Why Weight Loss Gets Harder After 40: Cortisol, Perimenopause, Menopause and Health Debt with Bria Gadd

WEBVTT
00:00:04.074 --> 00:00:08.207
Welcome to the Cortisol Coach Podcast. If you're exhausted, gaining weight,
00:00:08.207 --> 00:00:12.677
losing your hair, your anxiety is through the roof, or the depression and emotional
00:00:12.677 --> 00:00:16.457
overwhelm have completely consumed your life, or maybe you're not showing up
00:00:16.457 --> 00:00:17.947
as the wife and mom you want to be.
00:00:17.947 --> 00:00:22.767
You've spent years never feeling good enough, taking care of everyone else while
00:00:22.767 --> 00:00:28.211
you quietly fell apart, and your body has been keeping score of every single bit of it.
00:00:28.339 --> 00:00:32.083
The chronic stress, hormonal shifts, perimenopause, menopause,
00:00:32.205 --> 00:00:35.767
whatever season you're in, cortisol is making all of it worse.
00:00:35.767 --> 00:00:38.852
And until you heal the root, nothing changes.
00:00:39.009 --> 00:00:41.497
But this show here is about to change that.
00:00:41.797 --> 00:00:45.467
I'm your host, Christine Marie, Holy Spirit-led Biblical Mindset Coach,
00:00:45.467 --> 00:00:49.697
and I have helped thousands of women heal their hormones and cortisol levels.
00:00:49.697 --> 00:00:54.147
Every week, I bring you leading experts, doctors, and coaches who will help
00:00:54.147 --> 00:00:59.017
you heal your body, mind emotions and your spirit so that you can step into
00:00:59.017 --> 00:01:02.777
every kingdom purpose that God has planned for your life so go grab your cup
00:01:02.777 --> 00:01:04.317
of coffee and let's jump in.
00:01:05.264 --> 00:01:10.807
If you had been doing all of the things that used to work and or maybe your
00:01:10.807 --> 00:01:14.867
body is just not responding, this episode is for you.
00:01:14.867 --> 00:01:18.307
You are going to want to tune in because my guest today is Bria Gad.
00:01:18.307 --> 00:01:22.817
She is a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, a holistic health coach,
00:01:22.817 --> 00:01:25.097
and a certified personal trainer.
00:01:25.097 --> 00:01:30.507
She spent over 15 years in the fitness and nutrition world helping women lose
00:01:30.507 --> 00:01:32.037
weight and get their energy back.
00:01:32.037 --> 00:01:36.527
And I know a lot of you guys are, your ears are perking up because we are women
00:01:36.527 --> 00:01:39.457
over 40 trying to take our life back.
00:01:39.457 --> 00:01:42.807
But here's the one thing I love about her story. After coaching thousands of
00:01:42.807 --> 00:01:47.927
women in their 20s and 30s, Bria started noticing something herself.
00:01:47.927 --> 00:01:53.157
The same women who used to get the results were then hitting these walls.
00:01:53.157 --> 00:01:56.027
Same effort, totally different outcome.
00:01:56.367 --> 00:02:00.017
I know you're probably shaking your head with me right now. So instead of telling
00:02:00.017 --> 00:02:04.937
them just try harder, she went and she built an actual strategy for what the
00:02:04.937 --> 00:02:06.677
female body needs in this season.
00:02:06.677 --> 00:02:11.897
She hosts The Period Whisperer, which is a top 1% wellness podcast.
00:02:11.897 --> 00:02:16.137
She has been featured on Fox News and Women's Health, and she has been on a
00:02:16.137 --> 00:02:21.867
ton of top women shows out there. Today, we're going to get into health debt.
00:02:22.187 --> 00:02:26.228
I am so excited, Bria, to have you on the show. Welcome to the Cortisol Coach Podcast.
00:02:26.524 --> 00:02:30.077
Thank you, Christine. Thank you so much for having me. And I'm going to be super
00:02:30.077 --> 00:02:34.027
bossy to your audience right now and just say you have such an amazing podcast.
00:02:34.027 --> 00:02:37.527
You put out such incredible content. So I hope everyone just puts a little pause
00:02:37.527 --> 00:02:41.757
on and go rates and reviews your show because it's really, really fabulous what you offer.
00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:46.207
Oh my gosh, thank you so much. This has been such a dream of mine because I
00:02:46.207 --> 00:02:53.847
spent eight very specific years looking for a solution to so many symptoms.
00:02:53.847 --> 00:02:57.177
I want to dive into this with you because it was a long list and then I would
00:02:57.177 --> 00:03:00.697
go to doctors and they would say, oh, let's give you this diagnosis and let's
00:03:00.697 --> 00:03:03.691
try this medication and you need to go do...
00:03:03.993 --> 00:03:09.798
More exercise and maybe cut your calories. Nobody was looking at the full body picture.
00:03:09.798 --> 00:03:14.068
Nobody asked me about my trauma. Nobody asked me about all of the pieces,
00:03:14.068 --> 00:03:20.358
nor did any of these basic testing address what I really needed to take a deep
00:03:20.358 --> 00:03:24.078
dive into. So talk to us about health debt. What is this?
00:03:24.378 --> 00:03:28.788
Yeah, I think I really started to wrap my mind around this concept of health
00:03:28.788 --> 00:03:34.278
debt when I was 37, so I'll be 45 this year. But when I was 37,
00:03:34.278 --> 00:03:36.140
as you mentioned in my bio, I had been
00:03:36.407 --> 00:03:40.735
I'd spent a lot of years helping women lose weight through exercise and nutrition.
