Latest / The Cyclical Doula Podcast: Fertility Awareness, Charting Cycles, and Reproductive Health Education / Transforming Cycles with Maritza Worthington: The Power of Minerals
Transcript
- Maritza Worthington: there's a lot of suffering around symptoms that come up and insecurities that come up as women. So, you know, everything from skin breakouts, feeling fatigue, feeling like you're you're drowning and not really showing up as well as as you could be, So a lot there's a lot of like pain and and suffering that's kind of happening. underneath the water, you know, if you will, that iceberg. and I think that I would want women to know that they don't have to live in that plane, that there emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: is another option, that there are things that we can do that could be extremely powerful in terms of like wellness and also digging into the root causes of why these imbalances are coming up instead of just accepting the bare minimum ex ex accepting s sort of these shitty symptoms that that we might be experiencing that are really just taking away, slowly taking away from from quality of life, women deserve more. I think that's what I would want women to know is you deserve more, You don't have to accept suffering. emmamma: Welcome to the Cyclical Doula podcast. I'm Emma, your Cyclical Doula. I'm a certified fertility knowledge collective educator, SymtoPro instructor, and a miscarriage Doula And this show is for fertility and reproductive health education from menarch to menopause and all the different types of motherhood in between. If you're looking for a natural science-backed way to understand your cycle, manage your fertility, or simply connect with your body in a new way, you're in the right place. Each week I sit down with experts in their field so that you can walk away with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to thrive in your unique journey. Quick disclaimer, this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice or individualized charting support. The views of the guests are their own, and for specific guidance, please consult your healthcare. professionals or a fertility awareness instructor. All right, let's dive into it. Welcome back to the Cyclical Doula podcast. I'm Emma and I am so excited to have Maritza Worthington with me today, also known as the Hormone Alchemist, share a little bit more about who you are just as a human being. Maritza Worthington: Hey Emma, thank you so much for having me. So I'm Maritza, I'm a functional hormone practitioner and I specialize in women's health, specifically with preconception and also postpartum and beyond. so yeah, I'm just happy to be here and start the conversation with you and answer any questions that you, the audience, might have. yeah. emmamma: Awesome. So good. Tell me a little bit more about like how you got into this work. Maritza Worthington: So, my journey into holistic medicine, hormone health, all of that started in my early 20s. so I went through a big health scare. and basically I went to the doctors for what I thought was a UTI. I was getting chronic UTI infections at the time. And this time it was a little bit different. I was expecting like more antibiotics. but the doctor kind of was like, hmm, these UTIs are happening very frequently. And she did this like karate chop move on my back and it hurt so bad. And I'm like, And she's like, that really, you know, that really hurt you. So maybe we should dig a little bit deeper. I don't know if we should look into that further or if I should just do what I always do, which is giving you more antibiotics. And I looked at her and I had this like intuitive feeling of like, you know, let's just dig a little bit deeper because this just keeps coming up and it was clearly a cycle. And thank goodness we did because she ended up discovering that there was a blockage in my ureter tube and my kidney was literally on the verge of rupture. So I was like, okay, thank goodness I didn't get more antibiotics because that was clearly not working for me. And all of a sudden I found myself getting transferred into emergency surgery. And things happened really, really quickly. I had a fever that was skyrocketing and it was not going down. Tylenol, nothing was working. And emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: clearly that was the main problem was we needed to unclear the blockage. And it was really during that time of healing that I had the time to pause. And reflect on my life, and I had to stop school. Everything just stopped for me. And it reminds me of that quote of per a person who is well has like a thousand wishes, whereas the person who is sick only has one, and that's to heal and to get better again. And that's exactly where I was at. So during that healing time where I was just thinking about everything that had happened leading up to that surgery. I started to cancel everything that was bad for me. So I started thinking about the toxic foods that weren't serving me. And then I started to think about a lot of the medications that I was on at the time. Like I firmly believe that antibiotics, I was overdoing that. That was not helping my gut. That was not helping my kidney situation. It was starting to emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: work against me. and then that led into hormonal birth control. where I emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: had to have an honest reflection about that too. And I realized I don't feel great on this birth control pill. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: so I decided to stop that and really, really get tuned into my cycle. so that was really where it began for me. And once I started to unravel all of these things for myself, I was like, I need to do this for other people, for other women. I have to share these tools because there's so much that we can do. emmamma: That's amazing. I thanks for sharing so much of your story. And I also think like it is so valuable to see just like where some of those root causes of things that we can help our bodies with is and also just to like look at our life in in regards to our cycles, especially as women who are cycling, like how that can be so valuable because there's ebbs and flows that naturally happen and then we can kind of dig into what what takes place that isn't natural or isn't working the way that it should. Maritza Worthington: Absolutely. emmamma: Yeah. So when I I know we can talk about a whole different range of like the things that you you do within your work, but specifically I'd love to talk about minerals first if that's good with you. So what what does it mean or like look at to be either like min may let's let's start with like maybe mineral deficient. What does that look like and how does that impact the average women's day to day. Maritza Worthington: So it's a great question. I love talking about minerals. I could talk all day about them. but really it's the minerals play a huge role in our energy levels, our metabolism. they also drive all the enzymes that produce our hormones and metabolize those hormones. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: really the foundation. And there's a lot of sneaky ways that mineral deficiencies show up in our lives. I like to start with energy levels because that is like the most obvious in your face. so in terms of like if you're waking up feeling like you don't have that natural energy, that that's not really kicking in, that could be a sign that there's mineral deficiency. also like feeling wired and tired in the evening, emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: not being able to go to sleep. And it doesn't matter how many meditations, hypnosis, whatever you listen to. And your your body is just like, I can't cool down right now. And that is a sign that we have some mineral deficiencies going on. So it really can show up energetically, as emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: chronic fatigue. But also I always like to use our cycles as the North Star for women, emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: because that is a great way to tune in. How is your period showing up for you? So when you start your period, do you notice that you get migraines every time around your period? Do you notice the PMS, the cramps? is your cycle length changing? Is it too short, too long? Is Aunt Flo kind of spotty with her visits? You know, so there's a lot of wisdom that we can gain through our cycles, as you know. And a lot of those things point back to minerals because I'll give you an example. Heavy periods, that's highly correlated with iron, iron deficiency. another one that I can think of of magnesium, you know, that can emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: eventually manifest as menstrual migraines, cramps, PMS. And then just off the top of my head, you know, zinc too has a lot to do with the health of our ovulation. So not ovulating very regularly. and of course, all of these minerals, sometimes it's not just one of them. They're it's like an orchestra where they all kind of feed off of each other. So you know, it's good to get the whole picture of what that mineral, your mineral def deficiencies look like. And that's why I do a lot of testing so we can really get the whole entire view of it. emmamma: Yeah, that's so important. And I think it's so so helpful to know as you were kind of alluding to that there's there's certain guidelines of like what a healthy menstrual cycle looks like in regards to like how much blood loss you're having and how long your cycle is and how often you're bleeding and like all of these other things. And I think when we have those parameters that are kind of explicitly laid out, it's helpful to then know when we're outside of that norm and to get some of those those things that are helpful. Cause I think one of the ones that I constantly see within my work is when people don't realize how heavy their heavy periods actually are. I know that some research that I've seen has said like anything over 80 milliliters of blood loss within like however long you're bleeding is brings it to the extreme of of blood loss. And I think for many people, although that's hard to usually qualify initially. a lot of people who like especially like college students who are like I have heavy periods, like they're they're like beyond that that number. And and then they're iron deficient and they're feeling crappy overall. And but we just kind of like pass it off. So I'm a huge advocate to making sure that we're having these conversations so that these are just normal things that we're checking in on. Maritza Worthington: Right. And it's kind of interesting that like we've accepted the shitty parts of our cycle to be normal in a way, emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: like, because it's just not talked about enough. And so I think, you know, a lot of women think, I just have to deal with this, which is so wrong. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: Right. It's like, no, you don't. It's actually your body trying to communicate with you. And, you know, these things we can help and we can heal. as we get deeper into the root. And some of its deficiency, some of it is also just the adrenals need to be nourished. The thyroid is also a huge driver of the regular periods. gut health also plays a role into that, so that we can absorb all those juicy minerals. so yeah, it's important that we kind of that we tune into our bodies more holistically for that reason. emmamma: Yeah, absolutely. you mentioned some testing. What are some of the favorite ways that you like to work with your pr in within your practice of testing to look at those levels? Maritza Worthington: so I always like to, you know, assess everybody as an individual because emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: yeah, it's like I hormone, you know, imbalances look differently on every woman. And it's like I emmamma: Totally. Maritza Worthington: don't believe in a one size fits all solution. And I think that that's a lot of what like the medical system tends to base their, you know, view on things about. emmamma: Yeah, absolutely. Maritza Worthington: but I like to really just get to know the person in front of me. you know, assess and I'll send like assessments out to figure out, okay, what are the high priority needs? And from there emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: I can do gut testing, mineral testing, hormone panels. but I like to really kind of prioritize based off of like what are the top three needs. So that's always like my favorite question to ask clients is like if I was like a genie in a bottle, like what are the top three things that I could help you with? That would be life changing for you. emmamma: Mm. I think that's like such a good question to ask people because I think sometimes probably things come up that they might not be otherwise like disclosing in other medical professionals when they're coming in for just like a specific reason. I think sometimes some of those other things of like, like I wish I had more energy or I wish and you know was going to bowel movements more regularly, or maybe it's like you wish your libido was better and like that's definitely playing into all of these other things that are taking place too. And that's a great, great question to ask. Maritza Worthington: Totally. Yeah. And sometimes, you know, I I think when women are having hormone imbalance symptoms, they think, I need a hormone panel. And sometimes emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: that might not be the best entry point. you could be better off starting off with gut testing or mineral testing. I actually like emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: I usually end with hormone panel testing and I don't always start emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: there because some of these other underlying factors are just more impactful to focus on. Initially that way we can look back on the hormones as more of like a baseline after doing emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: healing. So that's just like my approach to it. But everyone's different, I know. emmamma: Yeah, I do think that's a good a good point though, because I think so often in the traditional medical western field, like we're so quick to get prescribed certain medications and all these things, which for certain situations that's very helpful to have. And also I think that that's there's this trend of like getting hormone tested and then just getting hormone replacements without diving deep into why those hormones are not producing well. and I think that has the same concept of like we're just kind of covering up and not figuring out why that's not being produced. Obviously, again, like there's a time and a place that that's helpful and can get to the root cause, but when we're when we're just kind of brushing over it, it it doesn't help with the with the base. Maritza Worthington: Totally. Like it's like I think it's good to know your baseline. And so that's the value of like hormone testing, you know, whether you do that medically or functionally. But I wouldn't say it always gets to the root of it. And I've found emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: that really, you know, diving into minerals sometimes starting there has a bigger impact than just emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: knowing your baseline initially. So yeah, to add on to your point. emmamma: Mm-hmm. So good. okay, so I have some like assumptions around what it would look like to like address mineral deficiencies. but tell me, obviously, like this is a hundred percent individualized to a a specific person, but is it typically like supplementation or Is it like a lifestyle changes? How does that kind of like generally look? again, I understand that it would be specific to an individual. Maritza Worthington: Yeah, no, it's it's a great question because I do think that sometimes what happens is women see a functional practitioner and it becomes very, very supplement heavy. emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: And I try to avoid that. I do like to have like a good hybrid of okay, let's start with the food first. Like, what does it look like to properly nourish yourself? Okay, what are those minerals that are coming up as very depleted for you? how can we get that through food first? And then what are like the supplements that are really worth supplementing with? Okay, these are just like extremely depleted. so yeah, I like to like merge a both like using food as medicine and then supplementation, but only with what's truly needed. And I I'm not a fan of like overdoing the supplements because I think that women can get really burnt out with that model. And so yeah, emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: kind of finding a happy medium between those two and also bringing in like what are those wellness activities and things that we can do to support our lifestyle? because those matter as well. So that's typically my approach. emmamma: Yeah. Yeah, and can you give us some examples of what that looks like? Again, like people should not take this as medical advice or any advice for them specifically, but just generally what some of those lifestyle or wellness changes would look like. Maritza Worthington: so for instance, like if if I'm meeting with a mom who's like just very burnt out, doesn't feel like she has any time to like relieve stress, and you know, that's clear like she's clearly in a burnout stage, and you know, there's core emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: dysregulation, all of that at play. you know, a lot of that can also involve like how do I help her slow down in such a busy day? And sometimes it doesn't have to be like an hour meditation. Like I certainly don't have time for that anymore in in this season of my life. and it can be like something super practical, like even just you know, a deep physiological sigh in the middle of your day. So that is a breathing practice where you can literally do this anywhere in the bathroom. Hiding away from your kids for a minute. And you just you take in two really deep breaths. So and then you exhale out. And that is shown to reduce cortisol very, very quickly. It's one of the fastest ways that you can bring down cortisol. so I know there's a lot of talk about the four, five, six breath. That's great too. But I love the deep physiological side because that provides a little bit more relief. And there's some really good data to back up, you know, how it supports cortisol levels as well. And it's just so simple, you know. So some of these emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: tools. They don't have to be over the top. And I'm really a fan of like making things a lot more like stupid, simple, radically like simple for women because it shouldn't be a daunting thing, right? It should be how can I bring in these tools in a way that feels doable and super yummy into my life. emmamma: Yeah, and like really practical. Like in like that breath that you just gave an example of is like such you can do that with your toddler like climbing on you, like asking for help, right? Like you can it obviously it would be better to like take a step away, but that's not Maritza Worthington: Okay. emmamma: practical for every life situation. especially Maritza Worthington: Okay. emmamma: as parents and moms. And I think like that, what a good example. And I think so my mom Did some like I think it's called like Lama's breathing for techniques for giving birth, which it sounds like a very similar breath as what you just described with that deep sigh. and I remember her saying when we were all high schoolers that she used it more with high schoolers than she ever did giving birth to all of us. And I think like but what a good example, right? Of just like like there's that. There's that time that we can just breathe and like focus on our breath and like really like help all of our body recalibrate that can be such a simple practice. and really kind of help just during our day to day. Maritza Worthington: Yeah, and I'm glad I have that in my back pocket, like for when my toddler's a teenager. emmamma: Yeah, absolutely. It'll come into practice. At least that's what my mom says. I'm just Maritza Worthington: Yeah. emmamma: kidding. Yeah, that's awesome. Hey, we're gonna be right back, but let's take a quick moment to think about something. Have you ever wished someone could just sit down with you and magically tell you when your next period is coming or exactly which days you can and can't get pregnant? This is the beauty of charting your cycle. Once you understand your cycle, it stops feeling like a random guessing game and starts feeling like a pattern that you can actually trust. And I promise it's not as complicated as it seems. Your body is already giving you all the clues. You just need someone to show you how to. That's exactly what I do. And if you want to try it, I have a free 14-day charting challenge. You'll learn the basics and start seeing your own patterns. The links in the show notes, or you can head to MMA.com slash challenge. All right, let's get back into it. well tell me a little bit more about maybe some like common misconceptions that come up within your sphere about menstrual health. that I mean that's really broad, but what comes to mind? Maritza Worthington: my goodness, yeah. As you know, there's just so many. There's so many myths and misconceptions around our menstrual cycles. you know, for starters, it's like, let's not accept that things have to be shitty, is one. emmamma: Yep, yep, love that. Maritza Worthington: yeah, so painful periods n should not be the norm, right? That's more of our body emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: trying to communicate. but something that is a little bit more astounding to me. Is the fact that most women don't know when they ovulate. So I've I've done a lot of coaching around that. and I I just find it interesting because I I think it's it's something that most women should know, but they don't, and a lot of that's not really addressed in sex ed. And you know, there's reasons why. Like I don't even think doctors bring that up. emmamma: How do they? Maritza Worthington: and it's just valuable to know. It's like, do you ovulate every single cycle? if not, then that is a sign that we need to work on the nutritional