Doctors said surgery. She Said No, And Everything Changed

0:00When they told me exploratory surgery, I was like, no, I literally went home. I called my mom and my grandma and I was like, what do I do? Because I can't take this anymore. The secret to being a boss people want to follow is. I don't think that you know how business works. I don't think you understand how business runs because if you did, you would never ask for something so ridiculous. You know what? I'm going to use this time to get what I need to get out and start my own business. And that's what I did.

0:35welcome back to the build pod where authenticity trumps authority and today's guest is super super super intentional she has well she is the founder and owner of amanda chinkhan nutrition and coaching so let me welcome amanda chinkhan thank you thank you so much i just love what you do because I am really big into health and fitness as well. So let's talk a little bit about you and what you do. So let's give me a background. I do a lot of different things. I pretty much focus on helping people correct dysfunction in their body and, you know, helping to optimize your health in whatever way that means for you.

1:16And everybody's journey is very different. You know, I come across a lot of people who have a lot of different kinds of issues, but my focus is like root cause. What sparked this? Like this whole nutrition, like, were you not into nutrition? Were you like, like an unhealthy kid growing up or like, why? What sparked this? So actually, um, the short answer is I used to be very, very sick. Um, my dad was very into holistic nutrition. So as a child, we, we, we had a very strict diet exercise routine. and then a lot of things happened in our family. He left and then it kind of all went to crap. And then I started getting very sick very quickly.

1:59And then by 23, I was on six different medications and like a mess. I was 218 pounds. Wow. And it was really horrible. And I got to a place where doctors were like, okay, let's just add this medication. Let's try this. Let's do this. Let's do that. And I kept saying, but why? Why are you trying to put me? I don't understand what the justification for these things are. You're just trying to mask my symptoms. I'm trying to fix this problem. So you became your own advocate. I became my own advocate. I started doing my own research. When they told me exploratory surgery, I was like, no, I'm going.

2:35Yeah. And I literally went home. I called my mom and my grandma and I was like, what do I do? Because I can't take this anymore. and that led me back to the principles that I had learned growing up of just holistic health and I started losing weight I started getting my health together it got off of every single medication and now I'm pretty healed like I would say I'm like 90 % healed from all the things that I was suffering from 19 years ago you know incredible that is completely so what was like So I know like women empowerment is a big thing and women entrepreneurship is a big thing. So when did you decide that you were going to take everything that you learned, being an advocate for yourself?

3:18Like what was that defining moment that you're like, I'm going to go into business for myself and help other people? Sure. So as I was going through school, I went to school for leadership and communication. That's what my bachelor's is actually in. And then I used that. I knew at the time that I wanted to use it to do something with holistic health. So I got into a position where I was essentially building a clinic from the ground up. And in that process, I got a bunch of different certifications for nutrition therapy. And the real defining moment, though, of me saying, I'm going to do this shit myself, was I had been in that role, built the clinic from literally zero.

4:00Yeah. And I wrote a 27 page proposal to my boss saying, this is why you should make me partner. I made you all this money. I'm running the clinic on my own. I do everything here. And I gave him the proposal. He came back and said, I don't think that you know how business works. oh i was like so that's a setback there was a setback or all of a sudden somebody tells you yeah so then yeah so then what now i'm like on the seat of my pants the edge of my seat seat of my pants so also when i took the job he had kind of promised me that i would be made partner at some point right and the time frame that he gave me was three to five years i thought at this point that i'm telling you about i was in the role for six years and i hadn't had a raise in five years.

4:51Wow. Now, we were also in the middle of COVID, right? The day that I gave him the proposal, exactly two weeks later, we shut down for COVID, right? So a lot of delays happened there. But the main point is that he literally looked at me and was like, I don't think you understand how business runs. Because if you did, you would never ask for something so ridiculous. That was his answer. I literally gave him 27 pages of why I deserved this. I literally, I knew every single dollar going in and out of that company. I laid everything out, how much profit I have made for you in the last six years. And he had the nerve to turn around and say that to me.

5:34So what do you do? So was it because you're a female or? I think in this specific situation, yes, a lot of it had to do with the fact that I was female. And I don't make that like as a blanket statement against men, you know, but in this particular situation, yeah, that was very true. So now you have a step back. So what's your next step? COVID hit. It kind of threw us all for a loop. It took a couple months for us to like figure it out from there. And then I was like, you know what? I'm going to use this time to get what I need to get out and start my own business. And that's what I did. It took a year of me going back to school, doing this, that, whatever.

6:14I just applaud you because you deserve an applaud for that. That takes a lot of strength to do that. I mean, that's a lot. You know, how many years ago was that? this was 2023 i left and opened my business so very recently you know so after all this this 27 page proposal you're just like fuck it yeah i'm done yeah but i love that that's so entrepreneurial though because there comes i think there's a defining moment in everyone's life where the writing is on the wall yes it's whether or not you want to read it yes and sometimes you have to read it and not ignore it or erase it because it means something and you took that plunge because i know that and you have that inner voice right yes that's like bitch you better do this you better do this shit.