00:03:41.075 --> 00:03:43.615
And that was wonderful until it stopped working.
00:03:44.375 --> 00:03:49.015
And, you know, for I think for a lot of women, we it can happen at any point in time.
00:03:49.015 --> 00:03:51.865
But certainly as you kind of head towards into midlife, you know,
00:03:51.865 --> 00:03:56.575
for me, things were very much like, oh, I am like gaining undeserved weight
00:03:56.575 --> 00:03:58.275
gain where you change nothing.
00:03:58.275 --> 00:04:00.995
But suddenly your leggings are tighter on your body. You know,
00:04:00.995 --> 00:04:02.505
my sleep started getting terrible.
00:04:02.505 --> 00:04:06.555
My period got a bit wonky, which was unusual for me. I had more anxiety than I'd had in years.
00:04:06.555 --> 00:04:09.525
And I was just utterly exhausted. Like my kids would always be like,
00:04:09.525 --> 00:04:13.205
oh, yeah, mom's tired again. And it was such a horrible feeling when I think
00:04:13.205 --> 00:04:16.665
back. And like you, well, for me, I went to my health care practitioner and
00:04:16.665 --> 00:04:19.293
she did all the labs and she was really wonderful.
00:04:19.508 --> 00:04:23.295
But she said, Bria, you know, you're the picture of health. And that's a pretty.
00:04:23.995 --> 00:04:25.885
I don't think she was being dismissive.
00:04:25.885 --> 00:04:28.895
I think there are many people who are dismissed by their practitioners.
00:04:28.895 --> 00:04:33.715
But for me, it was really upsetting to walk out of there and think like, Like, is this in my head?
00:04:33.715 --> 00:04:38.465
Am I crazy? And also at 37, is this the best I'm going to feel if I'm the quote
00:04:38.465 --> 00:04:39.645
unquote picture of health?
00:04:39.645 --> 00:04:43.695
Like it was it was a real little real fire under me to go looking for other answers.
00:04:43.695 --> 00:04:48.475
That was when I really started to understand the body in a different way to
00:04:48.475 --> 00:04:50.335
kind of give you that explanation of health debt.
00:04:50.335 --> 00:04:53.955
What I have really learned is that our body has an energy currency,
00:04:53.955 --> 00:04:56.845
just like money, you know, so money is our financial currency.
00:04:56.845 --> 00:04:59.235
Our body runs on energy. That's our currency.
00:04:59.555 --> 00:05:04.965
Health debt is simply the explanation of when your energy supply no longer meets
00:05:04.965 --> 00:05:06.678
your energy demand in your body.
00:05:06.829 --> 00:05:10.905
We have this imbalance, and that is health debt. And in health debt is when
00:05:10.905 --> 00:05:12.645
we start to see a lot of symptoms.
00:05:12.645 --> 00:05:18.085
And really, I think even to understand that more deeply is when we're in health
00:05:18.085 --> 00:05:21.605
debt, when the body's like, I don't have enough energy to meet these demands.
00:05:21.605 --> 00:05:25.495
And we can talk about why that is, because I think there's lots of reasons for that.
00:05:25.495 --> 00:05:29.745
It's a scary place for the body. But our bodies are beautifully designed to
00:05:29.745 --> 00:05:33.435
survive. We're over here thinking, oh, my body's, you know, working against
00:05:33.435 --> 00:05:37.235
me, breaking down, failing me, when really your body is actually thinking,
00:05:37.235 --> 00:05:38.780
okay, I don't have what I need.
00:05:39.006 --> 00:05:41.878
How do I keep this body to survive? So what am I going to do?
00:05:41.878 --> 00:05:46.478
I'm going to start by shutting down non-essential personnel and that that costs us energy.
00:05:46.478 --> 00:05:50.008
And that is our sex hormones. So this is why I think we're seeing more and more
00:05:50.008 --> 00:05:52.858
women suffering with quote unquote perimenopause issues.
00:05:52.858 --> 00:05:57.258
And that's what I thought maybe I had at much younger ages because their body
00:05:57.258 --> 00:05:59.108
is like, oh, I don't need this right now.
00:05:59.108 --> 00:06:02.108
We all remember those days, like women who couldn't get pregnant because of
00:06:02.108 --> 00:06:05.808
stress, like your body just isn't in a place to handle it. And so there goes
00:06:05.808 --> 00:06:09.098
our libido And there goes kind of our spark and our buffer and our,
00:06:09.098 --> 00:06:11.148
you know, extra energy when the sex hormones go.
00:06:11.508 --> 00:06:14.488
And then if we still haven't corrected the debt, the body says,
00:06:14.488 --> 00:06:15.918
OK, now I need to conserve.
00:06:15.918 --> 00:06:19.038
I need to conserve energy. So it slows down that metabolism.
00:06:19.038 --> 00:06:21.288
And suddenly here comes our weight gain.
00:06:21.288 --> 00:06:24.628
And again, here comes less energy coming at us. And then finally,
00:06:24.628 --> 00:06:29.248
if we don't address it, like that debt is compounding like a credit card, like 24 percent.
00:06:29.248 --> 00:06:31.798
You know, it's just compounding down there. And then the body's like,
00:06:31.798 --> 00:06:35.448
OK, well, I need to rob energy from other functions of the body.
00:06:35.448 --> 00:06:39.268
So we start to see gut health issues. We really see that cortisol flatline.
