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Vanda the Hormone Coach Joins Us! · Mocktail Minutes

0:21
Brianna: Hi everyone.
0:22
Brianna: Welcome to Mocktail Minutes.
0:24
Brianna: I'm Brianna.
0:25
Baylee: And I'm Bailey and we have a guest today.
0:27
Baylee: So today we have Vanda with us and before we introduce her every mocktail minutes episode, we have a fun drink.
0:34
Baylee: So today I'm drinking swoon, which I had one in the previous episode.
0:38
Baylee: It was just a different flavor, so it's, it's still different.
0:41
Baylee: Same product, different flavor.
0:43
Baylee: This one is actually not my favorite, but it's not terrible.
0:46
Baylee: I'm doing the pink lemonade one today.
0:48
Brianna: And I have element kombucha.
0:50
Brianna: You guys can't see it.
0:51
Brianna: There we go.
0:52
Brianna: Element Kombucha.
0:53
Brianna: It's from San Antonio.
0:55
Brianna: I got it at h e b.
0:57
Brianna: I don't love this one either.
0:58
Brianna: It's a lavender spearmint, which sounds like it would taste good, but it's not the best.
1:02
Brianna: But I did have their hibiscus one yesterday and it was really good.
1:05
Baylee: We both picked really good drinks today, I guess.
1:07
Brianna: Yeah.
1:08
Brianna: Well, like I took a sip.
1:09
Brianna: I was like, this is not great.
1:10
Baylee: Yeah, nothing against the companies because I do like other swoon ones.
1:15
Baylee: Just this one's not my favorite and that's okay.
1:17
Baylee: Might be your favorite.
1:18
Baylee: I don't know.
1:20
Brianna: What are you drinking?
1:22
Brianna: Are you drinking anything?
1:23
Vanda: I do have a favorite with me.
1:25
Vanda: I've got it in my favorite cup.
1:27
Vanda: I've been obsessed recently with Jigsaw Health's new pickleball flavor.
1:32
Vanda: The blue raspberry can't stop, won't stop.
1:35
Vanda: It's my favorite.
1:36
Brianna: I've been seeing it cuz I need to like restock on Jigsaw and I'm like mm-hmm.
1:40
Brianna: Do I, would I like it, so
1:42
Vanda: It's so good.
1:43
Vanda: Yeah,
1:43
Baylee: Yeah, I've seen a lot on it too, so maybe we'll both try it for an episode coming up.
1:48
Baylee: All right, so Amanda, do you wanna introduce yourself?
1:50
Baylee: Give us a little bit of information so our guests can get to know you a little bit.
1:54
Vanda: sure.
1:55
Vanda: So I'm Banda, I'm a women's health and hormone coach.
1:59
Vanda: Work with clients all online, virtually through my practice.
2:03
Vanda: My background is actually in nursing.
2:05
Vanda: I've been a nurse for nine years here in just a few days, and through kind of my own struggles with hormones.
2:12
Vanda: I was on birth control for a long time.
2:15
Vanda: Went off birth control, lost my period, was very concerned about that because I wasn't quite at the point in life where I wanted to get pregnant yet.
2:23
Vanda: But I was coming up on that and it was obviously very concerning to me that I did not have a period brought that up to my doctors and the only.
2:32
Vanda: Really result that they had for me, or the only suggestion they had for me was to go back on birth control.
2:37
Vanda: And I was like, well, that doesn't really seem like the right thing to do, since I feel like that's part of what has causing me this issue, and I.
2:46
Vanda: I brought it up to my provider more than once and just continued to be so frustrated that all they would do for me.
2:51
Vanda: They didn't wanna run lab work, they didn't want to do anything, but put me back on birth control.
2:55
Vanda: So just started doing my own research.
2:57
Vanda: Came upon functional medicine, dug into that and was like, wow.
3:01
Vanda: Even as a nurse, this is a whole different way to think about healthcare.
3:07
Vanda: Not just hormones, but just healthcare in general.
3:10
Vanda: And I really wanted to dig into that deeper because.
3:13
Vanda: I just love that with functional medicine, you're finding a root cause for a problem and not just treating a symptom or a problem and kind of covering it up, but never really addressing like, why is this happening?
3:25
Vanda: So I got certified in functional medicine and decided that I wanted to help other women that were struggling with some of the same things that I was.
3:32
Vanda: So I've opened my virtual practice.
3:34
Baylee: That is so exciting.
3:35
Baylee: What made you des.
3:36
Baylee: Side to be like, okay, I'm done with nursing and now I'm just gonna go in with opening my own practice basically.
3:42
Vanda: Well, so I do still work as a nurse in a certain capacity.
3:45
Vanda: I actually work as a nurse educator now.
3:48
Vanda: And then I also do my business.
3:50
Vanda: But there were so many people around me, like girlfriends, people that I worked with that were also about my age, female nurses that would hear me.
3:59
Vanda: Talking about what I was doing or what I was like learning and their minds would just be blown when I would share things with them.
4:06
Vanda: Like how being on birth control completely shuts down the communication between our ovaries and our brain and like when we go off birth control.
4:13
Vanda: That whole communication like that has to reestablish, and it's stuff that we're not taught enough about and.
4:23
Vanda: Friends would find that they also were getting to that point in life where they're like, okay, we're getting married, we're getting close to being able to start a family.
4:31
Vanda: Am I going to have problems when I try to conceive?
4:34
Vanda: Very curious about what I was doing, reaching out for help, and I was like, there are other women out there that need this information, want this type of help.
4:42
Vanda: So that's kind of what led me to want to serve in that way.
4:46
Brianna: I love that.
4:47
Brianna: Yeah, cuz like you said, it's not talked about.
4:49
Brianna: A lot.
4:50
Brianna: I just, women's health is like, we get the bare minimum and then most of the time we're just learning through each other.
4:57
Brianna: So.
4:57
Vanda: Yes.
4:58
Vanda: Yeah, and the things that you teach yourself, it's scary,
5:01
Brianna: Like, what's going on with me?
5:03
Baylee: Of.
5:04
Baylee: When you said doing like your own research too, I think this is an important note for so many people, like women especially, that if you feel like something is wrong, to dive deeper into it.
