Latest / Fit for Hiking / Ep. 47 How The Outdoors Affect Women's Health w/ Zeinab

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Ep. 47 How The Outdoors Affect Women's Health w/ Zeinab · Fit for Hiking

• Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a long time fitness professional and midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. And combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential, and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for hiking podcast. All right. Welcome back to another episode of the fit for hiking podcast. Today I am joined by women's health expert, functional nutrition practitioner, and founder in the Food as Medicine space, Zainab, and I'm so excited for her to be on the show. So Zainab has been sharing her passion for women's health for over four years after having her own personal experiences with the discrepancies in women centered care. After caretaking for her mother for ten years, she was inspired to get certified as a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner to help women understand their bodies and become a better advocate and pilot for their own health, which is so cool. She also founded Saint Nutrition earlier this year, a women's health company that makes targeted hormone support blends for women. So without further ado, Zainab, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Brady. I'm so excited to be here. Yes, we have so much good, interesting stuff to get into today that I think I'm going to benefit from. Our audience is going to benefit from all of your expertise. So I would love to start by just talking through what inspired you to get into this work. What's kind of your backstory there? Yeah. So my back story. Um, contrary to what people might think is actually was actually not in health. My, my story started in caretaking for my mother. Um, my and this was all, you know, throughout my whole 20s. So for over a decade, I'm 31 now. Um, but early on in my adult life, um, my mom was experiencing, um, tons of hormonal issues. Um, and it really started after her perimenopause and, um, the decline in the health, um, like, really forced her to get prescribed tons of medications from doctors and seeing how hard she was trying to improve her health, all the while being gaslit by conventional medicine doctors and practitioners in the space. Um, that made her more sick on top of her seeing her deal with all the stresses of life that women experience being a mom, uh, you know, having to provide for your family as both my parents were working parents and, um, really seeing her struggle, um, and how unsupported she was. Uh, piqued my interest. And also to, um, when you care take for a parent at such a young age, I would say most people don't really know what it's like to take care for a parent, especially, you know, when you're in your quote unquote prime. Um, lots of my days in my 20s were spent at the hospital at ers, at, um, you know, and it made it really, really difficult to not only just function as an adult human, but also have a relationship with my mom that I saw all my friends having. And so, um, from a relatively young age, I saw how kind of fragile uh, we are and also how important it is to take care of ourselves, arm ourselves with knowledge that can not only save our lives, but, um, guarantee that we show up in life for for, you know, our children, for ourselves and therefore, you know, make the most out of it because that's what we deserve. So I was inspired to, um, get my functional diagnostic Nutrition practitioner certification, uh, after dealing with that. And I have been advocating for better from the women's health space, uh, for the last four years now, which is huge. Okay. So that makes sense as to kind of what made you segway into women's health. And I know a big part of what you are so passionate about is like, kind of how the outdoors integrate with women's health. So how did moving to Colorado and spending more time outside kind of change your health and your direction? Yeah. So, um, my personal journey, um, came at the height of 2018. So this is right before the pandemic. I was diagnosed with fibrotic noma nomas, which, um, for those of you, for those of the listeners that don't know, they're actually benign breast tumors. And I was told that they were normal and, um, though they are very common. Um, I just refuse to believe that this was something that I had to accept. Um, and I couldn't I didn't have any control over, um, you know, how they grew or stop growing or, you know, worst case scenario, turn into cancer. Um, and just seeing, you know, how the system told my mom her issues were normal until they were completely irreversible and that you had to put on be put on medication. I just didn't really want to fall to victim to that, um, kind of sick care system. And so it was really then that I realized, um, when I got diagnosed with these benign tumors, I had to have a real honest conversation with myself, Brady, and understand that I was the, like, the most stress I had ever been in my life. I was in a career that didn't fulfill me. I was working in marketing at the time, doing, you know, high