00:06:39.268 --> 00:06:43.598
You talk so wonderfully about elevated cortisol. What happens after elevated cortisol?
00:06:43.598 --> 00:06:47.098
No cortisol, low cortisol, which is even more dangerous, right?
00:06:47.098 --> 00:06:51.568
Our immune system suffers, our thyroid suffers, all of these pieces of the puzzle.
00:06:51.568 --> 00:06:55.538
And what we are taught as women, I think this is a really important one,
00:06:55.538 --> 00:06:59.568
is when our body isn't responding, we are taught, you even said it about your
00:06:59.568 --> 00:07:01.908
story, work out harder and eat less.
00:07:01.908 --> 00:07:07.928
And that is the same concept as being on a deserted island or in the Hunger
00:07:07.928 --> 00:07:11.656
Games and being told the smartest thing to do right now is go for a run on the beach.
00:07:12.056 --> 00:07:16.094
When really we should be finding shelter, finding food, nourishing our body,
00:07:16.094 --> 00:07:18.024
creating safety for ourselves.
00:07:18.024 --> 00:07:21.964
And it's just not what we have learned. But it is when you understand that you
00:07:21.964 --> 00:07:26.584
are in health debt and your body's trying to survive, it becomes a lot clearer what to do next.
00:07:26.584 --> 00:07:31.754
Well, and I feel like for a lot of us women over 40, we were raised in school
00:07:31.754 --> 00:07:37.204
with the SATs and the ASTs and the gold stars on our papers.
00:07:37.204 --> 00:07:44.906
And if you work hard enough in math, you can get sent to the the smarter class, right?
00:07:45.488 --> 00:07:51.529
And so our persistence and hardworking was so rewarded that I feel like a lot
00:07:51.529 --> 00:07:57.759
of us, to even go take a nap and rest, or at least this was me, I felt so guilty.
00:07:58.139 --> 00:08:02.359
Yes, guilt and shame. And even investing in my own health, you know,
00:08:02.359 --> 00:08:07.189
I would be fine spending money on takeout or a nice dinner for the family or
00:08:07.189 --> 00:08:08.549
buy the kids what they needed.
00:08:08.549 --> 00:08:13.649
But when it came to me, it felt so selfish. There wasn't room for it.
00:08:13.649 --> 00:08:18.729
And then like you said, our bodies are meant to protect us and sustain us and
00:08:18.729 --> 00:08:22.779
keep us breathing like our lungs breathing and our brain functioning.
00:08:22.779 --> 00:08:27.459
And so if it has to cut off your hair growth, it's going to cut your hair growth off. Yeah, absolutely.
00:08:27.979 --> 00:08:31.819
I love that you said that. I think that that whole kind of obsessed or tying
00:08:31.819 --> 00:08:36.239
our worth to our productivity that we've been trained has also, I think, highlighted.
00:08:36.819 --> 00:08:41.169
Or resulted in a challenge for women in midlife where if we understand that
00:08:41.169 --> 00:08:46.209
we need to have energy supply, energy demand, I think we recognize that a lot
00:08:46.209 --> 00:08:48.599
of our energy comes from three sources.
00:08:48.599 --> 00:08:51.429
Well, I think we recognize two sources, sleep and nutrition.
00:08:51.429 --> 00:08:54.069
We seem to understand this, whether we follow it or not.
00:08:54.069 --> 00:08:58.649
But there is like a big, unspoken, massive opportunity for energy,
00:08:58.649 --> 00:09:02.879
which is pleasure and purpose and connection to something bigger than ourselves.
00:09:02.879 --> 00:09:08.239
And that is also where many of us, I think, are starving or undernourished is in soul food.
00:09:08.679 --> 00:09:11.999
So good. Talk to me about the woman who comes to you.
00:09:12.439 --> 00:09:16.902
What does that look like? Where do they get started? Take us along that journey.
00:09:17.274 --> 00:09:22.227
Yeah. So I really love, you know, I realize that financial debt is also emotional
00:09:22.227 --> 00:09:26.587
for people, but somehow when financial debt's not the problem and physical debt
00:09:26.587 --> 00:09:31.049
is, health debt is, I think we can use the financial debt methodologies,
00:09:31.597 --> 00:09:32.857
and it feels less emotional.
00:09:32.857 --> 00:09:36.267
It feels more structured and like tangible for us, especially for those of us
00:09:36.267 --> 00:09:40.397
who, again, were raised in this land where it's like, follow the process, do the right thing.
00:09:41.097 --> 00:09:44.627
So it's very, very similar to like getting out of health debt,
00:09:44.627 --> 00:09:48.417
which again is critical because it is compounding at a massive amount.
00:09:48.417 --> 00:09:52.237
And we're out here in trying to invest our energy in things like fitness,
00:09:52.537 --> 00:09:55.557
I think, which are really, really smart investments for our future.
00:09:55.557 --> 00:09:59.477
But it's not a smart investment when it's compounding at 10% and you've got
00:09:59.477 --> 00:10:01.437
a 24% debt going down here.
00:10:01.437 --> 00:10:05.767
The real thing, I think it's like a five-step process is what I like to take my clients through.
00:10:05.767 --> 00:10:08.977
Step one is we have to, just like if you were in credit card debt,
00:10:08.977 --> 00:10:14.907
we got to look at all of the areas of our life that are sucking energy that
00:10:14.907 --> 00:10:18.067
shouldn't be, that we don't need to, that we can have some control over.