6:50She better use the time. Yes. And that's literally what happened. I feel like I've always known that I'm, I was not meant for like a corporate job, you know? Yeah. I've always, yeah. I've always known that about myself, but I kept like, almost like hoping somebody else was going to do it with me or I could do it, you know, like he would make me partner and now I'm a business owner, you know? And it was like, God was like, listen, I need you to do this yourself, You know, it's so true. That's what happened. Yeah. And so that's literally what happened. And I, I got the certifications that I needed.

7:25And I was like, bye. And now you have your own business. Now I have my own business. And so what do you so a lot of women come in, right? And I know you've been very vocal about women and their issues or stress related or, you know, we're unwell. So what happens when somebody comes to your clinic? What do they do? so I'm fully remote so everything is done you know on zoom so I can like reach everybody anywhere and um but when people come to me the first thing that I do is a nutritional evaluation let me see what's happening to your body we have like nine major systems that make this whole thing run and we need to know which systems are not running correctly and why you have the symptoms so you do blood work um I don't always I have access to do blood work and genetic testing but honestly, most of the time the situation doesn't require it.

8:12And yeah, and that's the thing. And we hear this story all the time. I went, I did blood work. They said everything was fine. Come back in six months. So I don't need blood work because your blood work's not going to tell me anything. What will tell me something is how you're feeling. What are the things are you dealing with day to day? And I think that most women don't even like consciously acknowledge that they're dealing with all of these things at once. Yeah. The evaluation that I do is 200. So you do these evaluations? Yes. And the evaluation is 212 questions about how you're feeling. About how you're feeling?

8:47Yeah. Is it like check one? Is it one being the worst, 10 being the best? It's one, two, or three. Oh, okay. Mild, moderate, or severe, right? And it's 212 questions. And I think I meet a lot of people who I talk to them and I'm like, Like, so tell me about your stress. Tell me about what's going on. They're like, oh, I'm not so stressed out. And then I see their evaluation and it's like lit up from top to bottom. That's me. I'll probably whatever stress levels like that three is the most, that's me. Yeah. That's 100%. I'm three all the way down. My stress level is all the way up here. But it's so important because it goes hand in hand.

9:20Your nutrition, the way that you feel, and you need all of that in order to like be whole, I would say. Yeah. And I think that a lot of people don't realize how incredibly impactful it actually is to your daily function. And, you know, we hear that a lot. Oh, it's just stress. Oh, you're just super stressed out. That's the reason that one in four women in our country are on psychotropics right now. I was just going to say, so take an antidepressant. Exactly. My doctor tried to do it to me too. He's like, oh, it sounds a little stressed. Why don't you take it? Like, try to take this. And I'm not really big on it.

9:52Not that I think there's nothing wrong with it. I'm just not big on it. So instead of going, and some women don't want to take an antidepressant or something. So you have a whole holistic approach. Yeah, I'm going to fix it. Okay. And it's not like I'm going to go in and change your life. Well, I do, but in different ways, like I can't change your situation, but we can change how your body is able to deal with the situation. And that's the most important part. Like one of the things that is very frustrating to hear over and over and over is my doctor said my labs are fine and this is just stress.

10:22What does that mean? Yeah. Just stress, first of all, is such a, I think, disgusting and like almost derogatory thing to say to a female because our bodies are extremely sensitive. And, you know, we kind of live in a culture that doesn't allow us to acknowledge that that's true. Yeah. You can be a boss bitch and be sensitive. Yeah. You know, you can have that. And the thing is, when people say just stress, this frontal part of your brain called the hypothalamus is responsible for how you process emotions. That sets off a cascade. And we've all had these moments where we wake up, we open our eyes, and our brain's already like 25 ,000 thoughts, right?

11:09All of those thoughts get processed. It sends a signal to your pituitary gland. That gland says, okay, based on what we're feeling today, this is how we need to behave. Yeah. Once that cascade starts, you're literally in fight or flight, which I don't think people realize how impactful it is to your health. Your gut's messed up. Your sleep's dysregulated. Your nerves are set on fire. And your thyroid is now not working. Your metabolism is also too slow. So you're going to gain weight. And then we look at women and we're like, it's just stress. and your cortisol levels i competed so i know all about this stuff it all comes from stress and not sleeping and that's so like when they're trying to get you to lose weight or cut fat one of the biggest things they said you have to you have to sleep you have to eliminate your stress right all of those things in itself help with gut because your gut what people don't know is that your gut dictates a lot of what's going on yeah yeah it's like gut health is so important so important yes But it starts up here, you know, and it's not just and, you know, we're built differently from men.

