Botox Results Minus the Botox with Christine Blanchard and Alanna Judd

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That Pepsi taste you love with no artificial sweeteners and three grams of prebiotic fiber. Pepsi Prebiotic Cola. Unbelievably Pepsi. Hey there, Mama Work at Tribe. I'm Marissa Lonick, working mom of four. Lover of all things, flow, family and fulfillment. You're tuning in to the Mama Work at Podcast where we take aim at overwhelm mom guilt and exhaustion and swap them out for big dreams, belly laughs and productivity that actually fits into your life. Every week we dive into tips, motivation and a healthy dose of fun so you can slay your day even when you're busy AF. Ready to feel seen, energized and totally unstoppable? Let's get to work, Mama. Hello, Mama Friends. Welcome back to another awesome episode of the Mama Work at Podcast. As always, I am so glad you're here. You're tuning in. If you are new, my name is Marissa Lonick. I am your host, working Mama of four kiddos and the founder of Mama Work It where we support women in the juggle, the juggle of mom life, work life, wife life, fill in the blank life. Excited, we've got not one but two guests today. Their names are Christine Blanchard and Alana Judd and they are family nurse practitioners and the co-founders of Bridge Family Wellness, which is a direct primary care practice they launched about three years ago. They've known each other for nearly 20 years. Bridge was born out of both professional experience and deep personal passion. Christine and Alana care for their own families by blending the best of conventional Western medicine and with holistic, root-causing healing. And through that journey, they clearly saw a gap in the healthcare system. They felt called to help patients truly bridge that divide. At Bridge Family Wellness, their approach is thoughtful, relationship-based and deeply human focused on the whole person, not just symptoms or lab values. Their work is grounded on science, guided by curiosity and fueled by a genuine love for helping individuals and families feel their best now and for the long term. I'm so excited to have you ladies on the show. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having us. Well, I'd love to get started with just tell us a little bit more about your individual journeys and holistic wellness, motherhood, how your paths crossed. You've known each other nearly 20 years. I want to hear how you got to know each other and what brought you to where you are today now is not just friends and colleagues, but business partners. Yeah. So our lives have kind of run parallel to each other for the last 20 years. It's in very different spaces. So whether that was our undergrad and then working in a different industry altogether, then we both went back to nursing school again, not together, but at the same time. We both started working as a nurse in hospitals, went back again for a nurse practitioner, not together, but at the same time. We finished nursing school, worked together as a family nurse practitioner. In the midst of all that, we also became moms, wives, sort of diving deep into that space as well. So it's like our lives were always kind of two train tracks going side by side. And once we kind of woke up to that and saw that and we started working together more in a physical setting and knowing how similar our lives were, it drew us together even more and then led us to kind of open up where we are now with bridge. I think being moms, you're much more in tune with what's going on around you, what's going in your bodies, what's going in your kids' bodies, what's going on your bodies, what's going on your kids' bodies. And we felt like we wanted to do more and reach more people and give them more time. And we couldn't do that in the traditional setting. And so we really wanted to build something that as moms, we would want to go to where we could go and talk to our practitioner on a deeper level for a longer amount of time to dive into some of these questions that you might have. And so we just kind of built what we wanted as moms. We put that into fruition with bridge family wellness. Yeah, it's so true because I feel like for me, especially and maybe for our listeners, motherhood was definitely a catalyst to me carrying a lot more about what went in my body on my body. Like you said, you know, not only because was it this sacred space where I was actually carrying the babies and birthing them in that way, but also later on, it's like, well, I want to be here for the long haul. So like, how do I stay and live my healthiest, best life along the way? So yeah, I agree with you on that for sure. Yeah. I mean, and moms that were busy, right? And so it's like you're trying to go to your kids' doctor's appointment. You're trying to go to your own doctor's appointment. You're trying to research these questions that you might have of like, gosh, should I take this vitamin or should my kiddo take this vitamin? Like all of these things are constantly in your like, who do I ask? Where do I go? Instagram has all the answers, but it really doesn't, you know, so it's like, what do you do? And so we can just, it's all, it's all here. It's like those conversations can all happen here with knowledge and understanding and and just openness of there's no, there's no dumb questions, you know. And with a real person, not like, not like an AI filter somewhere. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So you ladies talk a lot about blending Western medicine with holistic care. What does that actually look like in the day to day? So in the day to day with ourselves and with our patients, the first questions are, what does your lifestyle look like? Are you actually sleeping? And being moms too, we know that answer can be no. But there's also no change to that. We know that the baby's going to get up and be sick and there's no, there's no change in the immediate. But if there's lack of sleep, like what does that lead into the next day? So we look at sleep, we look at diet, of course, are you moving your body? Do you think you're moving your body? Are you actually putting in the effort to take care of your own self and move your body every single day? What's your spiritual journey? Do you have anything with that? What's your connection with your kids and your husbands? Are you just slogging through the day? What's going into your body, onto your body? Sleep is so, so big and having little ones. We know that, you know, not everyone is getting quality sleep. But what can we do to mitigate that? Are you drinking enough water? Are you drinking too much alcohol, coffee, things like that? So when we blend Western medicine with holistic health care, we have to look at the person first. Like what is your, what is realistic for you? What can you do to make a change in your daily life? And then what do we need to put on top of that? A lot of people say like, oh, as a nurse practitioner, can you write for a prescription? And the answer is yes, we absolutely can. But we want to look at the root cause. Like why are you having this issue? Why are you feeling the way that you're feeling? Is there something bigger going on? Do we need to do a big lab panel? Are we looking at a nutritional deficiency? Are we looking at something that's going on in your gut health? So it's more so than just, you know, oh, you have high blood pressure. We can't, our brains don't think linearly, unfortunately. We have to, we just keep going past and beyond. We want to know what's really happening with you and what can we do in your daily life? Small changes can change to, can lead to big changes. So we just really try to educate our patients and help our patients talk through what supplements they're taking. If they're, you know, the way that they're eating is hugely important. So we try to blend our Western medicine background with just holistic care, whether it's, you know, adding more supplements or making changes throughout the day, um, doing further testing. And I think recognizing to that there, there's different seasons of life and there's different seasons for kiddos' lives. And sometimes you need an intervention just to get you through that season. And it isn't just you're going to go on this medication or we're going to do this thing and that's going to be you forever or your kiddo is needing support here and he's, or she is going to need that support forever. It's, they're seasonal and it's in, in the modern world of health care. You only get one or two visits with your doctor for the most part. Um, and so being able to just have those frequent conversations and to be able to tell the mom that like, this is a phase, this is normal, you know, we've been there. Yeah. And so here's what's worked for us. Here's some tricks to try. Know that it will get better, that you'll look back on this and be like, Oh, I made it through that, you know, because it's just a season. Um, and your body and your kids' bodies, they need, you know, our body communicates what it needs and, and they're communicating different things depending on where, where we're at and where they're at. So the other thing that we think is really important that we talk about often in our own lives and with our patients is 80, 20. We are not perfect. We try to do the best that we can, but like, we're also living it too. I have three little girls. Alana has four children. So like we are in the day to day also. So we do our best as practitioners and moms to do what we can, but we also, you know, there's 20% of our life that we're just, you know, enjoying it, laughing always and, you know, not making the absolute perfect. And I think that that's really relatable for a lot of moms too, because none of us are perfect. We're all just trying our best. Yeah. Okay. Two things I want to comment on. Number one, I love the fact that you started this answer with sleep as your first question. I said it like sometimes because you did it. And I just, I love that because I think we, we, two things. Number one, it's like, yes, we're in seasons where we do just undoubtedly get a little bit less sleep because it's just what it is, right? Like babies wake up a lot in the night or, you know, four month sleep regressions or kids get sick