The Path to Wellness with Dr. Alexandra Porter

I am truly honored to welcome Dr. Alexandra Porter to this show, a seasoned naturopathic medicine practitioner with over 17 years of experience. Get ready to be activated as Dr. Porter shares her personal journey, some valuable wisdom on understanding your biology and tips that will empower and support you on your personal path to wellness.

Contact Information:

Path to Wellness Webinars | Join Here

website: Sugarmelovetucson.com 

Instagram: @sugarmelovetucson

Call 520-230-1907 for booking appts 

Transcript

Theresa Cesare: 0:06

hey guys. Welcome to Heart to Talk the podcast. I am the host and creator Theresa Cesare My intention for this podcast is to deliver to you wisdom, inspiration, and consciousness. Through solo episodes and conversations amongst insightful people. It is my greatest honor to bring to you talks that come from the. Amazing listeners today. We have a remarkable guest joining us, someone who has played a pivotal role in my personal journey towards optimal health and wellness, and for so many others whom I personally know. I'm Dr. I am truly honored to welcome Dr. Alexandra Porter, a seasoned naturopathic medicine practitioner with over 17 years of experience. Get ready to be activated as Dr. Porter shares her personal journey. Some valuable wisdom on understanding your biology in tips that will empower and support you on your personal path to wellness. I welcome to the show, my girl, Dr. Porter.

Dr. Porter: 1:09

Well, hello there. Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited. We've been talking about doing this for a while, so I'm really, really happy that we're finally both here and we're both doing it. So I just want to say thank you as

Theresa Cesare: 1:20

Listeners, you're in for a treat. So Dr. Porter, let's go ahead and start with a super important question. What does it mean to be a naturopathic doctor?

Dr. Porter: 1:29

I'm glad that you asked that. there's always this funny thing I get when people are like, are you a real doctor? And I just have to kind of laugh, or they'll say my regular doctor, or they'll even say, Oh, you know, my traditional doctor. And actually traditional is actually speaking to naturopathic doctors. So just in a nutshell, you know what? We go to the same idea of a medical school. So we have a medical school. We actually get the first two years of our training are the same, that your MD would have. And then usually there with medical schools, the main difference is those last two years, they start to learn more about just the pharmaceuticals all those interventions. And as naturopaths, we also learn those interventions, but then we also are going to be doing herbal medicine, supplements, lifestyle, body work, you know, physical medicine. So we actually have a bunch of other layers added on there. So I think using examples is really how I kind of hit the ball home there. So if somebody comes to me and their throat looks red and scratchy, I will swab it. We'll send it off to the lab and we're looking for strep. If it comes back positive, I will say you probably do need antibiotics to avoid heart disease later in life from that. but most of the time, honestly don't need to do antibiotics. We do herbs, we do diet. I have a lot of kitchen wisdom to get you feeling like healthier and stronger. Or for example, if I take someone's blood pressure and it is skyrocketed high, I want them to live. So I will prescribe them probably a blood pressure medication, get it under control, get them safe. And then we slowly weaned them down and off of it using all the other tools. So I use both a combination of pharmaceuticals when they're needed and when they're appropriate. But most of the time they're not needed and they're not appropriate for that situation. So that's a little bit about the naturopathic piece.

Theresa Cesare: 3:19

What inspired you to pursue a career as a naturopathic doctor? could you share with us your personal journey and the experiences that led you to your path of optimal wellness

Dr. Porter: 3:31

I was very, very sick for a very, very long time, starting in my childhood. And honestly, I was not really getting the help that I needed with sort of the mainstream, medicine. And I was floored when I was in college and I was looking on the, prescription bottle that I'd been on since I was like 14 and it says not for long term use. And I was like, what, this is something they say, I'm going to have forever. And their only treatment is something not for long term use. So I marched into my doctor's office and I asked her, what does this mean? And she says, literally, don't worry about it. You're young. We'll worry about that later. And so from there is literally where I was launched into trying to figure out. What is going on for my body? So for me, I was always known as the girl with a rash and it was head to toe, terrible oozing rashes that were painful, socially just awful. It was traumatizing. But then through my path, I've just gone through learning every organ of elimination, detoxification, anything from food sensitivities, the allergies, but also the mind and body, Spirit connection with healing, learning where disease sometimes manifests on the physical level, but it's really because there's a deeper spiritual, disease issue going on. So having to really literally go through every layer of my body, every system in my body to get to a place now where anytime someone's like, I love your skin, it's so radiant. I seriously still get tickled inside cause I'm like, you have no idea what that means to me and why. But I just say, thank you. Oh my God. Thank you. But literally, it's been decades, like decades and decades and decades of me literally just walking the path, you know,

Theresa Cesare: 5:20

That's incredible. You always hear about like your pain becomes your purpose. And that's a prime example, tell us a little bit about your business model and what people can expect when they come to see you. You offer some cool things.