12:12Men have testosterone. Testosterone is actually pretty awesome. It's really good for you. You know, take it to lose weight. Yes. Yes. But, you know, females need to be careful with testosterone. But like testosterone also makes you very singularly focused. And it also makes you like strong and aggressive. So you can go after this one goal and like kill it and eliminate it. and then move on to the next. Women don't, we're not wired that way. We have 58 different things happening at once and we're trying to go after all of them at the same time. And it's very impactful to your health. So tell me, define what's the difference between being sick and unwell?

12:51There's a very big difference. So people who are not sick, those are the people that I talk to every day. They're the people who, again, my labs are fine. They can't find anything, but I don't feel good. I'm too tired. My energy is messed up. Sorry, so your energy is? Your energy is messed up. My mood is off. My temper is flaring. I can't sleep properly. I'm tired at three o 'clock. I need coffee and then I'm awake at 3 a.m. All of those things are true for those people, but you're not sick. You're not in crisis. Your blood work is going to say that you're fine, right? That is a very different state from getting up every day and being like, I got this.

13:37My energy is fantastic. I had a good night's sleep. My mood is very chill. I love all the people around me and I can do everything that's on my to-do list today. That's two very different states. For sure. There's like being clinically sick and then just trying to fix everything because they say if the head ain't right, The whole body ain't right. The whole body ain't right. It's the whole big thing. Yeah. And then for women in business, it's like if you're dealing with this every day, if you don't feel good every single day, how far is your business going to go? You're not going to do good. No, you can't.

14:08You have to look good. In order to look good, you got to feel good. You feel good, you got to do good. It all goes hand in hand. It's all mind, body, and soul. Exactly. You're not going to go very well if you don't feel good inside. Exactly. It has to. It has to reflect on the inside. You got to take care of what's inside. So I'm sure you help millions, hundreds of thousands, millions of women. Now, what was your favorite? Give us an example of your favorite transformation story. There's a lot of them. There's a lot of them. Recently, I had somebody graduate the program, my program, The Great Reset.

14:41She's younger. She's like 28, 27. And she had a child three years ago. And ever since she had the baby, her body has just been like hormone imbalance. Yeah. Yeah. Super mess. And she, when I first spoke to her, she told me my knees are cracking like an old lady. I can't get up the stairs. I'm super tired. I can't get down on the floor to play with my kid. I'm always so angry that even when he's trying to play with me, I don't want to because I'm agitated all the time. And I've tried every diet and nothing is working. And I said, okay, what's your weight loss goal? And she's like, I really want to lose like 25 pounds.

15:23I think I'll be okay if I lose 25 pounds. And I said, is that you telling yourself what's realistic or is that what you really want? And she said, well, I think 25 pounds is a good place to start. And I said, okay, what do you really want? And she said, I really want to lose like 40 pounds. And I said, okay, we're going to do it. And she was like, no, my program is only four months, right? So I said, we're going to do it. She's like, okay, I'll believe you. I'm going to join because I really want you to help me with all these other things that I'm dealing with. But I'm going to put it in my mind that it's going to be 25 pounds.

16:00I said, okay. As we started the journey together, she started, you know, talking to me about a lot of different things. Work, she wasn't happy at her job. She wanted to move into a different field completely. And she was too scared to do it. And she didn't feel good. She didn't look good. She wasn't confident enough in herself. So she was really hesitant to make the move. In six weeks, she was down 25 pounds. All of the symptoms that she came in with were gone. At day 22, she texted me and she was like, I feel so much better. I just walked up the stairs and my knees were not creaking. And I was like, this is amazing.

16:42Tell me more. And she's like, I really think I'm starting to feel better. I feel less anxious. I feel like I'm sleeping more. That was at day 22. At the six-week mark, she's at 25 pounds down. At the four-month mark, she's at 42 pounds down. Wow. I love that story. Thank you. I love that. But the best part of that story is literally like three weeks ago, she texted me and she said, listen, I didn't tell anyone, but I applied for a different job and they called me back for an interview. And I'm like, really? And she was like, I'm really scared though. This is such a big move for me. And I was like, girl, you better get your ass to that interview.

17:20This is what you want to do. And she was, she went and she got the job. That's that. And you did that. Look, you helped do that. Look what you did. Changing lives every day. You know, the one thing I know about the health industry, because I do know a lot about the health industry having competed and, you know, know, just being a huge gym rat and whatnot, health is definitely evolving, even from when I competed until now. So where do you see the future of health evolving to? I'm really hoping that we're going to see a lot of really positive changes in the health field. I'm not sure, to be honest.

17:53I would love it if RFK just kind of overhauled everything and made holistic nutrition a part of the process. But I don't know. I want it to go in that direction. I feel like people nowadays, I know for myself, like even when I'm looking for vitamins, I'm looking at like I wouldn't look at a probiotic probably 10 years ago. Right. I wouldn't look at something that helps with your gut because you just don't think that that kind of goes hand in hand with anything. Yeah. And I think a lot more, especially in the health gym industry, a lot of things are going more natural as opposed because now they have.