during cold and flu season. And it seems like when you have more than one kid, it lasts a lot longer in the house because it jumps from one kid to the next to the next. So I love that you started with that. And there's like this, this balance of sort of like prioritizing it, but also being just okay and graceful with the fact that that's just what it is right now and it's temporary. It's all temporary. It's all temporary. Especially with the ages of our kids, you know, like you get sad that your baby's growing up and then toddlerhood is so fun. And then, you know, elementary age, Alana has a teenager, which I was like, tell me more cause I'm going to be there soon. But it is, it all, and it goes by so fast. They tell you it goes so fast and it really does. So just also with our patients leaning into the season that they're in, if they're not sleeping, like let's optimize other things because we can't make your baby sleep, you know, and I can't hold them for you all night, even though I'd love to. But maybe that's like an add on service. You could think about. And we're back in the miller's yard. Despite the heat, their true green lawn is thriving. They got a lawn like a golf course here in Maryland without wasting a weekend. And PJ to a golf has started showing up like this, bro. Amaze this grass looks this good. And this heat has to clear the trampoline and the kiddie pool. Oh, perfectly struck. True green, the easiest way to get a golf course quality lawn. Click the screen now and get started today at truegreen.com. Exclusion supply. See truegreen.com for details. Your favorite local grocery stores like Kroger, Ralph's, Fred Meyer and more are now delivering on Uber Eats. Get 40% off your order of fresh quality ingredients. Whether you just got home to an empty fridge or suddenly got a craving to whip up something new, you can get everything you need delivered in as little as 25 minutes. Get 40% off your order with code Kroger 2026. Plus members get zero dollar delivery fees. Order now on Uber Eats. Orders of $30 or more save up to $25 and 430. 2026. Yeah, for details. All right. So you recently launched a holistic skin studio. I want to talk about that. How did that idea come to life? Why did it feel important to you to do this? So I think the skin studio came to light as a labor of love from Christine and I, because we're constantly looking for alternatives of like, okay, obviously we're aging, we are both going to be turning 43 this year. So like we're aging, but we didn't like the feeling of like stopping the aging necessarily. We just want to do it gracefully because with age comes wisdom, with age comes experiences and life and this, I'm so thankful every year that I'm given to be here, right? So do I need to keep doing things to try to necessarily look younger or do I just want to age gracefully? And so we kind of went down that rabbit hole of what do we want to do for our skin? What aligns with our values of again, what we put on in our bodies? And what do we want our kids to see us doing too? I think was a big piece of this is I didn't want our kiddos. I have a 17, the daughter was turned 17. I want her to see me being comfortable in my skin and doing what's right from being healthy and longevity and living to be there with her grand, with her babies when I'm a grandma, you know, and things like that. Not me just trying to do things that are unhealthy to look better. So we decided to open up the skin studio and bring on a couple of things that we feel like are a more holistic approach to aging gracefully. And that's micro needling, different types of medical grade peels and derma planning and using really good holistic products and trying to find the cleanest medical grade products that are out there on the market, the most researched and then just provide education to our patients of like, yes, there's Botox and fillers and there's no judgment if that's what you choose to do. And that's perfectly fine. However, if you're looking for something different, here's a different path that you may that you may like even better, you know, or may yield even better results. So that's kind of how the skin studio came to be. And it appears low with what we're doing because we want, I mean, we look at a child with eczema. Usually it's something going on internally. So not only are we working from the inside, we want to work from the outside too, but they both go hand in hand, right? So we can do all the stuff on the outside. We got to make sure that your insides are nice and healthy as well. So just pairing them together just made sense to us, especially when we're in it and we're like, okay, what do we want to do for ourselves? And can we offer this to our patients and be at the same space so they can come in for all these things just one time? Because we also, one of the biggest things about Bridge is making healthcare affordable, accessible, and convenient for patients. We want you to be able to take care of yourself, skin, kids, everything just very easily because we know how busy moms are, we know how busy we are, and we just want to make it the best, you know, the best for all of