end production work, um, in the beauty industry, which is kind of crazy. It's so misaligned with my values. You know, I've always been so passionate about health and wellness. There was just so much that I was not living out that was true to me. So I was in a career that I hated. I was in an environment that really brought me a lot of stress. Caretaking can be so taxing on, you know, not just spouses, but children who end up caretaking for their parents. And that's something that's not really talked about. And also, you know, being I grew up in Miami and I was the person that wanted to go hiking and biking and camping all the time. I didn't have anybody to do those things with. So at that point, you kind of reach a point in your life where you're like, okay, I, I need to get serious about what my life looks like because it's starting to have physical implications on my health. Um, this, this kind of underlying red thread of stress is, is causing. What I now know as hormonal dysregulation that exacerbated my fibrosis breasts, which I now know and I've treated since then. So I made, you know, in 2020, I closed all, I closed all my ties, and I packed my stuff up, moved to Colorado where, as it turns out, like people here love being outdoors and love being outside. And what's crazy is that within that two year period that I started working on myself, incorporating more outdoor play and movement, my fibroid almost shrunk, which is crazy. Um, I had several, and the one on my right, I can't even feel anymore. It's just not there. And, um, I have mitigated my, um, PCOS symptoms. I realized I had pcos doctors didn't tell me that. Um, but it was in learning through all of that that I realized there's so much about our health that we can change. And through my personal experience and so many experiences of other women that I've talked to, um, you know, change is really palpable when you start incorporating ways that lower stress on the body and being outside and getting the right kind of movement, um, that's going to help lower stress levels. Build muscle is has huge positive impacts on our health. And so, yeah, I don't know if that answers your question. Definitely. That's that's so amazing. So you've obviously experienced these benefits for yourself. And because of that you've taken a great interest in that. So now that you've done a lot of research and kind of built a career out of this, what are some of the benefits of the outdoors as it relates to women's health that you've seen not only for yourself but in the research? Oh my gosh. There's so there's so much. Um, one of the things that I really talk about. Um, and there's several. So I'll just go about the first when we address the nervous system, cortisol is a stress response hormone that can wreak havoc on a woman's, you know, health. Um, and the reason for that, you know, especially for pre, uh, premenopausal women. So women who are in their menstruating years, um, you know, having elevated levels of cortisol, i.e. you're in a stressful job, you know, you kind of live in like the go, go, go. You're a business owner and a mom and you're always, always hustling like that can have some significant impact on cortisol. And what happens when we have sustained cortisol levels for a period of prolonged period of time? What happens is your body, um, especially for premenopausal, I mean, premenopausal women, your body, um, holds on to that cortisol and doesn't produce enough progesterone. And the reason that's important is progesterone is the thing that is the hormone. Um, that's going to that has kind of like an anti anti-anxiety effect on the body. It's the thing that's going to calm us down. It's also the thing that's also going to help um other functions of the body. Right. When you have, when you're, when your body's kind of hyped up on cortisol, it doesn't absorb minerals. Well, it doesn't, um, absorb, um, vitamins. It doesn't carry out the cellular processes of the body, um, in an optimal fashion. And so what that does is it lays breeding ground for illness. Um, and a lot of times, I don't know if you know the statistic, but 80% of women have autoimmune disease or at 80% of people who have, um, autoimmune diseases are women. And so there's something really, really powerful of getting, you know, our nervous system and check our cortisone check. And really finding time outside that has a proof that that has, you know, has been proven way of, you know, getting your cortisol levels or stress levels in check. Even a simple walk out in the park, um, has can have a huge benefit for women, especially everyone but women, especially because they are more impacted by stress than men. Yeah. So that's the first. Yeah, I always talk about with my clients is that women are more stress sensitive than men. And it doesn't mean that we're weaker by any means, but because we are reproductive beings, there's so much more at play. Men are kind of static month round with their hormones, and for us, there's so many different factors and we're constantly shifting and changing, and we really have to get serious about looking at stress, because I think, at least for most of the women that I talk