Episode 326: Human Design Meets Functional Wellness: When the Tests Don’t Match How You Actually Feel
In this episode, we unpack the gap between what your lab tests say and what your body feels — and why both are valid.
As someone who deeply values functional lab data, I’m not here to dismiss it. In fact, I still regularly test through my own care team. But lab work is just one piece of the puzzle. Functional data is powerful — but it’s a snapshot, not a full story.
What happens between tests? What happens when symptoms don’t align with results?
This isn’t about replacing one system with another — it’s a yes, and. It offers context. Insight. A filter.
We explore how your energy, rhythms, and lived experience can help you contextualize the data, not override it. So you can use data without gaslighting your own experience — and start making decisions that reflect how you actually feel in your body.
Listen to the Episode:
Mentioned in the Episode:
Episode 322: Finding Rhythm Through Human Design After Wellness Rules Failed You
Episode 323: How Human Design Reveals the Patterns You’ve Been Missing
Episode 324: Energy Mapping Through Human Design: The First Step to Understanding Your Rhythms
Episode 325: When Tracking Becomes Noise: Using Data Without Losing Yourself
Connect with Naomi:
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“Human Design gives you a lens to interpret data through the filter of your individuality.”
Read the Transcript:
Hello and welcome to The Live FAB Life Podcast.
I’m fresh off a week long trip to Hawai’i where I visited my family, ate lots of good food, visited with close friends, and did not sleep well because I do not do well in humidity. So there’s that.
Needless to say, I’m happy to be back with you and continue this mini series on “finding and aligning to your natural rhythms.”
Today, we’re going to talk about something that so many of my clients — and honestly, I myself — have experienced:
That moment when your lab work says everything is “normal,” but your energy, your mood, your body — they’re all telling you that something is off.
If you’ve ever felt this disconnect…
If you’ve done expensive lab tests that only left you with more questions than clarity…
If you’ve been dismissed because “everything looks fine,” but you know something’s not working — well my friend, this episode is for you.
I’m not here to dispute or brush that off, so let me be very clear in saying this: I value functional lab testing. I don’t dismiss it.
I still have lab work done regularly with my own care team. And when clients ask for help, I’ll still review their lab results with them to help them contextualize what’s there.
Because lab testing has its place. It validates symptoms, catches things early, gives you trends over time - I find the “trends over time” to be the most valuable aspect of it.
But here’s where it gets tricky: Even the most comprehensive labs are just snapshots in time.
It doesn’t show how you feel between appointments. It doesn’t tell you why a pattern keeps repeating. And it absolutely doesn’t account for the lived experience of your day-to-day rhythms.
In the functional medicine space, we often hear the phrase: “Test, don’t guess.”
And that’s smart — testing is a powerful tool. You know by now that I love data. That’s why I’m such a proponent of tracking. There’s “test, don’t guess.” but there’s also “track, don’t guess.”
The thing is, when we only rely on labs, we ignore another kind of data: the internal cues and energetic patterns that don’t show up in test results.
So let’s talk about what happens when tests miss the mark.
Maybe you’re constantly bloated — but your GI panel says “everything looks good.”
Maybe your brain feels foggy, your mood’s low, but your nutrient levels look “within range.”
Or maybe your cortisol levels say you’re fine — but you feel like you’re crashing by 3 every afternoon.
It’s not just frustrating — it’s invalidating. Sometimes it feels like gaslighting. You’re not imagining how you feel, you’re not making it up.
Because the data says one thing, but your body says another.
And when you’re in this place long enough, it starts to feel like self-doubt. Like maybe you’re the problem. Maybe you’re just sensitive. Or not trying hard enough.
You question yourself – your judgement, your sanity, your abilities. You lose confidence in yourself.
I’ve experienced this myself. How many times have I felt “off” – enough to see a doctor, only to be told that “it’s just stress” and sent on my way.
I told myself that I don’t “feel stressed” but really – what does stress look like? Now I know that there’s many different kinds of stress. Obviously, there’s lots of different tests that can measure stress.
