Latest / Jennifer with Coffee / Jennifer with Coffee-Episode 17-Hormones, Fatloss and Migraines with Nutritionist Monika Eva.

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Jennifer with Coffee-Episode 17-Hormones, Fatloss and Migraines with Nutritionist Monika Eva. · Jennifer with Coffee

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Jennifer with Coffee, a mindset podcast for people who are looking for real change.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Jennifer Lauer, writer, yogi, and fitness fanatic.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Lately, I've been having lots of coffee meetups, long,
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: honest conversations that delve into mindset,
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: identity, choices, and habits that shape our lives.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: I kept thinking how I wanted to share these conversations.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: So here we are.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Each episode moves in three beats.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: An inspirational story, an interview with thinkers, builders, athletes, and artists.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: People who want to share their own transformations.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll end with a brief meditation to practice calming the nervous system.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: If you've been connecting with the stories and conversations here,
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: I've also written some fiction that explore emotional spaces.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: One is an AI dystopia, and the others are part of a paranormal mystery series.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're ever curious, you can find them on my website, jenniferlauer.com.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Today's inspo is less of an inspo and more of a fun fact about the body,
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: which I thought was really interesting when I heard it.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I just wanted to share it with everybody in case you didn't know.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: When talking about fitness and body composition,
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: body fat percentage and muscle percentage and bone density,
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: something that I learned was about how exactly do we release fat?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: When we are increasing our muscle mass and decreasing our fat,
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: How does that actually work in the body?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like what is the mechanism?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess I'd always really just thought to lose fat,
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: you probably sweat it out, maybe pee it out.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Those were my two guesses of how you actually release fat.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: And when I learned the way that your body actually releases fat,
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: I was very surprised because it wasn't those.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: It is actually when you breathe.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Fat loss comes from your breath.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: And it is true that part of your fat loss does leave the body through fluids.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: But 84% of fat turns to carbon dioxide and leaves the body through your lungs when you breathe.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: Think about that next time when you're taking your real slow exhale.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: That is your body releasing the carbon dioxide that could potentially be some fat loss.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Have a good day.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: And now for our interview.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Monika Eva is a double board certified hormone nutritionist
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: who has helped more
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: than 1,300 women release stubborn weight,
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: regain their energy and libido,
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: and return to feeling sexy and confident in their bodies inside and out.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: She is also host of the Balanced Body Podcast where she empowers women
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: to take control of their health through evidence-informed root cause education
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: that they won't get from their doctor.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Jennifer with Coffee, Monika.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for having me, Jennifer.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really excited to be here.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't you tell me exactly what you do as a hormone nutritionist?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: So as a hormone nutritionist, I know it sounds very complicated, but it's really not.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: I really am a holistic health practitioner who focuses
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: on helping women optimize their hormones so that they can release weight,
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: re- I really look at what your blood work tells you.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: We look at you as the whole person.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: So we look at the mind, the body, the spirit, because everything's interconnected, right?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: So it goes beyond the physical.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: But then also I utilize functional testing.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: So things like the Dutch test, which looks at your hormones.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: I look at GI maps.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: So that's like a stool test to give us insight into what's happening with your gut health.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: I look at hair tissue mineral analysis to give us insight into what's happening
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: with your minerals.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: Because these are all the things that actually influence your hormones
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: and give us insight into what's happening inside your body.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like a marriage between these two things.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm keen on creating these customized protocols for my clients so
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: that they can really do the right thing for their body.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: Of all of the things you listed, I'd never heard of the mineral test.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: What is that?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yes.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's a hair tissue mineral test.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: So it's basically a small little hair sample that you give.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: So it sounds scary, but I swear it's not.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's like the smallest amount of hair.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: And it's usually from the root, like at the back of your head that you provide.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: And there's a lab that analyzes your minerals because hair is soft tissue.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: When we look at the minerals that are found in your soft tissue,
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: we shouldn't have like an abundance of them in soft tissue.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so when we do...
