How To Deal With Hormonal Imbalances w/ Jessica Suchan

00:00Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask for you to do is if you could leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else. I know it is stressful to think about making all these changes, but it's one little action step at a time. And a lot of these things that we can shift and change are going to drastically improve the way you feel and actually make your life easier and not harder.

00:38What's up, everybody? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show. And in today's episode, I am thrilled to welcome Jess Sukan, a board-certified holistic health coach and a graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Jess, who overcame her own hormonal imbalances, now focuses on guiding others towards a holistic wellness and balance.

01:10And we were going to have her mom on today too as well because they're like a dynamic duo, but that unfortunately didn't work out. We'll definitely have Candice back on. But together, if you guys look into who they are and what they're all about, they bring a powerful combination of expertise and personal experience in hormone health and holistic living. So I'm excited, though, to have Jess on here and dive in and explore her journey, her insights. Jess, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me, Nikki. I love your podcast. I'm excited to be here.

01:42Cool, cool, cool, cool. All right, well, let's dive right into it. So how, first and foremost, which we're going to get to your story in a little bit, but I want to know because this is something that so many of our listeners struggle with. It's stress, dealing with stress, dealing with lifestyle and how, you know, diving in, how does stress, how does lifestyle choices influence hormonal imbalances? And what are like common symptoms that women of all ages might experience, such as like weight loss, resistance, low libido, mood swings?

02:13Can you elaborate a little bit on that? Totally. Yes. So stress is obviously running rampant, I feel like, in our modern day world. And I often hear from clients that it's almost, and I felt this way, too, that it's almost stressful when the recommendation is to reduce stress. It like adds another layer of stress. Like, how am I supposed to reduce stress? I've got kids, I've got a job, I've got all of these things that I have to do. And so to then on top of it, be told in order to balance my hormones and improve my symptoms,

02:45I have to reduce stress. And so then there becomes this anxiety around that. And so first and foremost, I like to start by saying that stress is not just emotional stress. It's not just, okay, you know, I got fired from my job, or I'm on a deadline, or this rush hour traffic sucks. I'm going through a breakup. Like, of course, that is stress. But stress comes and forms both physical, emotional, and when it comes to our nutrition as well. So other forms of stress might come from your diet,

03:18and we don't think about that. But are you skipping meals, going way too long between, you know, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, cutting calories too drastically, going into a calorie deficit that's too drastic for your body? Are you eating a lot of processed foods and sugar and alcohol? These are all stressors on the body. In addition to what's your caffeine intake like? Are you waking up in the morning, you're exhausted, which we'll talk about the hormonal connection to that, you hit the snooze

03:50alarm five times, and then you rush the coffee pot, because you need it to be able to power you through the day? If that's you, that's a sign that, you know, your body is under a lot of stress, and potentially that your adrenal glands, which produce cortisol, this master stress hormone level, are flatlining in the morning, and they need some support. Our cortisol levels should be at their highest point in the morning to help us get out of bed with energy. And then they should gradually taper off,

04:22but not to low levels throughout the day, just gradually, because you still want that energy. And then they should hit their lowest point at night to help you sleep. And oftentimes, we see the opposite, where women are flatlining in the morning. So that's an area that I talked about, and then their cortisol levels are very low in the morning. And then at night, they sort of come alive. So they might be extremely tired physically and ready for bed. But as soon as their head hits the pillow, their brain is racing, it's that tired but wired feeling, and they struggle to actually fall

04:56asleep and stay asleep, which is a sign that cortisol levels are probably very high instead of low at night. We often also see cortisol levels that are flatlined throughout the day. So they should be gradually tapering off, but we can sometimes see them low all day, which can translate to really low energy throughout the entire day. And so when we get up, and we start our day from a place of stress, meaning that we hit the snooze alarm five times, we're racing out of bed, we don't have any morning rituals, we're checking our phone right away, we're looking at Instagram, we're maybe not getting

05:30enough likes on our posts that evokes another stress response. Our kids need something from us, we're trying to like frantically make them breakfast. So as a result, we skip our own breakfast. And then we have black coffee on an empty stomach, we're not eating again until noon. And the only reason why we're eating is because we're crashing and all of a sudden we're hangry. And then we're grabbing whatever's close and convenient. And oftentimes, that's not a balanced meal. So then your blood sugar levels are imbalanced. And that's another hit to your cortisol and your adrenals. And so when we talk about stress, it's not just these like emotional stressors. It's all of