foundation and rebuilding that back up. emmamma: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's so, so important. And that's one of the things that I love talking to women about when we're tracking their cycles for either family planning or just for health is like, okay, like are you actually ovulating? Are we able to see that with the information that you're gathering? and when you're not, like you just said, like there's other things that we can do to support your body, like nutrition as a baseline, and and kind of go from there. Maritza Worthington: Absolutely. emmamma: what what else do you typically like work through? So you look at minerals and you talk to them about ovulation and menstrual health as a whole. And I think you mentioned gut health. Do you wanna share kind of how that kind of plays a role in how women are seeing their cycles and their health as a whole? Maritza Worthington: Yeah, absolutely. So you know, it's important for me to look at like the nutritional deficiencies, and that's sort of emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: like the foundation. So I like to really focus in on nutrient dense foods, nutrient dense approach, like even with supplementation. but emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: a lot of it is also deeper than that. So, you know, nourishment. I'm big on coaching my clients about nourishment, but I also like to look at health as like an iceberg. So what is underneath the water that we're not seeing? emmamma: Mm. Maritza Worthington: And that's where I dig deeper into adrenal health, thyroid, gut, you know, in even ovaries, you know, what what can we do to really help the ovaries get what they need so that they they can help with reproductive needs and whatnot. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: really metabolic stuff is everything that's underneath the water, if you will. emmamma: Yeah, that's so so helpful. I so I see many clients and I think that many of them are listeners who are kind of just in this life stage of like parenting the littles that they have and trying to either space or avoid pregnancy for right now. but I also and most of them are just kinda like getting through life and I feel like we kind of talked about what that looks like. But I also sometimes are working with people who are in that like deep postpartum, like waiting for their cycles to return. When we're in that time frame, that return to fertility is so variable based on so many different factors. But what else d have you ever touched on to kind of support those women in that postpartum timeframe? Maritza Worthington: I love this question so much because as women, we do find ourselves in different seasons. And it's important for us to honor that season because it could look radically different than it did three, five years ago. can emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: certainly relate to that, right? So five years ago I didn't have kids and my wellness routine, you know, was very different. I had like hours to spend on like the perfect morning routine. emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: And now I'm in a season where I am considered postpartum. And so, you know, I look at my wellness a lot differently. It's more of like creating pockets, windows of wellness throughout my day. So it might be spread out and that's okay. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: So I might not have hours to dedicate, right? But I can I can nourish myself in these little pockets that I've created. And those little things make me feel super good when I do them. And so I think you know, for women that are in that postpartum phase, you might not have that cycle that you can tune into. and that's okay because right now your body is saying the priority is breastfeeding. The priority is, you know, really being there for your baby and honoring that part of the journey. And there's a reason why Aunt Flow isn't showing up at that time. It's it's a good thing, you don't, you know. like for me, it's been, I think, six months without Aunt Flo, which I'm like, this is, you know, very different rhythm. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: but that's a good thing. Right now I'm fully breastfeeding my child, so that seems to be sort of the natural inclination. so I think it's important just to honor like what whatever season that you're in, and your questions might look different if you are postpartum versus like when you're cycling normal normally. So I think it becomes more about you know, a lot of hair loss can come up in postpartum for women. I know that that's something a lot of my clients mention when they're postpartum. there's a lot of also insecurity around whether you're feeding your child enough. And you know, I know hair loss, energy, fatigue. I mean, women who are breastfeeding and in that season aren't sleeping well, you know, so it's like, how can we make up for that? So it's kind of how emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: I like to look at it. It's like, okay, like let's just accept that you're not gonna have perfect sleep. It's gonna be very choppy. but how can you still nourish yourself and replenish yourself to make up for that? emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: So I I think that that's kind of been a huge thing that I've focused on, like in my postpartum, where it's like emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: it's not gonna be perfect. That's okay. Okay, that's nature, nature's doing its thing. But how can I still show up fully? How can I still fill my cup and in a way make up for, you know, what I can't control. And I think there's a lot of power in that. emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: Because it's like we can't just wait for things to be perfect. You know, we emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: don't have to. Like that's the good news is we don't have to wait. We can we could start the thing now, right? We can do the little things. You know, maybe that's a little bit of collagen in your in your matcha or your coffee, so that you don't get you know a huge cortisol spike. You know, it's like little things, getting enough protein in in your day, fitting in those micronutrients, like the minerals that we're talking. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: you know, proper hydration. it's little wins throughout the day like that, you know, and or maybe I didn't work out for an hour. Cool. I did it for 15, 30 minutes and that's something and that still counts. emmamma: Absolutely. I think that's so valuable because I think we're especially in that season of postpartum, but I think just like as women as a whole, we're kind of always holding ourselves to standards probably from societal pressure of like doing it all and getting everything to like the perfect standard of what you see on social media, of what in theory looks like an hour routine of, you know facial stuff in the morning or something. And for many of us, we're rolling out of bed and parenting right away and feeding our kids and things like that. That we don't have the time to prioritize that right away. And I think that that's but we can take those little pockets of time and get some stuff in and and that's still good and that's still beneficial. Maritza Worthington: Yeah, yeah, I mean you nailed it, Emma. Like it's just I feel like all of us women, we have this like judgy Karen that's like on our shoulder. emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: And it's like emmamma: Okay. Maritza Worthington: I I think of her as like the yeah butt girl, like, yeah, but did you do this? You could have done this emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: better, or this didn't show, you know, you you didn't do it all the way or whatever. It's the judgy Karen that we all have. And emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: instead of you know, feeling bad about that, I think it's important to acknowledge, okay, she's there, she's doing her role, which is to look after us, but she's like that helicopter mom, where it's like, I know you're looking after me, but let me try to celebrate myself and make it emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: about the journey and not just the destination. And sometimes it's like that's what it's all about is How can you still enjoy that journey of getting there? Because it's not just about getting there. It's not just about the number of scale. It's about enjoying the stops along the way and celebrating those little stops. So, like I'll give you an example. Yesterday I did Peloton. I got interrupted five times. But I did not stop. I did not stop once. But it started with emmamma: Yeah. That doesn't surprise me. Yeah. Maritza Worthington: my partner. You know, where's the thermometer again? Okay. I'm still cycling. And then it was my toddler who wants to hug me whenever I'm doing weights because it's the one time I tell her she can't hug me. Then it was emmamma: Yep, of course, of course. Maritza Worthington: like my six-month-old who's like in the mama, mama phase, like mama, mama. I'm like, yeah, hold on, hold on, I'm almost there. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: And then I think by like the middle of my cycling session, it was my little dog Bosa comes up with these puppy dog eyes and like drops the ball in front of my Peloton. And I'm just like, hell no. Like I don't have time for this. emmamma: Yeah. Yeah, right. Like you're the dog. Come on. Maritza Worthington: So yeah, you know, I still got through it. It was 30 minutes. emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: I didn't stop. And I think part of that is also like my family learning, like the boundaries around emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: it. And it's like I didn't stop once. I was like, okay, I'll get to it. I'll get to it. I still breastfed my baby at the end of it. I was like emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: ran to go breastfeed my bab baby when I was done. I had a towel off to make sure the baby wasn't getting like a mouthful of salt with with milk. So I'm like, I wonder if there's any mineral value in that, emmamma: Yeah. Probably not the worst thing, but yeah. Maritza Worthington: but by the end of it, like I actually was just so proud. Like when I was breastfeeding him, I was like, emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: what? Like I'm just proud of myself for getting through that and not stopping. And like it was all good. It was all good. emmamma: Yeah, yeah. And I think like I think that there's so much value in acknowledging the fact that for the majority of things, a twenty or thirty minute time, like most kids or partners or whatever can wait. Like obviously there's some circumstances that this would not be the case, but for the majority of time, like there's value in a kid learning, like Hey, like mom's doing this for 20 minutes and you can keep playing with your magnetiles over there or whatever. And like we'll get to it. Like this, if this is emergency, obviously, like I'm always here. But like I think there's value in showing kids that like we're taking care of ourselves or doing something that we just find