Dr. Porter: 5:33

It's really funny cause people definitely kind of raise an eyebrow when they're like the name of my business. our business is sugar me love Tucson. I was like, what is that? And so, so when I was up in Seattle practicing like primary care medicine and naturopathic medicine, I did that for like, yeah, like 17 years. but as a side note, which is funny about our business, I was getting sugared. So remember my skin, this is how it all kind of comes together is I couldn't shave. I couldn't get wax because my skin was so sensitive. But I also was like, I want to be female and I don't want this hair in different areas. So I was getting sugared for 15 years. And when I came to Arizona to Tucson, no one was doing sugaring. And I was a little bit flustered. so that's really where the parts of me came together is that then I decided that Tucson needs sugaring. It's absolutely amazing and wonderful. And I can only always nerd out, but say about how it's a million times better than waxing for a lot of reasons. but for people who don't know, sugaring is kind of like waxing, but a million times better is what I say. and then I still need somewhere to see my patients. And so now it's all under one roof. So I see naturopathic patients here, but we also have a whole hallway of estheticians who are doing the facial skincare and then the sugaring pieces. I love that.

Theresa Cesare: 6:54

Thank you for explaining that. You know, what I love about you, Dr. Porter, that you're doing it authentically your way. That's the beautiful thing. When you are the creator of your vision, it's yours. You can do what you want. And I think that's what makes you just so effective and I just feel so drawn to you, with all that you offer.

Dr. Porter: 7:13

It always makes me giggle. Cause I tell you, I get the stink eye from some people when they're like sugar me love, like that's such a weird name for a naturopathic place. I'm like, Oh no. It is all the parts of me, which is the word love in there. but really it's like you have to have radiant skin. It's literally comes from the inside out. So for me to be able to now be in a place where I'm offering the care to really help people learn how to clear up the debris, if you will, of inflammation for different health issues on the inside, it's only eventually going to then be radiating through the skin on the outside. But then you also need to learn how to take care of your skin, especially living here in the desert. So literally it's so funny, but it's my 20 years of walking my path has come full circle that now I'm finding myself in a business where we're doing both sugaring as estheticians, aesthetic type of work. But then also then I'm doing the naturopathic piece. So

Theresa Cesare: 8:04

I love it. The glow from the inside out. And then you also, have the mindset and spirituality aspect to it. I just feel like it's a one stop shop for mind, body, and soul.

Dr. Porter: 8:17

Well, yeah, you cannot really work with the body without acknowledging the mind and the spirit. And I always tell people, which is really interesting. I say, it's the three of us coming together. For this treatment plan. And they'll kind of look at me a little bit interesting. I'm like, well, it's like you and your higher self. It's me and my higher self. And then whatever word you want to use God's spirit universe between that, then that's where the magic of the treatment plan happens. So like I tell the patients, I'm like you sitting in the room by yourself gets nothing done. Me sitting in a room by myself definitely is not going to get anything done for you. But when the three of us come together. It just is magical. And then all of a sudden this treatment plan just starts to literally organically come into place. when I'm with the patient,

Theresa Cesare: 9:00

I love it. Dr. Porter. So tell us about what your mission is.

Dr. Porter: 9:05

So it's really interesting. I'm, when you put that down, it's been a while since I've. Thought in those words. And it's funny because 20 years ago I did this, you know, mission statement kind of workshop and it was magical. And without even thinking, it's like knowing the pledge of allegiance after all these years, but without even thinking my mission is to demonstrate, nurture, and inspire. Happy and healthy relationships for myself and others. And I think about that and it's funny because I was originally like a personal mission statement, but when I really think about it, I'm like, that's my business mission statement. So it's like, how do I demonstrate nurture and inspire that healthy and happy relationship with myself? And that is where we really, with naturopathic medicine have to listen to what our body is telling us. But our body is definitely going to speak to us in its language when things are not. As it should be, and like I said, demonstrating, inspiring, nurturing this happy and healthy relationship with myself and then with others in my community.

Theresa Cesare: 10:05

I absolutely love your mission. Thank you for sharing. Let's talk the path to wellness. You've developed these webinars? You alongside is it your sister?