06:06what I'm describing. It's I truly believe that the way you start your day sets in motion a ripple effect for the rest of how your day goes and the rest of how your choices go as well. And so, you know, one and we can get into tips later. But like one quick tip I always give is I'm not going to take away your coffee. But please try to drink eight ounces of water, wait 30 minutes, and then pair your coffee with a full meal. And I can also get into what I would consider to be like a full balanced meal and how

06:37to build that with a full meal or ideally after. So that way, you can better balance your blood sugar levels because blood sugar impacts cortisol, and vice versa. And that's going to set you up to not go through those severe crashes to be in a more kind of calm present state, so that you're able to start your morning have the energy that you need to actually like, make a breakfast for your kids, like not feel extremely stressed when you open your laptop once you get to work, have that cognitions

07:09that you're able to come up with ideas and a brainstorm session. And so if we go throughout the rest of the day, there's other stressors that can pile on, maybe you hit that 3pm slump, which can be because your cortisol levels are dropping along with your blood sugar levels. And that 3pm slump leads you to the coffee machine or to get a soda or to get an energy drink. And that's another stressor on the body. And then maybe you're also grabbing a pastry to go along with it. We see this

07:41all the time Starbucks line is out the door at 3pm people's blood sugar levels are crashing. So then that's those sweets are another hit to your stress levels. And if you're not pairing that pastry with protein, then again, that's gonna, you know, spike your blood sugar levels. So then maybe we get off work and we're like, I got to fit in a workout. So we go and do a HIIT training workout. And that's adding more stress. And then all of a sudden, we're wired, and we're anxious, and then we can't sleep at

08:13night. So it is like this cycle. And I mean, I could give even more examples. But these are some of the common ones that I see. And then, you know, often too, I hear, you know, I eat so healthy throughout the whole day, but I got to have my wine at night to wind down. So then you're adding alcohol right before bed, and alcohol impacts your sleep and impacts your hormone levels, your estrogen, your progesterone balance, and your cortisol. So when we talk about reducing stress, it's nutrition,

08:45it's lifestyle, it's exercise. And Nikki, I know you're passionate about this, too. Like we got to get women off of doing so much high intensity cardio, and doing more strength training. And we can talk about like the benefits from a hormonal perspective of strength training. But like these little tweaks and changes that we can make add up. Other stressors can also be like endocrine disruptors. So what we call xenoestrogens, or fake estrogens are these chemicals that are found in beauty supplies,

09:19household products, plastics, even hormonal birth control can be an endocrine disruptor, basically disrupts your natural hormone production. And if we're lathering on lotion in the morning, that has these chemicals in it, then we're putting the makeup on our face that has the chemicals in it, then we're drinking our water, trying to be healthy, like drinking all our water at the gym, from a plastic bottle that's maybe been sitting out in the sun and leaching more chemicals in there. That what happens is that these endocrine disrupting chemicals, like you've probably heard of like parabens and

09:53phthalates and fragrance, they kind of act like estrogen in the body, which is the female hormone. And they try to go into the receptor sites of the cells and open up the cell door, pretending to be like estrogen. But because the key doesn't fit into the door lock, the same way that our natural estrogen would, it goes in and it wreaks havoc, and it starts to increase our natural levels of estrogen. And when that happens, we can have an estrogen and progesterone imbalance where estrogen

10:24is dominant to progesterone. And that can cause a whole host of symptoms as well. So reducing these endocrine disrupting chemicals, switching to cleaner products, that can help reduce stress as well. So there's so many places that we can go with this, but it's not, you know, I know it is stressful to think about making all these changes, but it's one little action step at a time. And a lot of these things that we can shift and change are going to drastically improve the way you feel and actually

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12:00Damn, mic drop. That was a lot, Jess. No, I appreciate you explaining, elaborating, and really talking it to it at like a understanding level, and then also backing it with that science that you did. It was really good to unpack a few of those things. First and foremost, like I'm taking down notes too as well. I'm like, okay, when I first get up in the morning, I'm one of those people that typically will have my coffee, but I'm always like, I got to drink water with it. So reminding myself to drink that like eight ounces of water out of the gate. So you mentioned like there at the end,

12:32you're like, there's a couple of things. It sounds like there's a lot that people would like, you know, start to consider and the wheels are turning and light bulbs are going off. Like we're definitely hearing more of these things that you're mentioning, especially like when it comes to the chemicals and the deodorants, the lotions, like the things that we're using on our body. And people could be like, okay, I need to start thinking about what I'm going to change. Pinpointing that and we'll circle back to it. But one thing you did mention when we were talking about like the coffee and the stress, and when you're immediately waking up, you're flatlining with

