​As I have begun walking this journey to start a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practice it has been a bit more challenging than expected.  I mean, in full disclosure, I was thinking one of the most challenging things was going to be getting my logo just right.  Boy was I wrong!  The last several months have been full of pivoting, adjustments and challenges that I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams.  I have had to rely on the tools in my stress management toolbox as well as grow that toolbox.  The first hurdle was finishing school… I know that I require my space and my quiet time to recharge and that is typically when I get my most focused and productive work done.  In all honesty, home (with all of it’s distractions) was NOT that place.  If you are reading this in the future – please note the date… it is August of 2020, the year of insanity and shutdowns.  Let’s rewind to mid-March. The really challenging part of my program was beginning.  I needed my routine and my quiet recharge time, but it totally vanished.  My quiet time was replaced by having kids home all day trying to do school work, a husband working from home almost full time AND finishing graduate school online IN our shared office space.  Last but definitely not least, my little slice of heaven, my escape – my favorite, little, local coffee shop - was forced to go to a take-out only model.  Let’s just say my stress level hit a high and I had to find a way to rebalance my world and it wasn’t a quick shift.  My family and I had to find a way to all be productive and all stay sane in a constantly changing environment.  My children never went back to school and my favorite, local coffee shop was eventually allowed to reopen (THANK GOODNESS) but in the meantime I had to make a few investments for my sanity.  The first was setting a schedule for when and who did what.  This changed weekly and required my husband and I to reevaluate and really work on our communication (this is something that is ALWAYS a work in progress in our marriage).  The second was a portable hammock – I know this sounds like a ridiculous item but it gave me my own space AND it allowed me to get some much needed time outdoors and a quiet space to read and study without the distractions of being inside the house.  Taking advantage of the tiniest things can make a HUGE difference in your mental health and stress management.  I also had to make sure I was getting appropriate sleep and using the oils that keep me grounded (yep, I am an essential oil junky – more on that in another blog post).  All of this helped but we still felt a little claustrophobic and uncertain – which is something no one does well with long term.  So… we all finished school and then we completely went off the rails – the kids took advantage of all of the free time they could get their hands on, lots of outside time riding bikes, playing and just being KIDS!  My husband focused on work and keeping life moving.  Me… I started working on launching my practice.

So, I already told you, I was thinking a logo was going to be my biggest challenge… oh that was a challenge but nowhere near the largest challenge I faced in launching my practice and I think you will notice both logos turned out AWESOME.  Starting a business is stressful enough in a normal year but doing it when the country is a hot mess is a totally different set of circumstances.  I learned there are options for creating an LLC and actually becoming a business entity. The process was pretty simple, but only after a lot of research and really considering what I needed. It would have been easy to use the readily available, heavily advertised, big box options, but local was much more cost effective and gave me what I needed without all of the extra fluff and cost.  Setting up the LLC was daunting at first, but the uber challenging and time consuming task was opening a bank account!!  It took almost two months!!  I had done my research and was looking for a small business friendly banking option that wouldn’t hit me with constant fees and that was a Credit Union.  The credit union wasn’t opening new business accounts because they were focused on existing customers and making sure customers could get the PPP loans they needed (Paycheck Protection Program for those of you that aren’t aware).  I think this is awesome but it definitely added to the stress of getting started because everyone talks about how you need to be smart with your business and keep your personal and business finances separate.  That gets harder to do when you are unable to open your bank accounts but I did it!  Next up was insurance… thank goodness they had talked briefly about this in school AND one of my closest friends is in this industry.  It was super confusing and challenging and took the better part of a month to be squared away… and is still a stress point for me to be honest!  If you are starting a business of any type, don’t go cheap with an industry plan unless you have fully vetted it and make sure that it covers every aspect of your business.  I started down the industry plan path and realized very quickly that the cheap cookie cutter option left me uncovered and that is really scary in this sue happy society we live in – find a broker!!!  If you need a referral, I am happy to share my broker’s information.  You need someone that actually understands your business and, in the grand scheme of things, the monthly cost is minimal to make sure I am not wide open to risks!  This was totally unexpected, but applying for insurance also required me to define my processes and practice management which was a HUGE blessing in disguise.

