Lahana Vigliano | Deep Dive With a Hormone and Gut Nutritionist, Learning About Our Cycle and Balancing Hormones
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What's up guys, it's Sam and Taylor and we want you to put your shoes on, pop open that energy drink and go. What is up you guys, welcome back to another episode, I am Sam and I'm Taylor. We are so happy to do this episode because this is a topic we get asked about all the time in DMs about training on your period, being on birth control, mental health, like you name it, we get asked about it a ton so we are here.

with, you know what, introduce yourself, say what you do, because I don't want to get your title wrong. Yes, definitely very important. I want you to say it correctly. Oh gosh, you guys are so cute. I'm Lahana Vigliano. I am a board-certified clinical nutritionist and founder and CEO of Movie True Wellness. I'm

We are a private practice here in Austin. We have a location in Houston, but we work with women virtually. We help women balance hormones and improve digestion, utilizing food as medicine. So what you guys get DM'd about is right up our alley. We love diving into all of that. Yeah, I'm excited. I've honestly been getting more into this type of stuff recently. I've been following a lot of creators on social media, and I've been taking advantage of like

Their knowledge and kind of making small changes, especially in my food my everyday like lifestyle So hopefully we can help out anyone listening right now that is interested in changing Um, you know their way whereabouts with what they're eating and stuff But kind of give us a little bit of a backstory more on why you got into this why you're so passionate about it And where you are at now with um, you know your career. Yeah You know, I was a pre-med major. Um

And I think I was just being taught a pill for every ill. And that just did not sit well with me. I knew that there was just more to it than you have diabetes. Here's a medication. Um, I also think what helped me kind of pivot and realize really what matters is I became a young mom at 17. So me and my husband started very early. Um, we have two kids now they're 12 and eight. So I'm officially the cool mom. Um, and.

And doing all the things, but truly transition from mom to bruh, which is fine, fine with me. So I think having kids young made me realize how much I wanted to raise my kids healthy. I didn't want them to become another statistic. And I don't know, I think it was just that mom in me. And then I was getting taught this.

a pale, very ill. And then I'm like, okay, so do we not have control over it? Um, as a fellow Enneagram eight, I love control as much as possible. And I was like, I think that there's more to it. And then when I started piecing together how nutrition and just a healthy lifestyle and environmental toxins, and I'm like, okay, we have control of all of these things.

I, I love this. This is what I'm all about. So I changed my degree, got my undergrad in nutrition science. I just got my master's in human nutrition, functional medicine, and I'm starting my doctorate in the fall. So I am definitely a woman that loves to juggle all the plates. Yeah. I love that.

Yeah, that's what got me into this and I'm so glad I never looked back. Yeah, that's exciting. That's awesome. So kind of let's just dive right into everything because I think there is so much that we want to talk about. First and foremost, before we get into this, this is something that I honestly just kind of learned. This is so bad of me to say, but like the menstrual cycles, the phases and all that, if you want to, before we get into everything, kind of just dive in on that and give us the rundown.

Yes, you're not alone. Women leave high school not knowing what their cycles are. Oh, that was me. I was so uneducated on all of this. It's crazy. I had to like outreach on these things and figure it out on my own. And I think it's like ridiculous that in high school, college, whatever, even like even middle school, like we should be learning these things. I totally agree. I even wanted to. For sure.

stop you for a second because you said like this is probably bad of me and I'm like it's not bad on you at all because we're not taught this ever like I didn't know anything I didn't know what ovulating meant until maybe like last year like you're literally just taught that like you're gonna bleed and you're gonna have to wear a tampon and then if there's any type of issue with it they just put you on birth control yeah so there's like pretty much

So I feel like there's no ever, you're never taught what is like the primary thing going on in your body for all of your like adult years. Yeah. It's definitely not a bad, I feel like it's not bad to not.

to not know but yeah i loved i loved the explanation it's super unfortunate um because again even women are like oh yeah let's get on birth control because i don't know when i'm gonna get pregnant and i'm like oh my gosh you're only able to get pregnant within like five days i guess some sperm can live in you but technically only 24 hours i'm outside outside

And so I think when we feel more empowered about knowing what's going on internally, the world is our oyster. So I'm so excited that you're wanting to like learn about it. So I personally say that there's three phases in the menstrual cycle. Some people say four because they include the bleed, but the bleed is simply a part of the follicular phase. So your follicular phase is day one of your bleed to the day before you ovulate. Ovulate kind of kicks off that luteal phase, which is that second half.

So from ovulation to the day before your next bleed. So typically a cycle ranges from 28 days to, I mean, it can go as long as like 35. Everyone's very different. There's no like everyone has to be 30 if you're not, holy crap, something's wrong. It's just like what your normal is. So you have your bleed also different for everyone. Some women bleed for a couple of days and some women bleed all the way up to seven days. Anything longer than that is usually a concern.

Our follicular phase is when estrogen is rising and this hormone makes us feel super strong. Estrogen gets really demonized when it shouldn't because it just helps us feel amazing, thrive, protect our bones, make us just feel all the beautiful fields, the feminine side of things. Yeah.

So estrogen is the main star in the first half, and then you hit ovulation. And then there's a lot of brain hormones, your FSH or LH that is basically telling your body, even in your, throughout your follicular phase, like, okay, let's get up egg ready to drop in like

a week, then you ovulate. And then once you ovulate is the time you can get pregnant. That is your egg releasing from your fallopian tube or your ovary into your fallopian tube, ready and waiting to get pregnant. This is the Super Bowl of your cycle. A lot of people think the Super Bowl, the big part is your bleed when actually your life should revolve around this ovulation. I mean, I know we'll talk about like workouts and all that and just how you feel. You'll just see so many shifts throughout your whole cycle. Yeah.