13:04the cortisol. And this goes on throughout the day, you were mentioning in there, the meal, right? Like how to start, how to start your day off with like a balanced meal. What, what for the viewers, like, what would you recommend for someone who wakes up in this like, almost like flight or flight, fight or flight mode and like, go, like, it's like, go, go, go, go, go. What would you to like, you know, what would you recommend for them to, to take a second to, you know, take five, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, right? Cause it may be hard for somebody to be

13:40like, I got to focus on like a half an hour to an hour of my time when like, there's someone that's like, go, go, go. And a lot of people, what I want them to do is eat in the morning, right? Like I'm big on like, eat, please. Like, you know, it's really important. What is a meal that you would recommend without that being said? Yeah, no, that's a great question. So I work with a lot of clients and primarily moms. It's not what I, it's not my specialty. It just happened that way. And I work, you know, I work with like 80, 90% moms and these moms are very busy. It's exactly what you're

14:10describing. Like an hour long routine sounds luxurious, but not possible. And so it's figuring out kind of how to meet yourself where you're at. So, um, I usually recommend something quick, something simple, having maybe two to three rotating breakfast per week. I think that when we try to overcomplicate it and try like a new breakfast every day, not only does that add up and get expensive, but that can become overwhelming and you can fall off of it. If you have, I mean, honestly, I could eat the same breakfast every day. I love my breakfast, but I'll switch it up,

14:42you know, maybe every other day and maybe I'll switch it up by adding like a different nut butter or like a different protein, but it's essentially the same base. So I would recommend having one to two rotating breakfast that you really love that you could maybe make little swaps to, but keep it super simple because you're going to be more consistent. And usually what I recommend at every meal is starting your meal with protein, which I know you would agree with and building, making protein, the focal point and building everything else around the protein. So I do a

15:16lot of like food tracking with clients and I'll review their, their macro tracking, their food tracking. When they first start working with me, I have them track for seven days and I review it and I say, don't change anything. I just want to see what you're doing before you, before we build anything out. Most of them tell me they eat a good amount of protein. Most of them are eating about half to 75%, which would be good on the better end of the protein that they really need to be fueling their

15:47energy levels, their workouts, weight loss, hormones, liver function. And so, and a lot of people are really hungry throughout the day, snacking a lot and protein is the most satiating macro as well. So we start by immediately increasing their protein to at least 30 grams per meal and then complementing that. And it's going to be different dependent on the person and their physique goals, but at least one serving of anti-inflammatory healthy fats. So that's going to be something like avocado,

16:18nuts and seeds, nut butter. And then, you know, one to two servings of carbohydrates and making sure that you're getting a fiber source and some type of fruit or vegetable. So what that could translate to would be one thing I do every single morning. I make a protein latte and this would be a great hack for those of you who are drinking coffee and you're like, I still want my coffee, but I know I need to pair it with breakfast. So what I do is I take a cup and a half of almond milk. I put it in a

16:48blender. I add a scoop of protein powder and then I add, I don't drink coffee, so I'll add chai, like a chai mix, but you could add an espresso shot and then maybe some like, you know, cinnamon and then I'll blend that up. And then I heat it up on the stove and I have this like frothy, delicious protein latte that has like 25 grams of protein in it. You can take that sip on that while you're driving to work and maybe pack with you, you know, some toast and avocado. So then when you get to work still within

17:22that same hour, you're having the toast and avocado. So you're balancing your blood sugar levels because you've started with protein and then you're making up that toast and avocado or toast and nut butter and, you know, whole grain toast that would give you some fiber. The avocado is going to give you a lot of fiber too. Um, the nut butter will give you a little bit more protein and some healthy fats. So that's one of my go-tos and I have a lot of clients who have started doing that and they absolutely love it and look forward to it. So that's one. Yeah. And then, and then of course you

17:58could do like, I know a lot of people who work out in the morning, they like to do a smoothie. Um, so smoothies are easy because you can throw in the scoop of protein powder. You can throw in, you know, frozen berries. You can throw in actually frozen avocado makes your smoothie really creamy. Um, or you could throw in like frozen cauliflower sounds weird, but it gives it a creamy texture without changing the flavor, put in like maybe some nuts in there, just make yourself a good size smoothie. I think that women are afraid to eat too much in the morning. And so what they do is they end

