Latest / hol+ with Dr. Taz MD | The Future of Medicine is Holistic / From Fatigue to Flow: The Hormonal Blueprint Every Woman Needs with Alisa Vitti
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- From Fatigue to Flow: The Hormonal Blueprint Every Woman Needs with Alisa Vitti === Alisa Vitti: [00:00:00] You cannot ever work out in a fasted state as a female ever. Never. Okay? Dr. Taz: You have to stop right there, and that's because working out fasted, because Alisa Vitti: if you want to build lean muscle, we want to do that at every age because building lean muscle improves our metabolic flexibility improves our glucose response, improves our hormones. It's an excellent thing to do for young girls. For every decade, it does not matter. You should be building lean muscle very intentionally. In order to do that, you actually have to front load the muscle with glucose. So I'm gonna say something a little controversial. Welcome Dr. Taz: to Whole Plus. The podcast that embraces and tackles the holistic way, bringing it all together, science research, innovations in technology, and our collective human experience. This is where science and spirit come together. I'm Dr. Taz, your host and a double board certified medical doctor and integrative health expert and nutritionist and an acupuncturist. I'm also the founder and CEO of whole Plus. A digital and clinical platform where my team and I [00:01:00] practice evidence-based holistic medicine every single day. I know and I hear all the health and wellness noise that's out there. I want this show to be the one to empower you with the knowledge you need to heal. Not just your body, but your relationships, your communities, and our world. Welcome to Whole Plus, there's been a lot of talk around circadian rhythms and what it means for your health. Now, a lot of us know that circadian rhythms have something to do with sleep, but we don't realize that it's impacting our hormone health, our mental health, even inflammation and gut health. That's why I'm so excited to bring on my next guest. Please meet Elisa Viddy. She's a femme tech trailblazer, a female biohacking pioneer, a visionary, functional nutrition expert and author, and an advocate for women's hormonal health and gender equality and research having overcome her own hormone struggles. She's a trusted and loved icon in the women's health space. She has written two bestselling and [00:02:00] beloved books. Women Code and in the Flow. She's the creator of the game Changing Cycle Sinking Method, and she founded Flow Living to provide natural hormone support for women from their first period to their last via its digital dietary therapeutic support and its top ranked and patented hormone care app. My flow along with supplements. Please welcome Elisa Vitti. All right. I am so excited to have you here. We have talked before and we, and we were talking just now. We're just talking just now, and we both have a little bit of a history. Not to date the two of us, but you've been on my previous show. We've been talking about hormones. I followed your stuff for so long, so impressed with everything you've done and accomplished, and this world of hormone health is a deep dive. We were just debating PCOS just a second ago, and we'll go back there. But before we start, one of the things. I want more clarity on because I feel like I left you mid-conversation however long ago. Our last conversation was around this idea of rhythms [00:03:00] and frequency and what it means for our health and our hormone health. Now we know that everyone talks. About the circadian rhythm and how important it is for sleep. I've talked a lot about it too. Everyone's probably rolling their eyes about how important it's to have a consistent sleep pattern. And in Chinese medicine, how we tell people they have to sleep between at least 11:00 PM and 5:00 AM Otherwise, they disrupt the hormone cycle, but many people don't realize. It's not just about your circadian rhythm, so you are the expert on this. I want you to jump in and talk about our rhythms and what's happening and how that's connected to frequency and flow and hormones and all the amazing things that you've been talking about over the last 15 years. Alisa Vitti: Well, it's a big conversation, but you know, I'll start with the fact that I was sort of flummoxed by the reality that I kept facing in my practice, which is so many women. Show up with hormone imbalances and you know, it's, yes, one could argue, you know, there's endocrine disruption on the [00:04:00] rise with different chemicals and we live a more stressful lifestyle, but that should apply to both genders. Mm-hmm. Equally, if that's the case, if that's really the root cause. So I kept looking for what are we missing? What's the blind spot? What might we be disrupting and not even be aware of it. And that's when I stumbled upon this second biological clock that women have called the infra dian rhythm. And of course nobody's heard of it, but it simply refers to the cycle that is longer than a day. Circadian is cycle. That day of a day of a day and infra is cycle longer than a day. And we as women experience that. In our menstrual cycle, but it doesn't just affect our menstrual cycle, it affects our metabolic rate, our immune system, our stress response system, our brain. I mean, it affects major systems of the body. And that was the big aha moment, saying to myself, well, that's what we're missing. That's our big blind spot. We're walking around taking care of ourselves. If we only have one rhythm, [00:05:00] and that just by virtue of doing that is dysregulating this other rhythm and the other systems of the body, which explains why more women suffer from hormonal problems than men, which explains why more women have autoimmune issues compared to men. Which explains why women struggle with weight loss more cha in a more challenging way than all the things. And it was really revelatory to come across this information and say, well, if we have a system that supports our circadian pattern, right, a sleep wake right hygiene cycle that you take care of, we also need one for the. Infra and clock, and that's when I created the cycle sinking method to align our self-care with the metabolic changes that are taking place across the menstrual cycle with the immune system changes with the brain changes, with the cortisol changes so that we could really dial in more precisely how we're eating. What we're eating. Mm-hmm. The amount of calories we're taking in, the types of workouts we're doing across the cycle, sleep amounts throughout the cycle, [00:06:00] all of which need to be modulated based on which cycle phase you're in, because your biochemistry is also changing based on this infra dian effect. Dr. Taz: Okay. So in my head, I have a visual of the circadian