And then after you ovulate that same place where your ovary or your egg came from is where progesterone is starting to be made. So progesterone is your hormone that is the rock star in your second half. If you do not ovulate, you don't make progesterone. If you don't make progesterone, you are,

like automatically estrogen dominant and the balance and ratio is off because we need both. But the progesterone is a very relaxing hormone. It helps with reducing anxiety. It helps us cushion our uterus to get ready for baby, to hold onto baby if you do get pregnant, but it's still important even if you're not wanting to get pregnant.

Um, right before a couple of days before you start bleeding your hormones, both of them drop. And because of the drop is when it stimulates a bleed saying that, okay, there's no baby here. Let's go ahead and believe and let everything come out and the cycle restarts again. So that's kind of the overview of how the cycle works.

Um, did that, is there any other questions that you had on it or anything I said that made you think? No, that was like perfect. Obviously there were like bigger words where I'm like, holy crap, what are these words? But to kind of break it down, you did a really good job. I have a question. Yeah, go ahead. So when you're on birth control, are these like happening or no? No. So that's the thing with birth control. It actually, um, blocks out the,

brain and ovary communication. So your quote unquote period that you have on birth control is technically just a withdrawal bleed. It's not a true period. Um, so the whole idea of women getting on birth control to quote unquote, regulate their hormones, you're actually not regulating anything. You're just shunting, um, that brain and ovary communication, and you're just getting these exogenous hormones.

from the birth control pill. So that is actually not a true period. And that is the issue is when women hop off birth control, they are just slapped in the face of all their symptoms again, irregular cycles, or they're not cycling at all because they're not ovulating. So we see a lot of women who have been on it for like 10 plus years and

It's intense. Um, not, and I think going back to learning about your period, learning about your cycle, there's so much you can do to prevent pregnancy. If that's why you're on birth control, it's just learning your cycle and queuing into all of these symptoms like your mucus and your mood and all of that to tell you where you're at in your cycle.

Yeah, I'm definitely we're kind of going off track a little bit, but I really am interested in getting off my birth control. I'm obviously on it. Taylor is also on it and I want to get off of it. But like you were saying, when you do hop off of it, you're kind of hit in the face with all the symptoms. And because it is summertime, like I just don't feel like dealing with any of that. But going into the fall, I think I'm going to try my best to

mentally prepare for the fact that I want to get off of it and learn more as well before I do. So that way I kind of know what I'm preparing myself for. Yeah. Here's this is like personal about my like birth control intake. But basically something happened where I was delayed getting it. And I'm like, I have been off of it for like half a week when I was supposed to. And I'm waiting to pick it up. And part of me just does not want to go pick it up. Don't pick it up. I know I'm like screaming. I'm like, no.

I really don't want to go get it. Like, was it a sign that I missed it? Yeah, for sure. And I think the two, I know a little off tangent, but the two things you can really focus on prepping your body to go off birth control is definitely liver because birth control, I think the issue that I have with it is that they just give you birth control and they don't tell you what it does. They don't tell you that increases your risk for blood clots tremendously, which honestly was,

side note, a huge, I think part of why Haley Bieber actually had that little mini stroke, um, that was shared like on Instagram and stuff because she, I think just got her birth control kind of recently. So no one talks about that. No one talks about how birth control makes your bile sluggish. So that impacts your liver that impacts digestion. No one tells you that it depletes you of nutrients. No one tells you that it messes with your gut bacteria. Um,

these are all the things that are happening and just no one, like we are just given it and it just sucks. So focusing on detoxification and liver support and gut health can make

make the journey getting off birth control a lot easier yeah yeah it's like everything that's written in that giant pamphlet of like warnings like when you open it and it's like this big of all the warnings that no one reads no one reads but yeah that's why i kind of want to obviously get into more of this and kind of educate a little bit more because like i said i've been doing a

a good job at making a lot of switches, especially in like condiments and stuff like that. Before we get into that, I do want to talk about the actual physical aspect of working out on your period, all that. We get DMs all the time being like, oh my God, how are you working out on your period? Or should I work out on my period? I don't want to force myself to work out on my period. So kind of give us the breakdown, your opinions on working out on your period, the best cycle to even work out on your period and you know, all of that. Mm-hmm.

Oh my gosh. I love cycle thinking like food and exercise. Like it's game changer. Follicular phase. Like I said, that's day one, two, right before your cycle. Since estrogen is the number one thing, you're going to feel really strong and you're going to feel like you can achieve those just

Your, all your goals and strength training and boxing and hit, all of those are really great in your follicular phase. Cause you're just feeling that energy. You're feeling that estrogen. Yeah. When you hit ovulation, um, a lot of the times you kind of continue into that running hit strength training, et cetera, throughout ovulation. Um, you're also, you should be feeling a little bit more higher libido. That is your body letting, you know, just mother nature saying, let's make a baby, right? Even if you don't want a baby, your body still wants it.

working around that. Um, and then when you go into your luteal phase after ovulation, you are going to want to like tame it down a little bit. And you should honestly start to feel this in general, um, is that you'll start to see the closer you get to your period, you're going to just get more fatigued and lower energy. And that's so normal. It's not normal if it impacts your day, but it's definitely normal because like I said, your hormones are

dropping days before. So this is when I like to shift to more like gentle movement. So Pilates and stretching and yoga and swimming and just walking, um, because, and sometimes I will do strength training for sure, but I will reduce the intensity and just do more light. Um, you know, not looking for gains per se in the luteal phase. Again, your energy should kind of match that anyway. You should be on the depth trending downward scale. Um,

And then when you are bleeding, I don't work out during my period. It's okay if you do, but again, you are losing blood, you're losing iron, your hormones are at an all time low. Most of the time we really aren't feeling or we shouldn't be feeling like

oh, I can go really hard today. I think people will try to push past that, but I just want to say you don't have to. It's a very normal feeling. So I just stick with like walking when I'm on my period. And anyways, I also hate, I just want to lounge around anyways.