18:31up eating, you know, 100 or 200 calories, grabbing a protein bar, a couple of eggs, and they think that'll save them calories. But what ends up doing is they're crashing later on. And then they end up either binging, binge eating at night or eating snacks throughout the day that add up to so much more than they would have eaten if they would have just had a big breakfast that was balanced with the protein, the fat, the fiber. So, you know, smoothies are great, but what I will say, and I've noticed this with a lot of clients, including myself, for some reason, no matter how much you pack a smoothie,

19:06they don't necessarily keep you as full for as long as sitting down to a breakfast. We're actually chewing your food. And I think a lot of that has to do with the digestive enzymes that you're producing when you're chewing, that you're not when you're eating a smoothie, drinking a smoothie. So with your smoothie, just making sure it's substantial. And maybe you could even add some like cacao nibs on top, something that you kind of have to chew on to stimulate those digestive enzymes as well. Those are great recommendations. Thanks so much for sharing. And I wanted to

19:36pinpoint in there too, when you mentioned how women just like grab protein bars and like go, and then like they end up crashing later on the day because they don't have the full nutrients. And I'm sure you would agree with this, but also like tons and tons of protein bars are just processed. Yeah. Processed crap essentially. And you're not getting the full on, you know, nutrient sources. Even the protein isn't a true protein source majority of the time. So yeah.

20:07It sucks. I wish that there were better protein bars. It's like, how has not, how have more brands not come out and made whole food protein bars that actually have protein in them? Because the ones that our whole food have like seven grams of protein and they're not even a protein bar, you know? And it's like the protein bars that have 20 grams of protein, unfortunately are more processed. And I, I like them. Like I have them myself, but I use them as more of like, okay, really I'm on the go today or I want a treat. Like I feel like a chocolate bar or something. So I'm going to have like this

20:40protein bar instead, which would be a better option. But I think not relying so heavily that your snack every single day is protein bar or in the morning, because that can mess up your gut, especially if it's got all these like preservatives and additives in it. And then that can stimulate, you know, other issues. So obviously completely whole foods diet would be amazing, but totally impossible for most of us. We need packaged foods. We need things that are quick and easy on the go. But I think as much as you

21:12can make quick, simple meals that literally take five minutes to put together, it's really not that much extra time than just grabbing a protein bar and you're going to be so much more satiated. 100%. Cool. Let's switch gears a little bit here. I want you to, um, cause I know this is like your area of expertise. Can you break down these, like you mentioned, um, like single or cycle syncing, single, I don't know where that was coming from. I like that. I can't even say it. Try to say that. Um, can you break down the four phases of our menstrual cycle? I know this is like

21:47a, such a common question too. I've seen this so many times throughout our community and so many times of, uh, being DM'd on social media, like, would you ever change up your nutrition and like your workouts around your cycle? So, you know, this is your area of expertise. So I would love you to dive in on that. How would you during our menstrual cycle and the four phases, how would you sync your nutrition, your, your workouts, your habits, like with like the way to optimize for results and hormonal health too, as well. Hey, Hey, just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening

22:17to the show. It means a lot. I hope you guys are enjoying it and there's so much more to come with it. If you are enjoying it, hit the subscribe button. I'd appreciate that tons. And also it would help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too. Totally. So this is something that I've become super passionate about the last two years of my coaching. I've been coaching for seven years now, and I wish that I knew about this earlier, but it wasn't even a thing earlier. It was coined and created by Elisa Vitti, who's also, um, an Institute for Integrative Nutrition graduate,

22:51which I am too. And she is this amazing health practitioner. She specialized in hormones. She wrote the book in the flow, which basically dives into the cycle syncing method, which she created. I love her book. I recommend it to people all the time. But one thing that I noticed when I read it myself was that I kind of felt a little overwhelmed after reading it and diving into it, because it gives you a list of foods to eat during each phase of your cycle and ways to exercise that weren't necessarily in alignment with how I liked to exercise. And it also felt like, how am I supposed to

23:26keep an order? I eat this food during this part of my cycle, this food during this part, like it just seemed like a lot. And I still was fascinated by it. And I realized because I come from, you know, a background of yo-yo dieting for over 12 years, getting and losing 45 pounds multiple times, tried every crash diet under the sun, had really low body image. But I was a perfectionist. I was, I was the all or nothing person to a T. So I started noticing myself with a cycle syncing, getting into the all or nothing almost. I mean, like, no, I have to do this perfectly.