rhythm and I'm seeing like a 24 hour day and a clock. Yes. What visual would you give me? The Alisa Vitti: menstrual cycle, Dr. Taz: the mens, so do men don't have an ian rhythm? No. Children don't have an Ian rhythm? No. Alisa Vitti: And post-menopausal women do not either. It's only active in your reproductive years. Dr. Taz: So this is a 28. Day, Alisa Vitti: 30 day cycle. Cycle and you ex, and there are four distinct patterns within that cycle. Four phases, the follicular, the ovulatory, the luteal, and the menstrual. And each of those unique hormone ratios that occur in those, in those phases affect us in distinct ways, metabolically, cognitively from a stress response system, et cetera. Dr. Taz: Okay. Are you ready to break all those down? Sure. I wanna break them down, and I also wanna tie 'em back to these other [00:07:00] areas that you've talked about when it comes to brain health and immune health and metabolic health and what the ramifications are there. So maybe just let's jump right in. Okay. We've got this andrian rhythm. It's a 28 day to 30 day cycle, roughly. Mm-hmm. What are the phases each, what is significant, I should say, for each phase? So if you talked about the follicular phase, let's start there. What is the follicular phase? So many patients still are confused by their cycle. They're still not sure what the follicular phase is versus the luteal. So talk about the follicular phase. What should we be aware of? Alisa Vitti: So I'll start just by, let's break the cycle down into the first half and the second half. Okay, perfect. And I, I define the first half as follicular and ovulatory. Which is controversial, but so be it. Um, and the second half with the luteal. Wait, why is that controversial? Well, because the. The rubric is that the, um, the day one is day one of your bleed. But if you are a menstruating female, there is nothing about the first day of your bleed. That feels like a beginning. Right? It's facts. Facts. [00:08:00] It feels like the culmination of that cycle, right? It feels like the end. It's the end, it's the completion, and then we begin again in the follicular phase. So you can still count day one as as your bleed day, because that's the convention for counting. But the first phase of your cycle, that's of the new cycle. Really does feel like your follicular phase, and so that's why it's a little controversial. Yeah. So it's, we're going on the energetics of it, but you can, you can count however you like. Right. So Dr. Taz: technically what you're saying, just for everyone listening, you're saying the really day seven. Is more of the beginning. The beginning. Alisa Vitti: Well, and and when we look at it from, let's say, the ovarian perspective, that is the beginning, right? That is when we have follicles beginning to become excited and stimulated by some estrogen rising. And one of them is gonna make it to the finish line at ovulation during the ovulatory phase. And that's sort of our mid cycle moment. And then we have the luteal phase, which is when the endometrial lining is being developed. Held onto in case of a pregnancy, and then it sheds at the [00:09:00] nadir of all of our hormonal patterns, right? Then the, the lining leaves the body through menstruation. So those are the, that's what's happening. Dr. Taz: That's Alisa Vitti: what's actually, and Dr. Taz: you know what? Psychologically I feel better. Talking about day seven is the beginning. I don't know why. It just feels like, okay, fresh start. Fresh start. We're ready. We're ready for something new, you know? Well, and Alisa Vitti: cognitively in the brain, we have these rising levels of estrogen that's very stimulating. We're interested in new things for the first time. From that, a cyclical perspective, right? So end of menstruation is a very inward phase. In fact, from a brain chemistry, I'm just jumping ahead here, but from a brain chemistry perspective, the two halves of the brain communicate the most across the corpus callosum during. Menstruation. Mm. Which makes you very oriented around, um, in interpreting your feelings and facts about a situation and making decisions that will lead you into new things for the next cycle. So, you know, if you're having a tough time [00:10:00] at work, yeah, you're gonna evaluate, well, what are, what is going on and how do I feel about that? And what would I like to do new? In the next cycle to shift this situation, right? Hmm. Every menstruation is like New Year's Eve. You make resolutions and you move that into the new phase and the follicular phase and take some plan, some things. That's a planning phase, a follicular phase. So it's. Similar, your, your ovaries planning to produce an egg and let's say cognitively you're planning all sorts of new things to get started on in your life in that cycle. So it, you know, there's, there's a whole macro and microcosmic situation happening, um, there. So fascinating. It's really interesting to think about it that way. You know, our, our biology really dictates so much of our behavior, except when we don't align with it, we feel this tension and we don't make the progress that we could make. If we simply embraced it. Dr. Taz: Wow. So back to the follicular phase. What, so you've talked about, you know, new month, new goals, fresh start, new fresh start, [00:11:00] new strategy, what's happening maybe at an immune level, at a gut level? At Alisa Vitti: hormonally. Hormonally, just some gentle rise in estrogen energy starting to pick up. Metabolically, we have slowed things down. Mm-hmm. So our metabolism slows down at this time. We're more efficient. Um, and we just aren't doing something. Let's say that's so, um, metabolically intense, like producing a, an organ, an a little organal called the endometrial lining. So we aren't nec needing to consume as many calories. So you can. Have lighter meals, you can have fewer calories. Uh, from a cortisol perspective, resting cortisol levels are lower. Dr. Taz: Mm. Alisa Vitti: So you can do more intensive cardio. You can strength train every single day of the cycle. But from a cardiovascular perspective, you can do your like cardio dance classes and your HIIT workouts in that first half of the cycle, follicular and ovulatory. Um, [00:12:00] once we cross over ovulation into the luteal phase. Looking at, let's say metabolic rates and cortisol patterns. The metabolism speeds up because we need to 3D print this, this endometrial lining. Mm-hmm. It's very nutrient heavy in terms of requirements, so we have to be much more rapidly extracting nutrients from our food and we burn through that more quickly so that we can extract the most. So you studies show you need more like 280 more calories per day just to, to keep your blood sugar stable while your body is. Building this little organelle, if you