How can you change your mindset about wellness and taking care of your body? Have you been diagnosed with PCOS and need some advice? Which questions can you ask in the doctor’s office for your benefit? In this podcast episode, Dr. Cristina Castagnini speaks with Jen Lendaris about owning your health and starting to live!

MEET JEN LENDARIS

Jen is a Nationally Certified Health Coach. After living in frustration for 10 years to get a diagnosis of severe endometriosis, she created the Own Your Health movement to help women take an active role in their health to reverse and prevent chronic illness. As a behavior change expert with a functional medicine approach, she empowers clients with the tools to reclaim control of their life by identifying the root cause of their health concerns and the support to make necessary lifestyle modifications Find out more and connect with Jen here.

IN THIS PODCAST

  • How Jen works with someone diagnosed with PCOS
  • Weight loss and PCOS
  • Having a healthcare team

How Jen works with someone diagnosed with PCOS

When a client comes to Jen, they usually have a pain point and are not sure where it is coming from. She teaches them about what they are diagnosed with so that they can understand it better, and teaches them to live for their health and redirect their energy into their healing.
They do not need to compare themselves to other people. Once they understand that framework, we can identify what really is going on here, what are your symptoms, what are you feeling you could have an improvement in. What we do is we look at all the pillars of wellness.
Jen goes through people’s stress levels, financial pressures, relationships, nutrition, and so forth. Nutrition in this instance is not spoken about as a fad diet, but how to properly eat for proper nourishment for their bodies and to encourage their recovery.

Weight loss and PCOS

Jen works with clients to shift their mindset from weight loss as a goal towards focusing on health instead.
So we’re not looking at it from the weight loss, we’re looking at what are these markers of unhealthiness and what are the markers of healthy that you want, and what are the lifestyle modifications – looking at all the pillars of wellness that we could potentially address, and we address those then by default, the other things reverse.
Place the focus on proper wellness instead of the number on the scale – throw the scale out the window for better results.

Having a healthcare team

Have a team of specialists who focus on different aspects, instead of one doctor who knows a little about different things.
It’s knowing your scope of practice, and then having the referral sources to appropriately refer out because that’s serving that person the best, it’s not about me, it’s about their health and that’s how I look at it.
Jen works on behalf of her client to find and work with the best doctors.

USEFUL LINKS

MEET DR. CRISTINA CASTAGNINI

I am a licensed Psychologist and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist. While I may have over 20 years of clinical experience, what I also have is the experience of having been a patient who had an eating disorder as well. One thing that I never had during all of my treatment was someone who could look me in the eye and honestly say to me "hey, I've been there. I understand". Going through treatment for an eating disorder is one of the hardest and scariest things to do. I remember being asked to do things that scared me. Things I now know ultimately helped me to get better. But, at the time, I had serious doubts and fears about it. If even one of my providers had been able to tell me "I know it's scary, but I had to go through that part too. Here's what will probably happen...." then perhaps I would not have gone in and out of treatment so many times. My own experience ultimately led me to specialize in treating eating disorders. I wanted to be the therapist I never had; the one who "got it". I will be giving you my perspective and information as an expert and clinician who has been treating patients for over 2 decades. But don't just take my word for it...keep listening to hear the truly informative insights and knowledge guest experts have to share. I am so happy you are here!

THANKS FOR LISTENING

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