to about this, or even just for myself, we're so used to like a baseline of being like, quasi stressed out all the time that we don't even think it's abnormal anymore. That's just kind of like how we operate. Oh, totally. And that's the danger zone, right? Is when we're not aware. My wakeup call was when I had that diagnosis that scared the crap out of me. And to be honest with you, it scared me a lot. Because you you do after operating so long, and for many of us, it could be a cultural thing, right? It could be. I mean, it's a societal thing, right? We as women are always expected to carry on the burden of everyone's or solve everyone else's crisis problems. And especially when you're a mom, when you're a high performer, when you're a business owner. I mean, that kind of load is kind of magnified because you carry all these additional like responsibilities. So it becomes that much more harder. And so, um, yeah, I mean, helping in any way you can get stress down is super important. But that's often involves kind of a certain discipline, right? You have to take time out of your out of your day to kind of get, you know, have it be kind of integrated into your life. Whether you're taking a meeting, you know, in the park or you know, that you can just sit it on or you just need to sit in on or, um, you know, go for a walk on your lunch break. Anything that can get you moving, especially outside, is super valuable. So that's the first thing is stress. Um, another thing that is super helpful as it relates to women's health and the impacts that outdoor play and movement have is, um, something that I'm sure you've thought about is full spectrum. Full spectrum sunlight. Right. You know, it's important for our bodies internal clock. We talk about circadian rhythms and how important sleep is for women. Um, something as, you know, as just waking up and getting sunlight, you know, a quick 20 minute walk outside while you're drinking your morning coffee, listening to your news or your podcast, whatever it may be, um, can affect your sleep quality. And at that point, it can also affect your cortisol. Lower cortisol help your body produce more progesterone. If you're menopausal, it can also help with sleep as well. Um, you know, vitamin D is, you know, increasing sorry, increasing. Um, time in the sun can help you meet your daily requirement for vitamin D. You don't need to supplement with that. And that's the way it's your body's best absorbed it. And so obviously being outside is kind of one of these or this is an obvious benefit I would say, um, which also helps immune function. And I could go on. Yeah. So okay, you kind of talked about how, you know, side effects cortisol and also progesterone are other hormones affected as well like estrogen or anything else. Yeah, totally. So again, when we're outside we talk about lowering cortisol lowering inflammation, inflammation. The reason why this is so important is it also helps, um, your immune system and your liver. Uh, people don't know this, but your liver has huge, huge, huge impact on excess hormone metabolism. And what I mean by that is when you have excess hormone in the body, for a lot of women who experience PCOS, endometriosis, for example, a lot of them have elevated cortisol levels and are not having or not producing enough, um, are not only not producing enough progesterone to counteract that estrogen, but they're not excreting the excess estrogen that their body is not using. And so with that, that's where the liver comes into play. Your liver is responsible for essentially excreting all of that out. Your and I actually I actually found this out, um, less about a year ago. Um. Or less than a year ago, I would say I went to an acupuncturist for the first time, and she told me that I'm super healthy. You know, I do all the things I, you know, I'm very aware about my cycle. Um, but when she was doing acupuncture on me, this was my first session ever. She said that my liver was struggling, and I said, there's no way. Like, how is that even possible? Well, it turns out, um, fun fact, uh, rooted in this theory, rooted in ancient Chinese medicine, says that the, um, uh, you know, the the emotional, um, the emotion of anger is strongly tied to the liver. And I carry a lot of anger just based off of, like, my years of the things I lost with my mom. My mom passed earlier last year. And so I still carry that even on a subconscious level. Even though I accepted it, my body was still storing that anger and it was causing a burden on my liver. And so when we talk about play outside, these are things that are going to help release all those negative emotions. Again, why nervous system regulation is so, so important because they're affecting our organs and they're they're making them kind of not function optimally. And you know, if we have excess hormone in the body, for example, it could manifest itself as things as fibrosis, which is what I had fiber adenomas, polycystic ovarian syndrome and Demetrios. And so liver health is so, so, so important. And that's another reason why being outside can also really help. And I can also talk about, you know, menopausal women, um, you