Season 4 Ep 10- The Supplement Spiral

🎙️ Are you doing all the right things for your health, yet still feeling depleted?

In this eye-opening Season 4 episode of the Transformation Station Leadership Podcast, I’m joined by Beth Mielbrecht to unpack the truth behind the Supplement Spiral, why so many high-performing leaders are taking more, doing more, and still not feeling better.

We explore how quick fixes can distract from foundational health, and how depletion impacts not just your body but your clarity, energy, and leadership effectiveness. Beth shares practical insight on how to move from chasing solutions to building sustainable wellness that actually supports long-term performance.

This conversation is for leaders who are ready to stop outsourcing their health and start strengthening the foundation that fuels everything they do.

Learn more about Beth: 
Website: https://yourhealthwithbeth.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethmielbrecht/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@yourhealthwithbeth
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yourhealthwithbeth/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:19

As high performers, we tend to be masters at solving problems fast. But sometimes the quickest fix becomes our deepest trap. You know, we're talking about the supplement spiral. That's what happens when we as leaders keep adding more in search of energy and focus and performance while missing what our body truly needs: recovery, regulation, and restoration. Come on, I'm excited about this conversation. Let's get it started. I'm your host, Adrian Benton, and today we're exploring a topic that hits close to home for so many of us as high achievers. We're talking about the supplement spiral and what our bodies need instead. Today I'm super excited because I am joined by a leader and wellness expert who helps high-performing professionals break free from the quick fixed cycles and helps us to reconnect with foundational habits. Let me tell you a little bit about her. Well, we're talking about Beth. And Beth is a health detective, I love that, and a precision healing expert. She works with health conscious women in midlife who are done with trial and error. Women who have heard that everything looks normal or it's just your age too many times. Women who know that their bodies hold the answers. Beth has built a method for you and I to ask our body directly to get answers and to find hidden imbalances. I am super excited to welcome today to Transformation Station. Beth, welcome. We're so glad that you're here with us today. Thank you. Thank you. I'm super happy to be here. Absolutely. So listen, the supplement spiral, you know, this really is a conversation that we must have as leaders, right? Because the impact of supplements expresses itself in how we lead or our inability to lead in the energy, the focus that we bring, or not sometimes in the abilities just have longevity as a leader. So I want to start off by asking you this question. All right, Beth. Why do so many high-performing leaders, why do we fall into the supplement spiral? And what does that reveal about how we approach performance and quick fixes?

SPEAKER_00 3:10

So many high-performing leaders really can get sucked in to the great marketing because you are on, you have to have the right answer, make decisions, your brain needs to be sharp. So anytime you come across something that says, oh, you'll have more energy, oh, your brain will be better, you are automatically thinking, maybe that's for me. And I'm here to tell you that might slow you down, that might not be what you need. Your body knows what you need. Sure, some things are helpful, but just taking supplements. And I would say even your coffee that you drink or your espresso is actually a supplement, especially if we're talking about women, we metabolize that differently. And even among women, people metabolize caffeine differently. So whether your caffeine of choice is through chocolate or or uh some kind of caffeinated beverage, you're already taking supplements. And then when you add more things on, it can be too much.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Already you're giving us a masterclass, Beth. Already. Here on Transformation Station, we love to give our listens and viewers an opportunity to stop and assess. And so to everybody that's listening and watching right now, I want you to stop and really hone in on what Beth has been saying. Now, Beth, you walk down our street when you start talking about chocolate and coffee. But you know what? I I was thinking to myself, you know, you're you're so true because many of these things lead to sometimes an unconscious addiction. I know there have been times where, you know, maybe the day was stressful or I was feeling tired and what I'm reaching for that chocolate. So something that I think is gonna soothe and satisfy when that satisfaction really is just temporary. It's like it may be satisfying when it goes in my mouth, but then afterward, I'm dealing with hot flashes and I'm dealing with nervous energy and all these other impacts. So, what's your take on the supplement spiral in general and Google self-diagnosis culture?