Dr. Porter: 10:16

Oh, yeah. Yeah. My sister does nurse coaching. So we're out of Utah there So I see patients in Arizona and Utah virtually But my sister does nurse coaching and so this is just now evolved into us doing webinars Where I'm taking everything that I've spent the last 20 years giving to people one on one. but one of The things with this path to wellness and these webinars is this idea that could you imagine how busy a mechanic would be if every time a car stopped. Then they brought it to him and they're like, okay, my car's not working. And then the mechanic would say, well, did you put gas in it? And they're like, Oh, I have to put gas in it. And you're like, yeah and then they go away and then they come back a week later and they're like, my car's not working. And they're like, well, did you notice you have a flat tire? It's like, Oh, you have to change your tires and they have to have air in them. Yes. Then they go away, they come back and it's the oil. They go away, they come back and something else. Like, that's what I'm realizing now in my practice is that I spend, and I'm not joking, I spend 90 percent of my time. Doing that kind of work as a mechanic would of saying you have a vehicle, your human body, and you need to put gas in it. You need to change the tires. You need to rotate them. So people are spending most of their quote unquote doctor dollars. With stuff that does not need to be a specialist. Most people know more about their vehicles and how to take care of them than they do about their own human body. And so I can tell somebody you need to drink water. You know, half your body weight in ounces every day, filtered water, not cold room temperature or warm, but not cold. but I can tell us to people, but without the understanding of their lymphatics, their skin, they're like the, the actual understanding of what the hydration is doing for them. They will not do it. So sometimes things seem really common or easy, but unless you have the understanding of what, like, would you go spend 60. To fill your tank of gas. If you didn't know what it was going to do for your car, you were just told you should do it. No, you want to do that. And then your car would run out of fuel. And then you'd wonder why your car's not working. So I feel like that analogy fits so good with people and their bodies is that I can say, go fill your tank up with gas, but unless you really understand that your car is not going to run without gas, and you now understand why then. you aren't going to do it. so that's where these webinars are really coming in is, is teaching people what I call your basic biology. maybe you never had it in school. Maybe you didn't care about listening about it when you were in school, in high school, elementary, I don't know. But as adults, many of us, if that's not your career path. You've never really had someone take the time to sit there and explain to them how their body works basically and what they need to do to keep their body running as you can turn your car and get a new one, but you can't turn your body in and get a new one. You know, it's easy for me to say do X, Y, and Z, but then how do you actually implement that? So part of the webinars are designed for a person to be able to listen, gain what we call habit stacking. Where you're learning daily, easy things to do on a daily basis, like brushing your teeth, but for your whole body, but then also realizing and learning when things that people ignore is like your car making a noise, I'm like, you might want to go get that checked out because it's only, it's going to get worse. And if it gets worse, you may have to do it all your whole engine, you know, overhauled versus just go get the noise fixed right away. So they're really built to take you through just the basic way of taking care of yourself, which naturopathically, this is this idea is like a bucket analogy that your bucket is full. Overflowing. It's like, I call it your inflammation bucket is, is overflowing. And that's when you have symptoms. So what can you do on a daily basis? That's going to be taking care of yourself. So your bucket is slowly getting emptied. And then you're not overflowing with, you know, symptoms or having issues, you know, so even allergies, for example. So somebody that isn't necessarily even in Arizona to come see me, or maybe they're not in a state with naturopathic doctors or licensed, just doing the webinars, you're literally going to get. Like about a year of me spending time one on one saying, you need to go do this, you need to do this, you need to do this. Um, and that's not really, doesn't, that part doesn't need to be one on one.

Theresa Cesare: 14:39

So essentially it's every month you launch a different topic for a year out.

Dr. Porter: 14:45

Okay. Yes. Yep. So for the next, six months, we're doing the different organs of elimination and detoxification. So the one that's like coming up actually soon, that one is, we're starting with kind of an overview of all the organs, but why they're important to know about. And then we dive right into the first one. And then for the next. So five months after that, and then some of our other topics are learning, daily tools to be able to manage stress. So there's a lot of things that where you do not need necessarily an anxiety medication, but there's things that you can be doing every single day that's lowering your stress bucket and it's not crazy body hacks. I mean, they're literally simple tools and everything I teach through the webinars. It's habit stacking. So you'll be hearing certain things and you'll see the thread throughout all the organs. And so focusing on one thing each month and then you do it for 2030 days, it becomes a habit. So then by the time the next webinar comes up, you're kind of ready for that next layer and you just kind of keep layering it on. And if you're my patient, you'd hear me like rattle all this off in an hour visit, you'd be like, Oh my God, that's so amazing. But then you'd walk away and you'd be like, what did she say? So the thing about the webinars is you'll get the slides, you'll be able to revisit. If you can't make the live recording, we send you the recording. But you can revisit the information and literally like, okay, oh, I missed that the first time around.

