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What Your Eating Disorder Back in High School Has to Do with Your Fertility Today · Nourished Fertility

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  Hey y'all.
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  Welcome back to the Nourishing Women Podcast.
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  I'm your host, Victoria Myers, period recovery specialist, fertility registered
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  dietician here to help you get your body ovulating and cycling and conceiving all
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  on its own without medical intervention.
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  So what I wanna do today.
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  Let's talk about an episode that I think is gonna hit a little
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  close to home for some of you.
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  But to be honest, that is exactly why I am recording it, because I keep
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  hearing the same story over and over and over again with new clients, with
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  potential clients, with people in my dms, with people emailing me, you guys.
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  All have such a similar story, and I really want you to hear your own
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  story in today's episode because you probably, like most women I work with,
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  lost your period back in high school.
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  Or even in college because of an eating disorder, disordered eating, or even
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  just over exercising, you got put on the birth control pill, right, to
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  quote unquote regulate things, and now years later, you're off the pill trying
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  to conceive and your period is still missing or seriously problematic, right?
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  Like very long follicular faces, or you're not ovulating at all, you're having short
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  luteal phase, like your period is messed.
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  Up and nobody told you that this could happen.
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  No one warned you that even if you're fine now, your body might not be.
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  So I wanna break this down.
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  In today's episode, we're gonna talk about what your past with restriction
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  dieting, or even an evening disorder has to do with your fertility right
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  now and what to actually do about that.
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  Because again, I know that you were told back in the day when your peer
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  disappeared because of weight loss over training, food restriction, and the like.
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  You were told like probably it's no big deal.
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  Or maybe you were even misdiagnosed with PCOS, or maybe you were even told like,
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  Hey, that's actually pretty common for women like you who are active, who are
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  athletes, who are, you know, struggling with an eating disorder and you were just.
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  Told to take birth control, that it would fix your period problem.
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  Like I seriously bet someone said to you like this would actually
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  make your period come back.
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  And that is just such a disservice that we are doing to women
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  because that is not a real period.
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  It does not fix anything.
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  It is a withdrawal bleed from synthetic hormones.
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  And while.
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  Birth control has its place for actual birth control.
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  To think it's going to fix and solve period problems or period
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  loss, it's completely dismissing the actual root cause of why
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  that happened in the first place.
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  It's why I get so fired up about it.
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  As you can tell, it is not solving the root problem.
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  It's just masking it.
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  And now years later, you're off the pill you're trying to conceive, but
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  ovulation iss not happening, is it?
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  Your period is still missing, and you're left wondering what went wrong.
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  If you're feeling so frustrated hearing this, please know that I get it.
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  I remember how this felt too.
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  This is almost exactly what happened to me.
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  And just know that it's never too late to heal.
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  And before we talk about how to heal, let's first talk about long-term
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  impacts of past restriction and let's get into the science for a sec. Okay.
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  When you lived in restriction mode, maybe eating 1200 calories a day.
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  Heck, it could even have been 1500, 1800 calories, maybe you were cutting
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  carbs, skipping meals, exercising through exhaustion, your body adapted.
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  You know, up to 35% of women worldwide experience secondary amenorrhea,
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  uh, because of undereating over exercising and the energy imbalance
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  that's happening within their bodies.
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  More specifically, speaking to eating disorders.
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  An estimated 62% of women with anorexia experience infertility.
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  You know, I was recently talking with a colleague who works.
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  Solely in the evening disorder field, and she shared with me, you know, following
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  you has made me realize we've been taught in the field to expect infertility in our
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  clients, but what I'm learning from you is that it's never too late to reverse it.
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  That it is possible to fully.
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  Hill and Yes, that is so true.
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  If you were ever told just to anticipate or expect that you're
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  gonna have infertility, I just would seriously like question that and really
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  challenge that actually, because if you, there's a possibility that all
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  you need to do is gain a little bit more weight, eat a little bit more,
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  cut down the exercise a little bit more like that is so worth it for the.
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  Ultimate outcome you want, which is holding that baby in your arms.
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  You know, even subclinical disordered eating.
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  Which was the category that I personally fell under.
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  Uh, chronic dieting, compulsive exercise.
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  Uh, maybe you're just someone who's always on, like a little bit
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  of a restrictive diet and maybe you binge eat after restriction.
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  The only reason getting pregnant with no period feels hard is because no one
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  has shown you how this peer recovery method that I'm about to share with
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  you is going to change your life and making, getting pregnant with no
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  period so much easier and quicker.
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  For you, I've laid it all out for you.
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  In minute new free training.
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  Restore your fertility in 90 days or less without giving up all
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  exercise or focusing on weight gain.