will. Right. And that's important because so many of us continue to try to restrict Yes. Continue to try to fast. We should talk about fasting. Yes. We have to and, uh, continue to try to eat salads and smoothies and we find that, um. You know, we're sort of like in a trance at the bottom of a bag of chips at some point during the day in the luteal [00:13:00] phase thinking, what have I, what? You know, what happened, right? Why? Why can't I control my hunger the way that I was controlling it last week? Right? And what's happened is that infra and effect has taken hold of your metabolic rate. It's sp sped up, but you haven't modified your diet. Complicated that. To accommodate that. Oh, and then you end up binge eating things that are not helpful to you and can exacerbate your PMS. Right, Dr. Taz: right. Alisa Vitti: Any disruption in your blood sugar levels will then recruit. Extra cortisol, which then downregulates the production of progesterone, which exacerbates your symptoms of PMS simply by dialing in your caloric intake properly. In the luteal phase, I mean all phases of the cycle, right? But especially in the luteal phase, right? You can stay away from that insulin cortisol thing situation, and keep progesterone buoyed where it should be so that you have enough to counteract. Sort of the estrogen that's, that's rising in this phase of the cycle. PMS is simply [00:14:00] a situation in the luteal phase where there's more estrogen than progesterone. And so many women have this scenario in their twenties, in their thirties. Yes. And by the time you hit perimenopause, it starts at 35. But let's say you're hitting it really harder in your early forties, that two decade plus scenario in which you have been under-producing. Progesterone really starts to. Come back in a negative way in terms of exacerbating the journey of perimenopause and aging. You hormonally much more rapidly than you should be and and that's unfortunately a common thing. In fact, a study just came out about a month ago talking about how women are going through perimenopause much Dr. Taz: earlier, much earlier outta his. Alisa Vitti: Historic global rate, and I mean, that's simply one of the main reasons is simply by, you know, just dysregulating, this infra, dian metabolic situation for decades. Dr. Taz: Yeah, and I'm concerned that's actually starting [00:15:00] in puberty, like in, in our young girls, because I feel like, you know, if we think about a span of, you know, 15, 16 years of practicing, I feel like there's a downward shift in the symptomology around hormones like our younger girls are having. Incredible. P I'm talking about like 13 to 21. Incredible PMS, right? Yeah. They're having early diagnoses of endometriosis. You know, precocious puberty is on puberty, both genders, PMDD, like all these different things. And so, you know, selfishly as the mom of a now 17-year-old, it's like there's a lot of concern about what's going on there. And then the other thing I'm seeing too, you know, uh, as we look at labs is that downward shift of progesterone. Earlier and earlier. So in the hormone shift I had talked about how it's a big thing for the current generation from 20 to about 30 now. I mean, that book was two years ago. I would actually even say that I'm seeing it. In our teenagers where progesterone levels are plummeting, they're having a [00:16:00] lot of estrogen dominance. And in turn, both the cognitive component, the autoimmune or inflammatory component, and then definitely the overall, you know, classic hormonal symptoms are all presenting. Right. You know? Is that something that you would explain with Therian rhythm? I think that Alisa Vitti: one of the root. Causes of so much of the disruption that women are experiencing. Ha comes down to this mismanagement of our infra rhythm. Absolutely. In my first book, woman Code, you know, I talked about how do we triage the endocrine system when things are problematic, you know, how do we interact with our hormones with food and supplements? And you can of course, recalibrate your body, dietarily to address these hormonal issues to address excess estrogen, et cetera. But. And this is why I wrote the second book, right? Because in the flow talking about, um, this infra in effect, even you, you can't just stay in a state of triage forever. We [00:17:00] need a lifestyle that aligns with our hormonal biology so that we're not every single day disrupting it. In fact, when I was being interviewed by a male biohacker, he said, oh my goodness, I am wrecked if I have one thing off with my morning routine. Mm-hmm. And he said, I'm just really taking it in at how profoundly challenged women are like experiencing their day to day because they're fundamentally disrupted on the most core level. He's like, I organize my entire life based on the circadian clock, because that's what matches his hormonal pattern. Mm-hmm. Testosterone. Perf, you know, is cyclical on that circadian rhythm, but estrogen and progesterone are not. Mm. And we have to function with both of these clocks. We have to be honoring our circadian clock, obviously. But we do need to take care of this infra dian rhythm. And it's, and the more you do that, the better off you'll be long term. And I mean, I've been cycle sinking [00:18:00] now for I don't know how long, 20 years. And you know, here I am about to turn 48. I'm still ovulating, I'm still menstruating. I'm not on any. HRT. I have no symptoms of perimenopause whatsoever. My hormone levels are definitely much of a much younger woman. Mm-hmm. And it's simply because I know how to take care of them. And that's available to every woman. Remember? Birth control, synthetic birth control, yeah. Was introduced into the population a hundred years, 7,500 years ago at this point, because women were on their eighth or ninth child at 48, 49. Right. When there was no birth control. Dr. Taz: Right. Alisa Vitti: We are designed to be maximally fertile for the maximum amount of time. That's just nature in general. Right. So this idea that you would see tanking progesterone levels in teens. It's a con, it's a, it's a whole conversation and spectrum of what are we getting so fundamentally wrong here, and well, what are we getting wrong this in, we're [00:19:00] missing this infra and support, so what, Dr. Taz: what should we be doing? But before I ask that question, I, I don't wanna get away from the luteal phase and. The cognitive component of that. Mm-hmm. What should we be thinking about? What's the same question? Immune and gut? Mm-hmm. Sort of ramification of the luteal phase, and then let's dive into Alisa Vitti: what we need to be doing. Yeah. Okay. So in the luteal phase, it's my favorite phase because it's the phase where progesterone enters the party and she is. For sure my favorite hormone. Yes, mine