18:25I don't know if you know about the competition world, but when I competed, there was two categories. You can do the WBFF or it was like the IBF. One was like your natural look versus like your unnatural, right? Yeah. And then the one that I competed in was actually shut down completely because it wasn't natural. So where I'm going with this is I think people are starting to catch on that doing things that are unnatural, unhealthy for the body, it's not the way to go. And that's not a good result. It's not a good end result. No, it's not. And you gain the weight back. 100%. It's a quick result.

18:57It's a quick result. It's not a lasting result. And that's something that I'm very, very adamant about. When you work with me, the first thing that I'm going to say to you is this is going to be hard. It's going to take a lot of effort. But if you dedicate the time and the love to yourself, you will get what you're looking for. Yeah. It's a lifestyle. That's what it is. It's a lifestyle. People don't understand that. And it's a choice to love yourself. Yeah. You know, I actually work with – Your body is your temple. Exactly. I work with bodybuilders actually quite often. And I had a bodybuilder two years ago who he actually had like a pretty major heart attack.

19:33He was actually dead and EMTs brought him back. It's not uncommon. I know. It's frightening. And he was doing, he was on the traditional route where he was taking like testosterone boosters and eating 58 ,000 calories a day and like - Creatine, all the drugs that they tell you to do. Exactly. He was doing all of it. He ended up having a heart attack. He came to me and he was like, I just want to feel good. I feel like I don't feel good anymore. And I do want to get back to the stage. And I said, listen, I will help you do that, but I'm not going to do it like that. I didn't compete like that either.

20:06I said, no, I said, no. Good for you. I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do the roids. No, my coach was really big on the roids. And I said, absolutely not. There's no way. Your body is your temple. And I don't care what you say, what you do now is going to impact you later. Exactly. So one of the things with the bodybuilder that we did was he ended up losing 20 pounds, but he got super defined, like insanely defined. And it was real. And we fixed his heart issues and he didn't have to wear a monitor anymore. And he was able to come off of the medication after having a heart attack. Wow. And then he went on and took first and second place in the next two things that he did.

20:44There you go. I love this. I mean, you've evolved into to this amazing businesswoman, right? You have a thriving business and a business that really helps other people every single day, which is incredible. So what's the best piece of advice as, because you were already shut down, you already had a major setback, but what's the best piece of advice you can give a fellow business person? I would say, don't be anyone else's version of you. Ooh, I like that. Say that again. Don't be anyone else's version of you. I love that. I love that. And then I have an ending question. Well, I have two. First, the secret to being a boss people want to follow is?

21:24Over-deliver. Over-deliver. Yes. That is, yes. I love that. Under-promised, over-deliver. Exactly. I love that. And if people want to get in touch with you, I mean, we're going to exchange numbers, but how would they get in touch with you? I'm pretty easy to find. If you type my name into Google, it'll come right up, Amanda Chin Khan Nutrition. um my instagram is Amanda Chinkan Nutrition my website everything is under my name so I make it really easy to find and my phone number is like right on google if you call that number I'm actually the one who picks up the phone and you're and you're world you're nationwide right yeah I can work with anybody anywhere so you work with people in all different states I do I love that and you do zoom calls and yeah which is great you have such a great platform that's incredible my goal is to reach as many people as I can right now there's so many women out there that are suffering that don't need to suffer.

22:16If you just take four months to dedicate to yourself in your life, it will completely change everything about how you're existing. I love that. I love that because it is about mind, body, and soul and health. And you have, you know, you got one shot at this life. Exactly. No dress rehearsal. My grandma used to say that all the time. And it's true. And you have to treat your body like it's its own temple to the sanctuary. If you don't treat it right, then the end results are never good. Never. I love that. I love our conversation. I love what you're doing. I mean, I'm just such a nutrition health nut.

22:46But I thank you so much for hanging out. Thank you for having me. Is there anything else that you want to add? Anything at all that you can think of? Any last closing? I think that it's very, very important not to neglect stress support. Yeah. Okay? Whatever that looks like for you, taking a walk, getting ashwagandha, putting on essential oils, whatever it is, your body needs stress support. Give it to it. It doesn't make you weak. It doesn't make you less than anything. Support yourself and then you'll get where you're going. I love that. Well, you heard that. You heard Amanda, a real expert.

23:21I'm not a real expert, but it is all about taking care of the outside, you know, so you can be a better person on the, or taking care of the inside so you can be a better person all around. I thank you for hanging out with me for a little bit. Thank you for having me. You really truly have a magnificent business and you truly are a boss I'd love to follow. Thank you. Thanks, girl. Thank you.