00:10:18.067 --> 00:10:21.887
For many women, I think, you know, there's just structure in our day,
00:10:21.887 --> 00:10:25.987
you know, so having structure around eating consistently for regulating our
00:10:25.987 --> 00:10:30.307
blood sugar, which is a huge frontline defense for cortisol and our sex hormones.
00:10:30.307 --> 00:10:34.677
So not skipping meals, not just eating one big meal or intermittent fasting.
00:10:34.677 --> 00:10:38.377
We really want to wake up and eat within two hours of waking and eat enough
00:10:38.377 --> 00:10:41.217
to be full for four to five hours and so on and so forth.
00:10:41.797 --> 00:10:45.047
I think a lot of women understand, okay, well, I should have like a proper bedtime
00:10:45.047 --> 00:10:47.797
routine. Kind of like, you know, we have all these things for our babies.
00:10:48.777 --> 00:10:50.289
I was just thinking that.
00:10:51.397 --> 00:10:55.337
It's like bringing everything back in our body to kindergarten basics.
00:10:55.337 --> 00:10:59.363
What do we do for our kindergartners? Well, we make sure they have regular meal times.
00:10:59.596 --> 00:11:03.897
They have regular bedtimes with like reading a story and a bath time before bed.
00:11:04.897 --> 00:11:10.483
They have regular exercise and movement and they have playtime, which is joy. Yeah.
00:11:10.836 --> 00:11:15.050
I think so. I think we understand the nutrition a bit and and the sleep like,
00:11:15.050 --> 00:11:18.480
OK, I shouldn't be watching scary things at night or staying up to all hours.
00:11:18.480 --> 00:11:22.210
But I think a big piece and I come from a personal training background.
00:11:22.210 --> 00:11:27.230
I love fitness and fully believe in it. But I do really think a big piece of
00:11:27.230 --> 00:11:32.640
low hanging fruit for women is actually pulling out of fitness for a little while and focusing on
00:11:32.982 --> 00:11:37.778
walking and restorative functional movement like yoga or mobility work until
00:11:37.980 --> 00:11:40.330
we get out of that debt and then pleasure.
00:11:40.330 --> 00:11:44.500
So sort of this initial piece of the puzzle is like, OK, how do I create space
00:11:44.500 --> 00:11:46.660
for pleasure in my, you know, in my body?
00:11:46.800 --> 00:11:50.830
And that might be like breath work or just, you know, emptying kind of the stress
00:11:50.830 --> 00:11:54.720
sludge in our body a little bit. And it's going to be different for everyone what we do.
00:11:55.180 --> 00:11:59.060
Initially, that first step is really like, how do we reduce the energy demand
00:11:59.060 --> 00:12:03.209
in your life through kind of our kindergarten basics, as we were saying.
00:12:03.447 --> 00:12:06.440
And this is one of the reasons I was so excited to have you on the show,
00:12:06.440 --> 00:12:11.730
because all of these pieces that you're talking about took me years and years
00:12:11.730 --> 00:12:15.150
and years to figure out on my own. Yeah.
00:12:15.627 --> 00:12:19.941
And trial by error or trial by fire, really.
00:12:20.261 --> 00:12:23.963
As you're just talking through those, I'm going, yes, yes, yes.
00:12:24.271 --> 00:12:28.596
But it was such a long journey. And to know that women can go to you.
00:12:29.661 --> 00:12:33.321
Collapse time, and get their life back.
00:12:33.321 --> 00:12:38.471
I feel like it's, at least it was for me, to look at women who had it all together
00:12:38.471 --> 00:12:40.921
or maybe looked like they had it all together.
00:12:41.261 --> 00:12:46.641
And to say, that's what I really want. but I have no idea how to get there.
00:12:47.201 --> 00:12:51.501
And so you offer this per se roadmap on how to get there. Yeah.
00:12:51.867 --> 00:12:55.461
Thank you. Yeah. I love this concept you share of collapsing time.
00:12:55.461 --> 00:13:00.271
I think we want to learn from each other as women. And I very much like when
00:13:00.271 --> 00:13:03.982
my body started to fall apart in what I now know as health debt,
00:13:04.400 --> 00:13:06.425
I did what I thought I should do.
00:13:06.588 --> 00:13:10.031
I set my alarm half an hour earlier, Christine. I was up at 4.30 a.m.
00:13:10.031 --> 00:13:13.600
I was doubling down on a pre-workout, jacked up on caffeine.
00:13:13.891 --> 00:13:18.471
I was pushing through an intense workout I was doing all the things that moms
00:13:18.471 --> 00:13:23.121
do and then maybe I would eat at noon like it was just this is what we're thinking
00:13:23.121 --> 00:13:28.121
is oh I again cut calories move more do this and I just everything just fell apart,
00:13:28.601 --> 00:13:33.301
at a faster pace so yes learn learn from me because if I did that and I have
00:13:33.301 --> 00:13:37.921
been in the women's wellness industry I really want to save you some time here that doesn't work.
00:13:38.701 --> 00:13:41.441
And I think most women when they really think about it when And they're like
00:13:41.441 --> 00:13:43.111
eye to eye with themselves in the mirror.
00:13:43.111 --> 00:13:46.281
If what you're doing is not working, it's time to do something else.
00:13:46.281 --> 00:13:50.851
Well, and it was interesting because even for me, you know, when you have high
00:13:50.851 --> 00:13:54.702
cortisol and then it can swing to low cortisol, you're not hungry in the morning.
