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My Journey from Period Loss to 10+ Years of a Reliable Period + Mom of 2 · Nourished Fertility

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  Welcome to the nourishing women podcast.
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  I'm Victoria Meyers, your host, period recovery specialist and registered
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  dietician for over 10 plus years.
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  Who's here to help you get your period back so that you can restore
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  your fertility, get pregnant, and all doing this through healing your
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  relationship with food and exercise and properly nourishing your body
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  to make your dreams happen, your dream family, a reality, you know.
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  This podcast has been around since 2017, and we've, we've evolved
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  and changed and grown in so many ways throughout the years.
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  And I feel like it is time to come back to a conversation that I'll share
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  periodically on the show, but I want to share today specifically my journey
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  from period loss to now having gosh, 10 plus years of a reliable period and as
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  a mama of my two beautiful baby girls.
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  And I want this episode to really be your introduction into what to expect
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  from the podcast now moving forward and why I am so passionate about this
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  work and you listening to this, you know, this podcast every week and
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  helping our clients at Nourishing Minds Nutrition through our programs.
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  I care so much about this work because I, I get it.
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  I understand you, I've been in your shoes, like this is a personal journey for me.
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  So I want to start by kind of going through like what happened to leading
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  to my peer loss, what happened afterwards, and then where I'm at today.
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  Because I've always struggled with my relationship with my body, I
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  wonder if you can relate to that.
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  I don't think I ever had a normal relationship with my body.
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  I remember being really, really young and being at the pool and like looking
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  at other girls thigh gaps and being in gymnastic class and realizing, oh
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  gosh, they're, they're smaller than me.
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  And I think it was.
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  The time of the world, right?
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  I'm 35, almost 36.
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  So I grew up in the 1990s in the early 2000s.
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  This was a time where women were Ralph in and, uh, you know, anorexia was
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  almost like encouraged and promoted.
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  And I also grew up around so much diet culture, not just like
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  socially and through media, but also in the women around me,
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  especially the women in my family.
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  And, you know, everyone died it.
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  That's just what you did as a woman.
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  I was put on diet pills when I was 16 in high school.
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  You know, like, it's just a huge part of the way I grew up and the way I was
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  almost normalized to restriction and just always trying to pursue fitness and really
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  got really bad when I was 16 years old.
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  For some reason, I decided I need to lose weight.
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  When I look back now, I can so clearly see that it was about some
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  pretty, um, scary, heavy things that were going on in my life.
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  My dad left for Iraq.
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  He was in the military.
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  Um, my parents later after that got a divorce.
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  My sister went to college.
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  Like, just lots of stuff going on.
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  But, you know, 16 year old brain me was like, I need to lose weight.
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  This is the problem.
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  Let me control this because obviously so much of my life
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  feels out of control right now.
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  And that dieting because I am, uh, you know, I was at the time a
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  perfectionist and a type A and very like everything I did, I did it.
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  You know, a hundred percent.
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  I am positive you, you resonate with that.
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  Um, you know, I went very quickly into some pretty restrictive eating and taking
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  it way too seriously, way too hardcore.
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  And this for me led to disordered eating for about 10 plus years of my life.
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  The end of high school, all throughout college, and even my first few years
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  as a dietitian, I was struggling.
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  So bad with my relationship with food.
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  I was constantly oscillating on and off diets, controlling calories,
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  logging everything into my fitness pal.
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  I tried every diet under the sun, paleo, keto, macro counting, weight waters.
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  I mean like everything I've done at all.
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  I think what really worsened things for me was, as I was, especially going
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  into my undergrad, going to college, to become a registered dietitian, I
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  was obviously studying nutrition and I felt like I didn't look the part.
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  I felt like my body was a problem that needed to be fixed.
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  And because I had these deeply ingrained beliefs that something was wrong.
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  or my body was a problem.
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  Again, it started off at a really young age and continued
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  all throughout those years.
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  I became obsessed with eating clean and trying to, like, act and look
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  the part of what I thought people would expect of me as a dietitian.
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  And for me, this led to an eating disorder characterized by the unhealthy
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  obsession with eating healthy.
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  It's called orthorexia.
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  You may or may not have part of it before you may be like nodding your
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  head at me like that is a hundred percent what I had, you know, there
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  was definitely some restriction and some binge eating going on.
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  However, orthorexia is the thing that It was really the most prevalent
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  throughout all the years, this obsession with doing things right, doing it
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  perfectly, eating as clean as possible.
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  I would exercise only as a means to burn calories.
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  I was not an athlete growing up.
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  I was like a dancer.
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  I was never like someone who, um, was like, had a positive
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  relationship with exercise.
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  Again, it was just a means of like burning calories.