know, just being outside building bone density. There was actually a recent study that said, um, that studied, uh, postmenopausal women with sarcopenia, um, if they wore when they wore weighted vests, um, their bone density kind of increased over the course of just six weeks. So, yeah. And so when you think about just being outside, even you don't have to be, you know, reap the benefits of your, you know, your health as it relates to women when it comes to being outside. Um, this is also super important for postmenopausal women because we think about some of the biggest risks when you get when you age is falling, um, and bone health and how, you know, delicate that is. And so if you're outside and you're wearing, you know, a £10 pack with just your essentials, which is not very much, it doesn't take much to feel to carry £10 on your back. Uh, that can, you know, help increase bone mass. That is super interesting. Yeah, it's really cool when you really think about how much our bodies aren't separated from our emotions, our thoughts. Everything is connected. I think so often we're like, well, my emotions and my thoughts don't affect my health, but they really do. And that like the liver anger correlation is such a good example of that. And even just how our nervous system state and how we're dealing with stress in our lives can affect so much of what's going on hormonally. As women, I've seen that play out in my own life. I've seen it play out for clients, and when we choose to just kind of like separate these things and think, well, I'll just exercise a ton or eat really healthy and not address the like, toxic relationships in my life or not address like these areas where I never went to therapy when I should have or like underlying anger, underlying stressors. We're really doing ourselves a disservice because our health is so holistic. We have to look at the whole thing. 1s Oh, yeah. For sure. Um, and. Yeah, moving to Colorado. I mean, besides just being outdoors. I mean, with that, I found, I found it so helpful for my both mental and physical health, um, to find a community of people that also wanted to, you know, live life in the same way I did, um, that incorporated these kind of healthy habits on a daily day basis. You know, it's really, really important that if you're on this, this journey that you find, you find people that wanted that are on the same and, you know, value, um, those things as well, because that I would be remiss if I didn't say that that was also part of the equation, too, because I didn't do this alone. Yeah. Having that community is is huge. So what else should we know about optimizing hormone health just in day to day life as women? Oh, yeah. Um, we can go about, you know, different cycles. Um, but overall, um, just as a, a general rule, you know, blood sugar balance is super important. We see it all over social media right now, right? Like blood sugar balancing foods and recipes. Um, that is really, really key for women because you don't want to spike insulin levels, namely at your second half of your cycle. And also especially in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. Um, these this is kind of those are kind of the phases or times of life where, um, you're more sensitive to, sensitive to insulin. Your blood sugar is more spiked. So you want to be mindful of that. It's just kind of easier just to be mindful of that at all. You know, as a whole, you can do that with pairing, um, any carbohydrates with either protein or fat. Um, just to help kind of mitigate that glucose response is super key. Um. Other things we could do just to be mindful. Um, you know, people with estrogen, you know, dominant conditions i.e. PCOS, endometriosis, or people who are not producing enough to progesterone. Right. Um, these are women with high elevated testosterone levels, androgens, i.e. cortisol. Right. Um, and so with that, you want to make sure you're supporting your liver. You know, you could do that with, um, things like dandelion tea. Um, you could do that with cruciferous vegetables. These are things they're going to help. Cruciferous vegetables really help metabolize excess estrogen in the body. Um, and you can do that especially during the first half of your cycle if you're pregnant. Um, premenopausal woman. Um, that's super important. Um, and so actually, I actually, um. I'll. Sorry. You have a question. Sorry. Could you break down the phases of the cycle just for. So I feel like I talk about this a lot, but then I realize a lot of women don't really know, like where we are in our cycle if we're not menstruating, right? Oh, yeah. Totally. Yeah. So we'll we'll go down into that. So, um, you go through four phases throughout the month, right? And so you essentially show up as a different human being with different needs of four phases to the month. But the I kind of break it down into halves, which is a little easier for, for, for everybody to digest. And so your first half of your cycle is going to be your follicular and ovulation phase. Uh, this is right after menstruation. So after your last day of your period, you start your follicular phase. And um, during your follicular phase your