SPEAKER_00 5:19

When you look to AI, to Google, to the shelf at the health, when you do that, you are taking yourself out of the equation. You're asking somebody else what you need, and really the answer is inside you. So I I eat chocolate. Actually, I eat chocolate every day. I know what's in chocolate, I know how my body reacts to chocolate, I know that chocolate in the morning for me is perfect. In the evening, that's not good. It's going to affect my sleep. I know that coffee doesn't work for me. I know that there are certain supplements that sometimes I might need support, but supplements are supplemental. And when you get into a spiral of just one more thing, you have the danger of overloading your liver and having things work across purposes. And so you were not really nourishing your adrenals without tapping into your body. So going to Google and buying things that are marketed really, really well. I mean, there's a lot of marketing budget for that, can be detrimental in that you lose sight of how your body's supposed to function and you're forcing it to operate in a certain way. And at some point, it either backfires, your body can no longer handle it. And so it just becomes uh stagnation and download, uh, like really stuck, or you know, you you you end up needing more and more to you don't notice any difference anymore until you just keep adding and adding onto it.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

Have mercy. Well, what do you say about this self-diagnosis culture? I know you started talking about how we go on Google sometimes and we, you know, are finding like that next best product that you know people are in the review saying, Oh my gosh, this worked for me. And it it promises to deliver a quick fix, right? What do you take us a little bit deeper into your beliefs, you know, about this self-diagnosis culture?

SPEAKER_00 7:42

You should self-diagnose yourself. I totally believe that. And by asking yourself, so here's when you feel a certain way, when you are lacking energy, when you just feel cloudy and or you don't have any motivation to do what you need to do, and it's like everything feels hard. Instead of typing in a search bar, going in a shopping cart somewhere. I want you to ask yourself this question what does my body need today? Do you need a nap? Do you need to go outside and get a walk? Do you need to call a friend? What do you need? It's often more simple than you think. And your body knows it's like, oh, just step away from the screens, please. Put down the social media, just take away. And the second question is what is what is this what does my body need today? And the second question is what I'm trying to think of the best way to say this. What would be the best way to what is my body trying to tell me? So, what does my body need, and what is my body trying to tell me? Sorry, I had a couple versions of that sentence in my head. Yeah, so there's a message, and it and so here is the emotional part. The first question is about the physical. What is my body trying to tell me? And what do what that second question? And the second question is emotional. So it's really saying, I need to have better boundaries because my team is messaging me through email and Slack and all the ways, and I haven't set up proper boundaries. Or it could be that maybe we need a policy in place because uh this is chaotic. And if we had a policy, I wouldn't have all these meetings and answering the same question over and over again. So, business-wise, when there's a lack of boundaries with you as a leader, people take advantage of that. Where can you give authority to somebody else instead of all of the authority resting with you? And your body's trying to tell you these things, not just in your personal life, but also in your business life and the way you conduct yourself with your team.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

Yeah, there's a book called The Body Keeps the Score. Are you familiar with that? Yes. And so many times I think, Beth, we condition ourselves to see, hear, feel, and move past it. Like I'm not gonna deal with that right now. I don't have to deal with that because you know, we're afraid of if I pause to take care of this, if I slow down, then you know, the third and fourth, what we fear, the third and fourth order affects when we realize when we when we don't realize that if we're not taking care of ourselves, what we fear is gonna be inevitable in a shorter period of time. I, you know, I know of several people who they worked themselves into the ground for years and then they retired. And shortly after they retired, all of a sudden, all of these body issues came out. I know a few people who ended up having heart attacks and dying shortly, like never had a chance to even enjoy because their body said, Oh, wait a minute, we finally stopped. Now let me bring forward all these things that you never stop to deal with when I was trying to tell you. You know, and one of the best practices that I was thinking about when you were talking was, you know, as leaders, we can conduct a personal performance audit that evaluates sleep. How much sleep am I getting? That evaluates our stress level, that evaluates, you know, the workload that we're carrying and recovery by uh before adding on external solutions. I don't know. What do you think about that?