5:16
Baylee: And if you're not getting the answers, the number one, find someone else who can help you.
5:21
Baylee: Or number two, keep asking because if you keep asking and you learn to advocate for yourself.
5:26
Baylee: You're going to get help.
5:28
Baylee: Like no one's just gonna keep ignoring you.
5:30
Baylee: And even with like the functional medicine approach, that's actually how I figured out I had a dairy allergy because for 18 years I was in the hospital all the time.
5:40
Baylee: I had all these stomach aches, I had migraines, and it was, okay, you're having stomach aches, let's put you in this medication.
5:45
Baylee: You're having migraines, let's put you on this medication.
5:47
Baylee: Like, but why am I still having these issues?
5:50
Baylee: Plus I'm having to do all these medications, so, I think it is super important to find that root cause approach and I think it's super cool how much functional medicine has grown too.
6:01
Brianna: trust your gut.
6:01
Brianna: Cuz I gotta say we hold a lot of weight in what doctors say and not that doctors aren't valuable resources cuz they absolutely are.
6:08
Brianna: But you know, you usually see your doctor like maybe once or twice a year and you're dealing in your body.
6:15
Brianna: Every day, all day.
6:16
Brianna: You know, so you're gonna know your body more than somebody else.
6:19
Brianna: Like they might, have really good knowledge for you, but it might just not apply to you.
6:24
Brianna: So trust your gut.
6:25
Baylee: Vanda, you kind of mentioned testing and testing to kind of get those answers, so I know one test you do is an H T M A test, and I recently had one done and it revealed some pretty cool things.
6:36
Baylee: But can you kind of explain to our listeners what H T M A testing is and why it could be helpful?
6:44
Vanda: Yes, I would love to.
6:45
Vanda: H T M A testing is one of my, it is my favorite functional medicine test that is available because you learn so much and it's so powerful.
6:54
Vanda: So H T M A stands for hair tissue mineral analysis.
6:59
Vanda: And it's really simple tests that you can do.
7:01
Vanda: You do it on yourself, you cut a hair sample typically from like the back of your head.
7:07
Vanda: And what you're gonna do with the hair sample that you cut is you're going to, if you have long hair, you're gonna trim it down to about an inch, inch and a half.
7:14
Vanda: Mail that into the lap.
7:16
Vanda: And what they are looking for when they analyze that is your individual mineral levels.
7:22
Vanda: Also looking for any heavy metal buildup within your body.
7:26
Vanda: There's, I can't really list out everything they're checking because there's over 37 data points that, that you get checks.
7:33
Vanda: It's, it's a ton of information.
7:35
Vanda: Then you can take that information and you can see, okay, we are depleted in this mineral, or we have an excess of this mineral, or there's this type of heavy metal showing up.
7:47
Vanda: Why is that?
7:49
Vanda: And then how do we correct that?
7:51
Vanda: Because what I've really learned, like studying functional medicine and just my own work with clients, There's a lot of testing options out there for hormones and specifically for like female sex hormones.
8:04
Vanda: Like I like the Dutch test, but one of the things that I tell people is that things like the Dutch test can tell you what hormone levels are, but they can't really tell you why
8:18
Brianna: Hmm.
8:19
Vanda: htma testing kind of gives you the why, and that why is really what you need to be able to fix the problem.
8:26
Vanda: And I have some, some people that kind of freak out about the thought of like cutting their hair and, and having to cut it themselves.
8:33
Vanda: So always like to tell people that it's a super small sample of hair.
8:37
Vanda: They call it a heaping teaspoon.
8:39
Vanda: And I mean, I don't know.
8:40
Vanda: I can't really visualize that in my head, but I would say everybody's hair has a different density, but for the most part it's like 20 to 30 strands of hair.
8:50
Vanda: It's not anything like, That you're going to noticeably miss from your scalp.
8:55
Baylee: Yeah, and they give you like a little.
8:57
Baylee: Yeah, they give you like a little scale to kind of help you to see how much you need.
9:03
Baylee: I was one of the people who was terrified to cut my hair.
9:05
Baylee: Like, I love my hair.
9:07
Vanda: Mm-hmm.
9:07
Baylee: My hair has always been a really big deal to me.
9:10
Baylee: Only one person in my life has ever touched my hair.
9:13
Baylee: And so I was freaking out about it.
9:15
Baylee: I was like, this is gonna be a lot of hair.
9:16
Baylee: And I put it off for like, Weeks before I actually did it because I was so nervous and I have pretty thin hair.
9:23
Baylee: It's not like super thick or anything.
9:25
Baylee: It's really long, but not thick.
9:27
Baylee: And so I actually had, my aunt does my hair, she's my hairdresser.
9:30
Baylee: And I was like, all right, well when I come in, we're gonna have to cut out chunks of my hair from the scalp.
9:35
Baylee: And she's like, What are you doing?
9:37
Baylee: I was like, no, seriously, it's four.
9:39
Baylee: I'm getting my hair.
9:41
Baylee: Yeah, I'm getting my hair tested.
9:43
Baylee: So she actually did it for me and it made it a lot easier because I was like, I'm so scared I'm gonna take scissors and I'm just gonna have a bald spot.
9:50
Baylee: So I had someone else do it for me, and I actually cut out like too much and you can't even tell that I cut anything out.
9:57
Baylee: So it seems scary, but it's not that bad.
10:00
Vanda: no, it's, it's not bad at all.
10:02
Vanda: Not bad.
10:02
Vanda: But then you can take those results.
10:04
Vanda: One of the things that we get on the H T M A results when you get the panel back are the ratios of different minerals.
10:12
Vanda: And each of those ratios give us insight into specific functions within the body.
10:17
Vanda: So we have a ratio where we're looking at your metabolism.
10:21
Vanda: One for thyroid, one for adrenals.
10:24
Vanda: And it's not necessarily that it's like an absolute direct correlation, but it gives you that insight into, okay, these are the areas that we need to focus on.
10:34
Vanda: These are kind of the drivers of the symptoms this patient or this client is experiencing.
10:41
Vanda: And then you can make your plan for, you know, how you're gonna address those imbalances and help help that person.
10:48
Brianna: So how often?
10:50
Brianna: Should some.
10:50
Brianna: Okay, so now like with blood tests, some of them you need like quite often, some of you don't.
