Andrea Nakayama

The Functional Nutritional Counseling.

So FXNA by Andrea Nakayama.

Another Andrea.

Got it level.

or if you feel like your gut reacts to everything you eat or if you finish a meal or the day looking six months pregnant this episode is for you today we're unpacking SIBO what it is what your symptoms can tell you how testing has changed and why getting to the root of it can be so tricky Today I'm talking with Dr. Alison Seebecker, one of the leading experts in the world of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth or SIBO.

Dr. Seebecker is a naturopathic physician and an instructor of advanced gastroenterology.

She has specialized exclusively in SIBO since 2010 and has spent years treating complex cases, educating practitioners and patients, and developing many of the tools and protocols now commonly used in the SIBO world.

She is also the creator of SIBOinfo.com, which is an incredible resource for anyone trying to better understand digestive symptoms, testing, and treatment.

Welcome, everyone, and welcome, Dr. Seebecker.

And then that's when I went back to school.

And I started with nutrition, became a board certified health coach, which introduced me to Mark David and the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, which totally changed everything for me because it introduced me to the concept of who we are as eaters, why we eat, how we eat, when we eat, and when those issues are all addressed, what kind of takes care of itself? And then I met Andrea Nakayama, and I went through her program for functional nutrition certification, took that a step further, became a functional nutrition and lifestyle practitioner, which is her more advanced program.

And then with my years of education, and that changed everything for me.

It helped me create the frame of promise and help me see that Recovery is so nuanced.

Not the neat, polished version where one chapter closes and another immediately opens, but the messy in-between, when an identity, a role, a relationship, or a way of life no longer fits, and you don't yet know what comes next.

My guest, Andrea Nakayama, knows that territory intimately.

Andrea began her career in book publishing before the devastating experience of losing her husband to brain cancer while raising their young son led her into an entirely new chapter of work in functional nutrition.

She went on to found the Functional Nutrition Alliance, growing it into a global health education company that trained thousands of practitioners before selling the business and years later, ultimately choosing to leave the company she had created.

Who am I without the role that has defined me? What happens when something I poured myself into no longer belongs to me in the same way? And how do we know when it's time to stop fighting for what was and allow ourselves to enter the unknown? In this conversation, Andrea and I talk about why our culture gives us so few rituals or frameworks for endings, the provisional states where we try on possible versions of what comes next, the difference between grasping for the past and opening to an emerging future, and why the pause may be one of the most powerful tools we have for hearing our own voice amid all the noise.

We also talk about motherhood, aging, identity, discernment, narrative medicine, and the surprising grace that can come when we stop demanding that we already know who we're becoming.

This is a conversation for anyone standing at a threshold, whether you're contemplating a change, mourning something that has ended, or simply finding yourself asking, who am I now? Here's my conversation with Andrea Nakayama.

Andrea, welcome to the podcast.