Like literally Netflix and chill. Yeah. Sweatpants, sweatshirt. Yes. And that's, that's the vibe. And that's what you want to really hone into. I think your body naturally tells you what you should do, but you think we're just in a society of like, go, go, go. But you'll actually see that your period starts to regulate better. Symptoms are better. Yeah.

when you're actually, you know, kind of following this like cycle syncing of movement. Yeah. Yeah. One thing that I've done where I've kind of, obviously I'm on birth control, so it's a little bit different, but I do notice like quite a bit of fatigue right around my period. And so what I've been doing is I've been working out five days a week, but right around that time when I'm feeling really fatigued, I will do only four days a week around that time, just because I

I obviously this is kind of my job like I need to get to the gym content like all that But I also do find that I can get through my workouts But one thing is that I do take an a day away in my split right around that time because I just know I'm, also very grumpy. I get angry if i'm not like, you know hitting the same way I was last week I get mad at myself So i'm like, you know what? I just want to stay away from that part where I could potentially get really mad at myself For not hitting like the same weight. So I just work out four days a week

Right around that time. And it's been working for me. Yeah. I don't feel my main thing around, again, it's like, like you said, not a real period, but my main thing around when it's like the withdrawal bleeding is just like my, it makes me like extra like depressed, which is also why I want to get off birth control because it like heightens my depression. But, um,

That's like my main thing. But my periods before birth control weren't really too bad. So, you know, like they were pretty like mild, but I was also young. Nice. So nice. Nice. I also would love for you to kind of touch on like over exercising and how that kind of affects your hormones as well. And obviously over exercising can be different for everyone. But if you just want to give your, you know, point on that. Yeah.

Yeah. So exercising typically leads to like higher cortisol levels. That's our stress hormone. Um, and that can backfire from a lot of goals that people have. Um, I know we'll chat, chat more about stress, um, more later, but exercise in general is very cortisol producing, um,

But it's usually not a big deal because it's so short lived, but when you're over exercising and whatever that looks like for you, this could start to become a chronic source of like cortisol stimulation all the time. And usually paired with overtraining is under eating and over

I honestly see a lot of women that aren't exercising, but they just are eating like toddlers of 1200 calories a day and they shouldn't be. Um, so if I'm seeing women who just in general are having a hard time eating, let alone to extra demand on the body from more training, it is just going to connect and just explode in your face of your body saying,

what the hell is going on? You are demanding more of me, but you're not fueling me. So I think just this combination is not good for hormones by any means. And I do believe that they go hand in hand naturally because as we, you know, up our level, we need to make sure that we're fueling ourselves for that increased working out. Yeah, of course. I honestly should have even mentioned like the under eating aspect as well. Cause those go hand in hand, like you had mentioned.

But yeah, let's kind of get into the whole hormone imbalance topic so we can work our way into like the food aspect as well. So if you want to give your signs of hormonal imbalance, that would be great. Yeah. What we see and all of these symptoms are.

honestly are with a variety of hormones. So we're not just talking like estrogen progesterone issues. It could be insulin, so blood sugar hormones, it could be thyroid hormone. It could be stress hormone cortisol. So a lot of the symptoms honestly overlap with one another. And that's why testing is needed to understand like what this actually means. So we see like weight gain, chronic fatigue, irregular cycles or painful cycles. We see the mood swings, the hot flashes, the act

the low libido, hair loss is a big one too, insomnia, infertility. I think I've covered all of them. Oh, brain fog. Brain fog is another huge one as well. So those are the most common symptoms we see when someone has a hormonal imbalance. You know, it's funny because now that I'm thinking about it, I went through a very like

A time in my life where I was very much under eating and I was over exercising and it was a combination of the two. But I was also on birth control, but I never lost my period. So I don't even know. Like, I guess it's kind of my question to you. Like, I never lost my period, but technically it was never like an actual real period. So I feel like.

I don't really know where I'm going with this. You don't know if you lost my period. There was nothing to lose if you didn't have one. Exactly. Exactly. It's not a true period. Your withdrawal bleed is simply because of the placebo pills that you take that have nothing in them. So you're basically taking these exogenous hormones throughout the month. And then the moment you stop with your placebo pills, then that is what triggers a bleed. So it's not your true period.

period yeah so yeah i guess where i'm kind of going with that is like i've used to talk about this so much but now that it's been so many years i feel like my content is kind of dying out of that because it was so long ago but like when i did go through that very restrictive time period i experienced honestly almost everything you just said like the fogginess like i was constantly getting the chills like the mood imbalance like all of it and it's just like so crazy to think like

how many people actually do experience this, especially our followers, our niche of girls that look up to us. So I'm really happy that we can kind of dive into this because back then I had no idea. I was not educated on nearly a slight bit of how much like tax I was putting onto my body.

Yeah. And I, I think this is really great. You guys are speaking about this because I think too, on social media, we can get caught up in how like people look and how amazing, which you guys like amazing, but you guys look like so amazing. And it's like, oh my gosh, I want that. But I'm telling you the fittest people I see in my practice are honestly internal chaos.

So I want people to understand that like what we see externally doesn't reflect of what we see internally, whether it's stress hormone or hormone balance or thyroid or gut health, whatever it is. And so I'm really glad you guys are bringing this to light because, you know, in this industry, a lot of it is so physical, which we all want to look at.