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  So I never really enjoyed it, which is so interesting to say as a 35 year
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  old woman who now like loves strength training and loves moving my body.
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  But that was my relationship with it at the time.
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  I felt like it was a forced thing in order to be the weight I thought I had to be.
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  And I will also say all throughout this entire time, I was on birth control.
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  I am a thousand percent positive all of you can relate to this, right?
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  How many of us have been on birth control basically our entire 20s?
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  I started on birth control when I was 15 years old and I was on it Non stop like
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  I never once got off of it until after my wedding after my honeymoon So for
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  me, I'll never know what my period would have been like throughout those times of
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  heavy restriction orthorexia, disordered eating, excessive exercise, I'll never
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  know like if I would have had a period because I was on birth control, so I got
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  off birth control shortly after getting married, and for me, it actually wasn't
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  because I was actively trying to conceive.
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  That is something that may be a little bit different in my story in comparison
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  to yours, but for me, I was, you know, reading stuff about birth control.
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  I was learning about.
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  the negative consequences of it.
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  And I was really into holistic health and wanted to make sure
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  that I was caring for my body.
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  And also there was definitely a side of like, Oh shoot, I'm kind
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  of worried about my fertility.
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  Like maybe I should get off of this now.
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  I've never even had a natural period.
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  I got on birth control the moment my period started.
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  So let me like And my period was missing in action.
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  Like I did not get a period after coming off the pill.
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  And um, this was also a time in my life where I was starting to reconcile
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  with my relationship with food.
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  I was starting to realize that.
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  Something was wrong.
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  The way I thought about food was not right.
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  I actually have this very, very vivid memory of, um, after my wedding, I was
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  like extremely restricted the entire year leading up to my wedding because
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  again, I was on this extreme pursuit of weight loss and I bench ate on all the
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  desserts, all the the, the cakes and pies.
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  We had like a bunch of different types of cakes at my wedding and I binge
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  ate on those the night of my wedding.
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  And then all throughout the honeymoon, I like binge ate.
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  I could not control myself because that restriction just was all
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  consuming for so long that I, my body started fighting back.
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  So after getting back from my honeymoon, I was like, this is not normal.
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  I remember laying in bed thinking like, This cannot be how my
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  life is for the rest of my life.
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  This cannot be how I pursue, like, health and food forever.
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  Like, I'm miserable.
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  So that decision coupled with me learning about the negative effects
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  of birth control coupled with me being concerned about, like, what is
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  the future of my fertility here if I've never even had a regular period?
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  Can I get one on my own?
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  What does that mean for, like, what I am trying to actively conceive?
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  And it all culminated in this desire to Really?
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  Make peace with my body with exercise with food and to help my body heal
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  from the inside out This was a time in my life where I finally made the
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  decision to stop fighting my body and start feeling for my future I
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  decided that Enough was enough again.
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  I got off the birth control pill.
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  I realized my period was missing I realized I had a terrible shitty
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  relationship with food I hated exercising because it was only something I did to
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  like try to be a certain weight or size So So, I was able to connect the dots and
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  see how my root cause of my period loss was because of this shitty, terrible,
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  horrible relationship I had with food and thus began my, uh, my recovery process.
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  My passion for disordered eating and period recovery began wanting to like
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  link everything I could between these two.
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  So this was 2014.
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  And back then, back in 2014, there was nada about, uh, period loss,
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  period recovery on the internet.
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  I do think this led to me taking a little bit longer to get my period back than most
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  because I didn't, I, I like, I remember I took Vitex, I was like trying to take,
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  um, like cut out foods from my diet.
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  Like I, again, I was still like trying to heal my relationship with food,
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  but also had no idea what I was doing.
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  So I was also trying all these different like holistic things thinking
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  that would bring my period back.
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  Spoiler alert, it did not.
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  Um, and finally, over lots of time and practice and trial and
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  error that I did on myself so that you don't ever have to do that.
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  I got my period back.
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  I got it regular.
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  And over time, I healed my relationship with food.
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  And so luckily I did do this before I actively started to conceive.
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  So I'll be perfectly honest for me.
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  Uh, when I got pregnant with my first daughter, Madeline, it was extremely easy.
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  The same is true for Annabelle because at that point I'd had a
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  regular reliable period and healthy ovulation for four plus years.
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  And Yes, I'm grateful I did that early, but I want to really emphasize here
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  that like if you're actively just not getting off work control or you're just
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  not realizing the cause of your peer loss, you've already started fertility
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  treatments, it is never too late.
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  That was just my personal journey and I am grateful I went through that
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  because again, there just really wasn't the help and the the information.
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  I needed the type of practices like my very own didn't exist at
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  the time I was going through this.