10:54
Brianna: Like, what is the, how long after you're first did you get tested again to see if what you're doing is right,
11:00
Vanda: That's a really good question cuz I get asked that all the time.
11:02
Vanda: So it's a little bit different person to person, but in general, for most people, you wanna get.
11:09
Vanda: Between four and six months from whenever you did your first test, you got your plan for like what you need to do, what changes.
11:17
Vanda: And typically that involves some diet changes, some lifestyle changes, and some supplements.
11:22
Vanda: And you want to be kind of committed to implementing those changes for a good three to four months before you test again, because with a hair sample, you're looking back at the past three months of data.
11:36
Vanda: Whereas with like a blood sync blood you're talking about, we're only getting a snapshot in time.
11:41
Vanda: Just that one specific data point when they drew your blood.
11:44
Vanda: So that's another reason that I really liked H T M A testing because you're getting an average and you're just getting more data, but you don't want to jump to like, okay, I've been following this protocol for a month and I feel really good and I wanna know what my levels are.
11:59
Vanda: Now, that's too soon because.
12:03
Vanda: You have to let your hair grow enough to where you're looking at like new data versus actually we've got some old data in here, plus new from where you've been implementing these changes.
12:14
Vanda: You wanna give enough time.
12:16
Vanda: So I typically say between four to six months,
12:19
Brianna: Okay, that makes sense.
12:21
Brianna: And I don't, I don't think there's any insurance that covers H G M A testing, is there?
12:26
Brianna: No.
12:27
Brianna: So if someone were to listen to this and is like, I know something else is going on.
12:32
Brianna: Maybe they're not ready to do HTMA testing.
12:34
Brianna: Maybe they can't yet.
12:35
Brianna: If they were to get their blood drawn, what are like some typical blood tests that they should get drawn
12:41
Vanda: Okay, so I love that you asked this because.
12:44
Vanda: There is a lot that we can learn from just basic blood work that typically if you have health insurance, you can get it at least once a year, and the majority of things that I'm gonna recommend are covered by insurance Now.
12:59
Vanda: Disclaimer on that, I can't guarantee what anybody else's insurance covers.
13:02
Vanda: Like definitely check with your plan and your benefits, but lots of these things are very common and can be done once, if not twice a year.
13:11
Vanda: So I like to start with just a basic C B C and C M P a lipid panel, A T S H, which is your thyroid stimulating hormone that checks your thyroid function.
13:22
Vanda: A hemoglobin a1c.
13:24
Vanda: Sometimes providers will kind of automatically include that if they have any indication at all that you might be having some insulin resistance or you're at risk for type two diabetes.
13:38
Vanda: If they have no indicators for that whatsoever, that might be one that you specifically need to request and could potentially not be like covered by insurance.
13:48
Baylee: Yeah, I don't think I've ever had my hemoglobin A1C checked on any routine checkups or anything.
13:55
Vanda: some, some will, but without some of those indicators, a lot of'em, they don't opt to order it, but it's still really valuable.
14:03
Vanda: And then some additional things that sometimes providers will include, sometimes you have to ask for them are a vitamin D level, A fasting insulin level, C R P, which is looking for inflammation, and then a vitamin b12.
14:17
Vanda: And that's just a really good place to start to get some data and give you some direction and a great way to utilize what your insurance will cover because cuz functional medicine is unfortunately not covered by insurance right now.
14:32
Vanda: I think we'll see that change in the coming years.
14:34
Vanda: But right now it's not super accessible to everybody.
14:37
Brianna: Right.
14:38
Baylee: I think the vitamin D and all these other vitamins too are important too.
14:43
Baylee: But vitamin D especially because I feel like this is one that is so often blindly supplemented by just the general population, but it's a fat soluble vitamin, so it can build up in your system, and we wanna make sure that you're actually deficient before we're just.
14:57
Baylee: Pumping ourselves up with like 10,000 IUs or something like that.
15:01
Vanda: Yeah.
15:02
Brianna: It's also another one that I feel like.
15:04
Brianna: Women, I mean, maybe men.
15:06
Brianna: I don't work with a lot of men, so I just say women.
15:08
Brianna: I feel like a lot of women are deficient in and don't realize, and it can act, it acts as like a hormone in our bodies.
15:15
Brianna: So a lot of, you know, you're feeling sluggish, you're feeling kind of like depressed, like those sort of symptoms.
15:20
Brianna: It could be a vitamin D deficiency, but like Bailey was saying, it's better to not blind supplement because then you kind of, you know, you, you run the risk of.
15:30
Brianna: Having other imbalances because now you're just over supplementing where you don't need to be.
15:33
Brianna: So,
15:34
Vanda: Yeah,
15:34
Baylee: I used to supplement vitamin D.
15:36
Baylee: I don't as much anymore.
15:38
Baylee: I can kind of tell when I start to get low, but I also used to have it checked every three months and I don't do that as often anymore, but it was so weird.
15:46
Baylee: I can always tell when I get low cuz I am like extra tired.
15:49
Baylee: I would fall asleep at the kitchen table.
15:51
Baylee: I fell asleep on the kitchen floor one time.
15:53
Baylee: I mean, I was like 10 years old so I wasn't like 20 years old on my kitchen floor, but I fell asleep on the floor like waiting for dinner.
16:01
Baylee: And they honestly thought I was narcoleptic, but it turned out that my vitamin D levels were just super low, and then my hair also falls out when it gets to really low.
16:09
Brianna: Yeah, so that's another one that can make you feel definitely off.
16:13
Brianna: Which kind of like brings us to the next topic.
16:15
Brianna: So if you're getting blood work done, cuz I hear this often, like I got my blood work done, but everything was like in normal range.
16:21
Brianna: So I feel like I hear this specifically with thyroid.
16:25
Brianna: But what do you do if your ranges fall within normal but you're still like, something doesn't feel right.
16:30
Vanda: So number one, like we've kind of already said, like trust your intuition that something is not right.
16:37
Vanda: I just wanna reiterate that first.
16:39
Vanda: Tangible piece of advice would be to find a provider, a functional medicine provider, most likely, that will take your lab results and compare them to optimal ranges because the way that normal ranges are determined and set by different labs are sometimes used by looking at a population that's.