But what about the way I’m running myself ragged trying to push through life as if I have a Defined Sacral Center like a Generator or Manifesting Generator? Or the bitterness I feel when my unsolicited advice falls flat? Or the tension I feel every time I question and doubt my instincts? Or the discomfort in my body when I’m not in my Human Design Environment (even if I’m on vacation in a place that most people can only dream of visiting)?
Having personally experienced these things, here’s what I want you to know:
You’re not imagining things. You’re not “too much.” It’s not just “in your head.” You’re not making it up. And you’re definitely not overreacting. You’re just not being seen through the full picture.
This is where Human Design changes the game.
Human Design isn’t lab testing. It’s not diagnostic.
But it is a tool for pattern recognition — and for learning how to trust what your body’s been trying to say all along.
Your Human Design shows things that labs don’t:
- How your energy is built to work
- How you’re meant to make decisions; i.e. follow your intuition
- What kind of rest you need
- Where you feel pressure and where you’re most prone to burnout
- Even how your digestion works — not just what to eat, but how you digest
Here’s what I mean:
A Projector client I worked with came to me because they struggled with deep fatigue. They were doing “everything right” — eating well, trying their best to get eight hours of sleep a night, meditating, all of it. They had their cortisol tested and the test results “looked fine.”
So, why weren’t they feeling well?
We looked at their Projector chart, it was clear they’d been ignoring rest cues for years. They had Undefined Root and Sacral centers that were in constant overdrive, operating as if they were a Generator or Manifesting Generator — no test was going to catch this.
I had another client that battled digestive issues and was on a highly restrictive “gut-healing” protocol. I use air quotes with “gut-healing” protocol because these things are so individualized and this client’s case was no different. Their labs showed some imbalance, but nothing major. Still, my client felt miserable. Every day was a struggle.
When we looked at their Human Design Determination — their unique digestive style. It was completely misaligned with the way this client had been eating. Once they adjusted this to align with their Determination, things started to shift for the better.
To be clear, Human Design doesn’t replace testing. It gives it context and gives you further insight to understand the results. It fills in the gaps by honoring the energetic story behind your symptoms.
Bring them together and you’ll have a more complete picture of what’s actually going on here.
So how do you do this? How do you bring them together in a practical, sensible way?
You start with a mindset shift by not putting all your faith in one tool, one number, one lab test result, one protocol.
And, instead, you start to ask: What is my body trying to tell me? What does this lab result mean — for me, not just in general or on a bellwether curve?
Human Design gives you a lens to interpret data through the filter of your individuality.
And when you use functional lab testing, with your Human Design, and with your lived experience — you become an even more powerful advocate for your own care because you stop chasing answers, and instead, you start gaining clarity — from the outside in, and from the inside out.
If this conversation resonated with you, you’ll love Find Your Flow — my signature program that helps you rebuild your wellness rhythm using your Human Design.
If Human Design is brand new to you, start small by grabbing a copy of my free Energy Mapping guide — it’s the perfect intro to start tracking your energy in a way that makes sense for your body.
I’ll link to both of these offerings in the show notes for this episode which you’ll find at www.livefablife.com/326 for Episode 326.
I hope that I’ve given you something to think about, a new way of looking at wellness and how you can care for yourself.
We touched a bit on trusting your own judgements and in the next episode, we’re going to dive more deeply into it.
Thanks for spending your time with me and I’ll see you next time - bye for now!
Naomi Nakamura is a Health x Human Design coach who’s creating a healthier society through aligned energy.
She blends a bespoke mix of Functional Nutrition and Human Design to help others shift into alignment to leverage and correctly manage their energy to support their body, mind, and spirit.
She believes that when we embrace our authenticity and lean into our bio-individuality, we naturally live a life of freedom, empowerment, and optimal health.
Naomi resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and can often be found exploring the area with her puppy girl, Coco Pop!
Connect with Naomi on: Instagram
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