Yeah. But there's also that internal component that we have to address, too. So I'm so excited you guys are talking about. Yeah. And I like being I'm 21 and I feel like I'm on I'm on still like the younger end. So I'm like, I feel like I want to make that decision now.

Now that I like, like why wait till I'm older? Because like I said, I really want to get off birth control after this. I might just take the jump and literally not pick it up. But especially with everything recently going on in the world, like no matter what people think about it with, um,

The stuff with like abortion, like no matter what you think, I want to be in control of my body. And I feel like I'd rather be totally understanding of my cycles and my body than rely on

on something and like never know. I'd rather be totally in control of my body given the state of what's going on. Of course. And just be totally in control and in the know with like my hormones and my body and ovulation and really know about it. Because then I think especially like I can't imagine not knowing about this. And then later when I do want to have a kid, I feel like I would struggle getting pregnant.

Yeah. Because I have no idea how to properly set my hormones up to have like to function properly. Yeah. I have no idea. Yeah. And I will say I am...

both of my kids as crazy as it sounds were meant for they were tried for um by no means was my 17 year old self pregnant that was not a mistake yeah don't call me common crazy but I actually liked it I like being a young mom um like you guys make me feel old I'm 30 but I'm like I'm like oh my god you're a baby you're a baby

I am a baby. Don't worry. I know. So I would say like, you have so much more control over like preventing pregnancy or whatnot than I feel like we're led to believe. And so, yes, no matter what people believe in like abortion, if anything, I'm like, okay, maybe this will get women to be like, I don't understand this. I actually need to know about this. Like, let's not be, you don't have to be careless. There's so much control you have. Right. Again, women just don't know that they do have it. They have to rely on a pill, which you don't. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I totally agree. Like, doesn't even matter, like stance or anything, just that we should all have knowledge over our body. Of course. Yeah. And I'm really excited about this. So, yeah.

So going off of what we were just talking about with the under eating aspect, how does what you eat make or break your energy levels plus your mood? Because I know a lot of girls are probably listening right now currently in that situation of under eating and not really understanding or really reflecting on how their energy or their mood day to day is affected by what they're eating.

Oh my gosh. Honestly, energy issues. I'm like, show me what you eat. And I'm like, you're under eating. So we can honestly break it down to like a car, right? Like what we put in the car, your gas is going to make the car move. What we put in our body, our food is the fuel for us to work. And I actually see this.

tremendously almost within a same day. If I know I was like, I definitely accidentally under eight. I just did not eat what I was supposed to, or I worked out and I know the demand was higher and I just did not make up for it. Next day. I am definitely. Oh, a hundred percent. I can see that connection so quickly. So as we see when our car stops,

We're out of gas. Like, I don't know why we expect our bodies to be any different. Like if you don't fuel yourself, I have no idea why people think they should be thriving on energy because your body will prioritize that to what it needs to survive. It's going to help support your heart and your lungs and all these other aspects of your body, not to get you feeling amazing where you can go all day, work all day, go have fun at night.

and play like, no, your house is going to be like on the couch saying, I don't know what you expect me to do. You don't, you didn't give me energy.

So it's not just about the macro component either of like carbs, proteins, and fats and eating enough in that aspect. It's also the micronutrients, all the vitamins and minerals that we are taking in from this food. They are the building block to hormones and every single process that runs through the body, which I think is what I found really cool in biochem was just seeing that no matter what process in the body you want to look at, there is a nutrient driving that.

So if we take it back to like high school biology and we think mitochondria, this is that little organelle inside of every single cell that is like the battery. It literally creates ATP energy. But this whole process and like the Krebs cycle and the electron transport chain is

It is so dependent on nutrients, like insanely dependent. It's dependent on your B vitamins, CoQ10, copper, iron, magnesium, you name it. If you don't have one of these nutrients, if you're deficient, you are absolutely going to put a kink in the system of literally creating cellular energy, which I mean, so we can go as deep as mitochondria of how eating enough is not, it's going to affect you to the broad, like macro perspective of just not eating enough.

So it's really important to eat enough for energy, but also to give your body the nutrients it needs to make energy. I really wish my younger self was like sitting here right now having this conversation because it's crazy. Just from sitting here right now, like-

the amount that you've been able to put out there and educate just from like this, what, 30 minutes now. And myself back then knew none of this. Like if I could just shake myself and be like, Sam, like wake up, like eat more. Like I don't even know where I'd be now. Like, like, you know what I mean? Like, I just feel like I missed out on so many years of just like

a better body, I guess you could say, because I was just miserable for so many years, but right. And now me and Sam are the type of people we directly feel what you're saying of not eating. We directly feel the effects. We cannot function without breakfast. We cannot go to the gym without a proper pre-workout meal. We cannot go to the gym if we don't,

have food after we do not get through work if we're not having lunch and two snacks like if we're gone for a long time we pack a snack we pack a sandwich like we eat like we eat good we feel the direct effects of not eating like no other like it's borderline probably annoying because oh it's like no we need to leave we need to eat like we didn't bring a snack

Don't worry. My husband knows. He's just like, just her life revolves around like food. Yeah. We eat dinners. We eat dinner so early as well. And our friends will be like, all right guys, come over at 7 PM for dinner. We're like, nope, we're eating at five. You can not tell us otherwise. We'll eat before and then we'll come over and we'll bring our dessert with us. We're very regimented on how we eat, but it's true. I directly feel, I mean, we both get the same thing. We'll get bloated. We get tired. Cause it's like,

It just feels like all the systems in my body, like my digestive system, like everything shuts down. Yeah. Like it just stops. For sure. For sure. Yeah. And now a word from our sponsor, BetterHelp. As you guys know, if you're familiar with the show, mental health is not something we take lightly. As much as we give so much fitness advice for your body, we definitely also want to make sure you guys are taking care of your mind.