too. I know, I know. Everybody thinks it's ovulation is like the fun time and it is a two day peak period. Right? You know, you have this super surge of estrogen in the brain. So cognitively you are, um. Your verbal and social centers are hyperstimulated and it's easy for you to be extroverted and do forward facing social things for that short period of time, you know? But the luteal phase is a, is a gem of a phase. It's 10 to 12 days. You have all this progesterone, anybody who's ever been pregnant, you know that second [00:20:00] trimester when progesterone is like happy, you're just, well, no. It's like you're doing the nursery, you're planning parties, you're getting. So much done for me. Yeah. I wrote like book proposals, you know? Yeah. Whatever your, pick your pleasure. Yeah. And so, um, it's just progesterone has a calming focusing effect in terms of cognitive performance. Dr. Taz: Mm. Alisa Vitti: Uh, in fact, study just recently came out about showing, now we, we've understood that it affects, let's say. Cognitive performance, but now there have been scans that has show it actually affects this infra dian rhythm affects gray and white matter in the brain. Wow. So the structure of the brain is changing throughout these different cycle phases. They don't even know what it means yet that the gray and white matter are shifting in volume and density. But that's incredible that we have that. I love that. Right? Love that. Yeah. So they're just beginning to do the research on that. Who knows what it's gonna unfold, but obviously we have some intuitive sense that of course it's changing us. These hormonal ratios [00:21:00] affect us and we feel differently and distinctly, and I think that's what women love about the cycle sinking method, um, um, is that it gives them permission to. Uh, you know, feel what they're feeling Yeah. Instead of ignoring it. Yeah. So in this, in this phase, uh, metabolism speeds up, as I mentioned, cor resting cortisol is higher. Dr. Taz: Mm. Alisa Vitti: So you should not do any HIIT workouts, uh, or extre, like lengthy cardio sessions make extreme because it's gonna kick up your cortisol and that's gonna have a downregulating effect on progesterone and exacerbate your PMS symptoms. Strength training is your gold standard, let's say workout. For the, for that phase, then when you get to the bleeding phase, right. Just to sort of tie these two together. Um, you know, I would say this is a phase that's really dependent on your symptoms as you're healing. You may still be experiencing excessive cramping, excessive bleeding, but as you get better, as you start practicing this sort of infra support, [00:22:00] consistently, you're gonna feel great. Every phase. There isn't gonna be a phase where you fall off. Let's say the hormonal cliff and feel low energy or moody or tired, and you can continue to strength train and do your workouts and feel great. Mm-hmm during the menstrual phase as well. But in the beginning, as you're recovering from so much infra and disruption, you may find that that first day or two of your bleed, you may need to take it easy and just sort of rest. And rest is extremely underrated. Because we're talking about, Dr. Taz: I don't think women rest today Alisa Vitti: well, and, and that, uh, or girls, honestly, continuous, uh, demand on the adrenals has a massively depleting effect on ovarian function, short and long term. And we do need to be really factoring that into our overall long-term hormonal biohacking game plan. Because if your goal, and I think your goal should be to. Ovulate for as long as humanly possible and to produce your own endogenous hormones for as long as possible. [00:23:00] That is the goal. Dr. Taz: Mm-hmm. Alisa Vitti: If you, if that is your goal, then you need to be thinking about how do I reverse engineer that? And so much of it is not what you add in, it's how you align and support with the, what the body wants to do for you. Right. Dr. Taz: It's such a different way of thinking than. Many of us practice, honestly, we're a lot of times we're triaging, topping up, treating, you know, balancing the idea of alignment, I think is more challenging and many people kind of get lost in that. For some women, honestly, they're so stressed, like they're not even tracking what's happening, you know? What would you tell those women and kind of what is a good way for them to live in this rhythm, to live in this infra rhythm? And again, I have more questions, but we'll get there in a minute. So what's a good way for them to live kind of in this rhythm, you know, in a way that's realistic and healthy? Alisa Vitti: Yeah. You know, it's all about habit stacking, you know, at this point, I've been doing this for so long, I have so [00:24:00] many habits Stacking Yeah. Practices that for the, for the beginner, it would seem. Out of reach to do the practices that I'm doing. And I wouldn't suggest that you start with all of the practices that I do. Right. But I wouldn't miss one of, it's not the bag. I wouldn't, I wouldn't miss one of my practices. I wanna know what else is in that bag, by the way, anyhow. Oh please. Whenever I travel, half the things I pack are food and supplements and all of that, but, um. You know when, when I recommend women get started, just start with what you're comfortable. Pick a lane. Is it gonna be the food or is it gonna be the fitness? What feels more doable for you? In a lot of cases, the fitness is the first step for a lot of women. So you start to shift your workouts, you start to really re reap the benefits of not pushing yourself to do the same types of workouts day in and day out. As you go through a cycle or two and you start to see, oh, my PMS is a little bit less intense the second month because you're not draining your adrenals continuously. And then. The second layer, if that's the first [00:25:00] pass that you take, the fitness pass. The second layer would be managing your blood sugar through modulating caloric intake across the cycle. Right? Because when you dial in, because the endocrine system's perspective, that's like the best gift you could give it. Right. You know, giving it, keeping that blood sugars level stable and not forcing this insulin cortisol kind of. Overcompensation, right? Where your insulin, too much insulin to overcompensate for too much carbohydrate intake. Right? Then we have a hypoglycemic crash, right? Then the adrenals are, you know, have to secrete some cortisol to sort of compensate for that. To have the body pull some of stored glucose out of your fat tissue, right? And then we have to, let's say, not be producing as much progesterone because we have to produ overproduce cortisol, and that's just because you've mismanaged blood sugar. We haven't even talked about your stress levels, which also do the same thing. Dr. Taz: So you make a really important point though, because this conversation around blood sugar currently is really dialed into the [00:26:00] menopause community and maybe the post menopause community. It's not so much dialed into women that are actively mens menstruating in our girls. So maybe go into that a little bit. How should we balance blood sugar at each phase? Again, if you're 21. If you're 35, if you're 42, you know, before you even hit menopause. 