23:58And the whole idea of cycle syncing is not to do it perfectly. The whole idea is for us as women to get in line, more in line with our menstrual cycles to understand that there's four unique phases of our menstrual cycle. So most women have a menstrual cycle that's between, we'll call it 26 to 35 days in length. And how you figure that out is the first day that you start bleeding, that's day one of your cycle. And then the last day before your next period, you mark that as the

24:31final day of your cycle. So a normal cycle usually falls within about 25, 26 to 35 days, anything outside of that, especially when it comes paired with symptoms like fatigue, cyclical acne, weight gain, that's really hard to lose no matter what you do. I mean, there's so many mood swings, premenstrual rage, you know, all of these hormonal symptoms, if you're having symptoms, plus your cycle length is short or it's long, this is a sign that we need to do some digging that something's a little bit off.

25:06And so this, whatever, however long your cycle is, let's say it's like a 28 day cycle. There's four phases within every cycle. The first phase is the menstrual phase. And that's the phase most women know of because that's the bleed week. That's when we're shedding the uterine lining from the previous cycle. And all hormone levels are at the lowest at the beginning of that week. And depending on the person, you can feel pretty crappy that week. You might have bad cramps, you might have heavy, painful periods. But what I want you to know is that's common. It's not normal.

25:41If you're experiencing a period week where you can't get off the couch, the last thing you want to do is even go for a walk. You just feel really bad. We need to do some digging. So during that menstrual week, because it is a state of inflammation, it's a healthy state of inflammation, but it's inflammation nonetheless, we want to support by reducing inflammation. And so we can do that by reducing sugar, reducing alcohol content. This is a great time to dial back on the caffeine and switch to more,

26:15you know, herbal teas. A turmeric latte is really good because turmeric is really anti-inflammatory. We also bleed, when we bleed, we lose iron through our period blood, which is why women who have really heavy bleeds, sometimes they have to take irons, you know, more iron supplements than others. But this is a really great opportunity to enjoy a burger because one of the best sources of iron is the animal based source of a grass fed, if possible grass fed burger. You're going to get that iron and that's

26:48going to help to replenish what you're losing through your period blood. And that's going to give you more energy. And so that's a ritual that I've created in my own life is I'm actually not much of a burger person, but I started noticing I was craving a little bit more red meat during that week. And so I started taking myself out to a burger place during my period week and just having a burger and like, maybe I'll do it lettuce wrapped and have some fries on the side, or I'll get it with the bun and not have the fries. I'm always trying to like balance things out, but it's fun to create these rituals around these things. So it's not like this thing that I have to do, right? It's like,

27:20oh, I get to have a burger during my period week. That's super cool. And why am I doing it? Because I'm replenishing my iron. We also want to replenish our zinc and zinc can help with ovulation, healthy ovulation. It can help with healthy, increasing healthy levels of testosterone, which we know is important for being able to put on muscle. And so you can get zinc through foods like beets and nuts and seeds and dark chocolate is a really great place to get it. So just increasing your food-based sources of zinc and iron. Taking a high quality prenatal or multivitamin will also

27:55give you zinc and iron, but I like to get as much as I can from food. And then just increasing the anti-inflammatory foods. So like the lean proteins, the avocado, the nuts, the seeds, the cruciferous vegetables, stuff like that. And then as we move into the next phase, which is the follicular phase, this is the phase where our estrogen and our testosterone start to rise. So estrogen really dominates the first half of the cycle and it's a growth hormone. So it helps things to grow.

28:26It grows, helps grow the eggs to formulate in the follicle to then be released to ovulation. It helps to grow the endometrial lining. It helps to grow our breasts. Like it's a growth hormone and it's really, really important, but we want it to be balanced out with progesterone. And if it's not balanced with its counterpart progesterone, which is the calming hormone, that's where we can see a lot of hormonal symptoms. So that first half of the cycle is estrogen dominant and that's normal, but we just want it to be in the healthy level. And at the follicular phase, estrogen starts to rise along with

29:00testosterone. And this can lend itself to more energy. We can start to feel more energized. We can feel more stamina. And we also release follicular follicle stimulating hormone or FSH, which helps to the eggs mature in the ovaries. So as we get these rising estrogen and testosterone levels, this is a good time to support. Again, the testosterone with zinc rich foods. But our metabolism starts to slow down a

29:32little bit during the follicular phase. And that's where it actually is kind of a good time. If you are doing a calorie deficit, you're probably going to notice that you're not as hungry, that you actually do well in that calorie deficit. You have energy, you feel great. You can also maybe do like you're doing a cleanse or something like that. The follicular phase would be a good time to do it. I'm not a fan of intermittent fasting, so I never recommend it throughout the month. But if you are doing some type of like detoxification, whole food cleanse, the follicular phase would be, would be better for that.

