods we are eating and how they are designed them to make us overeat.

Cutting out sugar is the best place to start for overall health improvement. The movie Fed Up (Prime) really opened my eyes. Sugar is hidden in so many products and excess sugar causes a whole host of health issues. Did you know that that 3 tablespoons of ketchup or one cup of Prego has the same amount of sugar as 3 Oreos? When I completely gave up sugar 9 years ago, I had a rough detox of 3-5 days but then instantly felt better and looked better (good-bye inflammation). I challenge you to look at your sugar intake and try to take added sugar down to zero.

This week, I challenge you to cut up vegetables for the week! If you have your veggies ready to go for a salad, you are more prone to eat healthy. I cut veggies on Sunday so I’m good to go for the week. I add in protein (chicken, tuna, ham and sometimes bacon). I use Primal Kitchens salad dressing since most of the commercial dressing contain bad oils (more on that later).

One last tip! When you are eating, make sure you are in a relaxed state and really chew your food well. Our gut is not able to handle food that is wolfed down and not chewed well (this leads to leaky gut).

So here’s your weekly challenge: look at your sugar intake, prep your veggies, and chew your food in a relaxed state.

Let me know what you think!

PS - there’s a delicious 30 minute Brussels sprout if you click on the picture

10/23/2023

I’m super grateful to my amazing sister-in-law for asking me to dog sit the sweetest dog in Florida this weekend. Greta was able to join me for some glorious fun the sun! Thank you

10/20/2023

Welcome to my page!

My passion for wellness and for helping people runs deep. I had the good fortune of continuing my education this year to become a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition-Practitioner. Trust me, it was not easy and there was plenty of drama along the way. But what I love about the program is that it focuses on TESTING and clinical correlation to find the root cause of health issues. Instead of treating symptoms with medication which create side effects, and possibly more medication, the practice of FDN focuses on finding treating the body naturally - after all, our body has an innate ability to heal. Doesn't it seem backwards to treat the symptoms with medication?

I've watched the cycle of medicine personally with one of my children. We went to specialist after specialist and each one ran expensive tests, each specialist gave a different diagnosis and wanted to prescribe a different medication. Eventually, we gave up because none of it made sense to me and it was so expensive, time consuming and frustrating. That's when I started branching out into alternative options.

I hope you will follow my page for weekly health and wellness tips!

PS - I have a regular job that I love, this is my side passion project. Life is short and I have a lot I'd like to share!