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  SPEAKER_02: It tells us that the body's either losing a lot of them,
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: a lot of the minerals,
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: there's like a high loss,
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: which means there's like a lot of stress or if there's also like really low amounts
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: of it, we shouldn't see that either.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: It should be just like the right ratio.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: What's really interesting with minerals is I didn't realize they were as big of
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: a deal until I learned about them and I realized like these minerals are
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: the spark plugs to our hormones.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: You cannot balance your hormones or Ultimately feel good in your body
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: if your minerals are imbalanced.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: You have not enough,
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: which a lot of women actually have like a huge, either a huge loss or not enough.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why they feel like perimenopause really kicks their butt.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's essentially what it is.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: And so it gives us a lot of insight into things like what's happening
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: with your adrenals,
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: what's going on with your thyroid, your digestion, and so on and so forth.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: Basically your metabolism, your energy, all that stuff that we really care about as we age.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: What brought you to doing this kind of work?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's such a specific niche in women's health.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me a little bit about your journey to get here.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's such a
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: great question.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's actually like, there's a very long answer to it.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I won't go into like the full version.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_02: But basically, weight loss was something that I struggled with the majority of my life.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: I grew up thinking that I was just genetically predisposed to being larger
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: and Living in a larger body.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, from a young age, like doctor said, like, you know, you're overweight.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: And then it became into like, you're entering obese territory.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like weight was something I was always conscious of.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: And it was always something that I tried to control through diet, through exercise.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I think I started my first diet when I was like 12 or 13 years old, really.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember like,
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you remember back in the day,
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: but they had something called a hydroxy cut being 14 or 15 years old and going
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: to like the GNC and buying hydroxy cut.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: I can't believe I did that at that age and that they even sold it to me, but they did.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember taking it thinking like, wow, if I take this pill, I'm going to be so slim.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: And obviously it didn't work because there were more things happening in my body at
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: that age than just, uh,
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: just with like And
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: so I really got very keen on my nutrition because I understood
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: that like, so that's where like my interest stemmed into nutrition and working out.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so when I was about like 18,
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: 19 years old,
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  SPEAKER_02: I finally like thought I hacked the code to losing all this weight
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: because I was like,
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: wow, like, you know, I grew out of that phase of being the bigger girl.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so it was amazing.
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  SPEAKER_02: Until I went to university and I was in my undergrad
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  SPEAKER_02: and I just started gaining all this weight again out of nowhere,
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: but nothing had really changed.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then once I graduated, I like went on to more schooling.
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  SPEAKER_02: I ended up working in the legal industry.
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  SPEAKER_02: The weight just really felt And I couldn't figure out why
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  SPEAKER_02: because I had this strong passion for nutrition.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: I ended up enrolling in holistic nutrition school.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: I had worked with a holistic nutritionist in undergrad
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  SPEAKER_02: and she basically changed my life,
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: taught me how to get rid of migraines that I was having on a daily basis.
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  SPEAKER_02: And so I know it was amazing.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: I really felt like There's just something that I'm missing when it comes to weight loss.
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  SPEAKER_02: And so I enrolled in holistic nutrition school and it was there that I learned that,
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: hey, maybe this weight gain isn't like a me problem.
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  SPEAKER_02: It has something to do with my hormones.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so I really, like back then, they used to call it adrenal fatigue.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: They don't call that anymore because it's been discredited by the medical community,
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: but it's called now like a dysregulated HPA access,
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  SPEAKER_02: which basically just means that That the amount of cortisol
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: that your body's producing is dysregulated.
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  SPEAKER_02: So it's either too high or too low.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: For the past few years,
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: there's been a lot of talk about cortisol on social media,
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  SPEAKER_02: but really like I was in a burnout phase and it made sense because I was trying
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: so hard to lose weight.
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  SPEAKER_02: I was cutting out foods.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: I was reducing calories.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: I was eating less and doing more, like doing the conventional approach to weight loss.
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  SPEAKER_02: When you do that for too long, your body becomes depleted.
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  SPEAKER_02: And not only that, I was working a very high demanding job.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: I was trying to climb the corporate ladder, not really sleeping well and stressed to the max.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: And so that doesn't, that was just adding more fuel to the fire.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: When I discovered in school that,
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: hey, I think I have this dysregulated cortisol and I think I'm burnt out.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's the reason my body is like storing fat.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: I was super excited.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: I went to go see my doctor.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: I said, hey, family doctor, I know what's wrong with me.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: I had seen him before and he had said like, you've gained 20 pounds in the past year.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: Got to get a handle over this.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like there's something going on, but your lab work is normal.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: And so I said, I know what it is.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's my cortisol.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's my hormones.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: And he basically looked at me like I had three heads and told me like,
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well, what are your periods like?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: Are they normal?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, yeah, I have a period every single month.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: And he said, then it's not your hormones.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: You're too young for it to be your hormones.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: At this age, I was about 23, 24 years old.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: I was just very disappointed and I felt very frustrated.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: I ended up diving really deep into the hormone world myself because I wanted to learn more.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: I had already identified as someone who was in burnout, who had this dysregulated cortisol.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I felt like I need to figure out The Delicate Papers.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: I did some other testing as well that showed that my thyroid was,
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: even though it was within lab ranges, it was not properly functioning.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: I ended up learning how to support my body through nutrition, supplements, lifestyle.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: And within six months,
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: like I lost over 25 pounds of stubborn weight that I thought I could never lose.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: I was actually working out less.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: I was eating a lot more.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: I was doing all the things that conventional weight loss tells you not to do.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: I was basically doing all these things.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: And the weight was coming off.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I had such incredible results that it started first with friends asking,
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: what is it that you're doing?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: I want to go on the same plan kind of, right?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: And so I helped a couple of friends, a couple of colleagues.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: One thing led to another and I ended up starting my own practice full time in 2018.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's so refreshing to hear that you took your health into your own hands with all
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: of your expertise,
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: of course,
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: and that you actually made that change and people saw it and they wanted to do
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: the same thing.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: I would be remiss if I did not go back to
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: you saying
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: that you used holistic nutrition to help you with your migraines because as
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: a migraine sufferer myself and many others out there, what did you do?