Theresa Cesare: 16:08

I love this concept. I love it so much. So where can we locate these webinars?

Dr. Porter: 16:14

So if I'm in Tucson, so you have to understand, I have like that kind of that split business. So it's like sugar, me love Tucson. That's where you would come to try to see me as a patient directly. If you want to come get sugaring facials, esthetician stuff, that's sugar, me love Tucson. com. You can book appointments from there. It's super easy. Super easy. If you're interested in the webinars, that's the Utah business side of me. And that email is a fireside nurse, LLC at gmail. com. And then that's where you could get signed up and we can send you a link where you can sign up for the webinars that way. Beautiful. And I will drop all those in the show notes honestly, they could even reach out to you and say, how do I find her? I'm we're on Instagram is sugar. Me love Tucson is on Instagram. You could find us there. You could call or message our office number. There's so many ways to get ahold of us,

Theresa Cesare: 17:05

What are some takeaways, some tips after listening? That can support or maybe reactivate the path,

Dr. Porter: 17:12

so if you take half your body weight, that's how much in ounces of water you should be drinking a day. You should be definitely doing 25 grams of fiber a day. And the third piece is movement. I love this quote that you can't eat your way out of exercise, meaning diet alone is not going to give your body the health that it needs. And so you have to move. Our bodies are, and again, you'll learn this in the webinars, but why all of a sudden you want to move? Cause you're like, Oh my gosh, I need to be moving. I need to be doing this. You know, but But definitely moving, humans were originally like in the caveman politic days, um, they were nomadic. They moved all the time and there are certain aspects of our detox pathways that actually require movement to get them moving, to literally to be moving the lymphatics, your detoxification organs, that they are built upon the idea that humans were originally. Creatures that moved eight, 10 hours a day. So the fact that we sit eight, 10 hours a day, it really changes and fills up our bucket of toxins. And then we end up overflowing and having symptoms

Theresa Cesare: 18:22

it's true. I love it. such valuable content. Everyone listening. I know a lot of listeners don't live here. Actually, we have worldwide. This is a global podcast. That's what I thought. Yeah, they can still connect and be part of the wisdom. I just love your approach. We're going to now go ahead and dive into the closing questions. The first one, what is your favorite wellness quote?

Dr. Porter: 18:46

My favorite wellness quote comes from an Ayurvedic translated text. it says every day is a conversation with yourself. And so I love it because it's really learning how to listen to your body and our body's language to us actually is in discomfort and disease, things not working right. So every day is an opportunity to listen to your body, to see what is it trying to tell you? That's where we help translate. The language of the body. but the idea is every day is an opportunity to have this conversation with yourself. So then you can be like your most robust, most optimal, functioning person. That is one of my favorite quotes, but okay, there's two. The other one is from Dessa Derrida. It's a poem, but it has a quote in there. That's. Do not compare yourself to others or you'll become both vain and bitter. And I love that one. I know. because really it's true. You compare yourself to one person. You're like, Oh, I suck. I'm not good. I can't help anyone cause they're so amazing. So now I'm bitter. But then you compare yourself to somebody else and you're like, Oh my God, they suck. I'm so awesome. I'm amazing. And now you're vain. So I just love this idea of just like, walk your path, be you. Everyone's got their stuff to deal with. Everyone has their awesomeness and their, you know, double edged sword. So just like, don't compare yourself to others.

Theresa Cesare: 20:05

Oh, I love those. Thank you for sharing those. What is your favorite book or go to source for wellness?

Dr. Porter: 20:12

Usually an herbal medicine book, but really it's my best friend. Honestly, we call each other brain and she's a naturopathic doctor I worked with forever. So really it's community is my favorite go to source. as I'm so blessed with my naturopathic community. So I. Send texts, we talk and collaborate. And so I would say I don't have one specific book.

Theresa Cesare: 20:34

I love that. You said community. And the last one, do you have a favorite? Affirmation. or mantra that you use

Dr. Porter: 20:41

One is from eat, pray and love actually, which is, are you doing this out of, fear or love, that's one that I love because it is true. Anytime I'm Waffling on a decision and I stop and I'm like, which would be doing this out of like fear or love if I'm doing something out of fear is always a different choice. And when I'm doing something out of love.

Theresa Cesare: 21:03

Thank you so much for tuning into this episode. Please download, rate, subscribe, and share this podcast. Also, be sure to visit my theresacesare.com to check out my inspirational merch, connect to my social accounts, and much more may you continue to be filled with wisdom, inspiration, and consciousness. Otherwise, friends, I will be back in two weeks for another episode of Heart 2 Talk