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Right now, our listeners get 10% off their first month of online therapy at betterhelp.com slash fword. That's betterhelp.com slash fword. So kind of moving into like those simple changes that can be made. Obviously, now everyone's...

Depending on where the listener is at in their, you know, journey of whatever, you know, whether they're under eating, whatnot. I kind of want to just touch on the like the daily occurrences, like the daily changes that can be made to kind of help you. Because like we don't want anyone to jump right into it and be overwhelmed over the fact that like, oh my goodness, maybe my like daily routine of food or exercise is just completely wrong. Like the small changes that can be made. Right. Yeah.

Yeah, I think the easiest thing you can ask yourself when you're looking at your plate is, can I grow it or can I kill it? If you can't answer those two questions, then you're probably teetering on a food that isn't a quote unquote real food. I mean, though we're all human, but I look at people in different seasons of life. So people who are in a healing season do need to be a little bit more intense of, you know, maybe avoiding certain foods through the healing process. And then when they're feeling good, they can be a little bit more lax.

But for the most part, your diet should be, can you grow it or can you kill it? So looking at veggies and animal proteins and fruit and correctly sprouted grains and nuts and seeds, just can you grow it or kill it? I mean, that's as simple as possible. If you feel like you ask yourself that question and looking at every snack and meal, that's where you should just start. Just start switching your food and eating wholesome foods.

And then also looking at your plate and just making sure there's a protein, carb and fat on your plate at all meals. I think a lot of people tend to get hungry very quickly, like an hour or two after you eat. Oh, I'm hungry again. Usually that's a sign of just not having a balanced meal to begin with, because I do believe that there is.

benefits to reducing the amount of time in between foods that you can consume. So having a breakfast at 8 AM and then having lunch at 12, there is a something in your digestive system called the MMC. It's the migrating motor complex. And this actually turns on two hours after you eat and it shuts off automatically when you start eating again. Um, and basically what this

It's like a little broom all along the digestive system to help kind of push things through and like just sweep things down and just make sure it maintains motility and that we're just things through helping sure you're not getting bloated or constipated or whatnot. So if we're constantly eating all the time, this never really is allowed to turn on and allow it to

So I'm a huge fan of at least doing three meals a day. Totally okay if you have to throw in a smoothie or whatnot in there for like extra protein and all that. But I would just start with don't skip breakfast, don't skip dinner, like your three meals, proteins, carbs, and fats in every single meal. Yeah, I think that is definitely something that

I wish I kind of did because more or less when I was under eating and I went into trying to eat more, I was just like having more snacks throughout the day. But I think if I did like a breakfast, like Sam, sit down, have a breakfast. And a few hours later, sit back down, have a lunch, a well-balanced dish and then continue on with the dinner. I think that would have been a better transition because I was just eating so many like very low calorie foods.

big volume dishes but they didn't fill me so then I would need to sit back down two hours later and have another one of those like big volume not the best type of snacks so I'm happy you said that yeah I had a question because I've heard this before and I don't know if there's something you've heard or like have your take on like how like savory breakfast versus breakfast with more sugar are like better for like your like hormones or like energy or something is that like I think that

Probably goes to show of just the more sweet stuff is naturally to me more imbalanced. And that's like the muffins and the pancakes and all that stuff. Not saying that that's bad, but I definitely think you should have more savory. That's going to be like your eggs and

And roasted veggies, you know, getting out of the idea, which this is everyone's problem. And I just blame it on America, but that we think like breakfast is like cereal and all these like very carb heavy things, which is okay if you have some of it, but that's usually where we stop. Like we just have a bowl of cereal. That's our breakfast. We just have a couple waffles. That's our breakfast when it should be so much more healthy proteins and fats.

to satiate you. So I think it really just goes back to making sure that you are eating the rainbow and eating very balanced. Um, and you're not just relying on the sugary, um,

Like typical breakfast items. Okay. That makes sense. Cause I've seen someone post about it and she eats very healthy. So she was eating a sweet breakfast, but more so balanced just more with fruit and then changed to like a savory breakfast. But I was like, your other breakfast to me looked like healthy. It was just more like fruit focused. So it was sweet, but we got like fruit and nut butter and like, we're not like, it was still like, it wasn't just sugary cereal. Um,

So like, would you still say that's fine? Even though it's sweet, like it's still not like affecting you. Definitely more on the lines of fine, but like, where's that protein? And she could have had like, you know, collagen powder or something in there as well for that protein. And that's fine. So like if someone wanted, let's say just like oatmeal, obviously that's your carb, but making sure you're putting collagen or protein powder in there. I know some people put egg whites in

Um, and whatnot, or, and also adding fats in. So whether that's like a nut butter or a little bit of coconut oil, flax seeds, again, trying to build it up. And then you just made yourself a really balanced oatmeal bowl. Um, so there is a way in that first option that you said with the fruit bowl, it could, she could totally make it balanced or maybe it is balanced. Um,

But I'm also a sucker for eggs. Okay. Okay. But that makes sense that it's more so like just thinking of like sugary cereal versus something more balanced. That definitely makes sense. And we have protein oatmeal with nut butter and fruit every morning. I'm obsessed. I'm addicted. It's the best breakfast.

um anyway morning i wanted to ask you too so i kind of started doing this like i would say like a month or two three months ago um i came across another instagram account where she was just posting diagrams of like condiments and stuff like that like the healthy changes when you're looking at like condiments or dressings or anything like that is there like specific things that you look at um in the ingredients or like brands for instance that you would prefer over others

Ooh, for, um, what did you say? Was there something specific? There are brands. Yeah. Um, oh my gosh, this is a whole topic in itself. I know. I'm so sorry. Maybe just like, I just like five. Yeah. Top five. Top five. Like brands I love. No ingredients that you look. Well, I guess. Yeah. What do we want to do? Brands or ingredients that we look out for ingredients that you like look out for in like a food. Yeah.