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: What is the trick?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us all about it.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I mean,
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: migraines are a little bit tricky because I wish I was just like a straight answer
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: for everyone.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: But basically, it's about figuring out what is the root cause of your specific migraine, right?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_02: So there's like so many,
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not a migraine expert by any means,
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: but there's like a lot of different migraines that you can have.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: The migraines that I was having,
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: and I was having them like every two to three days,
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: I first ruled out that they weren't related to my menstrual cycle
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: because some migraines happen during ovulation,
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: some of them happen during your menses,
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: others happen when hormones,
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: like they could be related to hormones basically is what I'm trying to say.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: Mine weren't hormonal because they happened so frequently.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: The root cause of mine was inflammation as a result of me eating foods
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: that were inflammatory for me.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: I'm always hesitant to say like,
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: these are the foods I cut out because the foods that are inflammatory
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: for me may not be the foods that are inflammatory for you.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously things like sugar, gluten, dairy, those are like common triggers for a lot of people.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: It went a lot deeper for me and it's not that These foods were bad
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: because they were things like,
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: and I'll share what the foods were,
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: but it was like bananas, kale, and tomatoes would trigger my migraines.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, back then we considered kale like a superfood.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: So it was crazy that kale was a thing that was causing me to have these migraines,
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: but it's not that kale was bad or that tomatoes were bad or bananas were bad.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's just that I also, like the state of my gut health was causing me to have this reaction.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: So it really came down to me also healing my gut.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: And how did you figure out those foods caused you inflammation?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Did you have to cut out a bunch of things and then slowly add them back in?
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: How did you know it was kale, bananas?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I ended up when I was working with this holistic nutritionist,
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: she had started me out on a whole foods based diet.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: So more of like a paleo type of diet,
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: which was very different from like the convenience and like the fast food foods
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: that I was eating in undergrad.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like everyone goes through that phase, right?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: You're just like, I'm hungry, I'm gonna eat whatever is super easy.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: So it started with that.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: And then when there wasn't like a significant improvement,
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: she made me write out like a food journal for her.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like what are the foods that I'm eating?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: And out of those foods and I was eating like a very clean diet,
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: but the migraines were still persistent.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of the times your inflammatory triggers are actually the foods that you eat a lot of.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: And so these are the foods that just kept repeating in my diet over and over and over again.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so she said, why don't we cut So for five days, give them a break.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: All of these foods that you're having every single day.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: So like I would always have a banana either in my oats or in a protein shake.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: Tomatoes,
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: like I have them in a salad or like,
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: oh my gosh, the amount of tomato sauce I ate in university is crazy.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: But like I would have it every single day.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: Kale, like I just loved kale salad.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: I loved, like I just felt like it was such an easy meal.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: She basically said, cut these foods out for five days.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: And so I did.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: Oddly enough, I had no migraine.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, this is interesting.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like I cut out these foods and I feel fine.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: And she was like, okay, keep them out for another five days.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, okay.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: And at that point, like, Being a migraine sufferer, you could probably attest to this yourself.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: When you have a migraine, like you will do anything for it to leave your body.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's what happened.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: And it was like another five days.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: And as the time went on, the migraines became less frequent and less intense.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: Understanding that like, hey,
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: what's going on with my digestive system plays a bigger role more
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: than just what's happening in my stomach.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's affecting every single area in my body.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: I love this because it's something that anyone could try pretty safely,
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: which is do five days of leaving something out.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: I do want to ask, were you able to add those back in a little bit at a time?
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Could you have a piece of pizza and then go another month
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: or does it instantly give you a migraine now?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: So now, I've done all the healing in the world.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: And so I feel like now I can enjoy pizza and I don't even get bloated from it.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't had a migraine before.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: I can't even remember the last time I had a migraine.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like it was probably before I got pregnant.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I want to say it was probably related to weather, right?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's the thing.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: There's different causes of migraines.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: And so food may not be your trigger.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: It might not be inflammation.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really passionate about figuring out what is driving your symptom,
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: because that's going to determine the solution you should need to take.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: To answer your question,
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: like I am eventually introduced the food back in,
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: but I did Take like a solid break from tomatoes and kale and bananas for like
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: a good six months.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: More so because I was a little bit scared to introduce it right away.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like I loved being migraine free where I was like,
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: I don't need to have any of these foods for the rest of my life.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm good.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: Saying this out loud, I'm I'm like, oh, I was a little crazy back then.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: But it just felt like such a big relief not to have those migraines.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: But eventually, like I feel like after six months, I was like, let me try.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I think I ended up having a banana in a protein shake accidentally.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: Someone had made it.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, sure, I'll have it.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_02: And nothing happened.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, oh, maybe it's a safe food again.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's a relief.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you can be prone to them because I definitely get weather migraines.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: I have to say one of the most blessed times of my life was being pregnant and
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: then breastfeeding.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: I had zero migraines the entire time.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes they can be sparked by, you know, like we talked about the weather.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Can't control that.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_02: The thing is, you can't control the weather, but...