17:01
Vanda: Not optimally healthy, like we're comparing ourselves to people that might have like underlying diseases going on.
17:09
Vanda: They might be obese, like just things that are not optimal.
17:14
Vanda: Health and themselves not feeling great.
17:17
Vanda: That's kind of how they set what the normal ranges are is how the majority of the population will fall.
17:24
Vanda: Well, we know that the majority of our population is not necessarily at the healthiest, so we don't wanna compare ourselves to that.
17:30
Vanda: We wanna be comparing ourselves to, okay, if I was as healthy as I could be, what would my level be?
17:37
Vanda: And that's where in the world of functional medicine, they have established these optimal.
17:42
Vanda: Ranges.
17:43
Vanda: So it's like a little a little tighter of a range typically is gonna be your optimal ranges.
17:49
Brianna: That makes sense.
17:50
Brianna: And then just putting like the puzzles, the pieces together.
17:53
Brianna: Like if you're outside an optimal range for one or two things, like what could that mean?
17:57
Vanda: Mm-hmm.
17:58
Brianna: kinda piece together rather than just saying, oh, everything looks fine.
18:02
Vanda: Yeah.
18:02
Vanda: And When I do a review of someone's labs and I compare them to optimal ranges, I have a spreadsheet that I plug everything into and I have written in there like, okay, if this level is high or low, it could mean this.
18:15
Vanda: There might be 10 things listed there, so then it's really important to work with somebody that will take that information.
18:23
Vanda: Look at it as a whole, and then also get a really detailed intake assessment of you as the client.
18:30
Vanda: What are you feeling?
18:32
Vanda: What are your symptoms?
18:33
Vanda: What is your normal day-to-day?
18:36
Vanda: What medications are are you currently taking?
18:38
Vanda: What supplements are you currently taking?
18:40
Vanda: And take the whole picture into consideration before they just blanketly say, well, your vitamin D is low.
18:47
Vanda: You need to supplement with that cuz it's not always that black and white.
18:52
Brianna: Right.
18:52
Baylee: And I think it's interesting how you stated like the optimal versus normal levels because I think there are a lot of references.
19:00
Baylee: Is like that because even thinking about like B M I where it's based on like, I think it's like a six foot white male and that's who is based on by I am a five three woman.
19:13
Baylee: Woman, like it is based off completely different people.
19:17
Baylee: And yeah, I think it has great guidelines, great intentions, but it's not necessarily going to be like that gold standard I don't think.
19:25
Baylee: I think there's so much more to the story, kind of the same thing when thinking about normal versus optimal ranges.
19:30
Brianna: Yeah, it's not the gold standard.
19:32
Brianna: If anything, it's like a screening tool, you know?
19:34
Brianna: Cause we know if someone is super outside of those normal ranges, okay, we know for a fact something is wrong and it like puts up that red flag like, okay, we need to do something to fix that.
19:44
Brianna: But in just traditional medicine, it's just kind of like, as long as everyone is okay and nothing is drastically wrong, you're okay.
19:52
Brianna: And then you just hear like, I mean, I don't, I feel like it's not normal for people to feel great.
19:56
Brianna: Usually people don't feel great.
19:58
Brianna: Like that's our norm.
19:59
Brianna: And then you're comparing like, let's compare the norm to everyone not feeling great.
20:04
Baylee: Yeah.
20:04
Brianna: I wanna feel a little better guys.
20:06
Brianna: Yeah.
20:06
Brianna: So like Vanda, what are, because I feel like we get, I, I mean, I don't know about you Bailey, but I get this question a lot.
20:13
Brianna: People are always like, is something else going on?
20:15
Brianna: How do you know, like your hormones are okay?
20:18
Brianna: Is there something going on under the hood?
20:19
Brianna: Like women are just always, they're worried like, do I have a hormone imbalance?
20:23
Brianna: So what are like common signs that are red flags for you
20:27
Baylee: I will also add in here too, before you start where.
20:31
Baylee: Oftentimes we talk to people and they're like, well, how long should I wait until I look under the hood, until I wait to see if what changes we make are helping?
20:39
Baylee: And I feel like I kind of blanket statements maybe like three to four months, but it's not, I wouldn't say it's three months from the day we start working together.
20:48
Baylee: I think it's like three months starts after a month of consistency.
20:51
Baylee: I think that's an important thing, but also it's not going to be like three to four months for everyone.
20:56
Baylee: It could be like seven months.
20:58
Baylee: Especially working with weight loss clients, your timeline is probably gonna look different than someone else's, and that's okay.
21:04
Baylee: We're all super different.
21:06
Brianna: Yeah.
21:07
Vanda: Yeah, I definitely agree with that.
21:08
Vanda: It is different person to person.
21:11
Vanda: Some, for some people it kind of also depends like how much are your symptoms affecting your normal day-to-day life?
21:19
Vanda: Because if you are somebody that.
21:22
Vanda: You're not able to get through like your normal day to day anymore because of all these symptoms, then it's probably time to test now instead of waiting.
21:33
Vanda: Now if you're somebody that's like, I've got these few things creeping up and they're really starting to bother me, then yeah, I definitely give yourself 2, 3, 4 months of really like.
21:44
Vanda: I'm gonna make these changes and implement and try to improve upon this and see where you are.
21:49
Vanda: Because I think that so often people dismiss the foundations of, am I eating enough?
21:56
Vanda: Am I sleeping enough?
21:58
Vanda: Am I moving my body enough?
22:00
Vanda: And I'm not meaning exercise, like I'm meaning like general, just like movement, like very basic things.
22:05
Vanda: They blow those off.
22:05
Vanda: Like they're not important.
22:06
Vanda: But really if you can be consistent with some of those habits, that is like the most important thing that you can do.
22:13
Brianna: Oh yeah.
22:14
Brianna: And I feel like it's the instant gratification thing.
22:16
Brianna: Like everybody wants to get to X, Y, Z before taking care of A, B, C.
22:21
Brianna: You know, it's like, I see that with gut health too, and I feel like it's, it's just super trendy, right.
22:27
Brianna: Like, let's like try these supplements, try this wellness thing, and everyone's like, oh, that's what I need.
22:32
Brianna: And then, you know, meanwhile they're not sleeping, they're drinking every day.
