White Stone Wellness Functional Nutrition

18/09/2025

Some exploring while I help our oldest get settled. 🍀

My heart is breaking as I head home and she stays here for college. 💔

16/09/2025

Good morning from Ireland. 💚🍀

11/07/2025

you're over the age of 35 and find  you're having mysterious symptoms of anxiety you've never had before or your existing anxiety has gone through the roof--it could be perimenopause. 

This is because the first hormone to start declining in perimenopause is progesterone. 

Progesterone is what helps you chill and helps you sleep by making another hormone, known as allopregnenalone.

Allopregnenalone supports the production of GABA in your brain.

GABA is your zen neurotransmitter, it keeps you emotionally balanced and relaxed and promotes sleep. 

Low levels of GABA can lead to:

 Irritability

Anxiety

Panic attacks

Losing the filter between your brain and your mouth (not necessarily a bad thing)

Anger or road rage (when there's no road)

Lying awake at 3am and 

Depression

Adding fuel to this 🔥, women also experience a natural decline in GABA as we age. 

So what can you do? 

Regularly engage in moderate exercise to support your mood

Eat more fermented foods to support your gut bacteria

Consume a Mediterranean style diet

Practice good sleep hygeine

 Give yourself some TLC from all that stress with mindfulness practices like meditation, yoga, breath work and talk therapy

I also have some go to supplements and nutrients:

L-theanine (supports sleep and GABA production)

Ashwagandha 

Passion flower

B complex vitamins

Some women even find relief by supplementing with GABA directly.

AND ask your doc about progesterone therapy. You DON'T have to wait until you're fully in menopause. 

These symptoms can also be indicators of a thyroid issue or dysregulated cortisol, so don't ignore them.

02/07/2025

👉Many women are led to believe that they’re not in perimenopause unless they’re experiencing hot flashes or night sweats.

 This is simply not true.👎

Perimenopause often begins in your 40’s but can start happening in your mid-30’s—and can last from a few years to up to a decade.

Estrogen has to decline significantly for hot flashes and night sweats to show up, but before that happens your hormones will fluctuate wildly for a long time, with progesterone typically declining first. 

➡️ Before hot flashes and night sweats, the onset of perimenopause often looks like:👀

✅️ New or worsening anxiety or depression

✅️ Ragey PMS (worse than before)

✅️ More painful cramping

✅️ Heavier, lighter, shorter, longer or skipped periods

✅️ New or worsening headaches around your menstrual cycle

✅️ Extreme fatigue (could also be your thyroid)

✅️ Insomnia or poor sleep

…and more than a dozen other symptoms.‼️

So don’t accept “fine” if you don’t feel fine.

If you’re not feeling like yourself, it might be your hormones.

10/06/2025

Do you struggle with an afternoon slump where your brain is just TIRED? Does it affect your ability to think and focus?

Learn ways you can optimize your brain energy and support your ability to focus. The webinar is now available on the website.

Link in comments.

21/05/2025

Are you always battling an afternoon slump where your brain is just TIRED and you can't focus? Check out the webinar I'm hosting today for Pure Encapsulations on solutions for mental fatigue & focus!

Mental fatigue is one of the most common concerns patients report—and it’s affecting focus, performance, and long-term brain health. Join us for a free webinar, Optimizing Brain Energy: Solutions for Mental Fatigue & Focus. 📅 Wednesday, May 21 | 4–5 PM EST 🎙️Presented by Amy Doyle,...

29/04/2025

Some much needed sun and relaxation ❤️

30/01/2025

It's DAY 30 of 30 Days of Inspiration!  If you've stuck with me this entire 30 days and read even just a handful of these emails, thank you!  I hope you've been inspired.
 

I heard this concept the other day from and I really like it.  Because, words matter.

I'm well aware that for some people, the word "goals" lights a fire under them--in a good way. Goals are their thing.

For others, it equates to a feeling of intense pressure, overwhelm, or even a feeling of inadequacy because you're not achieving.  