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you can control yourself.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: And so when I know that,
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: so for instance,
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: like with the weather setting me off,
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: when I look back at that time, it was like I was going through a lot of stress.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like there was just a lot of stuff going on in my life.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: The state I was in was probably making me more,
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, when you're pregnant, your hormones are at their peak.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like they are sky high for the most part.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of women usually say that they felt amazing pregnant.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, besides being, you know, a big, Having a big belly and carrying all this extra weight.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: But for the most part,
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: a lot of symptoms like things like headaches or anything that was hormonal related
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: in the past, they feel like disappears.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's not until after like your body goes back to its baseline.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes it's like a depleted state.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not even that you're at your baseline.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe things feel worse because now your hormones are a lot worse.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like you're more depleted because pregnancy,
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: breastfeeding, it pulls so many minerals out of you.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: You brought up minerals again, and I'm thinking about it.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: The only one I'm thinking of is like magnesium.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: But what are some other minerals that we could be depleted in
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: that we might not have heard of or thought of?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean,
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: you've probably heard of all of these different minerals,
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: but one that I see that's very often perimenopausal women,
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: so women like 30, between 35 and 55, a lot of them are depleted in potassium.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: So I see a lot of low potassium on HTMA.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: So the hair tissue mineral analysis test,
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_02: potassium is not one of those supplements that like you're going to,
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: or one of those minerals that you're going to go out and buy and like supplement
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: with, because I wouldn't recommend that.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_02: Minerals work synergistically.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: So you don't want to go out and start taking minerals because you think you're low in them.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: But having things like coconut water, bananas are high in potassium.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: Rusted potato skin on, great source of potassium.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: Celery, great source of potassium.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: Or celery juice even, right?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: So just making sure that you are including sources of potassium in your diet is super important.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_02: Magnesium for sure.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like a lot of women are deficient in magnesium because magnesium is such
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: a big Mineral, it's a cofactor for so many different things.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: But the other one that I see is sodium.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not that women are low in sodium, they just lose a lot of sodium.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: Sodium is one of those things that we don't even think about replacing.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think that's where like electrolytes can play a really good role.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: Making sure that you are having at least like one glass of water with electrolytes
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: a day, I would definitely recommend.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: What are some important hormone tests?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: I know you've listed them in your story for women to have.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: Is there by a certain age you should have a baseline?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: When it comes to the reproductive hormones,
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of women We get the message
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: that our hormones are constantly fluctuating.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: If you go in to have a hormone test,
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: it's not really going to tell you anything except for what your hormones are at
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: that moment because in a few hours they might be different.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: The next day they might be different.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: It depends on where you are in your cycle.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: So what are the tests that we should be getting as women and how do we talk
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: to our doctor about that?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: Jennifer, I'm so happy you asked this question because your doctor's not lying.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: They are correct.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: Your hormones do fluctuate with the tests that they're doing.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: So when you are looking at hormone levels in blood,
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: you're basically getting a snapshot of what's happening in that moment.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: This is why I love the Dutch test.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: This is why functional testing is a test that like the Dutch test is one
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: that I would highly recommend.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: And the reason why is because we look at metabolites and we're gonna look at
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: a specific window during your cycle.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: With blood, I mean,
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: you can get tests done whenever,
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_02: but I would never say like, oh,
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: it doesn't matter when and where you are in your cycle,
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: just go get it done because you can't compare apples to oranges.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: So what I mean by that is you can't go on day three And get estrogen checked and
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: then go on day 21 and get estrogen checked and then go mid cycle and then try
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: to compare what this means.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: But with functional testing,
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: so usually like with the Dutch test,
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: what I have clients do is they test seven days after ovulating or about seven days
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: before their expected period.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_02: So it really depends on like how regular your period is.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_02: If you're someone who's always like, I'm always on day 28.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: Great.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: Then we know seven days period you're going to Collect samples.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: If you're someone who's like,
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_02: my cycle is all over the place,
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm definitely gonna have you test for ovulation first.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: And then seven days after you ovulate, we're going to test in this way.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna catch the peak for both progesterone and estradiol,
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: which is like the main form of estrogen.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_02: I would recommend baseline testing for sure.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's really good to know with where things are at.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: I wish that I started testing my hormones a little bit earlier
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: because I feel like it would have gave me a lot of insight
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: And it probably would have made me getting pregnant a little bit easier.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: But I would definitely say when you turn 30, you should have a good idea of where things are at.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: And then maybe at 35,
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: if you don't have significant symptoms, at 35, take a look where things are at.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: As things start shifting,
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: as symptoms start showing up in your body,
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_02: when you're in perimenopause or you feel like you have the perimenopausal symptoms,
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: I would test them every year to see What's happening?