SPEAKER_00 12:17

I think that's so important for the leader of a company to do that, because what you do will be modeled by your team. And if you are always scattered, you have no boundaries, you are just always looking for a stimulant or some enhancement, your team knows that because it comes across. So if you take a moment and say, you know what? I'm exhausted today. We're going to have this meeting anyway. But if you notice my energy is a little flat, this is why. It's nothing to do with you, it has to do with me, and I'm working on it. And when you say that, it gives your team permission to address their health. It gives your team permission to say, wow, my boss prioritizes sleep. My boss is going to take time for recovery after we just finished the sprint that really wiped us all out. We work so hard. When you're when you're when you can do that, then your team prioritizes their health. And a healthy team is my number one key performance indicator for financial performance. In my 35 years of engineering leadership, when my team was healthy, my numbers were good. Healthy people solve problems, they communicate with clients better, they are they get the work done, the reviews happen, the collaboration happens when people are spending 50% of their brain power managing pain or being exhausted. So you model you when you uh model that, then it definitely sets the tone.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

So let me ask you this question right here, because I think this is right in alignment with what you're talking about. How does physical depletion, despite all doing all the right things, how does that really how does that truly impact our clarity, emotional regulation, and decision making? You started talking about it. Take us just a little bit deeper. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

So you might not know you're starting to get physically depleted and you want to catch it before it goes too far. You could be eating healthy, getting a workout in, doing a hike on the weekends, and you think you're doing well, but there's something building up. And as soon as you notice that you're not sleeping well, or as soon as you notice that you have aches and pains during the day that are uncharacteristic, that's the time to take action. Don't let it get too far because the end effect is really a decrease in your processing speed. And when you are managing your own physical discomfort, you don't have the emotional bandwidth to take care of your team. To when something blows up with the work-wise, and you need to be neutral and assess the data to make a decision, you might get upset. You don't want to do that. That's not the right response. You want to be calm and to be able to have those resources to be calm, you need to feel good in your body. So when you start feeling aches and pains during the day, or your sleep is disrupted at night, those are the early warning signs that there's something going on. Get it figured out. There's many ways you can do that. Pick something that works for you, but don't let that go on.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

I love that. That brings us to this leadership principle, right? That as leaders, we cannot perform at a high level when our energy is constantly depleted. Leaders, just sit with that for a moment. Beth and I want you to just sit with that, think about it, take ownership of it, and ask yourself where are you allowing your energy, your sleep, the things that are really vital to you being able to walk forward and live authentically, where are they being depleted and what are you doing to reset? Not the supplements, not the coffee, not dependent on these coping things, but what are you doing truly to feed yourself and give yourself life? So I want to ask you this question: what's the connection between performance and employee health that most firms are missing?

SPEAKER_00 16:57

You're missing the communication. Health is considered human resources. Depending on what country you live in, it could be through your employer-sponsored health insurance or your country-sponsored health insurance. It is not the domain. In fact, there's there are regulations in certain places where it is inappropriate for a leader to ask about the health status, perceived, obvious, or just unknown. You know, there could be in certain litigious places legal ramifications. So there has been an entire wall put up between talking about the health of someone and their performance. And what I'm suggesting is that you can do this through kindness, through clear communication, and modeling your own behavior. Ask your team, did you stop and have lunch today? Ask your team, you know what, we're gonna do video off, go out and take a walk during this call because no one's presenting, it's just a check-in call. Go out and be walking during this call. You don't have to address, like, hey, I think you're not, you're not a health coach, you're not a doctor. Hey, I think you have this thing going on. Let me give you some tips. No, not that at all. But if you monitor how they're feeling and model what you do and you talk about it, uh, you know, I'm really prioritizing sleep, especially since you know, we have a new baby in the family and everybody is a little sleep deprived. You know, what are you doing on the weekend to catch up, to rejuvenate? When your team takes a holiday, turn off the work phone, turn off, put the email autoresponder on. You deserve that time to step away completely, to fully recharge and let them know you'll we'll be okay. We have prepared, and it's your job to make sure you have prepared so that they can take this time away. That's what I think we need to do is address help from all of these other angles so that people prioritize feeling well. Because often with health, you might not go seek support until it is something like an emergency, like my arm is falling off, and now I cannot use my computer. So now I will go and seek support. No, wait, you know, something doesn't feel right. Let me go look at that. And when you model that and you are concerned about people, they will take steps.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