fun. and see showing them that we can have that time to both work on ourselves and then also focus on them when we're done. Maritza Worthington: Yeah. And I I think about it and you know, I I think we always want to guilt ourselves as moms, but I'm like, I would want her to do the same. I would want her to prioritize her exercise, fill her cup when she is a mother one day. So emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: I think that's a very important thing to recognize for sure. emmamma: Yeah. And I think that this is a part of like that holistic view of health that's really valuable when someone like you are is working with an individual that like this c type of conversation is happening of like how can we I'm I'm assuming based on what it you're kind of leading at that there's like how can we make sure that you're getting these pockets of time to be able to support yourself or like how can we make sure that you're getting these nutrition this nut nutrients through your day to day of how we can do this with your lifestyle. And I think that those aspects of kind of retraining our brains of like we don't have to do it picture perfect, but we can do it to support our bodies really well is extremely Maritza Worthington: One hundred percent. And this is coming from a recovering perfectionist. So I feel like it's one emmamma: Yeah. Maritza Worthington: thing that I've really learned through motherhood is to have humility and accepting that like I'm not exactly where I wanna be, but I'm still doing the thing anyway. And I'm so proud of myself for being present with that in the moment. emmamma: Yeah, which is so good. I love that so much. what else do you want people to take away from our conversation and what you do? Maritza Worthington: I think there's a lot of suffering around symptoms that come up and insecurities that come up as women. So, you know, everything from skin breakouts, feeling fatigue, feeling like you're you're drowning and not really showing up as well as as you could be, right? So a lot there's a lot of like pain and and suffering that's kind of happening. underneath the water, you know, if you will, that iceberg. and I think that I would want women to know that they don't have to live in that plane, that there emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: is another option, that there are things that we can do that could be extremely powerful in terms of like wellness and also digging into the root causes of why these imbalances are are coming up instead of just accepting the bare minimum ex ex accepting s sort of these shitty symptoms that that we might be experiencing that are really just taking away, slowly taking away from from quality of life, which women deserve more. I think that's what I would want women to know is you deserve more, right? You don't have to accept suffering. And if you're in this place of like I want to have better health. I want to feel better about myself. I want to have more energy. you know, I want my metabolism to be in in a better place. You know, you can have those things. you know, I know I'm just thinking like I lost thirty-two pounds, you know, I've lost thirty-two pounds since the time I was pregnant to now. but it I've done it in a way that has felt very graceful and it's something I also coach my clients on is like Okay, it doesn't have to be this like hour, two hours, like like wellness doesn't have to be this like difficult, burdensome thing. It can be something that we can build into our lifestyles, even if you have, you know, kids, even if you have a lot of demands in your life. it can still be doable for you and you deserve that. Like you truly, emmamma: Mm-hmm. Maritza Worthington: deeply deserve that. emmamma: It's so valuable. And I think like the more that women hear this, the more that it will like get into their mind. Cause I think that that's something that like themes just keeps coming up in the guests that I speak to is just like listen to your body and then also like you deserve the care that you want and the things that you are feeling like are important and all of those things and it's so so valuable. So if you're listening, like just take a second and like know that your your value is there and that there's people out there to support you to get to the goals that you want to, even if that seems like something little. we're all we're all cheering. Maritza Worthington: Yeah, just chip away. It's doable. emmamma: Yeah, absolutely. I love that. thank you so much for being on the podcast with us. I love talking with you and I would love for other people to connect with you more. So where can people find you? Maritza Worthington: So Instagram, that's like the best place. Hormone Alchemist is the handle. I also have hormonealchemist dot com. I actually have some good freebies there if you want to check that out. emmamma: Right. Maritza Worthington: and yeah, those are the best ways. emmamma: Awesome. Great. Well, I'll put those in the show notes. I'm sure people will reach out to you and thanks so much for being here. Maritza Worthington: Thanks for having me. emmamma: Thanks so much for listening in to the Cyclical Duel podcast today. I'm so glad you were here. And if today's episode helps you feel more connected with your body, I'd love for you to share it with a friend and leave a review. It really helps this podcast reach more women like you. And if you're ready to go deeper, don't forget about my program called Matriarch. You can learn so much more about your body and pass it on to the next generation. Until next time, keep listening to your body. It's telling you so much more than you realize.