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: Where are things trending?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: Because you can catch things and correct them.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that with perimenopause,
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_02: of course,
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: your hormones are naturally going to decline,
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: but there's a lot of things you can do to support these hormones.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: So they stick a lot.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's really like the big difference with functional testing is it's not just a snapshot.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_02: It shows us like how these hormones are working in your body.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: And beyond that,
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: it doesn't just tell you like the levels of your progesterone and your estradiol.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: It also shows us like the metabolites.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: So how is your body metabolizing?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: How is your body using these hormones?
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_02: Because that's great that you have all this progesterone circulating in your blood.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: What is your body able to do with it?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: I have another question about getting tested for hormones.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: When you're on the birth control pill or on birth control,
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: doesn't it plummet your natural hormones while you're on it?
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: So how do you find out what your real,
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: you have to be off of any kind of birth control, I take it?
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah,
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_02: the birth control pill will suppress your sex hormones,
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: specifically your progesterone, esterol.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_02: It actually shuts them off.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: So you're basically telling your body,
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_02: I don't need you to produce these hormones
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: because I have these exogenous hormones coming in.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: So a lot of times people think like,
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: well, I'm on the birth control pill.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_02: This is a form of progesterone.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's synthetic, right?
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: So it's progestin and it's basically telling your body not to ovulate.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not like anti-progesterone.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: Ovulation is like your fifth vital sign.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: It tells you so much.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: If you're not ovulating every month, you should care about that as much as you would in
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: If your temperature was through the roof or if your temperature was low or
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: if your blood pressure was high, like we need to care about this stuff as a woman.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: My whole view on that.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: So when it comes to testing hormones for someone who is on the birth control pill,
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: you're not going to get an accurate look at what's happening with your progesterone
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: and estradiol.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: But this is why I love the Dutch test because it looks at other hormones as well.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: So it'll tell us like what's happening with your cortisol.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_02: What effect is the birth control pill having on your cortisol?
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: You'd be surprised, but it can affect it.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: The cortisol pill also affects the way your liver metabolizes hormones,
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: whether they're your own or whether they're ones coming from the outside,
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: like exogenous hormones.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: And so it shows us like, is there a heavy burden on the body from this birth control pill?
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_02: And in general,
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_02: like your lifestyle that in and of itself,
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: I think is so worth it because When we talk about hormones,
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_02: we're not just talking about progesterone and estriol.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: There are other hormones.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_02: Your DHEA is so important.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_02: Your testosterone is so important.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_02: The way your liver metabolizes them is important.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: Your cortisol, I think, is probably the most important one.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_02: Looking at thyroid.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: Thyroid, we run that lab through blood, and we want a full panel.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_02: We don't just care about your thyroid-stimulating hormone like TSH and free T4.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_02: We want to go further.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_02: We want to look at free T3.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_02: We want to look at thyroid antibodies.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like these things all matter.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: Now,
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: is it possible to get the Dutch test from your regular doctor or do you have to go
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: to a functional medicine doctor?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: How would somebody get this extra testing or request it from their medical professional?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so most doctors aren't trained on the Dutch test.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_02: In medical school, they don't learn the Dutch test.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_02: They learn blood labs, right?
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: So it really depends on your doctor.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: If you're fortunate enough to have a doctor who has done other training and
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_02: who is trained in understanding the Dutch test,
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_02: then consider yourself very lucky if you have a doctor Who understands
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_02: the Dutch test and runs it because the Dutch test isn't something that they learn
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_02: in medical school, right?
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_02: So most conventional doctors just know bloods.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's really important that,
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: we understand,
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: like you,
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: everyone understands that when we look at blood work,
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_02: it's different than the Dutch test itself.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: So when it comes to getting functional testing done,
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: it is a test that you do, you have to pay out of pocket for.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: So even if your doctor...
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: Understands the Dutch test and runs it.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_02: You'll probably have to pay for it, but it's so well worth it.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: What is the number one thing that women need to know about their hormones
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: that we might not already know?
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that they're not basically as straightforward as we think.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's not just hormone.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_02: Like hormones do run the show in your body,
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: but there are so many things that can Determine whether your hormones are optimal.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's not just about nutrition and exercise.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: And it's definitely not just about age and stress.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of things related to like inflammation,
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: for instance, plays a huge role in the way your hormones respond, right?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: You have a lot of inflammation in the body,
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: that's going to be a whole big burden on your body that is going
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: to affect hormones drastically.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: Your liver health is huge.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like liver is something like your liver and the way it detoxifies everything
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_02: in the body is largely overlooked.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_02: We only think about, oh,
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_02: like maybe we should support our liver
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: if our doctor is suspecting like liver disease in us or something, right?
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_02: Or if they say like,
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: oh, you might have fatty liver disease, then we start caring about our liver.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_02: But really like your liver is an organ that does over 500 different functions.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's...