I know…you are thinking none of this seems that crazy, but I am a Type A person… I have become way more “go with the flow” over the years but that only goes so far.  Imagine you are launching a business - and that business looks a certain way in your head - and then all of the sudden it looks nothing like you had planned or expected.  Imagine being in the middle of a pandemic and your life twists and turns on the daily.  Oh yeah, the major change, did I mention that I had no intention of this being an online practice 6 months ago??  I had planned to have a brick and mortar practice where I would see people, in person, and use ALL of my skills to help them.  Instead I have pivoted a bit and am now working with clients online.  For now, it is great, and I love my clients but wish I could give them more – it will happen, just not right now.  

Now that you know I have pivoted to an online practice, let’s talk about web design and development!  I had intended to hire this out when I was opening a brick and mortar because I didn’t think it would need to be maintained as heavily.  Oh, how wrong I was!   When I went to the online model, I decided I really needed to build my web presence myself because I needed to be able to maintain it on my own.  When looking at web design options they don’t always give you all of the details of their pros and cons up front, OR I am unable to understand their lingo.  This website has been built three different times on three different platforms from scratch, yep, you read that correctly THREE times!  I was never so glad to be Type A.  I had written all of my copy and kept it in files offline.  Rebuilding was painful, but it made things SOOOO much easier to not be worried about losing things that I had put hours of my heart and soul into.  The most fun experience (tongue in cheek) was learning that the platform I was using wouldn’t support a blog – the night before I planned to launch!!  As you can see, that is a key item that was not optional.  So there I was, recreating my third website, the night before we were scheduled to launch and 45 minutes before we were scheduled to leave for my son’s birthday dinner.  .  I made the choice to put my son first and go to dinner.  I had faith I would get it done after he was in bed.  Pushing the launch any further was not going to happen and guess what – that was July 24th and we launched the afternoon of July 25th!  The experience was totally worth it and I know we are where we belong and we started right when we were supposed to.  I used my tools that day and got through it - the amount of Stress Away and Build Your Dream in our office that night was enough to motivate a small army.

If you have a dream, take the leap even if it is 2020 – you are totally worthy of your dreams and I know you can do it.  Use your tools, find your space and GO FOR IT!!  I wouldn’t give up any of this experience or any of the hurdles because it has made me more aware of who I am and has really forced me to own it and be proud of what I have accomplished.

Totally taking the chance for a shameless plug – if I weren’t feeding my body properly and hadn’t been helped to find my tools over the last few years I couldn’t be here.  If you are searching for those tools – I AM YOUR GIRL!!!   

THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE!!!

NOW subscribe to our newsletter on our homepage for some tips and awesome recipes!!!!  

Did you know that calcium is found in the bones AND in the blood?  A process called Calcium Homeostasis keeps the pH of the blood and the bones in the appropriate range.  For example, when the body is fighting a fever the bones will release calcium to the bloodstream because the pH of the bloodstream has become too acidic.  The main hormone that regulates your body’s calcium absorption is the parathyroid hormone (PTH) that is produced in the parathyroid glands.   When the PTH picks up decreased levels of calcium the PTH increases production of cyclic AMP which increases the amount of PTH in the blood stream and triggers the increased release of calcium from the bones to the bloodstream increasing the blood calcium level.  When increased PTH is flowing it also triggers the body to form calcitriol, which is a hormone that increases absorption of calcium from the GI tract.  

Just as the body obtains calcium from the bones when it is lacking in the blood stream and the pH is too acidic, once the blood stream is brought back to appropriate pH and becomes too alkaline, the bones then begin reabsorbing calcium from the blood.  This very precise balancing act helps us to maintain the most basic functions of life to include the heart pumping and allowing us to breath.  As you can see, calcium is a key mineral to maintain general health and the body has many processes to help adjust and maintain calcium levels based on the fluctuations of the body’s pH.