22:36
Brianna: They live a super sedentary life.
22:38
Brianna: You know, they're just, their blood sugar is haywire and they just think like, oh, this is what's wrong with me.
22:43
Brianna: I need this over here.
22:44
Brianna: And then meanwhile, like their basic needs aren't being met.
22:47
Brianna: And I don't think that's anyone's fault cuz I don't think we're really taught like, hey, these are like really good habits and basic things you need to do to feel great.
22:54
Brianna: Like it's just not.
22:55
Baylee: yeah, I think we tend to just kind of brush off the simple things too, because it seems they're like, they are too simple that, yeah, I could do those, but it is not really gonna help
23:05
Brianna: It's not what it is.
23:06
Brianna: Yeah.
23:06
Baylee: Yeah, when I'm like, no, when you actually get at least seven hours of sleep compared to five, you are going to feel a lot better.
23:14
Baylee: Even though it just seems like a really simple thing and then your energy is going to be increased.
23:19
Baylee: You don't need the supplement for energy.
23:21
Baylee: So yeah, I would say that too, that we don't need a brush off.
23:25
Baylee: The simple things.
23:25
Baylee: The simple things are what keep us going.
23:29
Brianna: Well, and it's gonna make, if something is, this is what I always tell clients, like if something is going on under the hood, it's gonna make fixing that issue so much easier.
23:38
Brianna: When you have your foundation set and everything is run, you're doing everything you can to make it be optimal.
23:45
Brianna: And then you add in like these supplements, this intervention, this like targeted therapy.
23:50
Brianna: It's gonna work much better and it's honestly gonna save you a lot of time and money too.
23:55
Brianna: Like it is a lot of money.
23:58
Brianna: You're gonna
23:59
Vanda: Never gonna do yourself a disservice by working on your foundations ever.
24:04
Brianna: yes.
24:05
Baylee: Yeah.
24:05
Baylee: You have to get those foundations down.
24:07
Baylee: That's why I tell everyone, like before we're gonna dive into all this supplementing, we're gonna dive into all this testing like, You have to know how to build a meal.
24:16
Baylee: You have to know how to manage everyday stressors.
24:19
Baylee: You have to be able to get some sleep in.
24:22
Baylee: And I understand like some people's sleep schedules may be off, and maybe that's not a time to focus on it, but we have to get these foundations down.
24:29
Baylee: Otherwise, the extra things aren't gonna mean that much.
24:32
Brianna: Yeah, which is what people want, and I get it.
24:34
Brianna: I get it.
24:36
Vanda: I got, we got on a tangent there a little bit about the foundations.
24:41
Vanda: So I didn't an, I didn't answer the question.
24:43
Vanda: But common signs of an imbalance and kind of like we alluded to, like when I run through these, a lot of times people are only thinking about their female sex hormones being imbalanced, but I'm talking about all your hormones.
24:57
Vanda: Not just your female sex hormones.
24:58
Vanda: So most of the time we're seeing things like low energy or really inconsistent energy.
25:03
Vanda: You might feel great one day and then like, crap the next pmms that's disrupting your life.
25:09
Vanda: Periods that are disrupting your life.
25:11
Vanda: Either you're cramping so bad that you need to stay home from work or you're bleeding so heavily that you don't feel comfortable, you know, leaving the house.
25:20
Vanda: Low libido is a big one.
25:22
Vanda: Moodiness or being like, Really irritated with things that would typically be like a small problem, but you're just like blowing up about something and you even yourself, like you recognize that like I'm having a really irrational response to this small thing that I can't help it kind of, kind of thing.
25:40
Vanda: Frequently feeling cold, or if you're someone that measures your basal body temperature, which is a great indicator, would highly recommend that to everybody.
25:50
Vanda: But if you notice that it's always low and you're not seeing good fluctuations in that hair loss that goes beyond par postpartum sleep difficulties, so, By that, I mean it can kind of be one of two things.
26:04
Vanda: Either you're having a lot of trouble staying asleep or you're having a lot of trouble falling asleep, or sometimes a combination of both.
26:12
Vanda: And then increased anxiety.
26:14
Vanda: Maybe you're somebody that really has never been anxious before and all of a sudden you're having a lot of anxiety or you've always been a little bit anxious, but we're always able to kind of like control it or didn't really interfere with your life, but all of a sudden you're so anxious all the time.
26:30
Vanda: Those are the really, the big, big things.
26:33
Brianna: Yeah.
26:33
Brianna: And those are all horrible.
26:37
Brianna: Like I feel like
26:37
Vanda: of that sounds funny.
26:39
Brianna: No,
26:39
Baylee: No one wants that.
26:41
Brianna: we don't want that.
26:42
Brianna: Let's take our bodies.
26:44
Vanda: Yeah.
26:44
Brianna: Okay.
26:45
Baylee: And I think when you're thinking about this list that you kind of just named off, like how you said before you started that is if it is something that is really weighing on your life, then yeah, maybe get testing sooner rather than later.
26:58
Baylee: I think that's important to note too, cuz yeah, we do give the blanket statement of waiting a few months, but if it is making your life miserable like you're having to.
27:07
Baylee: Stay home from events or call off work.
27:10
Baylee: Then I would say getting help sooner rather than later too.
27:14
Vanda: I think that as women we're kind of taught like, I guess this is just kind of our culture that we have to push through, and especially for those of us that are moms, like we're so busy trying to take care of everybody else that we ignore our own things.
27:28
Vanda: So a lot of times I have clients that come to me and they might have every single one of these symptoms, and they'll even acknowledge like, yeah, I've been dealing with this for a long time, but I just.
27:38
Vanda: Wasn't doing anything about it or I didn't know what to do, or I talked to my doctor, but they brushed me off.
27:44
Vanda: If you are somebody that is experiencing a lot of those things, take the time to, to care for yourself and invest in figuring out like, what is really driving these symptoms for me?
27:56
Vanda: What's causing this?
27:57
Brianna: Mm-hmm.
27:58
Baylee: Yeah.
27:58
Baylee: If we don't start taking care of these things, that's when we get burnout and that's when we just keep going down this never ending pathway because we just didn't handle it in the first place.
28:08
Baylee: We went through that stage of we just have to tough it out.