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: The primary job actually has more than just one primary role.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: It has so many different jobs,
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: but one of the big things that it does for your hormones is it detoxes and gets rid
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: of any excess hormones that don't belong in the body.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: It also just helps get rid of toxins that might play or mimic other hormones in
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: the body, which can throw things off in terms of symptoms.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: And so we really need to care about that.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: And my favorite probably is Minerals, like I said before, are the spark plugs to your hormones.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: If your minerals are imbalanced or depleted or the ratios are off,
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: there is no way you are going to have balanced hormones.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's just not possible because these minerals are needed as cofactors
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: for these healthy hormones.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_02: And then lastly, you can't have healthy hormones without a healthy gut.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like that's something else we overlook.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_02: We think that when it comes to having a healthy gut,
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: it just means we're not bloated and our digestion's great.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_02: But your digestion can feel good.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: You don't have to be bloated for you to have a gut that needs support.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_02: I remember when I was going through that burnout phase
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_02: and I had all these hormonal imbalances, I didn't really feel bloated.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like sure, if I ate pizza or pasta, I felt a little bit bloated right after that meal.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_02: But other than that, like I thought my digestion was great.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't realize I had any gut issues.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_02: And it wasn't until I dug a little bit deeper that I realized like,
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_02: wow, I'm like, my gut is basically driving this whole thing.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: What you brought up about the liver, I think is so important.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: And what is something that we can do to support our liver health?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like when I think about it, Practically, all I think is just make sure you're hydrated.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: But if the liver is essentially the filtration system of the body,
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: how can we support the liver to filter out those toxins in a better way?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: Are there certain foods we should be eating?
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: Is it like high fiber?
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: Is there something we can do to support the liver?
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, of course.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'll give you a few things because I can't just give one
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: because I feel like all these things are so important.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm going to give you a few, but I like to start my day off with lemon water.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_02: Lemon water is very detoxifying.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's also like a very easy thing to do, right?
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_02: You're going to get like a tall glass of filtered water.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_02: Ideally room temperature.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_02: You don't want it to be like super cold out of the fridge,
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_02: but you know, if that's the only way you can drink it, so be it.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like I take the path of least resistance basically,
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_02: but you're going to take the juice of half a lemon, squeeze it into that glass.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_02: You can add a little bit of Mediterranean sea salt to it,
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_02: like a little pinch just to help like remineralize after an entire night of sleep.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: And that will do wonders for your liver.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: It'll set your digestion off to a good start.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: The other thing that you can do is start adding dark leafy greens to meals.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: That is going to support bile production in the liver.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's going to help your digestion out.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_02: If you can do bitter dark leafy greens,
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: even better, because that is really going to help the liver with detoxification.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_02: So things like dandelion greens are amazing.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, but you don't have to go like that hardcore right away.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like even something like Swiss chard or bok choy will do, right?
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: So just Find a dark or even spinach.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like spinach is very mild in taste.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_02: Collards.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of people like collards.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: You just like gently saute them in a little bit of olive oil,
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_02: add a little sea salt, squeeze a little bit of lemon juice over them.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: And like, it's an amazing, like
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_02: And then the other thing that is my favorite probably
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: and it takes like almost zero effort is castor oil packs.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: Castor oil packs over the liver are amazing.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of my clients who start doing castor oil packs,
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_02: the first thing they notice is that they wake up and their belly feels flat.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, is this normal for my stomach to feel flat?
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, yes, because that's how it should feel every morning, right?
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like it shouldn't feel heavy or distended or anything like that.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: The second thing that a lot of women will say is that their bowel movements improve.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: So instead of struggling to poop,
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: they literally wake up and they're like,
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: wow, I had a bowel movement and it just glides out so easily.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like that's how you know your liver is functioning well.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's basically like what you can do to add to or the things that you can add
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_02: into your regular routine to really help support the liver.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: But then of course, like limiting toxins is massive.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like we don't even realize how many toxins we come into context.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe instead of always meeting up with your girlfriends for wine or drinks,
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_02: like maybe you do something else that doesn't involve alcohol.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like just even like these small shifts is going to decrease the toxin burden on the liver.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_02: And then of course, the chemicals that you are using at home to like the household product.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of really great alternatives now
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: in like your conventional grocery stores, which I love to see.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: They're like cleaner for not only for the environment,
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_02: but they're just less toxic for our bodies.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_02: Lots of great options out there, but that's basically what I would recommend.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: On this podcast,
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: we're really curious about transformation and you talked about how you were
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: in this corporate legal job and then you transitioned into...
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: Hormonal nutrition and you really were using your own life experience to get there.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think that there was something that was an obstacle that you conquered along the way?
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: Or when you look back,
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: do you think, was there something that kept you there longer than you should have?
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like any advice for someone who is looking to lead a more authentic life?
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you really just have to trust yourself.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: I think I pursued law as a career because coming from Polish immigrant parents,
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: even though they never said this, there was just this belief in the household.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_02: We moved here, left communist Poland for a better life for you.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_02: You need to go to school.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: You need to have...
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: A career is either a doctor or a lawyer.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_02: Otherwise it's like, what do we do all this for?