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  So it's what spurred my passion, my desire to say like this has to be
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  something that people get support with.
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  This can never happen for other people the way it did for myself.
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  Like it shouldn't be such a messy trial and error process.
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  So that's.
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  Why Nourishing Minds Nutrition started in 2017.
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  And now if we fast forward, gosh, what, to 2025.
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  I have now had a regular period since, uh, 2015, yeah, because it
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  took me 14 months to get my period back after coming off the pill.
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  Again, I had my daughter a few years later after that.
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  I had my second daughter back in 2013.
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  23. Um, and I am healthier and happier than I've ever been before.
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  Everything that I still in my clients of the work of period recovery
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  and fertility nutrition, but also intuitive eating, healthy body
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  image, wellness without obsession.
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  I like live and breathe that I teach it because it is
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  something I deeply believe in.
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  And it has led to me becoming truly such a healthy, but also happy person,
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  you know food freedom on date nights is the best and having healthy hormones
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  means I have sky high libido I actually know the phases of my period each month
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  and honestly at this point my husband does too and it's so much fun I'm a
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  proud mom of two little girls and I'm so confident that I'm being the most
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  food and body positive mom I can be
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  It was because I stopped avoiding and I started solving the root
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  cause of my period loss, which was my relationship with food.
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  That is why I started helping clients implement what I knew
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  about healing the root cause of their period infertility issues.
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  And it's how, as I just shared, we developed this really unique signature
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  methodology of helping women achieve these results through period recovery, intuitive
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  eating, body image healing, fertility, nutrition, and wellness without obsessioN
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  so, I hope you can see yourself in my story and know that like the same results,
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  the same outcome, the same life, the dream that you have for yourself is absolutely
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  possible by solving the actual root cause of why your period is missing, or why it
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  is irregular, or why you're not ovulating.
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  by solving the root cause, which is your relationship with food.
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  I wonder if maybe before listening to this very podcast episode, you
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  may have thought that the lower the calorie, the better that you have to
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  work out five to six times a week.
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  And then on top of that, you have to walk 10, 40, 000 steps per day.
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  That protein is the only macro that matters.
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  And that birth control is the only.
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  way to quote unquote regulate your cycle.
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  But then when you are trying to conceive, I know you are actively
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  trying to do that right here, right now.
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  You are a little lost, more than a little lost, right?
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  Like you can't do OPKs, you can't track ovulation because you don't have a
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  period, you're not able to do a lot of this first line of fertility treatments
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  that your doctor has shared with you things like Injectables or IUI because
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  you have such really low level of hormones because of your period loss,
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  so you're most often being presented with IVF as your only option and if
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  that is true You're here listening to this podcast for a reason, right?
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  You know that there's not just one option to have your dreams come true.
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  What you now know is that like me, that this is possible for you too.
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  So what I want to do at the very end of this episode is encourage you to take
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  action today because that is how You restore your fertility and pursue your
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  own version of your own dream life.
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  I shared with you what mine is today, which is, you know, owning this
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  business and being a mom of two and just really having such a fun, healthy,
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  enjoyable life when that gives me so much joy on a daily basis to live.
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  Um, but for you, I know that also includes for you holding that baby in your arm.
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  So how do we make that happen?
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  Number one, I want to encourage you to download our free training.
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  If you have not yet already restore your fertility in 90 days or less, we'll
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  show you exactly how to do just that.
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  How to get your period back so that you can restore fertility and
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  go on to get pregnant naturally.
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  This is a free training that you can watch right here right now as soon as
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  you download it, and I'll put that link in the show notes as well as two ways we
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  can help you take further action today.
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  Number one, grabbing your very own Tailored Period Comeback Plan.
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  This is a customized made just for you game plan of exactly
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  what changes you need to make in order to restore your fertility.
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  It's focused on two key areas of movement and nourishment, really adjusting
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  exercise so that your body feels the rest and safety required to turn back
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  on the ovulation switch from your brain to your ovaries as well as nourishment,
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  properly nourishing your body so that it is able to Build back hormones and
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  again, get healthy levels of hormones so that your body is able to ovulate,
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  cycle and conceive all on its own.
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  Finally, the third way we can help you take action today to restore your
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  fertility and pursue your dream of holding a baby in your arms is applying to be
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  approved to become a premier client inside a premier period recovery for fertility.
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  This is our exclusive high touch one on one program where we will work with you
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  hand in hand so that you can Get your period back, heal your relationship with
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  food for good, and restore your fertility so that you can get pregnant naturally.
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  Thank you so much for listening to this episode.
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  I hope you saw a piece of yourself in my story today and know that you are not
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  alone, that I see you, that I get you, that I understand you, and that's why this
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  podcast is here, to support you every step of the way in restoring your fertility.