1000%. You know, I smiled when you started talking because I was thinking about, you know, how do we as leaders interject well-being just into the daily conversations? And I smile because uh something my staff has started doing. So I'm a workaholic, I will work all day long. Like I get there in the morning, I'm just gone because there's so much stuff to do. But lately, my staff has been saying, um, excuse me, did you have lunch today? Are you going outside for a walk? And I'm like, no, but but I but I realize, you know, they are helping me to pull back, realize what's important and what will really sustain. And so, you know, Beth and I, leaders, we invite you to do the same first for yourself. You got to put your own mask on first, right? And then do that with your office, with your team. Inject well-being into just the daily battle rhythm, the daily conversation so that it doesn't become this thing that's awkward. It just becomes this thing that unifies us as a team. So, Beth, what is the leadership parallel between relying on supplements instead of fixing root health causes and relying on tactics instead of addressing deeper leadership misalignments? What's the parallel?

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Parallel is that you're looking at the wrong metrics, you're looking at lagging indicators. So, health-wise, you might look at blood work. It's a lagging indicator. You've felt you have felt some way in your body energetically, and then finally it settles into your blood and urine, and then you get a blood test at once a year and it shows this, and then you take action. Lagging indicator, leadership-wise, if you wait for your annual financial statement, bad move. You know, you need to look at your projections, you need to see what your pipeline of work is, you need to be looking at customer feedback so that you know where you stand. So, business-wise, you don't wait until once a year to say, Oh, how did I do? and be surprised. Of course not. You are checking along the way, how are projects doing? Are they on time? Are they on budget? What's your employee retention rate? Are your are your staff burned out? Do you have the right people in the right roles? You're checking that all along. You don't wait till a quarterly report or an annual statement. And so, with your health, no need to wait for an annual exam. Check in every day. You wouldn't go for a month without checking in with your team. Don't wait for like a special occasion to take care of yourself. Health is not a day at the spa, health is not doing um uh a walking challenge for a fundraiser. Health happens every day.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

Say that again, Beth. Health happens every day. Every day. Wow. Wow, this is really powerful. Um, a lot of food for thought here. So, what are the warning signs? That a high performer is silently slipping into health-related burnout. What are the warning signs?

SPEAKER_00 22:55

So when you lose your temper and you no longer have that emotional regulation, that means something in your physical body is taking your resources. If you say, Wow, that got that escalated quickly. That got how did I get so upset? That's not that's not like me. When you notice that, check in, take a pause, do an assessment. I mentioned when you stop, if there's a sleep disruption that is recurring, that is something to check. And also if you have aches and pains, if you do your work while sitting, I recommend standing. But if you do your work while sitting and you notice that you are no longer comfortable sitting, well, figure that out. If you do your work while standing and you notice that something is uncomfortable, also figure that out because one is not better than the other. It's what works for your body. And those are the three things emotional sleep and aches and pains during the day. Those are the things that are going to tell you, I need to pay attention and figure this out before something really sidelines me.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

So I want to ask you two more questions, right? The next one, what foundational habits should we as leaders prioritize to help us to restore real energy, resilience, sustainable performance rather than chasing these supplemental, these supplements, right? These these temporary solutions. What foundational habits?

