Women In Wellness: Dr Lauren Bachman On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Team work, makes the dream work: If it makes sense, consider a partnership — working with skilled, equally driven people to achieve the same goal can make the experience much less painless and more rewarding. As humans we are social beings, and want to share successes together. Additionally, it’s an incredible opportunity to diversify and leverage more skillsets, bringing a more well rounded, and throughout process and experience with your business.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Lauren Bachman.
Dr. Lauren Bachman is a Doctor of Nursing practice and Board Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner through the institute for Functional medicine. She is passionate about empowering individuals to create health for themselves, in ways they never knew was possible. Through a holistic framework that blends functional medicine, energy medicine, and evidence informed practices, Dr Bachman offers patients a well-rounded approach to treating and regressing disease, preventing disease, and optimizing health and wellness.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
I can’t help but go “way” back, sharing that I grew up on a family farm in the Midwest — my dad was a dairy farmer, and he always was intentional about his farming practice to be sound, humane and regenerative for both the land and the animals he cared for (every cow had a name, not a number — and truly were part of our family). From a young age, I was steeped in the experiences of nature (from birth to death, composting and regeneration to season change and learning how the contrast of dark and light — summer and winter all play a role in balance and regeneration or new life). I didn’t know it at the time, but these experiences were providing me with the foundation of the deep wisdom which lives within the teaching of nature’s process, which has undoubtedly come full circle, in guiding my practice of caring for people. Professionally my early career started as a Registered Nurse in medical oncology (caring for those who had cancer). I spent many years at one of the world’s most recognized hospitals seeing some of the rarest forms of disease. I loved the work, but over time began to develop discontentment in my work- recognizing that we were so myopically focused on disease that we really weren’t talking about how to help people be well, have quality of life, and optimize their health, and we certainly weren’t identifying ways that we could prevent the disease or influence relapse or spread, even though I had a deep knowing this was possible. From here, I began my journey in research on more holistic ways to address disease , which ultimately led me to discover functional medicine — and make the decision to go back to school to become a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) , specifically as an adult gerontology nurse practitioner. After graduating with my DNP from ASU, I immediately began training with the institute for functional medicine (IFM) and have since completed board certification, as a Institute for Functional medicine Certified practitioner. I have practiced as a functional medicine consultant, in both in person and online settings as well as a Clinical Director in Public Sector Insurance and Wellness Programs.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
As it pertains to my current entrepreneurial pursuits, I think one of the most interesting stories on my journey with Benehealth, is that soon after making the decision to go into business with my partners, I became pregnant. I had joked frequently that my business and baby have the same gestation — or that I am having twins, just one of my babies was the business. Although I continue to learn and experience from this story — since this coexistence is ongoing, (especially now that I have had my son, and opened the doors to our business) but there are two main takeaways of this for me and it can be summed up in the two cliche sentiments: “If there is a will there’s a way” and “it takes a village”. First, “if there is a will there’s a way” represents that no matter what you go after in life you are going be thrown curve balls or experience roadblocks, but these things don’t have to be crippling and mean that you shouldn’t move forward — it’s learning to pivot, finding the silver lining, and appreciate that maybe the detour you have to take is really the scenic route that has a lot to offer you. And “it takes a village” is recognition that creating good things (no matter if this a new business or new habit) almost never happens in isolation or by the work of one person alone. It is truly invaluable to have business partners, with a shared vision, who are not only dedicated to creating that vision, but supporting each other in doing so. And of course — support of family and friends cannot go unnoticed either. Take away: Surround yourself with those who are inspired, motivated, and community minded — you will be bound to grow while being taken care of.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Time is the most valuable, and finite resource; but also your greatest teacher! Time management is by far one of my biggest challenges and I think this is very relatable in today’s busy, modern world!.