28:11
Baylee: We have kids to care for.
28:13
Baylee: We have a job to do.
28:15
Baylee: Yes, we have to do these things, but it's like the saying goes, you can't pour from an empty cup.
28:20
Baylee: That's very hard to do.
28:22
Brianna: Gotta put on your oxygen mask first.
28:25
Vanda: Yes.
28:25
Vanda: Yeah,
28:26
Brianna: I think that it's such a, Good point cuz women do get in that cycle and then we get really down on ourselves.
28:32
Brianna: Like we can't do everything that so-and-so is doing.
28:35
Brianna: Oh my gosh, how does so-and-so have four kids and she's able to have a career and she's able to do this and she's showing up at like the p t a meeting with like homemade gluten-free, dairy-free muffins and like what's going on?
28:48
Brianna: And her and her husband are going on date night and you're over here like, it's me.
28:52
Brianna: It's just me.
28:52
Brianna: And you know, and really it's probably not.
28:54
Brianna: Probably use torture yourself.
28:57
Baylee: One of the biggest pieces of advice that I could give right now to anyone, it's something that I've really had to take for myself lately, is to stop comparing yourself to what everyone else is doing.
29:10
Baylee: We all have different lives and I mean, I've had some messages where people are, are like, well, I can't.
29:17
Baylee: Do a walk in the middle of the day like you do, or I can't go to the gym during lunch like you do.
29:21
Baylee: I'm like, okay, well don't, when does it work for your life?
29:25
Baylee: So yeah, I think one of the best spaces of advice that I actually have taken recently is to just stop comparing yourself to what other people are doing.
29:33
Baylee: We all have different lifestyles.
29:34
Baylee: We have different jobs, we have different family dynamics.
29:38
Baylee: There's so many differences and you really are doing yourself a disservice when we're like, I just wanted.
29:43
Baylee: Do whatever this other person is doing because it looks so great.
29:47
Baylee: You have no idea what's going on behind the scenes.
29:49
Brianna: Yeah.
29:50
Brianna: Or thinking like if I do exactly what that person is doing, then I'm gonna feel how that.
29:54
Brianna: Person who's feeling, we do that a lot on social media.
29:56
Brianna: We don't actually really know how that person's feeling.
29:59
Brianna: And like you said, we're all different.
30:01
Brianna: So we could eat the same way, move the same way, take the exact same supplements and still feel and be completely different from that person.
30:07
Brianna: So it's really figuring out you, yourself, connecting to your body and seeing what you need to do.
30:13
Brianna: Vander for those listening who are like, okay, I think I need to do H T M A testing, but maybe they just wanna come with like a right now takeaway from this.
30:23
Brianna: What are some things they could do right now for their hormones?
30:27
Brianna: And then we'll talk about how they would be able to reach out to you for this testing.
30:31
Vanda: Okay, so if you are just like I want to do something right now to start on these foundations, I have kind of three things that I blanketly like recommend.
30:41
Vanda: This is where you start first, examine what you're having for breakfast in America, we.
30:50
Vanda: Eat a lot of sugary things for breakfast.
30:52
Vanda: We have a lot of carbon things for breakfast, and it starts our day off on the wrong foot when we do that.
30:58
Vanda: So I encourage people to seek protein at breakfast get some health, healthy, fat, and some fiber in there.
31:07
Vanda: I typically recommend between 25 and 30 grams of, of protein to start the day.
31:13
Vanda: It sets you up on the best foot possible.
31:15
Vanda: And it's not that I don't recommend those same kind of guidelines for lunch and dinner also, but you have to start small.
31:21
Vanda: And I think starting with just focusing on improving your breakfast is the best way to start.
31:28
Vanda: And it's not an overwhelming overhaul.
31:30
Vanda: I also typically tell people if you're gonna have coffee, If you're a big coffee drinker, eat first and either have your coffee alongside breakfast, or really, most of the time, I recommend having it after breakfast so that you're not just waking up empty stomach and hitting your system with caffeine, with nothing else on board.
31:50
Vanda: Does that be number one?
31:51
Vanda: The second thing that I would say would be to start supporting your minerals.
31:57
Vanda: I haven't met a client yet that doesn't need mineral support.
32:01
Vanda: And I am a big proponent of not randomly supplementing, so I definitely, I don't mean that, but there are really good electrolyte replacement.
32:11
Vanda: Drink mixes, drink options out there.
32:13
Vanda: Now I love jigsaw Health, either the pickleball brand that I'm drinking today.
32:18
Vanda: Their electrolytes cream is a good option.
32:21
Vanda: Limit the L M N T brand.
32:24
Vanda: That's a pretty good one.
32:25
Vanda: Just be mindful.
32:26
Vanda: It has a lot of sodium.
32:27
Vanda: And then Redmond Relight that's made by Redmond Seas Salt.
32:31
Vanda: They have a really good one too.
32:32
Vanda: So like, just start having one of those a day.
32:35
Vanda: And the other thing, I think people hear me say this and they kind of are like, yeah, that's silly, but okay.
32:41
Vanda: Get out into nature for 20 minutes a day.
32:44
Vanda: And if you're like, I don't have 20 minutes in my day, Banda, just start small.
32:48
Vanda: Start with five minutes, but.
32:51
Vanda: Connecting to energy and just being out in the natural sunlight, unfiltered hearing the birds chirp around us.
32:58
Vanda: It's really good for our nervous system.
33:01
Vanda: And just also I would, before we record this podcast, say I was listening to a training on something else and they were talking about how doing grounding, which, if you don't really know what that is, it's basically just like standing outside barefoot in the grass.
33:14
Vanda: But that, that helps really connect us back to our feminine energy.
33:17
Vanda: So that would be my
33:19
Brianna: I feel better when.
33:20
Brianna: I go outside,
33:21
Baylee: I haven't gotten into the grounding yet.
33:23
Baylee: I have super sensitive beats.
33:26
Baylee: Even when I walk on concrete, I'm just like, tiptoeing.
33:29
Baylee: I'm like, oh, this hurts so bad.
33:30
Baylee: Like every group I feel like I can feel in there, like maybe if I start in really soft grass and I can work my way up.
33:38
Brianna: I think I've accidentally just been grounding, like my whole life.
