Whole Woman Health Quotes

“Considering our health from a systems perspective and practicing functional medicine is, in many ways, approaching health through an inherently feminine lens. Connectivity and interconnectivity are traditionally held feminine values and beliefs and, as such, stand to restore to health and health care so much of what is missing in conventional medicine as it is. The impact of such a restoration transcends individual health and extends to community and planetary health, all of which is sorely needed. Functional medicine restores the focus of collaboration on the relationship between practitioner and patient, as opposed to the patriarchal, top-down, “doctor knows best” qualities that typically characterize relationships within the conventional medical model. Functional medicine practitioners practice accepting, as opposed to labeling a patient “noncompliant” when she doesn’t do what she was “supposed to do.” To get well within a functional medicine model requires patience as physiology is rebalanced.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“Fasting for at least three hours prior to going to bed prevents insulin from inhibiting melatonin and growth hormone, thereby improving sleep and immune function.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“Incorporating exercise and movement into your lifestyle isn’t a matter of having time, it’s a matter of making time.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“We have some choice about how we meet the messes in our lives: we can either drown in them—the sickness, the infidelity, the uncertainty, the loss of whatever form—or we can alchemize them into a healing opportunity.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“It is difficult to find your voice if you don’t make time, or have time, to connect with yourself.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“We tend to have a difficult time being gentle with ourselves as we work toward change. Too often, when women come to the clinic for follow-up and “confess” they didn’t follow the plan “perfectly,” they say, “I was bad,” or “I cheated.” My heart breaks when I hear this self-deprecating language. Health-care practitioners are known to reinforce this kind of shame with language like “noncompliance,” or “failed to...” But change is often two steps forward, one step back. It’s generally not linear, and being hard on yourself makes it even more difficult to move forward. I give you permission (if permission is needed) to be perfectly imperfect—otherwise known as being human—while you improve your health. You will benefit from putting yourself on the receiving end of the tender love you give to those around you when they embark on a challenging endeavor.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“It is simply unrealistic to neglect ourselves and expect to feel well.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“Too often, young women are put on birth control pills without ever being taught how lifestyle and nutrition affect hormone balance. But this information can empower young women to do what they can to avert the snowball of hormone imbalance that can accumulate throughout a lifetime.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“Considering and addressing mental, emotional, and spiritual factors is critical to our physical health. Their impact is central to, not separate from, the complex web of our bodies.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“The extent to which women share their adversity, the source of their strength, and their resilience with me makes me feel remarkably privileged. With some frequency, the driving factor that sends a woman’s health off the rails is her loss of sense of meaning and purpose. The busyness of life creates a lot of noise, not to mention demands, that can lead us astray. Reconnecting with our meaning and purpose is central to healing, and this is almost always part of our conversation in the clinic.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“Eat different things from day to day. Eating the same thing every day significantly limits the phytonutrient diversity of your diet. You have to eat a variety of foods to get a variety of nutrients. Plan at least four different go-to breakfasts, lunches, and dinners that you rotate eating regularly. Over-consuming a specific food, even a food considered healthy, can result in that food triggering an inflammatory response. Eat a variety of nuts, not just almonds. Use a variety of oils, mostly olive and coconut, but not processed oils like canola. Eat a variety of vegetables, fruits, and proteins.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“We, as a culture, don’t take time to eat, to sit down and nourish ourselves, let alone savor what we are eating.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“Well tended, midlife is a transition, not a crisis. But by midlife, your body manifests the net result of self-neglect as you were busy doing other things like raising careers or families. Your body insists you take care of yourself, lest you feel horrible. This is actually quite beautiful, although it can bring you to your knees.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“Most of us have tremendous agency over what we put on the end of our fork and into our mouth. Food is our first medicine. Junk in, junk out. Eating food that we could hunt or gather is the food that is best for us. In its absence, a multitude of health issues can arise. In its presence, a multitude of health issues resolve.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“Think of inflammation
as a fire in your body.
You want to stop it
before it goes wild.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“Mitochondria have no defense systems, which leaves them (and you) vulnerable to any substances you ingest or are exposed to. Each of us is responsible for protecting our mitochondria from oxidative stress and the damaging effects of toxins, and for providing them with a nutrient-rich environment.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“Many women feel as though they are at fault when they don’t feel well. But you don’t have to be perfect to be whole. You may not do everything you know would or could help yourself feel better, but beating yourself up about each and every transgression is a different kind of disease. Your “messes” or imperfections—the parts of yourself that make you human—are the realities within which to work as you move toward wholeness.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“Listen to the quiet voice within you, the voice that comes in stillness and silence, the voice of knowing, down deep, what you want and why you want it for yourself.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“Identifying the reasons we want to be well motivates us to change. Women who come to see me are generally ready to change. Readiness for change is not to be taken for granted. It takes a lot to get ready.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“You weren’t born this way. Something, or things, happened that tipped the balance in your body. Let’s see if we can identify what happened.”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage

“Are you living the best you can? Are there things you could subtract, such as stress, hours in front of the television, and processed food? What about things you could add, such as movement, vegetables, and a daily practice, like meditation or yoga, that will support the life and health you want? How much responsibility are you willing to take for your choices?”
― Carrie Levine, Whole Woman Health: A Guide to Creating Wellness for Any Age and Stage