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  In this free training, you'll learn our proven inside out formula, a customized
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  five step framework to get your period back and restore your fertility, how
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  to repair your relationship with food, and what that has to do with your
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  peer loss and your pregnancy goals.
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  This free training is gonna give you.
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  Every single detail that you need to make your goals of starting
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  your dream family a reality.
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  You can download and get started watching this free training today
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  with a link in our show notes.
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  Now, let's get back to today's episode.
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  Like all those kind of subclinical, uh, presentations of disordered eating, those
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  two can impair ovulation and reduce the chances of conception when your body.
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  Doesn't feel safe, it downregulates the entire reproductive system.
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  Chronic energy deficiency suppresses the most important hormone that begins
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  the cascade of your cycle gonna go trap in releasing hormone or GN Rh.
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  And this hormone is what tells your hypothalamus to begin that initiation
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  of like moving towards ovulation.
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  So without GN Rh, you can't have FSH LH estrogen.
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  Ovulation, all of that.
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  This is hypothermic Amenia.
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  It is so much more common than people realize, especially in women
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  just like you and just like me,
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  and high achieving perfectionist women with a history of disordered
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  eating, were over training and even if your body looks normal now, I hear
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  that over and over and over again.
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  I get it that your body looks normal.
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  Now, you may even be at a normal BMI, even if you're eating more timidly,
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  trying to add a little bit more food into your, you know, your plate.
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  You're adding a little bit more avocado, and you've added in some snacks.
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  Still likely not enough.
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  If you are struggling to conceive, it probably means that your body's
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  still in this survival mode.
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  So how do we heal then?
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  What do we do about this?
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  Please know, it's not about a missing superfood.
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  It's not that you need a new prenatal or more moca powder, it's
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  that your body is still recovering.
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  You spent years teaching it not to trust you.
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  I know that's hard to hear, but sometimes we need to hear that brutal honesty.
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  You taught it that food was scarce, rust was dangerous,
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  and that thinness was survival.
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  I. If you did that, it is never too late to fix that.
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  So now that you are trying to create life, your body just
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  right now is saying, not yet.
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  I'm still catching up, but your body can catch up.
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  I say, this was so much love.
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  I have been there and I have walked.
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  Hundreds of women through this exact journey too.
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  It makes me think of one of my graduated clients that, like you had an eating
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  disorder back in high school, but by her mid thirties, even though she still
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  didn't have an active eating disorder, she was still avoiding carbs, pushing
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  herself in workouts, no matter how tired she was and wondering why her period never
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  came back after getting off the pill.
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  When we started working together, we focused on real nourishment.
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  She started eating sourdough.
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  With breakfast with zero guilt, she let herself rest like actually truly rest.
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  Uh, she began rewiring the belief that her body had to earn its worth.
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  And guess what?
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  Not only did her period come back, her ovulation returned,
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  and now she's a mom of four.
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  Healing is still possible.
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  Even if it's been years, even if it's been decades of an eating disorder
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  or disordered eating or not having an actual normal, natural cycle,
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  your body wants to bounce back.
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  Your body has your back.
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  And what I want you to take away from this episode is that you are not broken.
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  You are not too far gone.
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  You, you've forgotten.
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  You are not too late.
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  You are not.
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  The exception of someone who can't heal, but you do have to start
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  showing your body that it's safe.
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  You have to stop wishing for it and start working for it.
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  Okay, so that means eating consistently, starting with breakfast.
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  Go listen to last week's episode about the three reasons why you've
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  gotta eat breakfast for fertility.
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  If you need that reminder, this means letting go of the
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  1200 calorie a day mindset.
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  It means allowing yourself to rest without guilt and dismantling those
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  old food rules still lingering from your past eating disorder days.
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  I know you're not struggling with an active eating disorder anymore, but
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  so many of you guys are still stuck in pseudo recovery, and that needs to
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  be addressed now because guess what?
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  Fertility requires energy, ovulation demands safety, and your body will
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  not do either if it thinks it's an unsafe time to get pregnant.
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  So if this episode hit home for you, please know you don't have to keep
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  guessing or doing it alone inside of Premier Period recovery for Fertility.
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  We help you reconnect with your body, restore your cycle, and get
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  pregnant without the confusion, the waiting game, or the weight
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  of doing this all on your own.
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  You've worked so hard to be healthy.
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  Now let's redefine what that means.
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  Let's help your body feel safe enough to do what it has always been meant to do.
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  You deserve nourishment.
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  You deserve peace with food, and you deserve to become a mama
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  and a body that's well fed, well-rested, and finally freeing.
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  Thank you so much for listening to today's episode.
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  Until next time, know that a nourished body is the powerful one.
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  See you back next week.