'cause I know the menopause folks have heard it, you know about the protein and the fiber and all those different things. What would you tell younger women? Alisa Vitti: Well, it's a circadian and infra dian conversation because we, you know, are active within a day period. Right? Right. But then we have to modulate, let's say, overall caloric intake based on the infra and clock. So first things first, you have to balance, you have to understand how to eat. In a single day. Dr. Taz: Mm-hmm. Alisa Vitti: And I'd like to start off by saying that women in their reproductive years should not be fasting. Yes. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. I said it in, I said it in my book. I'm No one gets fasting. Thank you. [00:27:00] Um, well, the science is also, you know, pretty, um, in fact there's a new study that just I'm so excited about that talks about. How, um, from a, from the perspective of metabolic, uh, speed Dr. Taz: mm-hmm. Alisa Vitti: That actually people do better when we invert the fasting window. Not skipping breakfast Right. And eating until one. Waiting till eat until one o'clock. Yes. But actually inverting it and eating when upon waking all the way through the day. All the way through the day. But stopping early, like at five, right. Right. Mm-hmm. That is the best way to fast. So anyway. Balancing your macros throughout the day is really important. You need to be eating up within an hour of waking up. Mm-hmm. Just period. Right. And what about my morning workouts? You have to, you cannot ever workout in a fasted state as a female, ever. Ever. Okay. You Dr. Taz: have to stop right there. Because everybody's sitting at home right now or in your car, wherever you're listening. Mental note. How many of you are fasting and going into a workout? I've been [00:28:00] guilty of that. You, you? It's, I I mean, it's, I've tried to be better recently, but I have historically Yep. Never wanted to eat before working out, and all my workouts are in Alisa Vitti: the morning. All my workouts are in the morning, and I have a full 30 grams of protein, 35 grams of carbohydrates, and about 12 grams of fat before I workout. Dr. Taz: And that's because working out fasted Alisa Vitti: because, because you, your muscles, I mean when we're talking about working out now this is slightly different conversation than how do we balance blood sugar. Right. But I'll take the digression 'cause it's important. Right. And like I said, we have so many things to start. Hopefully Dr. Taz: we'll get through all our points. But anyhow, Alisa Vitti: back to this, if you want to build lean muscle because. We want to do that at every age because building lean muscle improves our metabolic flexibility, improves our glucose response, improves our hormones. It's an excellent thing to do for young girls for in your every decade, it does not matter. You should be building lean muscle like. Uh, in very intentionally. And if you wanna do that, in order to [00:29:00] do that, you actually have to front load the muscle with glucose. Mm, not fructose, not sucrose, but glucose. So, I'm gonna say something a little controversial, but bodybuilders know this, do it. Oatmeal is an optimal pre-workout. Food because it's all glucose. Mm. It's all extremely usable by the body. You say, well, I think that's gonna give me a high spike in my blood sugar levels. Not if you pair it with protein, right. And fat, and if you eat the right amount of that carbohydrate for your body. Mm. So that's where you might have to start weighing. And measuring and figuring out, get a rough idea. And everyone, if you're uncertain about your glucose response to carbohydrates and your ability to tolerate amounts of carbohydrates. Whether you have PCOS or not, it's irrelevant. Everyone needs to learn their body's response to carbohydrates as to balance your hormones wearing a continuous glucose monitor. Love this for 30 days. Yeah. [00:30:00] As just a citizen scientist who wants to understand her own, you know, response to different carbohydrates, even combining carbohydrates. I cannot combine carbohydrates, right? If I'm gonna have rice, it's just rice. Mm-hmm. I can't have rice and beans and corn and sweet potato. One at a time is the max that I can do, but I can have a pretty significant. Dose of those now that I've built my lean muscle up to the point that I have, so you'll, this will change over time. But you definitely want to pregame before you workout with glucose. And then as you get stronger and your metabolism speeds up, you're also gonna need to bring some more food to the workout. Dr. Taz: Hmm. Alisa Vitti: To keep your blood sugar stable. Because the other thing that happens to a lot of women is they have a massive hypoglycemic experience post, pre post-workout, and then you overeat. And then you're not doing yourself any favors and that post-workout meal, because you're super loading your body with sugars, right? And that creates more stored fat, which you don't want. So in fact. Eating more moderately, [00:31:00] but more frequent amounts of carbohydrates in and around your workouts and earlier in the day, and spreading that out more evenly throughout the day does you? Huge benefits from a metabolic flexibility perspective, a muscle building perspective, and a blood sugar stab stability perspective. So how I do it is I eat probably by 7 38 in the morning. I'm at the gym. 8 39 and have a, I have an intra workout small meal, about 15 grams of protein. What does that Dr. Taz: look like? What is that? Alisa Vitti: It's a shake that I make with a little protein, a little leafy greens, um, some almond butter, nothing water, blueberries, banana. Gotcha. Very small. And, uh, and then when I get back from the gym, I have another large dose of protein, 30 grams. Dr. Taz: Mm-hmm. Alisa Vitti: 30, 35 grams of carbs, um, fats as well. Right. And then at th, so that's around noon. So I've already had a bunch of stuff already. We're talking now, uh, 30, 30 15 is at 65 grams of protein, and we're Dr. Taz: at [00:32:00] 12 o'clock Alisa Vitti: and we're about 1230, right? Mm-hmm. And we've had about the same in terms of carb, no more. 60, 30, 35, 70, 90 grams of carbs already. And then at three o'clock, three 30, I'm having another mini meal, 30 grams of protein, 30 grams of carbs, 10 grams of fat. That looks like