EPISODE 092 | Optimizing Health through the Gut, Your Second Brain
Listen to Samantha Lander’s Story and Gut-Healing Advice
About Samantha Lander’s Human Amplified Episode
This month, we’ve been focusing on themes of listening to your body, taking care of your body, and healing holistically. Several guests so far have even talked about how body dysmorphia, food restriction, and eating disorder fueled by traditional wellness activities have played into their lives.
That’s why I’m excited to introduce you to this week’s guest, Samantha Lander, or Sam for short. Not only does she have similar experiences, but she’s a St. Louis, MO-based single mom, personal trainer, and functional diagnostic nutritionist who DJs on the side. I don’t know if she would say this, but I would definitely say she’s not your traditional nutritionist.
Sam used functional nutrition to heal herself from allergies, food sensitivities, hormonal imbalances, and parasites. She’s also founder of See Fit where she coaches people back to optimal health when they just can’t quite put their finger on why they feel bad.
In this episode, we really explore Sam’s life and the events that contributed to her feeling so sick before she got into functional health. We talk about everything from drinking lake water as a kiddo to a meth addiction and doing time in a federal prison.
However, Sam mainly packs in actionable advice for how you can clean up your eating habits, heal your gut, and make healthier choices.
She gets deep into why most people feel bad regularly, what leaky gut is and how it happens, and what it actually feels like to feel good — something you may not even know you’re missing, even if you’re not sick.
You’ll come away from this episode knowing:
How food sensitivities form
How people get parasites and some ways to avoid them
Tips for how to start healing your gut
Tips for how to start eating clean at home and in restaurants - Sam lists the most common foods to avoid that cause inflammation
And you’ll even find out how many times a day you should be pooping
Highlights From Sam’s Interview
Getting to know Sam (Samantha Lander of See Fit Living)
She’s a single mom, personal trainer, functional diagnostic nutritionist, holistic lifestyle coach, and DJs on the side.
How she got into functional health herself
What she does as a functional diagnostic nutritionist, including food sensitivity, GI panels, and hormones
People who come to Sam just know something is not right and want to feel better
What it feels like to feel good
Sam’s experience with getting vaccinating for covid
Sam being sick as a kid and how cleaning her gut up helped
Time playing a big factor in humans not optimizing their lifestyles for health
Whole 30
Why is it so hard to change our eating habits
Sam details her healing journey since childhood and highlights the events she thinks impacted her health throughout life
Allergies and restricting food
An irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Sam’s athletics
Eating disorder
Partying, drugs, and self medicating
Launching a vodka
Starting to DJ and sell drugs
Swat raid at house and went to jail
Going to rehab
Going to prison
Becoming a personal trainer
Developing adult acne
Irregular periods
Finding food sensitivities
Estrogen dominance
Breaking up and getting food poisoning
Getting certified to become an FDN and tell signs of disease from the face
How people get parasites
What it means to heal your gut — Sam explains leaky gut and gives some tips for helping rebuild the tissue
Why gluten and corn can be such problematic foods
Tips for how to eat clean
How food sensitivities form
Tips for eating clean in restaurants
Sam only has one regret in her life
How many times a day you should be pooping
Sam’s wisdom
More About Samantha Lander
Samantha Lander found her way into the health industry through years of working on her own health. She first set personal goals for herself as a young athlete who participated in team sports such as synchronized swimming, water polo and field hockey. In high school she focused her athletic interests on rowing. As a member of the St. Louis Rowing Club and one of a team of eight young women who were ranked nationally.
While a freshman at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor she was a coxswain for the Men’s Division I crew team. Her sophomore year she became certified as a Johnny G Spinning Instructor and a Group Fitness Instructor. She worked at a private athletic club in Ann Arbor while attending the University full time. Her experience working in the fitness field was so positive that she decided to major in sports management. In 2003 Samantha graduated with a degree in kinesiology from the University of Michigan with a major in sports management.
Following graduation she moved to Los Angeles where she found success working in the music industry as a club dj and producer. After several years she became disenchanted with her work and began to realize that she missed having athletics in her life. Always one to tackle a dilemma head on, she decided to take a spinning class and immediately wanted to get back into the fitness industry. She began recording fitness cds and marketing them to a record labels.
In 2006 Samantha moved back to St. Louis to pursue her personal training certification. Her certifications include NASM, Functional Diagnostics Nutrition, NESTA and CHEK Level 2 Holistic Lifestyle Coach. Samantha’s desire to do functional Diagnostics came from her own health problems she discovered when she learned she suffered from Adrenal Fatigue, Food sensitivities, Pathogens, Leaky gut and lots of hidden stressors.
She spent a good portion of her life struggling with weight despite working out and eating a perfect diet and knew it had to be something more. With the right coaching she slowly began to rebuild her health and realize that she didn’t have to settle for feeling horrible the rest of her life. The long hard road to get better has given her the drive to help others who are suffering with the same.
Through her passionate love of health and wellness and natural ability to partner with her clients to tailor their individual workout plans and Holistic protocols, Samantha has found her professional calling as Functional Diagnostics practitioner. In this role she has a genuine desire to help her clients achieve their goals they believed were never attainable. Currently she works with a diverse range of clients in terms of age, gender and ability.
Sam’s Links
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CREDITS: INTRO AND OUTRO MUSIC AND EPISODE EDITING BY RYAN SAULS. EPISODE PRODUCTION AND GRAPHICS BY BRANDI FLECK. SOUND EFFECTS FROM ZAPSPLAT.COM. MID-EPISODE MUSIC IS “SYNAPSE” BY SHANE IVERS AT SILVERMAN SOUND STUDIOS. BIO AND PHOTOS PROVIDED BY Samantha Lander.
About Your Host
Brandi Fleck is a writer, artist, and a recognized communications and interviewing expert. She is also an avid student of human nature who’s overcome past trauma. She’s founder of Human Amplified where she helps you embrace being your true self so you can expand more fully into your own humanity without fear of being seen and heard. Brandi hosts the top-rated Human Amplified podcast (formerly the On Being Human podcast.) READ MORE