So I basically simplifying it, making sure that I can understand every food or every big one in a food. Um, honestly, there's a long list. It can be everything from high fructose corn syrup to like red 40 or super low artificial sweeteners.

You name it. So I think it just depends on the food, but ideally you, no matter what you're looking at, picking up the box and you should say, okay, this has almonds, flax seeds, coconut oil. Like you should know everything. And we're again, we're human. If you, there's things that I even drink like poppy, that little like gut, it's like a soda and it has, um,

What does it have? Oh, natural flavors. That's a very gray area. Sometimes natural flavors truly mean it's natural. And then on the other side of things, it could also mean some sketchy shit. So I look at it in regards to if I'm mostly eating good, I'm okay with like a little bit of that. I'm not drinking that every day. It's not a big deal. So I just want to make sure I

know the ingredients of what's in it. So if there's like crackers, gluten's a big one that I tend to stay away from. Everything is really about individuals. So what I need and what you need is so different. We react to food so differently. The only one that I'm pretty adamant on is gluten, just because studies show that no matter who you are, celiac, food allergy, food

foods that are gluten sensitivity and the average Joe who has none of those gluten still affects gut health by increasing intestinal permeability, which is your gut lining, which is going to allow things to come into the body that it shouldn't be. So gluten is the only one that I kind of look out for in the sense of ingredients that I

feel like if you avoid it, you're mostly avoiding processed foods anyway. So I naturally steer more towards like the gluten-free products and items. Again, though, that can still have a crap ton of ingredients. So just making sure you can understand it and read it. I really love that you did mention too, by the way, because I was going to mention this at the very end of the podcast because I know

Some people are very sensitive to these types of topics or not maybe sensitive, but like unaware. And they'll be very like triggered, like, oh, my God, everything I'm doing is so bad. Like I need to instantly change what I'm doing. So when you said like it is all very person to person, like what they can and can't have.

Based on how their body will react. So I never want anyone to like listen to our podcast and like get terrified by like the overwhelming amount of information. It's just like the small changes that will definitely help down the road, you know? Especially what I think whenever we talk about like the nitty gritty like health of certain ingredients.

So when I was under eating and trying to get back into being more, quote unquote, healthy, I got really sucked into the ingredient thing. But realistically, for me, what was healthiest was just be eating more of whatever it may be because I was not eating enough.

But now someone like us who's in a place where like we're in a really good place with food, really trying to dial in on our nutrition. That's when you'd make these changes. Because if you're under eating and correct me if I'm wrong, I feel like if this is the path you're trying to go on to fix your hormones, if you're severely under eating, the last thing you want to do is start like throwing out food in your house because it has certain ingredients in it. If you're severely under eating. Of course. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, obviously put your input as well, but I definitely agree. Like you need to really focus on just eating more in general and not being so afraid of that muffin, that pizza, that bag of chips, not to be afraid of it and actually just enjoy it. And then eventually once you're not so terrified of food, that is when you can make those changes on those like certain ingredients. Right.

Yeah, I think that there's that natural progression for sure. And some people have to start there. Some people are feeling really, really bad. And they absolutely just certain foods flare them and then they start having diarrhea or whatever. Yeah.

Um, sometimes they do. It is helpful. You can get both of those approaches of just eating more, but just making sure you're watching. So I think it depends on the person, but yeah, some people just need to focus on eating more before you start deep diving into ingredients, especially if you're someone who just gets easily overwhelmed and you just need to like slow up a little bit before you can, you know, go really hard at eating quote unquote clean. Yeah. Yeah. So that's kind of where we're at is like, I've been just kind of being more like

self-aware of the types of ingredients or like the sauces I'm using or yeah, you name it. I don't know. But I feel like I've been doing a really good job and I've been really kind of feeling the energy kind of come back to me with the food that I am putting into my body. Yeah, I agree. I've been doing the same. I've been trying to eat a lot more like

Whole foods. I eat like plant-based and I've been like staying away from during the summer. Like a lot of like, like artificial like meat sources. Like I've been like straying away from those in the summer. Like I still, I mean, I had them like a lot in the past, but now I'm trying like to just like get them not a constant thing in my diet and like clear away from them. And overall I've been liking it. I feel great. You're glowing. Yeah.

So I know these are some things that you definitely wanted to talk about as well, being like the chronic stress that is ruining your lady hormones, which is killing the productivity, your energy and your overall health. So if you want to dive into that, that'd be amazing. I'm always stressed, so I would really like to hear this. Yeah, this is why I like talking about it, because you can eat perfect and work out perfectly and avoid all these environmental toxins. But if you're not getting your

You are, I mean, of course you're moving in the right direction with other things, but that absolutely can be the thing that's holding you back in the longterm, especially with your hormones. But when your body is creating more of the stress hormone cortisol, it does suppress TSH, which is basically your brain talking to your thyroid. And then you're going to, you know, hypothyroidism right now is rampant among women. It is just the most common thing that I'm seeing more and more women just get diagnosed with.