30:06And then in terms of exercise during, I'll go back during the menstrual phase, we often hear, even with Elisa Vitti's book, like just focus on yoga and walking and meditation because your energy levels are low. But you know what? A lot of women feel awesome during their period week. In fact, I usually say like after day two, you can feel amazing if your hormones are in the right place. And it can be a really good time to do some sprints, not saying long, long runs, but sprints.

30:37I like to go on a treadmill and run for 30 seconds and then walk for 30 seconds, run for 30 seconds, just do that for 10 minutes. And that can help to release some of that inflammation and release those endorphins, which can actually help offset some of the discomfort and cramping. And so you can do something like that. You can also strength train. If you're listening to your body, if you're feeling a little bit more fatigued, just go a little bit lighter on the weights or don't do progressive overload that week. But still, you know, you can meet yourself where you're at. You don't have to just stop strength training. I think it's important to strength train all month long. And so I am a huge

31:12fan of it. The first few days, you might want to listen to your body. I usually say like the first day when you're bleeding, I don't, I don't, I have a great cycle and I don't feel like working out on the first day. So I like to go for a nice long walk. Yeah. Same for you. Yeah. And then I usually always feel like, oh my God, I'm ready to go by day two. Like I feel totally ready to rip, like, give me all the weight. Yeah. And that also can be due. There's a doctor, her name's Dr. Stacey Sims, and she's written a book called Roar and she's an athlete. And she says that the menstrual week is

31:44the week where, because our hormones are at the lowest, there were the, it's the most similar to a man's hormones than any other time of the month. And we actually are a little bit more resilient to stress. And that's why sometimes we can actually hit those PRs and we can feel really strong during our period. The reason why we wouldn't is because we're dealing with a hormonal imbalance that needs further investigation and support. So you may be dealing with a hormone imbalance where you can't hit those PRs and you really do need to dial back on the intensity of your workouts. I wouldn't

32:15recommend HIIT training during the menstrual phase. Um, other than like those quick sprints, I would, I would recommend intentional strength training, lots of restorative movement, like yoga, yoga, because yoga, especially like spinal twists can help stimulate the parasympathetic or the rest and digest part of your nervous system and can help to reduce cramping and stress. So then with the follicular phase, as our estrogen and testosterone on the rise, this is actually a really good time to start to increase cardio. Um, and that'll also help to offset a slower metabolism. So rather than go

32:51balls to the walls, I would say gradually increase the cardio. So maybe you go for a jog, maybe you take a dance class with a friend, maybe you go for a hike, like your body's going to respond pretty well to cardio during this time. And also progressive overload because your testosterone is rising. So try to lift heavier in the gym, try to do some more reps and more weight. And then as you get to the ovulatory phase, which is the third phase, this is the only phase that we can actually get pregnant. It's the fertile phase. Contrary to what we were taught in school, we can't get pregnant just by

33:26looking at a dude. Like you have to be in the ovulation phase and it's up to six days long. There's one day of ovulation. Um, and then there's up to five days where sperm can survive inside of us via peak cervical fluid. So if you've ever noticed as a woman, the closer that you get to ovulation, you have the cervical fluid that you'll find in your underwear and it gets, it changes throughout the month and it gets, um, it's dry technically when you're on your period. And then it starts to

34:00get a little bit more like lotiony as you get into the follicular phase. And then as you approach ovulation, it becomes like abundant and sticky, even like stretch it between your fingers. And that's a sign of peak fertility. That's like, Oh, ovulation is on the way. If I'm not trying to get pregnant, I better use some protection. Um, and that cervical fluid helps to keep the sperm alive inside of us. So that's why there's only one day of ovulation where we release an egg to be potentially fertilized by sperm, but then there's five days that can live inside of us. So ovulation phase is up to six days.

34:36And that's where, if we're not, you know, on birth control, we want to be using, you know, a barrier method, or we want to be using like the fertility awareness method, which is like a whole nother podcast. Um, and ovulation is also when we produce progesterone. So it's upon ovulation that we've produced progesterone and progesterone is the great balancer to estrogen and it runs the second half of the menstrual cycle. So it's, it's dominant the second half and runs that show and progesterone is really important. Um,

35:11it is a thermogenic hormone. So it actually speeds up our metabolism. So during the follicular phase and the ovulatory phase, our metabolism is slightly slower. So during both of those phases, that's where we can really benefit from a calorie deficit. If that's a goal, we're trying to lose fat. Um, and also that's where we can ramp up the cardio. Like I said, we can do more of those PRs in the gym with the weightlifting ovulation in particular is when estrogen peaks and testosterone peaks as well.