I think one of the challenges I faced initially is that there is a lot of fluidity, and shifting that occurs with a new business, week to week and month to month things look vastly different and for someone who likes structure and routine it forced me to be more nimble, and flexible with my time. I found that I would plan to have time to get project X done, but situation or meeting W came up and was more immediate. Having to adjust and find time for X created a backlog… another not so fun situation for a type A person, hoping to get that check box at the end of the day. This has definitely allowed me to realize that a lot of stress around time, we create ourselves. As long as the priority items are addressed, what is there really to be concerned about? You can come back to your working “project X” tomorrow and life will go on. Letting go of the rigidity I created for myself, and instead creating a more flexible “Master To do” — for the week or month, has been an effective tool for me. This allowed me focus, but didn’t push me to overwork or stress myself to get things done. Another element that I learned around time management that has been really important is carving out “non-negotiable” times to ensure I get self-care done — whether this is exercise, meditation, or pleasure reading, creating space at the start or end of my day was critical to ensure that I was balanced and my cup was full for not only creating my business but also showing up for my family!
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
“Healthier people create healthier families, which lead to healthier communities”. Human Beings are wired for homeostasis or balance and health- When there are long term disturbances in the system, this is strained. We live in a time when people have become disconnected with nature, and therefore disconnected with their body’s and their health. We are on a mission to help regain the innate connection and knowing, to reclaim this connection, and allow people to discover their unique path to healing, health optimization and overall well being. Discovering this capacity to heal is one of the most powerful gifts a person can experience, and they naturally want to share it with everyone they care about and for! We hope to bring humanism back to healthcare.Redirect sick care, to wellness focused care, and prevention over intervention! And restoring human health is not isolated from many other pressing issues of our time either, as we can improve the health of humans, we will likely positively influence other problems of our time, such as the mental health crisis, regenerative practices and elimination of toxic elements in consumerism — since so many of our problems today are sewn from the same thread.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
Be mindful of your exposures: “Exposures” can be anything from the ingredients or contaminants in your food, cosmetics, and household cleaning products to air and water quality. Before we can make changes, we have to recognize the problem. Most people recognize that chemicals and other harmful compounds like toxic metals etc. are harmful for their health — and would typically avoid them if they knew they were there. Unfortunately today, the US food system alone has over 10,000 chemicals that are directly or indirectly added to processed and packaged food, which makes over 60% of the American diet. Using websites like the EWG that provide consumer guides to food, water, cosmetics, household cleaners and more is a great place to start to build awareness of what is the food you’re eating and products your using; and learn about healthier and safer alternatives.
Prioritize sleep (at night time): Sleep and the health of your circadian rhythm are critically important for overall health and balance. I like to think of quality of sleep and the health of your circadian rhythm as the foundation in which you are placing all your other health pillars (like healthy diet, exercise, etc). If this foundation is unstable, the other pillars won’t be as strong. Meaning you could be eating the healthiest diet, and exercising everyday, but not getting any results, because you are regularly getting poor sleep. The best way start improving your health is keep a consistent bedtime and waketime, get regular natural light exposure (outdoors preferably) during the day, and avoid light exposure, especially from electronics at night (ideally after sunset).
Eat whole real food: This means, ditch the packaged items with an ingredient list 20 items long, and instead learn to get comfortable with preparing the whole sourced item. Instead of veggie chips that are 100+ times removed from the whole product, make veggie fries, with fresh carrots, beets and sweet potato. Our biology has evolved with nature for hundreds of millions of years. What our system recognizes as food is that it is provided by nature, not the chemical, highly processed and refined “imitation” food that makes up 80% of the grocery store. SHop the perimeter of the grocery store, start with simple recipes, and you’ll find that those 10 lbs you’ve been battling, might just come off on their own or the aches and pains might lessen. Food choices are one of the most powerful tools in creating health and wellness.