avocado, Turkey, chicken, sweet potatoes. Mm-hmm. Apple. That's sort of my afternoon thing, and then around six o'clock. Again, every three hours is when we need sugar, right? Yeah. Because we've digested right, the carbohydrates and we need that glucose. And when you're eating the right amount of carbohydrates throughout the day, you feel when you're low on blood sugar, really you're, you become much more sensitized to it. And you need to eat every three hours. So around six o'clock. That's when I'm having my last meal of the day. And that is a very plant oriented meal in terms of any carbohydrates I'm having are exclusively [00:33:00] plant-based. So it could be cauliflower. It could be zucchini. It's a lot of vegetables on the plate. It's, it's a large plate of, of veggies and protein, 30 grams of protein and fats, and that's my dinner meal. And then I'm fasting. Until about 13 hours, 14, 13 hours or so. Golden. That's the golden fast. 13, 14 hours. And that's what I'm doing right now. And it's amazing how, um, you know, you can shift your body composition. So I wasn't, I was just playing around with this and dialing this in, right? And in the past seven months, I've lost 25 pounds of fat. Wow. My. Fat percentage right now is 18%. My BMI is 20.4 incredible. Um, I have put on about 10 pounds of lean muscle. I'm lifting super heavy. My hip thrust is up to 220 pounds. Um. It's a, it's so much fun. Dr. Taz: Yeah. Alisa Vitti: To, and I'm doing that very intentionally because I'm about to turn 48. Right. And I'm really interested [00:34:00] in protecting my ovulation, protecting my bone density, protecting my metabolic flexibility. And all of that is something that you have to. Work on. This is something that younger girls need to be doing too, because they, it turns out if you build that lean muscle in your twenties, you have this muscle memory for life. Right. Teens and twenties, in fact. Well, it's Dr. Taz: also one of the big points I think you're making is, I'm listening to you, is, you know, protecting your hormones through diet, these different cycles is a lot about protecting your blood sugar. Alisa Vitti: Well, that's what I wrote about it in the first book. Yeah. And owning your blood Dr. Taz: sugar because. We have an epidemic of, of, of infertility. We have an epidemic of endometriosis. That's right. We have an epidemic of PCOS. I mean, I could go on, right. Fibroids. We have all these different things That's right. That women are experiencing with the age skewing down. And I think the skewing down of that age, you know, is the excess excessive cortisol production. Then not having a plan, like so many girls and women, [00:35:00] you know, can understand intellectually, even me, I can throw myself into that. Intellectually, we can understand that this is happening, you know, that we're having these shifts, that cortisol is an issue, that blood sugar's an issue. But the practical, but the practical, putting it into action, we all start to get flummoxed a little bit. And Alisa Vitti: we still, you know, I think the conversation with hormones is still so much, it's outside of me. I need to take something to fix. Right? And you know, I, with my PCOS journey, remember I was obese, right? And acneic cystic acne and not ovulating or menstruating from 12 to 22. Dr. Taz: Oh yes. I forgot that part. Alisa Vitti: Yes. Hello. PCOS. And I mean, and that's the thing too. I mean, at 48 to have an, I mean, I've already maintained a 60 pound weight loss for most of my life. Right. But to then lose another 20 was really interesting. 'cause all I did different was start to eat more. Yeah. Yeah, Dr. Taz: which every woman has an issue with Alisa Vitti: like, and, and with PCOS, it's supposed to get harder and harder. And one of the things I've really enjoyed about my own biohacking journey is just debunking all of this [00:36:00] mythology right around like, well, this isn't supposed to happen or that's not supposed to be possible. Right? And it turns out it. It's all a bunch of garbage for the most part. If you understand the sort of functionality of your endocrine system, it's really easy to biohack that. And blood sugar, as I wrote about in 2013, is the first step in the flow protocol because it's so germane to the functioning and the proper functioning of the endocrine system. If you don't get that right, the rest of your hormonal cascade will be dysregulated simply because your body's trying to overcompensate for your mismanaged diet. Wow. So diet is a key. Key. Lever for you to individually use to start to address your hormonal problems, whatever they may be, because it doesn't matter. Is Dr. Taz: that really the first step? That is really the first step. That's the first step. That's the first step. So food is really a fundamental part of this. Yes. Or the first step. Would you agree that food is the first step? Alisa Vitti: Absolutely. And whether you are dealing with PCOS, or fibroids or infertility or perimenopause, or you're a [00:37:00] teenage girl and you're just feeling really crummy every month, and you have PMS. Getting your blood sugar stable is the first step, period, pun intended. You must do it. You can't skip over it. There's nothing else as powerful as that lever Dr. Taz: and after food, if you said okay. People are managing their blood sugar, but they're still coming back and we're seeing a lot of cortisol dysfunction or we're seeing some other things. Where do they go next? Alisa Vitti: Then we start to talk about looking at that infra and support, right? So making sure you're modifying your caloric intake. Dr. Taz: Mm-hmm. Alisa Vitti: Throughout the cycle. First half have less calories, second half, have more 280 calories more per day. Choose more blood sugar stabilizing types of carbohydrates. Then change your workout routine. Make sure you are being active in the first place. Sitting. Being sedentary is not good for your adrenals or your hormones. Right? Right. Mm-hmm. So make sure you are being active, but do it in the correct ways that sort of support that cortisol pattern throughout the cycle. So more cardio in the first [00:38:00] half, less cardio in the second half, but strength train the entire cycle the entire Dr. Taz: time. And how long is, are those strength training sessions? Does it matter? Studies Alisa Vitti: show that. Three times a week. A full body like strength training circuit is equally beneficial to an everyday practice. So I'm extremely lazy. Yeah. You know, just do the three days a week. Okay. Okay. I'm, uh, right now I'm a little bit ambitious, so I am doing five days a week. Right. Because I'm trying to target, let's say some physique changes. I have such a slim upper body, I'd like to put on some more muscle. So I have two days where I'm just. Doing upper body workouts, but if you just wanna get started, start with a three day a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, whatever you can fit into your schedule. 