 
If the words goals or resolutions leaves you feeling cringy, how about this?

Standards.  

What if, instead of getting stuck in overwhelm or feeling inferior because you like the idea of growing and improving but the idea of being pressured by a goal doesn't do it for you, what if you just set a new standard for yourself?  

 
Here are some examples:

 
When you're hanging out with your kids, you put your phone away.

You only drink water with meals now.

You have a standard now that you get in 10,000 steps a day.

You have a standard that you're no longer going to give time and energy to people that don't respect you.

Instead of a goal to have a tidier house, you set a standard that you put things away when you're done using them.  

You now have a standard that when you get a craving for sweets around 2-3pm, you have fruit instead of an unhealthy sweet thing.

Your new standard is that instead of reacting when triggered, you're going to pause, take a breath and then respond, not react.

I just love the word standard. It's so low pressure, but personal and impactful.  

So if your New Year's resolutions, intentions or goals are not inspiring you,  

How about setting a new standard for yourself?

29/01/2025

Your life doesn't end at 30, 40, 50 or 60.

You can improve your life, learn something new and even reinvent yourself whenever you want. 

Some examples from pivot points in my life:

At age 26 I started a financial business with my boyfriend. (Now husband).

At age 33 I had my daughter.

At age 35 I got certified as a personal trainer.

At age 38 I went back to school for my Master's degree.

At age 39 I opened my nutrition practice.

At age 40 I had my son (after years of trying and almost giving up).

At age 43, with no writing experience, I took a stab at writing for the nutrition and functional medicine industry, which turned out to be very lucrative.

At age 47 I restarted training in the martial arts (after 20 years of not training).

At age 50 my husband and I started to completely rebuild our marriage. (aka Marriage 2.0)

At age 51 I earned my first-degree black belt. 

I'm not finished yet.

You don't have to be either.  Just start. ❤️

28/01/2025

It's Day 28 of 30 Days of Inspiration.

WINTER.

I'm SOOO over it.

I saw a post like this somewhere and was happy for the reminder.

If you feel the same way, I'm just reminding you too today that we're getting back a little more daylight every day. Spring IS coming.

27/01/2025

It's Day 27 of 30 Days of Inspiration.

I have different ways of assessing my patients' progress with their treatment plan. I often remind them that that one big symptom they came in with is a combination of many different symptoms, processes and imbalances in their body that we are working on.

So we look at the small wins to see if and how the needle is moving as part of the big, overall picture. Then we correct course if we need to but most importantly, we keep doing the right things.

The same goes with whatever you're working toward.

If it feels like it's taking forever, count the small wins.

Correct course if needed, but just keep doing the right things.

26/01/2025

It's Day 26 of 30 Days of Inspiration

While I am going to do a series on the different types of fasting, I'm not talking about fasting from food today. I'm talking about fasting from wrong thinking.

During our darkest moments, it can be hard to pull ourselves out of thinking that doesn't serve us.  

In his 40-Day Devotional, Fast From Wrong Thinking, Pastor Gregory Dickow has one entry that has helped pull me out of difficult places, titled:

Fasting from the victim mentality.

I want to be careful here to say that this is not about ignoring our feelings. When we're hurt or going through something difficult, we should allow ourselves to experience all the feelings we feel.  

At some point though, we need to decide how long we're going to stay there.  To quote Pastor Dickow, 

"The worst prison in the world is the one we put ourselves in--our mind."

Some of the points he makes about this are:

 
1. People may have had something to do with how you got in a situation, but only YOU can decide whether you stay in the situation.

2. The victim mentality ends when we take full responsibility for our attitude and direction in life.

3. Don't give away your power.  

We give away our power to live in victory, health, and success—when we allow others to determine how we RESPOND. We have the power to forgive, the power to recover, and the power to overcome anything.
 
When we blame others, we give away that power to them.

Happy Sunday, I pray that you have a blessed day.  

 
Oh..and Go Bills!