Manage your stress: Stress is one of the most ubiquitous insults to our health today. We live in a world where we are constantly having to be somewhere or do something, not to mention worry about the many personal, local, national and global issues. IT can be really daunting..why it’s no surprise that anxiety is the most common mental health condition in the US affecting over 40 million American adults! Stress not only influences our mental health, but physical health too, with direct impact on disease risk like heart disease and other metabolic conditions like obesity and type 2 diabetes. Getting a handle on stress is often one of the hardest lifestyle areas for people to address, because it is so multifactorial. My recommendations always start with the easiest things to control. You’re never going to eliminate stress from you life — and that’s not the goal — but it;s learning to eliminate the things you can and find strategies that work for you to be able to manage this rest.
Move your body: This is not anything new, by now we probably have all heard that “sitting is the new smoking” suggesting that being sedentary is as bad for your health as smoking cigarettes. We know that movement is critical for not only healthy weight, and optimizing the bodies metabolic systems, but beyond that influences everything from our gut health, inflammation and the immune system to balancing our mental health and outlook. If that isn’t enough — physical activity is essential in preserving and optimizing our physical fitness, reducing the risk of frailty, injury and debility as we age. So with that — Exercise or rather movement, is SO much more than achieving a certain physique or number on the scale. Also, we don’t have to be killing ourselves at the gym to receive the benefit. Regular movement is the key, such as walking more (at least 10,000 steps a day) and sitting less. You can even build in movement throughout your work day. Like 10 squats every hour, or walking on your lunch break. When it comes to exercise I always encourage people to do something they enjoy to make it easier to stick to even if this might not fit their view of “exercise”.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
This is tough, because there are many things on my passion list. However, if I had to choose on things that could bring the quickest solution for improved wellness to the masses would be the rejection of processed and fast food and create the public demand for more transparency and regulation of what is put into and onto our food. Eating organic, and properly raised/produced whole real food is one of the most important priorities for not only human health but environmental health as well.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
Be Flexible — business starts are fast paced and fluid. You have to be ready and dynamic for the inevitable “change of plans’ that will come with starting a business.
Time management: never assume you will have time to do it later; if you have time to do it now, take advantage! I learned that I put things off early on in our planning and development phase, assuming that I would have time for things later- and that just isn’t the case. Take advantage of the time you have, when you have. And on the same note of time management, make sure you have healthy boundaries and build in time for self care and time away — the creative and logistical demands of starting a business can’t be met, if you aren’t showing up 100% Taking care of you, is also an investment in your business.
Murphy’s law may be a real phenomena — so be ready: Preparing for the worst and expecting the best, isn’t a bad mentality to hold when you are working on getting a business started. There are a lot of moving parts, and there is inevitably going to be some breakdown along the way. Having an attitude that is ready for a “less than ideal” situation or outcome, will make it much easier to pivot and move forward, rather than be blind sided and dwell on a “should’ve, could’ve, would’ve” mentality.
Team work, makes the dream work: If it makes sense, consider a partnership — working with skilled, equally driven people to achieve the same goal can make the experience much less painless and more rewarding. As humans we are social beings, and want to share successes together. Additionally, it’s an incredible opportunity to diversify and leverage more skillsets, bringing a more well rounded, and throughout process and experience with your business.
Expectation setting — Starting a business is no easy feat, and at the very least will demand quite a bit of your time and energy. This is not only important for your own recognition, but also for those you are close to, including your family and friends. Discussing these anticipated changes with your family and friends, allows you to prioritize time away from work with them, and also creates the opportunity to ask for help or assistance to maintain balance and peace (especially at home).
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
Environmental changes — this particular hits home because I have children that will be faced with consequences of our actions today. We have the opportunity to make things better for our children and the generations to come. Being part of this cause is not an option, but a moral obligation. I see my work with healthcare an important influence, as so much of what I do is education, and encouraging informed consumerism — which is one of the most powerful influences we have. One simple example, plastic is not only toxic to the environment, but to human health — we should be avoiding it, and replacing it with safer alternatives like reusable glass and stainless — If we keep buying plastic, they’ll keep making it.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
Business handle www.instagram.com/benehealth_az
Personal professional page www.instagram.com/drlaurenbach
Thank you for these fantastic insights!
Women In Wellness: Dr Lauren Bachman On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.