Megan McGrane, an emergency room physician assistant at night, went through a slew of health problems in 2012, which led her to an exciting career in health coaching.
While practicing emergency medicine at night, McGrane finds her passion to help women achieve their health goals during the day.
“I having the opportunity to be one of the providers able to help people in that setting, because for many people the day you have to come to the Emergency Room is not a very good day and getting to care for folks is the best part of my job. On the other side of the coin I get to work one on one with coaching clients on my days away from the ER and focus on their long-term health goals, the nuances of what they are eating and how they are moving their bodies,” expresses McGrane.
For McGrane, the paleo lifestyle changed her life and health, and she wants to help others learn how clean eating/paleo can help improve other’s health.
UPG: What got you interested in paleo? How did you get started?
M: My interest in following a paleo diet started with health struggles I was having. I have multiple autoimmune disorders: Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Reynaud’s Disease, Psoriasis, and gluten intolerance. In 2012 my health was really struggling. I had already been dealing with the Reynaud’s since my teenage years, and the celiac symptoms began in college. After college I developed psoriasis and in 2011 the Hashimoto’s came to light.I was having daily headaches, joint pain, horrible fatigue, and problems with my digestion. I had done some research on the paleo diet for autoimmune symptoms but it wasn’t until I started seeing Integrative Physician Dr. Frank Lipman that I really delved deeper.
UPG: How did you get started with paleo?
M:When I began seeing Dr.Lipman I had really reached such a low point with my health and he was the next step in my search for answers. We had a long discussion about my health, my medical problems and all of the strategies I had employed. I talked to him about my research with paleo and he told me about how many of his other autoimmune patients had success with a paleo diet. We decided I should try adopting a paleo diet and see how I did. Frankly, I am kind of an all-or-nothing person; if I do something I go full force. My appointment was on a Wednesday I came home, cleaned the fridge and I didn’t have another grain or legume for over a year. Two years later, I still stray very little from a paleo plan. I have recently added a little bit of quinoa again with success. But, I stay pretty true to the basic thrust of the paleo diet.
UPG: You call yourself an autoimmune warrior – where did that title come from and how did you get involved with AIP?
M:The Autoimmune Warrior tag was really borne from the fight I put into figuring out a diet and lifestyle that would improve the state of my health. In 2013 I felt like I had reached such a dead endwith the conventional methods I was trying because I had had a few health set backs and was waking up every day with aching joints, headaches, fatigue and other symptoms. I resolved to find a way to get my health back on track. Figuring out a method that worked for me came through a process of trial and error. I put up a fight for myself and kept trying and researching until I found a lifestyle that improved my health. And thus, Autoimmune Warrior was borne. After a month or so on a paleo diet I decided to go deeper with the AIP. I followed the AIP plan for 8 to 10 weeks and really started to get my health on track. Re-introduction was really eye opening. I definitely can’t tolerate eggs. I also found that I wasn’t sensitive to nightshades, but can’t do a lot of nuts, especially cashews or pistachios. I can have a little almond butter here and there. AIP was a tremendous learning tool for me, but I do not keep my diet that strict now.
UPG:You went through Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) in 2013, what prompted you to take___?
M:After having my own experiences with the health coaches at Dr. Lipman’s office I felt drawn to attend IIN. I gained so much from the coaching experience as the patient and knew I wanted to be apart of that for some one else. I also knew that by becoming a health coach, I could better share the things I had learned on my own journeyand help people dealing with similar struggles.
UPG: Compared to your Physician Assistant degree, did you find IIN was helpful? How did the two programs compare & did IIN bring anything to the table that was passed over in your schooling?
M:I was so happy with how IIN complemented my medical training. We know that western medical education has such a broad scope of medicine to teach students in the finite period that they are in their didactic training. Nutrition usually gets covered some time in the first two years of training over a series of lectures. Often, the nutritioncourse focuses on the nuts and bolts of nutrition such as macro and micro nutrients, vitamins and minerals, diabetic education, as well as how tohandle the metabolic demands of patients who can not eat and require life sustaining IV therapies where you are medically providing nutrition for them intravenously.
Nutrition is a wide reaching spectrum and the skills I learned at IIN were very different but quite complementary. As a health coach the nutrition training brings focus on the daily habits people have, the food choices they are making at their meals and in the grocery store, and also the instructional side of things like how to cook grains or greens for example. They were two very different types of nutrition education and I am glad I got to experience both.
UPG: What opportunities has IIN led to?
M:IIN lead me to an incredible experience learning from Dr. Lipman. He allowed me to spend time with him over a number of months, learning from him and seeing how health coaches and medical professionals work in concert to provide patients with this incredible experience that is not readily available in our current health care model. What he practices is really the way of the future. I have also had the pleasure of working with amazing coaching clients, many of whom also have autoimmune disorders. They have been so responsive and open to changes to their diets and lifestyle. Having the opportunity to hear a coaching client excitedly share with me the positive results they have seen after making a change we have discussed is an incredible feeling that never gets old.
UPG: What was the biggest learning experience you took away from IIN?
M:While I learned a lot about nutrition and dietary theories from IIN, what I really relish I how much I learned about the ins and outs of the coaching process. How to go through the process of motivational interviewing and the nuances of the coaching technique to help patients reflect on their journey and examine how they can achieve the health they desire. IIN gave me some really great tools that I use every day to speak with patients and coaching clients alike. I learned a great deal about how to talk to people about their health struggles on a much deeper level and what barriers they are facing that may be preventing them from being their healthiest. While I use these tools in coaching all the time, I have found they are also invaluable when speaking to patients in the ER about barriers they may be having that are preventing them from taking important medications like diabetes or blood pressure medications.
UPG: What are your goals? Where would you like to be in the next 1 to 2 years?
M:I want to continue sharing what I have learned on this journey around health, fitness and nutrition. I am so blessed to practice Emergency Medicine where I can impact people’s lives every day and have the chance stay connected to current therapies and medical interventions. After my college volleyball career ended I also earned a master’s degree in Exercise Physiology and although I don’t use the degree much in my ER life I love having that base of knowledge around training and fitness to bring to coaching clients that want to change up their exercise routines. I have been able to combine these traditional aspects of education with my IIN degree, health coaching and with the perspective I have gained from being “the patient” in dealing with my autoimmune issues. I want to share that knowledge with peoplein whatever way I can, weather it is through blogging, writing a book, coaching or speaking. I just love getting the chance to share the things I have learned with others and seeing how it impacts their lives for the better.
You can find more about McGrane on her blog at www.meganmcgrane.com as well as on Intsagram @meg_mcgrane and Twitter @Meg_McGrane.
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