35:43So that is a great time to incorporate some HIIT training, but I usually recommend no more than two sessions a week under 20 to 30 minutes in length, because the more that we do, even during these phases, that is a stress on the body and that can manifest in symptoms. So, always balancing out those high intensity workouts with your strength training and with restorative movement, walking, yoga, stuff like that. Then the last phase, oh, quickly with the ovulation phase,

36:13um, you want to, because estrogen has increased, we want to excrete that excess estrogen out of the liver. Otherwise it'll recirculate and wreak havoc. So we can do that by supporting the liver with foods like beets, cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli, kale, cauliflower. They help to sweep excess estrogen out of the body, um, adequate levels of protein, lots of leafy greens, vitamin C, stuff like that. And then once we produce progesterone on ovulation and we ovulate, what happens is our temperature rises.

36:48So once we get, if we take our basal body temperature, once our temperature rises by about 0.5 to 1 degree, and we see that three to four days consistently in a row, we're using an app like natural cycles or aura ring, um, can do this now too. We know that we have ovulated and we've moved into the luteal phase and the luteal phase is the fourth and final phase. It's the longest. I call it the early and late luteal phase because it's about 10 to 14 days long and it encompasses the premenstrual week or the PMS week.

37:22But again, PMS is common. It's not normal. Having fuller boobs, being more tired, um, wanting to go more inward. That's totally normal. Um, but having really painful boobs where you can't be hugged, having cystic acne that comes along, premenstrual rage, extreme fatigue, extreme cravings. These are all signs of an imbalance of progesterone and estrogen as well as cortisol. So we need to do some, some more digging. For example, for me, I used to have all these symptoms, but now that my hormones

37:55are balanced, I have an idea of when my period is coming because I track my cycle, but I, I get my period. I'm like, Oh, I, because I don't have cramps. I don't have terrible bloating. I don't, don't get these symptoms. It just comes. And I feel a little bit more tired. I definitely notice I'm not crushing it as much with my lifts in the gym. I'm definitely not feeling like doing any type of intense cardio. And that is very normal. And this is the phase, especially the week before your period,

38:26where you really want to dial back on any type of intense cardio, remove the HIIT training entirely, really focused just on walking and calming forms of movement and as well, strength training. But because your, uh, energy levels are going to be lower and your body is less resilient to stress because your cortisol levels are naturally higher during this phase. You don't want to then pile on more stressors because your cortisol is naturally higher and stressors. Like we talked about before,

39:00it can be too much cardio, too much caffeine, alcohol, sugar. So again, this is a phase where we want to reduce all of that. And, um, with strength training, even maybe that's a great time to just say, I don't need to progress this week. I can just lift what I have been lifting. If I need to do two sets of every exercise instead of three, I'm going to do that. If I need to take more rest time between sets, I'm going to do that. You don't have to just not do it. Just meet yourself where you're at, listen to your body and just modify it. Because I think still consistency is key and still strength

39:34training is supportive. But I think that we just kind of hold ourselves to the same standard all month long as women where it's like, I have to eat the same food. I have to crush it with the same amount of workouts. I have to like be consistent with everything. And yes, consistency is key, but you can tweak things to better support your hormone levels and your unique body. Wow. That's very informative. Thank you. I'm like playing in my head. I'm like, okay, yeah, I'm here at this stage of my period right now. Um, and I'm thinking about, you know, cause I consistently, like, first of all,

40:07pinpoint the fact that you said strength training is very important all throughout the whole month of your, cause I have seen people talk about like lowering that or not doing it and incorporating what you were mentioning, like yoga. And, um, so I love that you pinpointed, like, do it, meet yourself where you're at and do it all throughout the entire month. Uh, but just know where your limits are and like, know when you shouldn't push and know when you can push. So thank you. Yeah. I actually, like, I did a reel on this of like there, if you start to tune in with your body

40:42and you track your cycle and you start to, you'll start to notice like, Oh, I don't feel as strong today. Like I'm not feeling it as much. And like, I saw a guy trainer with his, I work out at a gym that has a lot of trainers and he was training his client. She's like, I don't know what it is. Like I'm not sick. I just, for some reason, I don't feel as strong today. Like I just have not, it's hard today. And he's like, well, you just got to push through. You got to push through. And in my mind, I wanted to turn to them and be like, what phase of your cycle are you in?