Um, and then like with low thyroid hormone that will absolutely affect those brain hormones, your FSH and LH, um, to help you with ovulation. So then you're going to get stuck with any regular cycle. You're not ovulating regularly. You're not getting your progesterone. Then, um, it can also, um,

low thyroid can also increase a hormone called prolactin, which also causes like ovary dysfunction. So there's a lot to say with the stress and thyroid communication and relationship and how that affects sex hormones. And then outside of like the tip, like, you know, the medical stuff, when you're stressed, your body, no matter what it is, you could say you're stressed about a test at school. You

No matter what your brain just sees that as there's a tiger chasing me. Like this is dangerous. It doesn't know that it's just simply a test. It's still the same stress response regardless. So your body will say it's not a safe world out there. Ovulation reproduction right now should be halted there. This is dangerous. So we're not going to ovulate. Your body will absolutely choose no.

your life and survival over reproducing. And like I said, just because you don't want a baby, you might be like, yes, that's what I want. I don't want a baby. I don't want to reproduce right now, but that is everything your cycle is related to. So you still have to support that even if you don't want to reproduce.

But eventually the long-term stress of being stressed for chronic periods of time, this will lead to HPA dysfunction, which is hypothalamus pituitary adrenal dysfunction. That's basically where your brain stops talking to your adrenals, which makes your stress hormone. And because of that, we see this a lot for women who can't lose weight, who are chronically tired there. I'd like to say your adrenals are on vacation because you're not getting that cortisol response anymore.

It's just not happening. And so they're struggling to lose weight. They're always tired. They're always getting sick because cortisol is needed to support your immune system. So there's a lot that goes into that. And so I think we just need to emphasize reducing stress. And that's not always an easy answer. Sometimes that is quitting a job. Sometimes that is getting out of a relationship. Sometimes that is cutting out a family member who is super toxic. I mean, whatever it is, we do still need to put this aside.

top priority if you're wanting balanced hormones and I mean, good digestion in every single aspect. So I always feel like I have to hop on my soapbox and tell people the importance of it because I do think we're just like, ah, I'm stressed, but we keep going. And it's like, no, you've got to slow down and meditate and journal and do all the things that reduce stress. Um,

Um, in addition to eating good and sleeping good and all of that. Yeah, no, I, I totally agree with that. And it's funny you said the, the, um, saying of like, you feel like a lion or a tiger or something is like chasing you. Like that's how your body feels. And I'm like, I feel like that in a sense when I'm very stressed about something. Um, and then you kind of like reflect on it. You're like, wait a second. Why was I just so stressed about that? So it's crazy that I would like really affects your body. No, a hundred percent. I, I,

I feel like I need to be better about being like, I'm stressed and I need to like vocalize and say that I'm stressed and actually do something about it and not just like keep working and getting more stressed out. You know, like it'll eventually catch up to you. And that's what I don't want. I don't want you to five years when you're 25 down the road and saying like, oh, I'm so tired. I can't get out of it. Like nothing's changed. I'm still eating healthy. I'm still working out.

But it does catch up to you eventually. And I see that a lot with women because they're like telling me their life story of like what happens in the last 10 years. And I'm like, if you just knew this when you were at this age, you could have just changed the whole trajectory of your health journey. Yeah. What is your biggest advice you would give somebody that comes to you? And like chronic stress is definitely like one of the biggest indicators with like all the issues. And what would you say kind of

Not like relieve the stress. I don't know where I'm going with this, but like what, what's the advice that you give to someone in regards to stress? So we have to think of external stress and internal stress. So internal stress is making sure you're eating enough because it's super stressful to under eat. Yeah. It is making sure that gut health is in check because any gut imbalance will absolutely cause chronic cortisol stimulation. So we just want to make sure we're focused on an internal and then external of like the traffic jams and the jobs and the relationships and

And so it's really understanding like what is your stressor? What is your trigger? And working through how can we change that as well as incorporating, you know, meditation. I love journaling. I'm seeing a therapist, like creating a game plan for it. Well, this is what you need to be doing. Again, we want to kind of hop right over that because those are hard decisions. Changing a job like that is very,

very hard. But if your job is the source of your stressor and you've communicated to your boss, maybe you've tried changing positions, maybe you've tried something and it's still not working.

For the love, please just change your job because it's not worth it at the end of the day. And again, I'm biased because I see women who have pushed through for decades and then they get hospitalized, they hit rock bottom. And I just don't think we need to get to that point. I'm also like a health first person. So we'll start with little changes like meditation, but in the longterm, we're always looking at internal stressors and external stressors. And like, what can we do about that?

Yeah, that's very important. I like that because you don't realize really how important like everything kind of just stacks up on one of each other and creates like, like it just runs in a circle, I guess. Yeah. And I feel like stress, especially for like,

This generation of people with social media is going to be huge because aside from anything I do with social media for work, if I'm scrolling for a while, I literally get a flare of anxiety. I get extremely anxious. I don't know if it's like the blue light or just like all the stuff I get literally like I could just be watching TikToks that are making me laugh, but I will get really

I'm insanely anxious just because I'm, like, in a deep dive of, like, scrolling. And I feel like it's really stressing, like, kids out, like, 15-year-olds. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it does highlight parts of the brain that –

just like dopamine. And I think too, whether you know it or not, there's definitely a subconscious comparison, whether it's like physical comparison or like, oh man, they seem like they're really thriving and like, right. Everyone has their own struggles. And I think that just can really feed into that as well. Like, oh man, they look really successful and I'm struggling with this. Like, I think that subconscious, whether, you know, it's happening or not. Um, so I, it's

social media definitely is amazing because I love the connection. But at the same time, you just got to balance your social media time. Yeah, that's so true. Yeah. I just feel like in this like sea of people, like I can't imagine seeing all this like in dealing with like TikTok when I was like in high school. Like TikTok was like the end of my, it was like the end of my senior year and it wasn't anything serious yet. It was just like fun. Like we dance for like fun. Like it wasn't like

like serious um okay I had my space but whatever but um yeah I just feel like the effects of that and I actually I guess this will go into the next thing that we had written down of like doing like testing and stuff to get to like the actual causes because I wanted to ask you like personal question since you're in Austin with like what you do do you do like testing like this

Yeah, we do. Um, I think I would love to come. Yeah. That's what makes us. And you actually don't have to be in Austin. We can see virtually and totally ship out kits. Like there's not a lot in office that you need for labs. Um, so we do stool testing and urine testing. Um, these all can be done at home. If you need your blood drawn, like for micronutrient panels and stuff like that. Um, then we work with mobile phlebotomists all around the U S so it really doesn't matter like where you are.