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like that was kind of the narrative.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like nobody really said this out loud or maybe they did.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why it's in my head.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like nobody really said that.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: It was just more so, Like you just knew, okay, like I need to make something of myself.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: And so I really think that I pursued the legal career more so to satisfy my parents.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: There were like little signs that the body would give me.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like I was always tired.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_02: I was always exhausted.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_02: Like I hated going into work.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, why do I dread?
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: A job or a career that people would like die for.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_02: And instead I'm like, oh, like it's Sunday night.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_02: I can't believe like tomorrow is Monday.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like, let me look at my schedule.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe I could clear some things.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe I can...
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, get rid of a few things.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: And it was like, I just didn't wanna go into work.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: So sorry to my boss if she's listening to this now, but it's true.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: And it really came down to me trusting myself.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: My body is giving me all the signs.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_02: Part of my burnout was because I wasn't happy with what I was doing as a career.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_02: All the organic foods, I could heal my gut to the max.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_02: I could like drink all the lemon water,
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: all the electrolytes,
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: balance all my minerals,
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_02: like do all this amazing stuff, run all the functional tests.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_02: But if I'm not happy at my core, I'm never going to heal.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I think me understanding that,
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_02: but also trusting myself like,
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_02: hey, I'm going to do something that really lights a fire in me.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: This is what I'm meant to do.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_02: It changed the game for my health and it changed the game for my career.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_02: I remember like it was yesterday telling my parents,
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_02: so I think I'm going to start this full-time business
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_02: because I didn't just quit my job and start a business.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: I gradually like transitioned.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_02: I basically started taking on clients while working full-time and I was like,
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_02: okay, I'm making enough income where I feel comfortable enough to leave this.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I ended up leaving my corporate job and I ended up working.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_02: And now I'm ready to shift.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_02: I remember my dad thinking, who's going to pay you to do this?
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_02: You're crazy.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_02: Are you going through a midlife crisis?
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: What's going on?
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: They just took a lot of trust in myself when I There was all this chatter around me
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_02: that maybe this isn't the smartest move.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: Were there things that you did to really tune into your body?
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think the body has so much wisdom for us.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: Were you meditating?
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: Were you doing any sort of practice to get in touch with
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: that uncomfortable feeling you were having?
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: Or was it more that you were just recognizing the stress level that you were having,
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: which brought you into this?
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_02: I was practicing yoga religiously, yin yoga specifically.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: So if you've ever done yin yoga,
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_02: there's a lot of just sitting in silence and holding poses for a really long time.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so you're very uncomfortable, but like your body loves it.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so it was like sitting in that discomfort, I think.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_02: And this is why I love yin yoga so much, because it's less for your physical mind.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's more so for your mental mind.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's such a mental game to sit in a pose where you're like stretching out
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_02: And you're thinking like, wow, I really want to shift.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: And you want,
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_02: there's chatter in your mind,
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_02: but you're like,
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_02: okay, just come back, just come back, come back, come back to the pose.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_02: Practice along with breath work on a weekly basis.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_02: I felt like I just, I really needed it.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_02: I needed to support my nervous system.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_02: That really quieted my mind enough for me just to feel like This is the right decision.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then the other thing too is like, I know a little bit about my human design.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm not like a human design expert by any means, but I've had human design readings.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so I knew as like as a generator,
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_02: and I don't even know what all the things are,
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_02: but like whatever my authority is,
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_02: this and that, I just know that I, when things aren't meant for me, I'm frustrated.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_02: So if I'm frustrated, I know that I'm on the wrong path.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so the fact that I was very frustrated at my career And it was beyond,
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_02: listen, there's gonna be things that are gonna frustrate you in your life.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like frustration is normal.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I feel like it's not about like everything being, you know, roses and rainbows all the time.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_02: But it just it got to a point where I was like, no, this isn't sitting right with my gut.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_02: Like I need to trust my gut.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_02: And it was like, when I did things for the business, I was like, look at that.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's working out and I don't even have to work as hard.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_02: This is amazing.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_02: Like, this is what I'm meant to do.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_02: And the transformation that I helped women achieve and continue
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_02: to help them achieve just really like lights me up.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_02: You know,
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_02: like even now I'm five months postpartum and I'm not even taking like
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_02: a real nap break because I'm like, I don't want to leave this work.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't even feel like work.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_02: It just feels like this is my purpose.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think it's about figuring out what is your purpose and just going after your dreams.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_01: I love all of it.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_01: Doing this podcast has been so aligned for me and exactly what you're saying.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm a yin teacher and we do breathwork at the end of every podcast.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_01: So all of the things that you're recommending, I was just like, cheers.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, this is all what we need.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_01: And also part of my mission with yoga and breathwork is just helping women get back
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: in touch with their bodies.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's what helped me so much.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's just really about a sharing, sharing the thing that has worked wonders for me.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like that's when you receive the wisdom of where you need to go, what you need to do.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I just want to say, I had no idea you were a yin teacher or that you did breath works.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want anyone to feel like this was scripted.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_02: I literally had no idea.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, what?