00:13:55.079 --> 00:13:58.701
And you think, wow, this is great. Let's just do intermittent fasting because
00:13:58.701 --> 00:13:59.996
I'm already almost there.
00:14:00.784 --> 00:14:04.563
And now when I wake up in the morning, I'm hungry.
00:14:04.865 --> 00:14:11.365
Yes, that's a sign of health. And it's so different because I took not being
00:14:11.365 --> 00:14:15.292
hungry as a sign of strength that you can push through.
00:14:15.953 --> 00:14:19.545
And intermittent fasting may work perfectly for some people.
00:14:19.545 --> 00:14:22.071
But like you're saying, like, what is your debt?
00:14:22.274 --> 00:14:26.325
Because that matters so much. Yeah, absolutely.
00:14:26.665 --> 00:14:29.925
I completely agree with you. So step one, we kind of just, you know,
00:14:29.925 --> 00:14:31.995
take a look at, you know, it's like pulling out that credit card.
00:14:31.995 --> 00:14:34.485
Do we need the Netflix and the Hulu and the Disney? You know,
00:14:34.485 --> 00:14:37.685
like, how do we cut back some of those demands in life? Step two,
00:14:37.685 --> 00:14:42.025
I think, is really looking at kind of our energy salary. So,
00:14:42.025 --> 00:14:46.497
OK, I think sleep's a tricky one for people, especially with hormones shifting.
00:14:46.718 --> 00:14:49.715
We don't want to try to control it. That can make it harder for people.
00:14:49.715 --> 00:14:54.345
But nutrition is a huge opportunity. nutrition and looking and really our minerals,
00:14:54.345 --> 00:14:59.355
like looking at, OK, can we get are we having the right kind of food for our body?
00:14:59.355 --> 00:15:03.755
So I don't love food tracking, but I think it can be such a supportive,
00:15:03.755 --> 00:15:07.987
necessary thing to do for a couple of weeks for you to just understand, OK,
00:15:08.324 --> 00:15:13.875
how much protein versus fats versus carbohydrates keeps my body full and satisfied
00:15:13.875 --> 00:15:16.705
for four to five hours so that my blood sugar is regulated so.
00:15:17.145 --> 00:15:21.275
That nutrition is no longer the problem in my in my energy set.
00:15:21.275 --> 00:15:25.005
So I like to spend a good amount of time on customized nutrition because there
00:15:25.005 --> 00:15:27.275
is no one-size-fits-all approach for it.
00:15:27.275 --> 00:15:32.335
I mean, this is how we can see people lean and energetic on a ketogenic diet
00:15:32.335 --> 00:15:37.115
versus, you know, other people who are like glowy and dewy on a plant-based diet.
00:15:37.115 --> 00:15:39.935
And then they're the opposites of those things are true. You know,
00:15:39.935 --> 00:15:43.478
some people look ill on both of those diets. Right, right.
00:15:43.838 --> 00:15:47.183
We want to figure out what nutrition works for us. And I think that's a really
00:15:47.183 --> 00:15:50.703
important kind of like increase my salary as best as I can.
00:15:50.703 --> 00:15:53.993
And then step three, I think, is where we really dig a little deeper.
00:15:53.993 --> 00:15:58.333
And this is where, you know, as I really like to put the puzzle pieces together.
00:15:58.333 --> 00:16:03.403
So if that hasn't rectified things in steps one and two, the next piece is looking
00:16:03.403 --> 00:16:07.801
more deeply at functional lab work because you can have maybe you do have.
00:16:08.283 --> 00:16:11.163
You know, quality sleep habits and quality nutrition habits.
00:16:11.163 --> 00:16:14.683
And maybe you do have like soul food and purpose and pleasure in your life.
00:16:14.683 --> 00:16:19.343
But if we're still having issues, to me, that means the energy supply chain,
00:16:19.343 --> 00:16:23.803
the pipeline of your energy into your body has lost some function or maybe is
00:16:23.803 --> 00:16:26.163
like a kinked hose or has holes in it.
00:16:26.163 --> 00:16:29.613
And that's where I think looking at functional lab work. So as an FDN,
00:16:29.613 --> 00:16:33.583
that's a lot of what I do is we'll look at the gut and how it's breaking things
00:16:33.583 --> 00:16:34.883
down and absorbing things.
00:16:34.883 --> 00:16:39.693
We'll look at our cortisol and not just how our pattern is, but how that cortisol
00:16:39.693 --> 00:16:42.643
is clearing properly free and metabolized cortisol.
00:16:42.643 --> 00:16:46.043
We'll look at the sex hormones and how their pathways are, the thyroid,
00:16:46.043 --> 00:16:50.393
the minerals, really the whole body together, because they are not,
00:16:50.393 --> 00:16:54.320
as you were saying, you know, with whole body and you talk about that so beautifully.
00:16:54.709 --> 00:16:59.078
They're all one. They're like an orchestra. So when one instrument goes off,
00:16:59.078 --> 00:17:01.188
there's a problem with the other instruments, too.
00:17:01.188 --> 00:17:04.938
So just looking at one area doesn't give us an entire picture of really the
00:17:05.258 --> 00:17:08.508
financial forensic analysis of what's happening in your body.
00:17:08.508 --> 00:17:10.938
Do you feel like most women need that testing?
00:17:11.538 --> 00:17:15.838
I do. I think a clear way to tell it is if you do steps one and two and you
00:17:15.838 --> 00:17:17.888
still don't feel great, there's your answer.