30 45 minutes of strength training. Progressive overload, meaning every time you do the same workout, you're putting on heavier weights so that you build those muscles. Do not go in there. And do the same five pound dumbbells and try to do 50 reps and think Dr. Taz: something's gonna change now nothing's Alisa Vitti: gonna change. You need to do five pounds today and then 10 [00:39:00] pounds next week and 12 and a half pounds the week after. And you keep building up your muscle strength and stressing those muscles to to develop Dr. Taz: so that for women that have. Past sort of perimenopause. Right. Have gone past it. They don't have an in ian rhythm anymore. Correct. So you're the rules circadian only. Okay. So then the, does the circadian rhythm dominate at that point? Yes. Yes. Okay. So when Alisa Vitti: you're postmenopausal, you can go back to your childhood state of being circadian rhythm, you know, oriented only, and you focus in on the basics of balancing your blood sugar throughout the day, eating earlier in the day and every three hours. Now there is some. Research that shows that intermittent fasting postmenopausally can be beneficial. But I would argue, and with the women that I've worked with who are postmenopausal, who have made strength training their longevity focus mm-hmm. That that intermittent fasting is not. Doesn't give them the same benefit as eating and fueling their workouts and doing that earlier in the day. So, so [00:40:00] if you are gonna be consistent with a strength training routine postmenopausally, I would invert the fasting and do it earlier, like, stop eating at 4 30, 5 o'clock. Dr. Taz: Gotcha. Alisa Vitti: And, and here's the other thing too. If you're in perimenopause and you're having any vasovagal response at night, hot flashes, night sweats, that's simply your body's way of trying to save you from glucose overload. Right, and you're literally sweating this off because you have no place to put it. So another reason to front load the day with carbohydrates and then restrict them after 3:00 PM is to simply prevent hot flashes and night sweats, of which I've never had any. Dr. Taz: Wow. Right. Alisa Vitti: You don't need to have them. It's just about managing this sugar intake. Very, very interesting. Dr. Taz: So interesting. So then where does HRT fit in? Alisa Vitti: You know, I think it's a personal journey. I've, I've worked with women in their fifties who've transitioned beautifully because they were dialing in the right endocrine support for decades leading up to [00:41:00] it. And they are not on any HRT, right? Dr. Taz: Mm. Alisa Vitti: And they feel great. And then there are women who need some, and there is research that shows that there are beneficial windows of time to take some estradiol, to take some progesterone. But it really just depends on your individual labs, your goals, you, you know, if you're ready to sort of take on that journey. And you can't stay on them forever, Dr. Taz: right? Alisa Vitti: So at some point you do have to transition, and I think that's a conversation around. You know, really looking at our mitochondrial health mm-hmm. As a sort of secondary source of energy and, uh, vitality beyond just what hormones provide. And then additionally, a lot of women, if you are not taking care of yourself in your twenties and thirties, you go into your perimenopause journey thinking, no problem. I'll just get on HRT. There's a rude awakening when we're. Many decades of depletion, micronutrient, depletion, excessive dieting, extreme workouts, um, cortisol and Dr. Taz: stress. Right. Cortisol and stress Alisa Vitti: dysregulating. The infra dian rhythm. [00:42:00] Right. Not honoring the circadian rhythm. You get to that HRT take, starting to take your HRT in your forties and you don't respond to it. Yeah. I've had clients who are like, my libido's tanked. I've taken, so they've taken so much testosterone that they're starting to have androgenic effects. Mm-hmm. But no improvement in their libido and it's their ovaries are so. Suboptimally performing. They just can't respond to all this hormone stimulation. So where Dr. Taz: would you direct somebody like that who's not who's? So depleted, not responding. Where do they wind their wound? Same thing. Same place. Same thing. You Alisa Vitti: have to, you can't get around the basics. Right. You know. Can't cheat guys. Sorry. You know, I wish I could tell you that. Listen, if there was a magic bullet, I would have been taking it 25 years ago when I was struggling with being 210 pounds. Not ovulating. Not menstruating, depressed, anxious, insomnia, cystic acne. It was a mess. Yeah. I was sort of trapped as a 20-year-old with a. Post-menopausal sort of situation. Right. It was, it was me really challenging me. Yeah. If there had been a quick fix, I would be the first one to tell people about it because, you know, you, you ha, when [00:43:00] you have hormonal problems, you really do have to commit yourself to supporting your body in a way that is not conventional. Right. 'cause our modern lifestyle says, eat whatever you want. Drink wine at night. Right? I stopped drinking alcohol at 35 because that's when perimenopause began, right? And I said, I don't want any excess glucose. Right? Cooking me from the inside, aging me metabolically, um, increasing my risk of cancer or. Uh, slowing down, you know, or speeding up my, my ovarian aging process. I didn't wanna do this, so I made that choice. That's an unconventional choice, but it's one that's paid huge dividends for me. Yeah, Dr. Taz: definitely. Um, Alisa Vitti: and I think that we have to make these unconventional choices to protect our hormones in an environment that is really not aligned with supporting our biology with our infra rhythm. Keep in mind that men, why are only like 20% of men having hormonal problems? Well, because the whole environment is set up to support their testosterone cycle. Yeah. Dr. Taz: Although they're struggling a lot too now with [00:44:00] them. Less than us. Less than us. Definitely less than us. But yeah. You know, and yes, Alisa Vitti: it should get worse for men because the environment's getting worse for everybody. Right. So I wouldn't be surprised to see those numbers balance out at some point. But still fundamentally having that circadian clock be the dominant clock of society is a big advantage for their hormones. Are Dr. Taz: you worried? Last question, I promise. But are you worried about, uh. EMFs, light cycles, hormones. How it matches to the andrian rhythm. Are you worried about that? Because we have light everywhere now. Worry, Alisa Vitti: worry, worry is a strong word. I would say. I'm intentional about