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: That is crazy.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know,
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: the last few episodes of the podcast,
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_01: this literally keeps happening on the podcast
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_01: where someone will say how important breathwork was to them and I'm like,
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_01: well, good.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: Or how the way that they transformed in their life was by listening to podcasts
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_01: of other women telling their stories.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, but you're doing that now.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: You're offering exactly what helped you to someone else.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_01: So it just makes my heart happy.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_01: It feels very aligned.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_01: Other thing that again, in other interviews that has come up is the breathwork at the end.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it's the one part of my podcast that was kind of different for an interview podcast.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's very short and simple.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I was a little bit reticent about It is like the number one thing people tell me
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: about the podcast.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, oh, I did the three breaths with you at the end.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know why I'm surprised anymore because it just is like a repetition
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_01: of this is the stuff that really helps people and it doesn't have to be grand.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be in a class of 50 people at a studio to experience your own wholeness.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: You just have to breathe.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_02: The power of the breath is a beautiful thing and it's also something that'll help your liver.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, goals to help the liver.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, why don't we take this opportunity to talk a little bit about your podcast?
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: Are you having these conversations about the body?
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: I assume so.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's called The Balanced Body Podcast.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_01: So tell me about it.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_02: So the podcast,
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_02: I started it,
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_02: oh gosh,
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's,
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: I don't even know how long, but we're on like episode 115 or something.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_02: So I feel like it's been almost two years.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_02: I can't do that.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_02: About Two years, which is wild, I think, but I love it.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a mix of solo episodes.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's a lot of me talking, sharing my expertise, but I also have a lot of guest experts on.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_02: And we talk about basically all the things you won't hear from your doctor,
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_02: all the things that matter about health.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_02: Predominantly, like a lot of the listeners are women between the ages of 35 and 55.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_02: And so I really tailor the episodes to what I think would help you best.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_01: If someone were interested in working with you, where is the best place to find you?
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us all of your -ats.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I definitely think Instagram is my favorite place to hang out.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's in the show notes for everyone,
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_02: but my Instagram handle, Monika, M-O-N-I-K-A-E-V-A, E-E-V-A.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_02: Send me a DM, come check out my stuff.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like I'm very active on there.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_02: Mind you, I do have a five month old at the time of this recording.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't show up as much as I used to, but I'm still on there.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like every day I check in.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_02: I love that place.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_02: I definitely need to visit my website, www.monikaeva.com.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_02: Lots of stuff for you to check out there.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_02: But I would predominantly say Instagram.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_02: I have a free weight loss and energy blocker assessment
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_02: that really helps women identify what area they need to focus on
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_02: to help them optimize their hormones so that they can release...
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: The excess weight, regain their energy and feel confident in their body again.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_02: And come check out the Balanced Body Podcast.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_02: A new episode drops every single Monday.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really here to support you and offer you support that you might need to achieve
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: the transformation you're after.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_01: So go out and get her free assessment.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's on your Instagram and your website, right?
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_01: Monica, we end each episode with this very important question.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_01: Monica, how do you take your coffee?
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_02: If I am going to have coffee, it's going to be a latte with unsweetened cashew milk.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's very specific.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_02: And preferably decaf.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_02: Decaf, like mold-free, like tested for all that stuff.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm really specific.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have a favorite mold-free coffee?
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm always looking for good tested coffee.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_01: Kicking horse coffee is my favorite.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm writing this down.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: Kicking horse.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for coming on Jennifer with Coffee, Monika.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's been such a great conversation.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: Today's breaths are focused on releasing anxiety and calming the racing mind.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: So what we're going to do is on each breath, we're going to focus on a sense.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to focus on sound, smell and movement.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: So as you inhale on the first breath, we're going to listen to whatever sounds are around us.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: No judgments, just listening.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: So let's focus on our sound.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: Take a deep inhale.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: Listening for all of the sounds of my voice, what's outside my voice,
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: what's outside of that.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: And exhale, listening to everything around you.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: The second breath, we're gonna take a deep inhale through the nose.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna smell,
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: even if it's just the smell of the room you're in,
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: your car,
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: and inhale,
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: noticing
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: the smell.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: Exhale, noticing the scent of the room you're in
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the final breath, we're gonna focus on movement.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: So you can wiggle your toes on the inhale and wiggle your fingers on the exhale
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: or whatever you choose to move.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let's take a deep inhale, wiggling the toes as we do.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_00: Wiggle those toes, focus on the toes.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: And exhale, wiggling the fingers, wiggling the fingers.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: Breathing all the air out.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when we focus on one particular sense,
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: it can help us alleviate anxiety and calm our mind.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: So the next time you feel anxious,
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: focus on one of your senses and take a few breaths thinking about that sense.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: So whether you're seeing, smelling, listening.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: May your day be calm and intentional.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to Jennifer with Coffee.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: Follow us on Instagram at jenniferwithcoffee and on Substack.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_01: This has been a Kings of Content production.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_01: Music by Oreo CC.