00:17:17.888 --> 00:17:21.650
And if you can't do steps one and two, like you can't even get there,
00:17:21.819 --> 00:17:23.448
I think that's a really clear sign.
00:17:23.448 --> 00:17:27.478
But I find, you know, most women want to be not just good, but great.
00:17:27.478 --> 00:17:31.228
You know, we want to be vibrant and optimized. And for me, functional lab work
00:17:31.228 --> 00:17:36.078
gives us, even if we're feeling okay, it helps us optimize our unique
00:17:36.418 --> 00:17:39.938
body and what it's saying to us and the experience it's bid under that maybe
00:17:39.938 --> 00:17:44.138
has sucked down its vital reserve or its energy bank account in life.
00:17:44.938 --> 00:17:50.708
I also find that it helps my clients be very compliant, you know,
00:17:50.708 --> 00:17:54.568
so when you can look at your labs and you have someone who can say,
00:17:54.568 --> 00:17:59.132
this is exactly why you're feeling that way. And here's what we can do to get out it.
00:17:59.509 --> 00:18:03.088
When you have women that are so busy doing all of the things,
00:18:03.088 --> 00:18:06.158
now they have a roadmap where they no longer have to be like,
00:18:06.158 --> 00:18:07.288
well, maybe I should try that.
00:18:07.288 --> 00:18:10.968
Or maybe I should try this. Or maybe what she did will work for me and have
00:18:10.968 --> 00:18:14.438
this supplement graveyard of supplements all over our house that we don't end
00:18:14.438 --> 00:18:15.978
up using or maybe don't even need.
00:18:15.978 --> 00:18:20.888
So I do find that it is one of the most powerful things that you can do for
00:18:20.888 --> 00:18:24.618
yourselves. Most of my clients will repeat them annually because it's like a
00:18:24.618 --> 00:18:27.257
nice, like, let's keep things on track once we're out of debt.
00:18:28.498 --> 00:18:32.778
I'm such a believer in testing. I mean, my husband and I, we went out to dinner
00:18:32.778 --> 00:18:35.974
last weekend and I know gluten.
00:18:36.322 --> 00:18:41.418
I don't have an allergy to gluten, but I know how it makes my body feel and it's not good.
00:18:41.818 --> 00:18:46.508
And I was like, we're just going to have the pasta. It was from this super clean
00:18:46.508 --> 00:18:49.099
restaurant, right? Like homemade pasta, whatever.
00:18:49.738 --> 00:18:56.020
And within 10 minutes, my sinuses are congested and I feel like I knew it was
00:18:56.020 --> 00:19:00.780
coming, right? But it's like this information that you can get with testing.
00:19:01.780 --> 00:19:07.880
I can better plan. That's not a regular occasion for me. But I know how my body's
00:19:07.880 --> 00:19:09.638
going to respond as well.
00:19:10.549 --> 00:19:15.690
Yeah. And I don't wander around going, man, my joints kind of hurt today.
00:19:15.690 --> 00:19:18.480
I wonder why. Well, I know exactly why they hurt.
00:19:19.720 --> 00:19:25.480
I just poisoned them yesterday. But then, you know, you can go into these experiences
00:19:25.480 --> 00:19:31.697
going, I'm going to have this experience, but I also know how to get my body back to base level.
00:19:32.340 --> 00:19:37.830
And I also know what are what am I supposed to be eating? What is best for my
00:19:37.830 --> 00:19:43.671
body? And I feel like without this testing, you're really just kind of flying blind in so many areas.
00:19:44.054 --> 00:19:47.180
Yeah, that's why we say tests don't guess. Because the thing is,
00:19:47.500 --> 00:19:50.579
when you talk about obviously shrinking a timeline for people,
00:19:50.811 --> 00:19:56.660
that is what testing does, I think, is that after all of the flying blind that people do, I mean,
00:19:57.060 --> 00:19:59.110
what a waste of time and money that is for us.
00:19:59.110 --> 00:20:03.470
So if we can streamline that for ourselves, because everybody is different.
00:20:03.470 --> 00:20:08.480
There's no one-size-fits-all approach. What got you here is going to be different than anybody else.
00:20:08.980 --> 00:20:12.412
100%. So the final two steps, I always say step four is, you know,
00:20:12.795 --> 00:20:16.180
a lot of people at that point are feeling a lot better. And so they want to
00:20:16.540 --> 00:20:21.640
jump right into, you know, I think fitness and kind of the money, the like sexy stuff.
00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:27.070
Yeah. But I really think it's so critical to kind of bulletproof the results
00:20:27.070 --> 00:20:32.300
that you have by looking at your environmental toxins. Like, can we reduce that load?
00:20:32.640 --> 00:20:35.764
And also really taking some time to look at soul food.
00:20:36.130 --> 00:20:41.163
You know, is there work I need to do? Like, do I need to invest some of this energy into
00:20:41.337 --> 00:20:44.558
marriage counseling or into being a better parent, if that's what I need,
00:20:44.558 --> 00:20:49.558
or into finding purpose and pleasure for myself or going to therapy because
00:20:49.558 --> 00:20:51.641
I have things from the past that I need to address?
00:20:51.914 --> 00:20:56.108
Let's spend that energy there so that those things don't become a big energy
00:20:56.108 --> 00:21:00.917
suck or stressor for you later. So I think that's such a critical step that a lot of us skip.