estrogen is starting to peak. And when your estrogen is starting to peak, um, leading up to ovulation, uh, most people like me, at the beginning, I thought estrogen was a bad thing because I was like, this is the thing that's going to like, cause tumors. And, you know, we we hear about estrogen receptor positive breast cancers all the time as estrogen. I want you to think is like, you know, actually, it's a it's an inflammatory. Right. It's a it has a super, super, um, protective effect on the body. This is the thing that's going to estrogen is the thing that helps us kind of deal with high stress situations. This is why they encourage like really, really high intensity workouts during this time right after your period, you know, especially into your follicular phase heading into your ovulation phase, which is when estrogen peaks, um, this is when you can go on trail runs. This is when you can go on long bike rides, you know, send it a little bit while you're skiing and snowboarding. Go a little harder, faster. Estrogen is there to help kind of mitigate, um, those cortisol levels because it does have this highly protective effect on the body. Right. And so that's your follicular and your ovulation phase. Also at this time, um, you know, your body just to help. Um, your body metabolize excess estrogen, you can eat more things like cruciferous vegetables, high fiber foods. Um, also super important. Um, your second half of your cycle. So i.e. your luteal and your menstrual phases, um, that's when estrogen starts to dip and then your progesterone starts to rise. But jazz is the thing that's going to be the body's Xanax. So unlike estrogen, which is, you know, kind of your amped up energy drink of a hormone, progesterone is going to help combat that. Bring the body down, help it relax. This is a time where you're a little bit more, um, introspective. You're a little bit more, um, just kind of like wanting to be in your own cocoon and wanting to be in your own energy. That is natural. And you can use that as a superpower, right? This is also the time in your luteal phase heading into menstrual phase, um, in your second half, your body is actually in a catabolic state. Now what does that mean? Your body is burning more calories, i.e. you need more food, you need more fuel to get through the day. But with that, because your body is in a catabolic state, there's actually a study on this and we can link it in the show notes. Um, you need more protein because your body's using your muscle reserve as energy during this time. So prioritizing protein is so it's like so so important during this time because you don't want to lose on any of the muscle that you would build in your first half of your cycle. So that becomes increasingly important as well as it helps with, you know, mitigating glucose, um, responses, insulin resistance, you know, helping prevent insulin resistance, all of those things. So protein becomes increasingly important at this time, um, strength training becomes increasingly important at this time. I'm not really a big fan of not working out. There's like this misconception that you can just take it easy and go for a walk. Yes, those things are true, you know, especially when you're right after ovulation, your estrogen is going to dip. That's probably when you start to really you can if you start cycle syncing, you'll start to notice the changes in your body. It's actually kind of wild, but um, you know, and then slowly estrogen rises. But before that rise, you really kind of you can feel a little crummy. And, um, that's usually a week before your cycle. And that's around the time where, yeah, you know, you need to you need you can go for a walk. But as you start heading into your menstrual phase, strength training can become super, super important. You could do things you could go for, you know, a hike, um, slow, long hike with a weighted vest. Um, uh, and yeah, those are that's pretty much it. And then also come menstrual phase. Of course, you keep up the same habit and then the cycle repeats itself all over again. Yeah, yeah. I'm kind of with you. I feel like there's so much emphasis on cycle syncing now with workouts, which for sure has its value. But I think there's this misconception that women can't train during their cycle or, you know. Should just do nothing or can only do like light yoga. And that's not necessarily the case. We can just kind of be more mindful of that. We're probably not going to be hitting PR's that we we shouldn't be doing our most intense exercise. We might need more rest, intro workout or post workout, but we can still challenge our bodies. It's just going to maybe look a little bit different energetically than it does during our follicular phase and ovulation phase. Oh, totally. Yeah. And you know, if you're a long distance runner or trail runner, you know, you're not you're not going to go on a 50 mile bike ride during this time. But you certainly can, you know, if you have one of those kind of like, um, what is it, those like a bike desks? You can certainly do that. You can certainly, you know, do weights in your living room, you know, at the gym. Um, as a matter of fact, I