it when I can be. So for example, in my home, I don't use LED lighting. Um, there's blue light blocking happening when, you know, needed after 6:00 PM right? And then Yes. You know, sunlight in the morning. So, absolutely. You know, it, it, you want to, our bodies are wired to use natural lighting like sunshine, right? To activate that super ischemic clock. That sort of sets helps set up [00:45:00] the circadian rhythm for success on a daily basis. So yes, that's an important thing. I think you can go down the rabbit hole with that. Mm-hmm. And I find that. That's an, that's a form of stress that I try to mitigate by just saying, okay, well what are the things that I can control? That's a Dr. Taz: good point, Alisa Vitti: right? Yeah. And I don't wanna make myself feel anxious about all the disruptions that are out there. And there are so many, countless, many, right. But you can, and I say this to everyone who comes through flow living, you know, just. Control the things that you can in your environment. So get rid of the toxic chemicals in your beauty products, in your cleaning products. Make sure they're out of your children's environment. Right? Simple things like making little unconventional choices, like I don't have any rugs in my home. Yeah. Yeah, right, because rugs just collect dust. Dust is a major endocrine disruptor. Mm. And so, you know, dust once a week kind of a thing, you know thing. Little simple habits that you stack over time is really the name of the game. Think about it this way, [00:46:00] what creates wealth? Money over time. Right? What creates health habits over time? I'd love that. So don't just think about, well, what do I need to do right now just to fix this? Think about the long game for yourself, for your children. I have a 10-year-old daughter. 10 and a half. You know, I'm, I have been reverse engineering her optimal pubescent transition since she was in my uterus with the choices that I made. What I was eating when I was pregnant, how I fed her in the first six months of solid food, how long I breastfed her, what she eats, her school lunges that I pack. Everything that I do is so that she cannot have the experience that I had with a hormonal, chaotic journey. It's totally avoidable whether you're a teenager in your twenties, in your thirties, in your forties. We didn't even get to talk about birth control, which is Dr. Taz: another form of HRT. No, that's a whole, uh, really important topic that we have to get into at some point. We do. And even for women in their fifties, I think so much of this is still relevant, but [00:47:00] blood sugar's the big, the big one. That's what I've taken away like. Really managing blood sugar and understanding where we've been maybe misguided with some of the information out there. Yeah, there's a daily Alisa Vitti: practice and there's a cyclical practice, right? So you gotta balance your carbohydrate load during the day, but then you also have to balance overall caloric intake first half and second half of the cycle. Can Dr. Taz: we reverse ovarian aging? Can we, if it's, if the train's out of the station, can we turn it around? Absolutely. Alisa Vitti: Absolutely any, any, because aging of the ovaries is really about inflammation and you can absolutely reverse inflammation. In fact, you know, having worked with so many women at Flow living over the years who have been, let's say, dealing with idiopathic infertility, watching them come in with levels of FSH at level 16, and then right just within three months, getting those levels down to seven or eight. Absolutely. That's reversing the age of the ovary, right? Because, and, and then we haven't even talked about melatonin and its role, right? In ovarian aging. So there's so much that you can do to slow down the train, even if you feel like it's [00:48:00] gone a little too fast, or you're identifying that you feel like you're aging faster than you want to from a hormonal perspective. What does that mean? You're 42, you have night sweats, you're 43, your cycle's irregular. Right, that's you're aging too quickly. A little bit too fast. Dr. Taz: Yeah. I think it's so important at the end of the day for all women, all girls, to be aware of this rhythm. And I love, you know, how you've coined and developed this idea of the infra rhythm to own it, to understand it because, you know, it is the long game and that's important. I think it saves so much heartache. So I, I love that you have, you know, really guided us into this in matching circadian andrian rhythms. The idea of rhythms. It's not something in our current modern Western culture that we really embrace or we really jump on. So thank you so much and we're gonna have to do a part two for sure. 'cause there's so much I have like questions after questions. And for Alisa Vitti: people who are interested in, you know, learning how to start the cycle singing practice, I built an app called My Flow that really just puts this all [00:49:00] into the palm of your hand so you don't have to become a subject matter expert. And you're all welcome as guests of Dr. Taz Amazing to a free month of the cycle syncing membership inside the My Flow app. Just put the code in whole flow and you'll have your first whole is your H-O-L-H-O-L? Yes. Okay. And then F-L-O-F-L-O. And you'll, you'll get access to recipes, meal plans, workout videos, all based on your unique cycle phases, so that you know exactly what to eat and what to do to support this infra rhythm. All month long, Dr. Taz: so Brilliant. All right. I'm gonna leave you with my final question. Alisa Vitti: Okay. Dr. Taz: What makes you whole? Alisa Vitti: What makes me whole? Probably. Just sort of the oxytocin I get from spending time with my family, outside family. That is the theme Dr. Taz: we asked all our guests. Mother's Alisa Vitti: Day. I was outside planting the garden with the kids and my husband and I was like, this is the best. Dr. Taz: I love that. This is the best, amazing family. We all come back to family at the end of the day. I say [00:50:00] absolutely. Well, thank you so much for taking some time out to be with me today. It's been enlightening as much as we all think we know about hormones or women's health. You know, there's always a new angle, there's always something to think about, and I think this idea is something I want all women thinking about as well. So thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Whole Plus, be sure to share this episode with your friends and family. And if you haven't already, please take a moment to subscribe to this podcast on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. To engage with the community, follow at Live Whole Plus and check out our website whole plus.co. That's HOL ps.co. For more resources and information on holistic health, see you next time.