00:21:01.190 --> 00:21:06.288
And yet it can buy you so much more energy supply and vital reserve in a body
00:21:06.288 --> 00:21:09.808
to handle these more stressful times so that when that cortisol comes up,
00:21:09.808 --> 00:21:11.228
it doesn't stay up forever.
00:21:11.228 --> 00:21:14.078
It kind of comes back down when it's supposed to. And then finally,
00:21:14.078 --> 00:21:18.640
step five is when I think we invest. So at that point, we should have an energy surplus.
00:21:18.854 --> 00:21:21.908
And now we get to take that energy surplus and invest it in.
00:21:22.082 --> 00:21:24.548
I definitely think people should be investing it into fitness.
00:21:24.548 --> 00:21:27.898
I think putting on lean muscle is one of the best things you can do for your body.
00:21:28.338 --> 00:21:31.868
And that's the time to do it because one, you will actually get results.
00:21:31.868 --> 00:21:36.258
Like there's nothing worse than spending, you know, 30 to 45 minutes a day pushing
00:21:36.258 --> 00:21:39.948
yourself through a workout in a gym and not getting any results after a couple of weeks.
00:21:39.948 --> 00:21:43.458
Nobody likes to waste their time, I find. So that's the time I think we do that.
00:21:43.458 --> 00:21:47.948
And that's also when we can, you know, play with biohacking things and see what works for you.
00:21:47.948 --> 00:21:51.638
Like peptide therapy or, you know, other fun biohacking things,
00:21:51.638 --> 00:21:56.318
if that's something you want to do. Right. I love it. And it's just so amazing
00:21:56.318 --> 00:21:59.108
because I'm like, oh, yeah, I did that and I did that and I did that.
00:21:59.108 --> 00:22:01.067
And so I'm going back in my journey.
00:22:01.224 --> 00:22:05.888
And the fact that you can just take women through this is incredible.
00:22:05.888 --> 00:22:09.118
I mean, I know for me, it's, you know, improved my marriage.
00:22:09.118 --> 00:22:11.147
It's improved my relationship with my kids.
00:22:11.292 --> 00:22:16.064
And most people think, oh, well, it's just weight loss. And it's not.
00:22:16.853 --> 00:22:22.088
We have a full body, mind, body, spirit. And when you address all of them in
00:22:22.088 --> 00:22:27.938
a systematic way, like what you have built, it's life changing.
00:22:28.409 --> 00:22:33.834
Yeah, I really believe women are magic. And, you know, that magic gets really
00:22:33.834 --> 00:22:39.044
sucked out of us when we're too consumed by the fact that we don't feel good in our body.
00:22:39.044 --> 00:22:42.734
And as you say, like health is it's holistic. It is body, mind and soul.
00:22:42.734 --> 00:22:47.284
That's what gets us somewhere. And when you are healthy, the body typically
00:22:47.284 --> 00:22:51.464
releases unwanted weight anyway. It settles into a place like if you're doing
00:22:51.464 --> 00:22:53.306
the right things for your body, if you're happy.
00:22:53.446 --> 00:22:56.674
I mean, usually we settle into a place where like, oh, I'm not even thinking
00:22:56.674 --> 00:22:58.754
about my body except to maintain it,
00:22:59.254 --> 00:23:03.594
in a healthy way, which I think is for me where I'd love to be because it's
00:23:03.594 --> 00:23:08.674
a real energy suck in all aspects of our life, our relationships, our motherhood.
00:23:09.494 --> 00:23:13.634
Our ability to accomplish all the great things we want to in this world when
00:23:13.634 --> 00:23:15.344
we are not feeling our best.
00:23:15.344 --> 00:23:19.024
Well, and I think back to like all the things that I said, you know,
00:23:19.024 --> 00:23:21.384
all those dreams you have like tucked away,
00:23:22.034 --> 00:23:25.714
that you feel like there's no time for because you were, I mean,
00:23:25.714 --> 00:23:28.734
my kids, you were talking about your kids and what they, you know,
00:23:29.417 --> 00:23:30.524
how they used to refer to you.
00:23:30.524 --> 00:23:34.444
And like my kids used to call me Dory, like that little blue fish,
00:23:34.444 --> 00:23:37.014
because I could not remember anything.
00:23:38.014 --> 00:23:42.574
And I was like, that was so funny. It's so cute. And then I was like, that's awful.
00:23:43.018 --> 00:23:47.314
Like and because i really couldn't remember and they would say mom we told you,
00:23:47.891 --> 00:23:51.344
and then i would write it down and then i would forget where the piece of paper
00:23:51.344 --> 00:23:53.493
was and then i'd set alarms and,
00:23:54.074 --> 00:24:02.334
it was i was trying to survive and you know my daughter said the other day you
00:24:02.334 --> 00:24:06.421
know she's 19 now all my kids are adults oh my gosh and she said,
00:24:07.194 --> 00:24:10.975
You just used to be so tired all the time. That's all I remember about you as
00:24:10.975 --> 00:24:15.845
a mom. And I was like, oh, just gutting. And so for me, I'm like,
00:24:15.845 --> 00:24:20.048
if there are moms, I know I was a younger mom and so my kids are older now.
00:24:20.389 --> 00:24:23.545
There's a lot of moms in their 40s who still have littles.
00:24:24.236 --> 00:24:32.004
And I feel like that's more of the norm now. And if you can take that time back with your kids.
00:24:32.828 --> 00:24:41.005
And invest in your health, your healing, and how you live in your body, I mean,
00:24:41.709 --> 00:24:44.821
it's honestly, it changes generations.