33:42
Brianna: I just never wore shoes, so I'm like the opposite, like, oh my, I've been grounding,
33:47
Baylee: No, I'm like always wearing shoes.
33:49
Baylee: Even inside my house, which it drives my boyfriend crazy.
33:52
Baylee: I wear shoes
33:54
Brianna: so does
33:55
Baylee: day long.
33:56
Baylee: Yeah.
33:56
Brianna: wear shoes all day long.
33:57
Baylee: Mm-hmm.
33:58
Baylee: Like I feel more productive if I have shoes on.
34:01
Baylee: My feet don't hurt, and it just makes my life easier.
34:04
Baylee: So
34:05
Brianna: You're ready to go.
34:06
Baylee: more.
34:07
Brianna: I wanna wrap back around to your first recommendations.
34:11
Brianna: You said breakfast, which like, think about what you're eating for breakfast.
34:16
Brianna: Cuz I mean, you do bring up a good point.
34:17
Brianna: We're just like, sugar is like a, such a normal thing like donuts, muffins, pastries, cereal, like, you know, But what is your opinion on women's skipping breakfast?
34:29
Brianna: Because I feel like that's, a lot of women do it.
34:31
Brianna: Either kids are like, it's good, I should be fasting.
34:33
Brianna: I don't want sugary stuff for breakfast.
34:35
Brianna: Like who is it that Dr.
34:37
Brianna: James or whoever he is on Instagram, I usually like most of his stuff.
34:42
Brianna: But his thing, he had something the other day that was like either choose protein for breakfast or fast.
34:47
Brianna: Those are the only two options.
34:48
Brianna: And I was like, I liked it in the beginning.
34:51
Brianna: Like what?
34:51
Brianna: So what are your, what do you see like.
34:54
Brianna: Hormone wise, like hormonally, what are issues with fasting for
34:58
Vanda: Yeah, so when as women, our bodies are always looking.
35:05
Vanda: The goal of our body.
35:06
Vanda: So the way we're designed is for us to be fertile and produce life.
35:11
Vanda: So our body is always working to keep us safe and in a space where we can do that.
35:17
Vanda: So when women fast beyond 12 hours, and for some people it really depends on like your specific health and like where your minerals are, what your state is.
35:28
Vanda: Sometimes 12 hours is too much, even.
35:30
Vanda: But definitely past that point for pretty much anybody is gonna be too much.
35:35
Vanda: It's gonna push your body into a sense of starvation.
35:39
Vanda: Like your body can't figure out are we choosing to not eat or are we not eating because there's literally not food available.
35:47
Vanda: And that just comes back to like our primal instincts.
35:50
Vanda: So your body will start hanging on to fat, slowing processes like your metabolism down.
35:57
Vanda: It stops prioritizing the production or the balance of your sex hormones because it's like, we gotta keep her alive.
36:03
Vanda: We're not worried about being fertile today.
36:05
Vanda: We've just gotta survive.
36:07
Vanda: So I definitely am not a big proponent of long-term fasting for women.
36:13
Vanda: I just don't think that it, it.
36:16
Vanda: I don't think it's good.
36:17
Vanda: I think some women can do it.
36:18
Vanda: They've, I've had women come to me before and be like, well, I mean, I did it for a while and I lost, you know, five, 10 pounds.
36:24
Vanda: Yeah.
36:24
Vanda: But then what happened?
36:26
Vanda: Like even if it's something that works for you in the beginning, the effects three, four months, a year down the road are what we really need to be concerned about.
36:37
Brianna: Yeah.
36:38
Baylee: and I have women too tell me where they're like, well, I'm just not hungry when I wake up.
36:43
Baylee: so then I'm like, okay, well why aren't you hungry?
36:45
Baylee: Have you been like five years of skipping breakfast?
36:49
Baylee: Then you're probably waking up.
36:50
Baylee: Your body does not expect it, and.
36:53
Baylee: I don't think it's necessarily like a great thing to not be hungry when we wake up.
36:58
Baylee: So I always tell people who come to me with this, I'm like, well, let's just start with something small, a hard boiled egg, a cheese stick stick, anything like that.
37:07
Baylee: Is that kind of the same thing that you'd recommend?
37:10
Vanda: Yeah, absolutely.
37:12
Vanda: That was one of my, I made a TikTok probably like a year ago.
37:14
Vanda: That was like, how soon after you wake up are you getting hungry?
37:17
Vanda: And it was like the most popular one I've ever had.
37:19
Vanda: But that absolutely, I was gonna say the same thing.
37:21
Vanda: If you are somebody that doesn't have breakfast right now, then getting 30 gram of protein tomorrow is gonna be super overwhelming.
37:28
Vanda: So yeah, just start with literally, Literally anything.
37:32
Vanda: And you'll slowly, it will take time, but eventually you'll notice that you are waking up and you're, you're feeling that hunger.
37:38
Brianna: Yeah.
37:39
Brianna: I tell women that's a ragged flag.
37:41
Brianna: If you were going overnight fasting, you know, 12 hours fasting, 13, 14, and you are not feeling hungry, like that's not great.
37:50
Brianna: You know?
37:50
Brianna: And I think we're just taught, oh, it's so good to not have an appetite.
37:53
Brianna: And so a lot of women are like, oh, lucky me.
37:55
Brianna: Like I'm just not hungry in the morning.
37:57
Brianna: Like, I'm just gonna go.
37:58
Brianna: And then, you know, It catches up to them.
38:01
Brianna: And then, you know, I can go on the tangent of why people eat at night so much.
38:05
Brianna: Like every single episode, I can link it back to it somehow.
38:08
Brianna: But
38:08
Baylee: Another episode
38:09
Brianna: like women are like, oh, I have no willpower around food.
38:12
Brianna: But then they don't start eating food till 10, 11, 12 o'clock around the day.
38:15
Baylee: Part of it too, I feel like can be in the mornings where if you are running through your mornings so rushed and then you're like, yeah, I wasn't hungry so I just didn't have breakfast.
38:24
Baylee: Well, probably cuz you woke up, you knew you had 30 minutes to get outta your house, get to work, and now you're just literally running off adrenaline and cortisol trying to run out the door.