But we do love labs because this helps us personalize your approach and just understand like what you have going on.

it's hormones or gut issues. Um, you know, cause I think that there's a lot of DIY cause there's a lot you can do without labs, but at one point, if there is a symptom, that's a struggle. Like I said, all those long lists of symptoms were hormone imbalance. Those could be thyroid. That could be sex hormones. That could be gut. Like there's so many things that could be. So instead of trying to, I don't know, do it all or, okay, I think this is for that. So I'll just work on this.

It is just so much easier when you have the data. So I'm obsessed with labs. I think women should be doing hormones and micronutrients yearly. And then stool testing, maybe like every couple years, five years. I'm such a fan of like making sure to do it on a regular basis because we are absolutely...

always changing. And especially women, we're obviously changing month to month with our cycles. We're riding that rollercoaster, but then in the grand scheme of things as well from us reproducing, then perimenopause and menopause, like it's just, we're on a forever rollercoaster. So we just got to make sure that we are testing and doing it properly. And in regards to what we do, it's very different from conventional traditional medicine. We have different reference

ranges where we are more optimized versus looking at pathology, we're looking at optimal function. So our reference ranges are a lot smaller than, you know, again, most Western traditional doctors. Um, so a lot of things can be missed or looked over, um, because of that.

And then a lot of the labs that we do are more functional based are not covered by insurance. So they do cost money, but they go in so much depth than looking at how much estrogen you have like in your urine. We're looking at, okay, how is your liver metabolizing it? This can absolutely show if you're choosing a not healthy pathway pathway of your estrogen and increasing your risk for breast cancers. Like there's so much more information that can come out of it, which is really cool. Yeah.

Yeah, I love that. I like really want to get this done. In a few episodes ago, we were going through a bulk to try to purposely like gain weight and I could not gain weight. I was eating so many calories and I couldn't put on weight. And I think like I think I have like hyperthyroid. Like I could not put on weight. Like I was eating over like 3000 calories, not gaining a pound.

And like I gained like five pounds, I think over like the six months, like and I was like force feeding myself and I couldn't gain weight. And ever since I stopped, I lost the weight really quick. Like it just kind of like came right off.

and I really have been wanting to get tests done to like get to the bottom of that because I feel like something's not right yeah that's crazy I mean most people but oh my gosh I was it I wish I was in your shoes I know and I know people like say that but at the end of the day you want to be like yeah correct like for sure far in any extreme is is not ideal for

For sure. For sure. Yeah. I would definitely get thyroid checked because thyroid can easily go from like hyper to hypo. And then all of a sudden you gain the weight and now you can't lose it. So thyroid is one of the top hormones. Like if we had to tier them up, like sex hormones are at the very bottom because they're very responsive to all the other hormones. So blood sugar hormones and thyroid are our top ones that we just want to make sure are at good levels. And then usually sex hormones will like follow and...

They'll follow the lead basically. Okay. Wow. I feel like we just covered so much information and I love it. No, yeah. And I really want to get a test done. So I'll have to like DM after this and like give me the info. Yes, of course. Because I really want to get this done now. It's like, you know when like you hear something and you're like, okay, it's now. Oh, you're set on it? I really don't think I'm taking birth control again. Okay. Yes. Full sense. I like –

I'm really and I would get an IUD but the pain of it is freaking me out.

I, yeah, I mean, it's still hormones, but there's the copper IUD, but it does, um, increase heavier bleeding, um, and other issues as well. So it's definitely not like, you know, it's the better option if you had to have one, but if you really didn't have to have it and you could just learn your cycle and abstain from sex around ovulation and, you know, all of that, um, there's like

temperature you can take before you get out of bed and that will track as well. Um, there's so many indicators that you can use to know your cycle, um, and to prevent pregnancy. Cause that's where most people your age are kind of bad. I'm just like, okay, I'm doing this just to prevent pregnancy, but there's so much you still can do that doesn't require like medication. Yeah. Amazing. I love that. If you want to just kind of like plug yourself, um,

one last time, your Instagram, your website, all of that. That would be awesome. Well, obviously to put it in the description down below, but for anyone listening.

Yeah, we are at new beach wellness on Instagram, Facebook, if anyone's still there. Um, and then on our website is new be true and you B I T R U wellness.com. And we share all the labs that we do, how we work and all that. So you can check us out and we offer a discovery call for 15 minutes, just so we can understand you and what you're looking for and making sure that we're partnering up with the right labs for you and the right next steps. So yeah.

Awesome. We really appreciate you coming on and sharing so much amazing information for us. Not only like our listeners, but also me and Taylor. Like I feel like I learned so much. It's our favorite episodes to do where we are actively like engaged in learning as well. And we've been wanting to do this for such a long time. So yeah. Yeah. I'm excited for everyone to listen. All right. Bye guys. Hope you guys enjoyed the episode. Thank you so much for coming. Bye. Bye.

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