00:24:45.082 --> 00:24:49.365
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think you brought up like a really great point just simply
00:24:49.365 --> 00:24:55.695
around how as moms, we often are sacrificing ourselves for our children.
00:24:55.695 --> 00:24:59.937
But I think we have to ask, like, would I want this life for my child?
00:25:00.169 --> 00:25:05.055
Do you want your daughter to grow up and just be constantly sacrificing herself as well?
00:25:05.055 --> 00:25:07.945
Because that's what she sees when that's what you're doing.
00:25:07.945 --> 00:25:12.365
Whereas if you can carve out a little bit of time every day just for you,
00:25:12.725 --> 00:25:14.705
that's what she's going to think is normal.
00:25:14.705 --> 00:25:18.835
And that's what your sons are going to think is normal for women partners or
00:25:18.835 --> 00:25:19.905
the women in their lives.
00:25:19.905 --> 00:25:25.355
And I think that's a really important piece to recognize is how much productivity
00:25:25.355 --> 00:25:30.295
there actually is in rest. So much so. And even if you are like me and your
00:25:30.295 --> 00:25:32.345
kids are grown up and they're out of the house,
00:25:32.920 --> 00:25:37.544
You can still take that time back and collapse it because that's exactly what
00:25:37.544 --> 00:25:38.969
I'm doing with my kids now.
00:25:39.497 --> 00:25:43.674
And we are restoring those years. And you can't get them back,
00:25:43.674 --> 00:25:47.044
but you can change the dynamic and you can change the memories.
00:25:47.044 --> 00:25:48.274
You can make new memories.
00:25:49.134 --> 00:25:54.944
I am just so thankful that you are on this show today and sharing all of this with our audience.
00:25:55.112 --> 00:26:00.944
If you were to leave one last piece of advice or knowledge or blessing with
00:26:00.944 --> 00:26:03.214
our audience, what would you say to them? Yeah.
00:26:03.594 --> 00:26:07.744
I think one of the most important things that really changed my perspective
00:26:07.744 --> 00:26:12.134
was this idea of be more in your life and not just less on a scale.
00:26:12.134 --> 00:26:16.124
I think we, in the culture we've been raised in as women, we've really been
00:26:16.124 --> 00:26:18.147
pushed to take up less space.
00:26:18.280 --> 00:26:22.814
You know, be smaller, you know, don't ruffle feathers, take up less space.
00:26:22.814 --> 00:26:28.644
And yet in the process of physically being smaller, we shrink ourselves.
00:26:28.644 --> 00:26:32.854
If you can start to think about what is going to help me take up more space today,
00:26:33.214 --> 00:26:37.304
I think that that is often just, you know, whether that's in,
00:26:37.304 --> 00:26:40.804
you know, speaking your truth and your heart so that that, you know,
00:26:40.804 --> 00:26:43.461
that sets you lighter and makes you lighter, whether it's
00:26:43.815 --> 00:26:48.934
eating in a way that helps you feel energized, whether that's working out and making you stronger.
00:26:48.934 --> 00:26:53.115
When we take up more space and focus on being bigger instead of smaller,
00:26:53.358 --> 00:26:56.324
we actually get, I think, exactly what we're looking for as women.
00:26:56.324 --> 00:27:01.334
It's so wonderful. Well, make sure you can find Bria. Bria, tell our audience
00:27:01.334 --> 00:27:05.357
where can they find you because you are in so many places. Yeah, thank you.
00:27:05.711 --> 00:27:08.994
Well, come check out the Period Whisperer podcast, especially if you want to
00:27:08.994 --> 00:27:12.744
specifically focus on perimenopause and menopause, as that's my real jam.
00:27:12.744 --> 00:27:15.984
Anywhere you get your podcasts or probably the easiest place is just to go to
00:27:15.984 --> 00:27:19.014
my website, briatheperiodwhisperer.com.
00:27:19.314 --> 00:27:22.444
And from there, you can find all of the socials, all of the things and all this.
00:27:22.444 --> 00:27:26.724
Wow i have had such a good time with you here today so thank you so much for
00:27:26.724 --> 00:27:30.672
being on the show and please make sure that you go connect with bria.
00:27:31.228 --> 00:27:36.750
And if you are looking to truly collapse time and not spend all the years that
00:27:36.750 --> 00:27:42.710
I spent wasting trying to find all the solutions on your own, go.
00:27:43.270 --> 00:27:48.940
Connect with Bria and link arms with her so that you truly can step into everything
00:27:48.940 --> 00:27:53.540
you are called to be, you are meant to be, and walk out those dreams that you
00:27:53.540 --> 00:27:56.388
have in your heart. And until next time, we will see you guys later.
00:27:59.273 --> 00:28:02.930
Friend i am so thankful that you are here today i pray this episode blessed
00:28:02.930 --> 00:28:06.610
you big time and if it did would you do me a favor and leave me a review on
00:28:06.610 --> 00:28:10.760
apple podcasts it helps more women just like you find the show and it may be
00:28:10.760 --> 00:28:13.664
the very reason that somebody else gets the answers that they need
00:28:13.908 --> 00:28:17.230
i would also love to connect with you personally on instagram you can find me
00:28:17.230 --> 00:28:21.110
by searching cortisol underscore coach that's where i show up every single day
00:28:21.110 --> 00:28:24.664
and send me a dm i would love to connect with you i'll see you next time.