our patients. It's been really fun to do. I love this mission so much. And I love that we're local and near each other. Anyway, okay, let's dive a little bit deeper into the skincare aspect of this. Lots of women our age, like you said, Alana, like wanting to either either reverse or just kind of age more gracefully, right? Like not look older than they are, basically. We want to, we want to stay young and healthy. We want to be there for our families. And I personally think it's kind of like dressing for the job you want. Like when you look the part, you can, you can behave more in that way, right? It's easier to show up in that way, have more energy, be more productive, be like, just more like comfortable in your own skin. So what, what are some of these treatments look like? Why do you feel like they perhaps are and again, there is no judgment for Botox and other injectables. I have plenty of friends who do Botox. I've thought about doing Botox myself like, but why go one route versus the other? Well, I think skin, I think the root of skin is first what you're putting in your body, right? Are you drinking water? Are you putting in nutritious foods? Are you, are you eating foods that are going to help restore collagen and keep your bones healthy and build muscle and all those things, right? So there's that. But then going further than that, then what can we do from an external standpoint? So we picked things like micro needling, which basically causes small trauma to the face and the collagen fibers and helps rebuild that matrix, which then can in turn make things less lax, make fine lines and wrinkles less, you know, appear less, but not be something that you are putting, we're not putting anything toxic into the body when we do that. It's just really helping your own body do its natural process to rebuild. And the same thing, you know, the derma planning is just taking off that top layer of the skin, helping to exfoliate and bring over cell turnover and goes hand in hand with the rebuilding of the collagen. And then the peels, it just really depends on kind of what you're, yeah, they can be really aggressive. And Christine and I have done some really aggressive ones. And there can be some that are really like, you want to go for the weekend and you just want that nice glow. And you do a gentle chemical feeling. Again, it's just it's a different form of exfoliating and taking off that top layer of skin and allowing your skin to rebuild rather than doing the derma planning. And then educating patients on what products to use for their specific needs, wants their skin type, because a lot of people just go to, you know, the stores and be like, Oh, that sounds good, or they'll see what they want on Instagram and be like, Oh, I'm going to get that. But it really does matter what your skin looks like, that your goals of your skin. So we give some advice on that as well. Yeah, I was just going to say the nice thing about being all one stop here is that lots of times we know what else is going on in their health. So we're maximizing and fine tuning that and optimizing that. We do things like peptides that can complement the skin treatments as well. Hormone replacement therapy that can complement the skin treatments as well. Maybe compounded creams that can complement it. So we can put it all together and once again, see the whole big picture instead of having all of your healthcare and now your your, you know, your aesthetic care pieced out in different areas. Yeah, yeah, the one stop shop sort of thing, but also just looking at it from a holistic viewpoint, like a helicopter viewpoint. Yeah. So let's talk real quick about products because I'm definitely one of those people that like is clueless when it comes to that. Oh, she tried this. It sounds sounds good. It worked for her. So is there some sort of like, like, what would you recommend to someone who doesn't have access to you ladies or, you know, doesn't have the holistic viewpoint? Like, where can they find this? Where's the best place for them to find this information of what to utilize? The best place to find this information, that would be that's hard. I don't know. I don't know the best place to find this information other than like talking to someone that is truly educated and not overly incentivized, right? Because if you're educated, but overly incentivized, you may not actually be giving the correct advice. I think it really depends on your skin. It depends on your skin. Yeah, I think Instagram and social media, you know, will try to sell you anything. And you don't you can't trust it. I would say for us when we're looking at skincare products, and this goes true with our supplements that we recommend as well, everything needs to be third party tested. So we need to see that basically what you say is in your bottle is truly in your bottle. And we want to see the research and the science that backs it up. So one of our big products that we use has, I mean, it came from researching cancer prevention, and that's how they came to be. And so you can find research paper after research paper on their skin products as well as what are their ingredients. It's tested and proven what's in there. And it's the same thing for like something simple like a bottle of magnesium that we're going to recommend, like it's going to be third party tested. So we know truly what what we're giving. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's a product. Product wise, like I think everyone needs like a good vitamin C serum. And I think there's a lot that are probably not worth the money, but there are some that really are. But a good vitamin C serum as we age to help prevent cancer and basically that antioxidants for the skin. And bringing up the price point, unfortunately, if you want a really good one, you're going to have to spend some money. That being said, though, most of the products, if you're using them appropriately, they last a really long time. So it's not like you're, you know, $100 bottle of vitamin C is going to last 30 days. It lasts like 90 days. So I think like investing in your skin, you also see the results as well. And I'm assuming like a proponent of daily sunscreen. Absolutely. Yeah, always. Yeah. Always. And not only just doing your face, doing your neck and your chest as well. I feel like if you talk to many of our older patients, they'll say like, do not skim on your neck and chest as well. Always sunscreen. Yeah. Now, I think that just applies though when we're talking about skin and face, right? Like I don't think sunscreen can be a sticky topic these days, right? And so like for your kiddos, I don't think you need to ladder your kiddos and sunblock every day before they walk out the door. Absolutely not. Now, if you're going out in the middle of the summer, in the middle of the day, you should put sunblock on or cover their bodies. But in the morning, when the UV rays are lower in the evening, I don't think there needs to be sunblock. So it's like depends what your goal is there with sunblock. But as far as like preserving the quality of your skin and preventing fine lines in wrinkles for us, this generation, yes, sunblock from here to here and trying to find a clean, more mineral based one is probably a better option. Okay. Okay. So you guys are obviously very busy moms, business owners. What is quote feeling your best really mean to you? And how do you how do you help other people get there too? So for us in our house, it's definitely daily connection connection with my kids having multiple kids is taxing in the way that you don't get to be there for everyone, probably as much as you would like, there's only so much time but connecting with my kids daily, connecting with my husband, moving my body daily, which is always a goal when I wake up. Sometimes it doesn't happen, but that is definitely optimizing sleep. All the things we talked about that we usually ask our patients is how I feel my best, making sure that I'm eating really healthy food, making sure that I'm planning ahead so that I bring healthy food with me. We all like to go to church together on Sundays and that's really important for our family. So I think the connection, the movement and just like getting through the rhythm with joy and laughter makes me feel my best. I mean, I agree with all of those things. I think also to remembering the 80 20 and it's very easy to spin out on one little thing or to feel very overwhelmed and anxious in this today's world. And I think remembering that one, we're not the ones in complete control. There's a higher power that is in control and remembering that like you're not going to be, you can't be all the things all the time. Balls will drop and it's okay. So sometimes you have to let some balls drop and hold the other balls really tight that are higher up in your priority list. And I'm not having connection with a person that can bring you back down because we are the two of the worst people who like spin out on the things and we're like, hold on, wait a second, pull it back down. Let's talk about this. So I think having good, deep, meaningful friendships with women, especially, and if you're a mom, having a friendship with a mom with the same age of your kids is so important because I mean, like I said, she's a teenager. I'm like, tell me more. But also like when our middle grade kids play, it's so fun and we can talk about them and we can talk about what they're doing. So I think having a mom friend is key to getting through these years as well. And a mom friend that you can also tell them the worst because we are not always the best. We try, but I mean, there's plenty of times that you're just like, I have to tell you what I did. I can't believe I did this, but you just have to tell someone. Yeah. Yeah. And you need that deeper. It's important too. Yeah, I feel like you definitely need that like deeper connection with someone going through life in the same season, not just superficially because it can feel really hard some days. So it's really hard. It is really hard. And I think we tell our patients that a lot. Like this is hard. I don't have babies anymore. My youngest is four, but when I have a new mom come in and she's like so tired, I'm like, Hey, this is hard. Like you're not crazy. This is really, really hard, but there's also an edge to it. So yeah. Christina has three girls and my three youngest are three boys. And so, I mean, they're starkly different in a way because three boys are just, I mean, they're a different breed. But when she tells me something that her girls do, I'm like, Oh, I'm so glad your girls misbehave because it makes me feel so much better about my boys. So it's like to be able to like hear those stories that, oh, it's not just my kids that are doing these things. Everyone else is good. But it's like, you don't see that on the on the Instagram or on the superficial calls with other friends, you know, it's like you really need to it's helpful when you know that other people are in it also. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, these are my takeaways. Connection 80 20 and maybe a chemical peel or two here and there. All right, we're going to move on to the lightning round. This is where I like to ask our guests just some random fun questions so our listeners can get to know you on the more personal level. Are you ready? Ready. All right, Christine, we'll start with you. What is your guilty pleasure TV show? Right now, Emily and Paris. OK, I have not seen it. Oh, it's just like crazy fashion and, you know, it's it's mindless. It's something you can turn on and just be like fold the laundry and just get it done. Yeah. Yeah. All right, Alana, if you could go on vacation anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would it be and why? Well, I would go so many places. But top of my bucket list of places right now is probably Turkey or Croatia, that area over there. I've been wanting to go there for a long time. OK, well, we can chat all things Croatia after the show. I haven't been to Turkey, but I have been to Croatia. Yes. All right, Christine, if you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? Calories don't count. And I'm so curious, like, are you going to go the very holistic, practical route? Are you going to go like the really like 20% route where you just want to eat like chocolate and pizza? What's it going to be? Two things I would either choose sushi or turkey sandwiches. OK, you went the NP route. Love it. Love it. All right. If they made a movie about your lives, I'll ask both of you this, maybe a movie about bridge family wellness and how this journey came to be. Who would play you guys? I am the worst at knowing any actresses and actress names. I'm like the person that played in this movie, remember? I won't even know the movie. So I'm like the worst person to ask any type of question about a celebrity's name. So I have an answer because in college, I convinced all of these people that Sandra Bullock was my sister. So I would choose Sandra Bullock and they believed me for a very long time. And they're like, I'm awesome. Like, I think I would pick Julia Roberts. That's like one that I know her name. I love all her movies. I'd have to go with Julia Roberts. That would be such a great duo to play you guys. I love it. But all right. Last question for we'll go with Alana here. What is one app you cannot live without? Oh, my goodness. One app that I could not live without. I mean, other than the basic like messaging app, I that the app that I probably use the most is just a medical app that I because I just check the box and cross my T's down my eyes on everything. And so I'm always looking things up in this medical app, which is kind of boring to say that that's the app I can't live without. But that would be the one I'd be the most sad if I lost my phone to not have access to. Yeah. All right, Kristina, I want to hear your answer to mine would for sure be the message. Messenger app just texting people. That is my main form of communication. But we are big music people like we my kids could not live without my Pandora. And I think that that would be the number one. If they couldn't instantly get the exact song they wanted to listen to in the car, like it would be chaos. So I think Pandora. These kids will never know what it was like growing up and like phoning the radio station and asking like requesting your song. Yeah, yeah. So you can get on. Yes. Right. And on that note, we got to go, you guys. The doctors are busy here. All right, ladies, can you tell everyone where they can find out more about your practice, about your skincare and connect with you? Everything is on our website, bridge family wellness dot com. And then we have Instagrams for both of them at Bridge family wellness and at the studio at Bridge. Yep. All right. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here. Appreciate it. Thank you. That's a wrap for this episode of the Mama Work It podcast. I hope you feel empowered, inspired and ready to take your next step. If this episode spoke to you, share it with another amazing mama and don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. It helps us show up wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to head over to MamaWorkIt.com for free resources, coaching support, and new ways to mommage your days as a busy mom. Until next time, keep on working it, mama.