38:33
Baylee: So your body,
38:34
Brianna: your appetite cuz you're in the fight moment and then you drink coffee, which suppresses your appetite and prolonged cortisol.
38:43
Brianna: Like it's a vicious thing.
38:45
Baylee: And we're not saying to drink coffee to suppress your appetite.
38:48
Baylee: Just to be clear.
38:51
Brianna: Don't
38:51
Vanda: Well, and, and to just like piggyback off of that, I find that sometimes women are fasting for 12, 14, 15 hours unintentionally, and they don't even really realize it.
39:01
Vanda: Like I had to really.
39:02
Vanda: Check myself on this after I had my daughter, because we were having dinner super soon after my husband got home from work.
39:10
Vanda: So we would have dinner at like five or five 30.
39:13
Vanda: I'm not a big snacker at night, so.
39:16
Vanda: I would probably be finished eating for the day at like six o'clock.
39:21
Vanda: Well, then the next morning I get up at five.
39:23
Vanda: I've gotta, you know, get ready, get out the door.
39:25
Vanda: It would be like 7 30, 8 o'clock before I was having breakfast.
39:28
Vanda: And by no means was I intentionally going that long without eating.
39:32
Vanda: I just didn't even realize that I was pushing it.
39:36
Vanda: To that point, and I, I find a lot of people that come to me, they're like, yeah, I actually like sat down and thought about when I eat supper and when I eat breakfast, and it's way more than 12 hours.
39:45
Vanda: And they make adjustments and see some, some good, good results from
39:49
Brianna: that's the first question I ask clients when they're like, what about intermittent fasting?
39:53
Brianna: Cuz it comes up all the time and I'm like, odds are you're doing it right now.
39:56
Brianna: And they're like, I'm like, think about it.
39:58
Brianna: What time are you done with dinner?
39:59
Brianna: And then what time to eat breakfast?
40:00
Brianna: I'm like, oh wow.
40:00
Brianna: Like you're doing a 15 hour fast every day.
40:03
Brianna: Has it worked for you?
40:05
Baylee: Nope.
40:07
Brianna: You know, but people just don't realize.
40:09
Brianna: And so I think that is important to bring up, like really think about how long am I going without breakfast?
40:13
Brianna: Or you know, how long am I fasting?
40:15
Brianna: Like, am I hurting my hormones that way without even realizing it?
40:20
Baylee: That's how I grew up too, where we usually ate dinner by like four or four 30 because my parents, they both kind of ate lunch around 10 or 11.
40:29
Baylee: So when they got off work around three or so, we had dinner by four or four 30, especially when my sister and I were in sports.
40:35
Baylee: Like I.
40:36
Baylee: We had to have an early dinner or dinner was not happening.
40:40
Baylee: And so we always had an early dinner too, and as I grew up, I was like, well, now I'm hungry at night.
40:44
Baylee: It makes sense.
40:45
Baylee: So when we did have those early dinners, I think that's also an okay point to add in kind of those later night snacks.
40:52
Baylee: Not to be like a piece of cake or something, but adding a good quality snack so you're not fasting for a super long period of time when you're eating that early.
41:01
Brianna: Yeah.
41:02
Vanda: absolutely.
41:03
Baylee: All right.
41:03
Baylee: Well these are some really good tips and I know so many women need to hear this and you offered some great explanations.
41:11
Baylee: And also just to reiterate three things for you to work on literally.
41:16
Baylee: Today or tomorrow if you already have breakfast.
41:19
Baylee: So rethinking your breakfast, focusing on protein, adding into me daily mineral drink, and then 20 minutes outside daily.
41:27
Baylee: Try and get those in.
41:28
Baylee: Tag us when you get'em in.
41:29
Baylee: We love to see you guys implementing what we share on the podcast so you can tag me at new Crew Nutrition.
41:36
Baylee: Brianna at the Mama nutritionist, and then Vanda.
41:39
Baylee: Do you wanna tell everyone where they can find you?
41:41
Vanda: Yeah, absolutely.
41:42
Vanda: So I'm on Instagram the most.
41:44
Vanda: I'm at wellness with Banda.
41:46
Vanda: I do have a blog and it's under a different name.
41:48
Vanda: It's the aubrey fam.com.
41:50
Vanda: Cuz I post like some personal family stuff there too.
41:53
Vanda: But Instagram is the place that I hang out the most, so definitely come, come find me there.
41:58
Vanda: Tag me in those stories.
41:59
Vanda: I would love to see it.
42:00
Brianna: Yeah.
42:01
Brianna: And then we're also gonna be including a couple of re.
42:03
Brianna: Resources in our little episode so you can be sure to look for those.
42:09
Brianna: Vanda.
42:09
Brianna: What, what are you having to share?
42:11
Vanda: So, yeah, there's three things.
42:13
Vanda: The first one is the blood labs list that I went through earlier in the show and it's expanded on that just a little bit.
42:20
Vanda: I also include, if you're specifically concerned about your female sex hormones, there's a list of things to request for there with some callouts, because some of those need to be collected like on a certain day in your cycle.
42:31
Vanda: There's some specific things if you're concerned about low iron and then a more expanded.
42:36
Vanda: Thyroid panel, if you know you do suspect low thyroid or your T s H comes back high or low, some additional things to ask for there.
42:45
Vanda: The other thing that I'm sharing is a hormone imbalance quiz.
42:50
Vanda: So it kind of just has you evaluate how many of those signs and symptoms we went through are you having, and some guidance, some more specific guidance on how you can address that.
42:59
Vanda: And then the last thing is just a blog post that I wrote about H T M A testing that goes a little deeper than what we did today on just like, what is it?
43:08
Vanda: Who needs it?
43:09
Vanda: How's it useful?
43:10
Brianna: Awesome.
43:11
Brianna: Yeah, so we'll make sure that we include those in the show notes and then you can find Banda on Instagram at Wellness with Banda.
43:18
Brianna: Check her out.
43:19
Vanda: Thank you guys so
43:20
Baylee: Yes.
43:21
Baylee: Thanks for coming on.
43:22
Baylee: We were excited to have you,
43:23
Brianna: Yeah, thanks.
43:24
Baylee: we'll see the rest of you guys next week with a new topic.
43:29
Baylee: Talk soon.