encourage it because again, during your luteal and menstrual phases, you are extremely vulnerable to losing, um, skeletal muscle mass at this time because your body's in a catabolic state. So if anything, I encourage strength training. It can be slow, steady. You don't have to get your heart rate up for this. You don't have to hit PR's like you said. Um, but you do need to protect your muscle because this is your your muscle. I don't know if you've heard of Doctor Gabrielle Lyon. She's amazing and I love listening to her. She talks about how important muscle mass is to retain for longevity. I mean, it is our longevity organ. Mhm. Yeah. And it's such a big thing for women and I it makes me so mad that for so many decades like muscle has been this like taboo thing for women when really it's one of our biggest assets for longevity. Um, totally functionally, metabolically, just so many benefits. And really our workouts should be so many of our workouts should be done with a goal of maintaining or gaining as much muscle as humanly possible as we age, so that we are counteracting that loss that most people do experience as they get older. Oh, totally. Yeah. Um, okay. This has all been so, so, so insightful. Um, I'm curious if you have any just like quick habit tips. I know you mentioned things like getting some sunshine first thing in the morning. Any other. Just like quick practical tips for women who want to implement some of these practices, optimize hormones, take advantage of like the natural benefits of being outdoors, but are just kind of overwhelmed on where to start. Oh, yeah. I mean, honestly, uh, several things I'd say. Um, prioritize. Try getting into a rhythm of really, uh, prioritizing sleep, because sleep is really one of those things that's going to help you get up early, you know, get your circadian rhythm in a way that, you know, set up in a way where you're out first, you know, in the morning on a walk, getting that sunshine in, getting your, you know, levels of vitamin D, getting your red light. You don't need a red light, um, machine if you can just go outside. FYI, a lot of people think they need red light therapy at home with these expensive machines. Just go for a walk in the morning before the sun, um, kind of hits its peak. So before 9:00, 830 in the morning, um, most people start work earlier than that or around that time. So they're up before that. So that should be an easy habit, even if it's just a ten minute walk. Um, once you. Yeah. And you know, that's going to help regulate your sleep, which is also super, super important for cortisol. Um, and it's I, in my personal opinion, vastly underrated. So that's one, um, two is especially for um. Premenstrual women. Um is uptake in fibre. Fibre is so, so important in excess hormonal metabolism. We want to make sure we're processing excess hormones out of the body that have no use in the body, so it doesn't manifest itself as things like fibrosis, bras, PCOS, endometriosis. Right. And we got to help out the liver. That's also going to help out the liver. Um, and, and just be super beneficial for your gut, uh, which is all connected. Um, don't be afraid of carbs. A lot of women are afraid of carbs. Again, fiber is carbs. You know, when you think of fiber, you think of vegetables and fruits. Um, don't be afraid of cards. This is the thing that's going to fuel your workouts, your outdoor adventures, and also your brain. You need it. So, um, yeah, don't be afraid of carbs. Um, and then, um, I would say also protein, uh, increase protein from a nutritional level. Um, and then as far as other things, just being outside, honestly, cortisol finding ways of movement that really bring you joy. So for me it's going on hikes. I absolutely love cross-country skiing in the winter. That is like my thing. And it it seems it's not a thing that I have to drag myself to do. Um, and, and those really kind of modalities of play, especially outside when you can kind of habit stack some of these things, um, can really be useful and have significant impact on your health. Um, just get moving and get moving outside. Um, it's just like, is my thing. Yeah. That's so that's so helpful. So okay. For anyone who wants maybe just some more resources on this, um, how can people connect with you and find you? Yeah, totally. You can find me on two ways. Um, my company is Sync Nutrition. Uh, we'll be posting lots of recipes and kind of hormone balancing tips there. And then separately, I talk about a lot of other women's health, uh, namely, for example, as you know, outdoor and play outdoors is super, super important to me in a valley of mine. I'll talk about more of that on my Instagram page at Zaynab Kristen, which we'll link in the show notes. Perfect. Well, thank you so much for coming on today. I absolutely love getting to learn more about this from professionals like yourself, and I think it's going to be so beneficial for all the women tuning in. So thank you. Thank you so much. All right. We'll see you guys in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this, be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at Pony Tail on a trail.com. Happy and healthy trails.