Curious what some of the signs are that you might need more calcium? If you are craving fatty foods, alcohol, soda or other carbonated drinks consider adding some of the following to your plate: mustard and turnip greens, broccoli, kale, legumes, cheese or sesame.  Simple little additions to your plate can change the vitamin and mineral content and help your body balance and absorb what it needs. It is always ideal to get the majority of your vitamins and minerals from food because that is the most natural form that your body was made to make use of.  By listening to your body and the simple signs it provides you, you can make simple adjustments to your daily fare instead of just adding another pill to your regimen!

​Hello and welcome to Working Natural Wellness!  I’m Karly Baughn an FNTP (Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner).  Thanks for joining me for my first blog post!  I want to start by sharing my story and how I came to start Working Natural Wellness.  It all began about a decade ago in 2010 when I got super sick after a really stressful move and some life changes.  I spent months seeing doctors who did test after test and continued finding nothing.  I gained about 30 lbs in a month or two, was in constant stomach pain and constipated to the point of an x-ray showing what they feared was an impacted bowel.  I was on prescription strength laxatives and high doses of fiber for weeks with zero change.  They tested my thyroid and my levels were a little off and my thyroid was enlarged. They did an ultrasound and then a fine needle biopsy on some nodules they found and they all came back normal.  Finally, as a somewhat last-ditch effort they decided to do a Celiac Panel. I went home and looked up Celiac Disease and immediately stopped eating Gluten and within a week I was feeling so much better.  Shortly after this I got pregnant with our first son and 2 years later we had our second son. Fast forward to 2017 - I was having a ton of joint pain, exhausted, mood swings, anxiety, depression and random fevers multiple times a week that wiped me out.  I went to the Dr. over and over for months (it felt like déjà vu from the years prior). Again, they ran a ton of tests and I was told repeatedly that I was fine, I just needed to rest… This went on for about a year and a half before my husband insisted I do something more aggressive – either see a psychologist or maybe consider going back to the Functional Doctor I saw when I was first diagnosed with Celiac Disease.  I opted to go see the Functional Doctor.  Upon review of my symptoms and all of my bloodwork it was found that I had Hashimotos Thyroiditis (which the other doctor’s missed on my blood work), Epstein Barr Virus, and it was also suspected that I had Lyme disease.  In addition, my blood sugar handling was a mess, my adrenals were shot, and I was living life on a roller coaster physically and emotionally.  

It was time to do the hard work… I thought I was already doing the hard work – I was going to the gym and busting my rear 3-4 days a week. I ate a mostly Paleo diet, I ran my own business, we were a chemical free home, I was taking care of my family and managing my autistic son’s wellness - all while doing my best to be a supportive wife to my medically retired former Army Officer – who, by the way, was in the midst of his new career and starting graduate school.  My hard work started with switching from high intensity gym work outs to very gentle leisurely walks and some yoga.  Next came starting the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) Diet to figure out what was causing my inflammation and additionally inflaming the tickborne illness that I tested positive for.  I also did 30 days of raw celery juice to help my body begin to heal.  In addition to all of these changes I had to slow down and I had to start prioritizing what had to happen in my life and where I needed to start saying NO.  I had to make myself the priority, then my family and, outside of that, not a whole lot else got done for a while.  Slowing down and learning to meditate and find a calmer head space was important and a required part for me to heal my body.  In addition, I have taken the right supplements to support my body and to support my healing journey – which, I can proudly say, I am starting to be able to reduce and still feel like a productive human being that is actually FUNCTIONING, not just a zombie wandering through life. 

Every day is a new experience and each day requires grace for me, my body and for my family.  We aren’t all perfect and many days my husband gives me the look or the gentle coaxing that maybe it is time to slow down and maybe not take on so much. Maybe it is time to reevaluate the projects and the items on my To Do List.  I take a lazy day every few weeks and literally do nothing, I give myself grace to sleep more and not feel guilty about it. 

I know you are wondering how I decided, with all of these changes, that I should go back to school.  Well…I have experienced so much improvement when I got serious about the quality and types of food I was buying and eating. Following the Autoimmune Protocol and reintroducing foods back into my body, made me realize that people don’t necessarily see how different foods and different food qualities affect them.  It made me realize that I wanted to help more people find the freedom to feel their best and to use real food to do it. I am passionate about finding ways to to indulge ourselves and our families, while also eating for wellness and being your best self without feeling deprived of the good stuff!