SPEAKER_00 24:27

So the first one is there's three. The first one is keep the garbage out. And a lot of people hear that and they're like, oh yeah, yeah, that's fast food. I don't eat fast food, except if I'm traveling or except if there's an emergency. So just get that out. You know, you don't need the funky oils. You don't need the you don't need that junk. You if it's in a package, if it has a wrapper, you probably should find a better alternative. But also keep the junk out means keep it out of your eyes and your ears. So pay attention to what you're watching and listening to. The world is crazy. It's important to stay informed, but the images that you take in through your eyes, the soundtracks, the music, whatever that you're taking in through your ears, be careful with that. Monitor that. That really affects you. And so be judicious in what you choose there. So keep that garbage out. The second one is take in real food and also take in beauty. So, yes, eat whole food, eat food that does not come in a wrapper, but also go see a sunset. Yeah, play with your kids or your grandkids, go pet the dog, just enjoy something beautiful. Listen to beautiful music that is uplifting. Listen and watch things that really bring you laughter and inspiration. Bring in things. And the third and final thing that is unique to me, I say this to everyone, but we need to be cleansing and eliminating daily. So that looks like you take a shower every day, you brush your teeth every day. You should also have a bowel movement every day. You know, we got sorry, I have to talk about that, but you need to do that. And then there's other things that you can do to help your body process in this world that is not as pure and clean as it used to be. So you could do some heavy exercise where you're sweating, or you could go in a sauna. You could do some dry brushing, uh, you could use all kinds of methods to really get your lymph moving again. You can uh rub your lymph nodes, you can rub your face, you can really help your lymph drain. There's lots of things you can do, but it's detox is not a once-a-year event. Your body is always creating cellular waste just from living and breathing. So help your body move that along. Drink plenty of filtered, mineralized water. And those are things, those three things will really set you on the right foundation.

SPEAKER_02 27:18

I love this. I love this. So as we turn the corner on this conversation, right? To the leader that is listening today, that feels exhausted despite doing everything that they've been told to do, what is the first step that they should take to break the cycle and rebuild real energy and capacity?

SPEAKER_00 27:43

First thing is really a self-assessment, is to take time either to journal or do a voice note to yourself. But imagine you were talking to me or your best friend, and if you write it out and talk it out, you will come up with your energy leaks. Uh, and I remember in IT long ago, it was called the rubber duck method. You know, if you just tell your problem to a rubber duck who cannot respond, you can end up figuring it out. And if you want to talk to someone, I'm here for you. You can go to my website and book a call and we can talk about it. But often just writing or verbalizing it, you will see that there is you're not cooking dinner at home, and that becomes really obvious. Or you notice that you have no time to go to the bathroom during the day because you have meetings stacked, stacked, stacked. No wonder your digestive system is in a knot because you need to be able to relax to have a bowel movement. You might notice that you only do marathons and marathon trainings, which is just too hard for this stage of your life. And you might need to dial it back a little bit and still be happy with that and not be the overachiever. Anyway, if that's the first thing I would say is to do a self-assessment. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

You know, leaders, uh leadership principle that we can lean on, as Beth has been talking to us, is that recovery is not a reward, it's a requirement for sustainable leadership. It's a requirement for sustainable living. Beth, I thank you so much for this powerful conversation. We've got to have you back again because we barely just scratched the surface on this conversation. And yet, there's so many rich gems to everybody that's listening and watching in a moment. We're gonna find out how we can tap into the resources that Beth provides to us. Uh so Beth, that's why we do that now. How can we engage in the resources, the quiz, and all the things that you have?

SPEAKER_00 29:51

I have a quiz and it's 10 multiple choice questions. So if you're a leader who does not know where to start, go to your healthwithbeth.com and there's a button that says take the quiz. And when you do that, you will get my insights on the area you should focus on. You'll get a few emails that tell you what to do and how to do that, all things that you can do for free. And you'll get access to a private podcast series that gives me, gives you uh my voice in your ears explaining these same things. So whether you would like to read it or listen to it, but yourhealthwithbeth.com is the place to go. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

All right, Transformation Station. You see, the link here on the screen is also in the description box. You know that we love to support our guests. So I'm going to invite you to tap on that link, go take the quiz, and then also do me a favor, send Beth a note. Let her know that you saw that you heard this particular episode, share with her what has resonated with you. And as you're tapping into her resources, absolutely ask questions because we believe the community that learns together grows together. Beth, it's been wonderful to have you with us today. Thank you so much. Thank you. My pleasure. Absolutely. All right. Well, listen, this conversation today reminded us that sustainable leadership begins with sustainable energy. And Beth challenged us to stop taking temporary solutions and to start honoring what our bodies truly need to lead, to think, and to perform at our best. If this episode resonated with you, which I know it did, I'm gonna invite you right now to share this episode with a fellow high performer, leader, or team member who right now may be stuck in the cycle of doing more while feeling less. So until next time, keep leading with clarity, keep protecting your capacity, and continue your transformation journey from the inside out.