41:14You might like just need to give yourself a little grace. Right. Uh, and then the other quick thing I wanted to say too, is progesterone is a thermogenic hormone. So when it's produced upon ovulation, it actually increases our metabolism. So a lot of clients I'll actually have them eat at maintenance at least the week before their period. Because if you take note, you might notice that you're just naturally hungrier before your period, which I hear time and time again from clients and just adding

41:46at least like an extra snack, a protein rich snack, like 200 calories worth that is going to support you so much more. And you might be afraid to increase your calories a little bit, but I promise you, if you don't, you're probably going to end up overeating later on at some point or binging because you're like trying to fight against your hormones and your biology. And if you just give yourself the extra snack, you're going to feel so much better. And in the long run, you're going to get better results. Love that. Yeah. This is, I'm like, I use flow for my period.

42:20Oh yeah. Yeah. That's a good one. Yeah. I'm like seven days out from my period. And then I'm like, yeah, I'm naturally hungrier. And I bought extra yogurt the other day so that I could just keep eating more protein. So these are all, I'm like, great. I'm taking off my brain. What Jess is saying I'm doing, and then, you know, or a ring with my love. So you mentioned the rise in body temperature, which I definitely experienced. And yeah. So everything that you're saying, I'm like, yeah, shit, this is spot on. This is really good stuff. I appreciate your knowledge. Awesome. Yeah, totally.

42:51Yeah. So I want to, I want the listeners to know a little bit more about you. Can you share, like you mentioned a little, a little points of your journey and what you've overcome and the things you were, you struggled with. So can you just share a little bit about your personal journey and overcoming the hormonal balances you experienced? And you mentioned you lost 45 pounds. That story you broke free of overexercising fad diets. How, what steps did you, did you do? And did you take to regain balance for yourself? Yeah, no. So I, I yo-yo dieted for 12 years. It

43:24really stemmed from, I'm sure a lot of your listeners can relate. Maybe you can relate too, but in high school I was super active. I was on swim team. I played volleyball. And then at the end of high school, I stopped sports and I kept eating out off campus with friends, getting like grande frappuccinos at Starbucks and going to like Taco Bell. And then all of a sudden I just put on like 35 pounds, which felt like overnight. And my mom was the one that brought it to my attention because I was kind of just trying to hide it. I saw my pant sizes getting bigger, but I've always been kind of private about that stuff. I'm not somebody who's like, Oh my God, I'm gaining weight.

43:57Do I look fat? Like more so I just go inward and become very ashamed or not anymore, but I did. And so I would start like layering on the jacket and like just kind of hiding. And when my mom brought it to my attention, she basically was just like, I'm a little worried about you. Like you put on a lot of weight in a short amount of time. And we've talked about it since if she was on the podcast, we would talk about it because the way she approached me wasn't necessarily the most helpful at the time, but she didn't, she was just trying to be a mom. And I already had considered, you know,

44:29things that I could do to get the weight off. And so it kind of just like propelled me. And to, okay, I'm about to go into college. I need to get this weight off. Otherwise I'm going to be hazed. Like I'm not going to meet any boys. No one's going to be interested in me. And so I started taking diet pills. Um, I didn't like that. So then I started just like counting calories, restricting my calories, um, to really low points. And I will say calorie counting is way different than macro counting. Like I was literally just focused on a number. I have nothing to do with nutrition. Um, what like a hundred calorie packs of processed foods,

45:02you know, all that kind of stuff. Um, and so that kind of just propelled me into the next 12 years of trying every diet under the sun. And, you know, to the point where I was like afraid to eat Tic Tacs cause they had five calories or I like, you know, there was a point at which I was, even when I dated my, when I met my husband, we were just dating at the time. Um, I went through a phase of using my fitness pal just to track calories. And I would try to add up every like piece of lettuce, tomato, whatever, anywhere we went at a restaurant. And I was like

45:37freaking out cause I couldn't find the ingredients one night and I was just not paying attention to him. And I was like in the corner of our apartment, like frantically trying to type in all the food. And he's like, Jess, stop. Like, it doesn't matter. It's okay. And I was like, no, it's not okay. Give me back my phone. And I like grabbed it from my, I started crying. I had like full on meltdown. And, um, he was like, Jess, like take a breath. Like it's, you're beautiful. It's okay. You don't have to be like this worried, you know, all the time, like enjoy your life. And, um, and it's funny

46:11because looking back, like he wasn't in the healthiest place either. He was trying to put on weight. So he was trying to eat 4,000 calories a day and was doing it like the dirty gains way where he's just going into fast food. And like, again, just trying to hit numbers. But for him, it was more of like, Oh, I have so much more food I have to eat. Whereas for me, I was like, okay, how can I restrict enough to where I can eat a normal dinner with him? And maybe he won't notice. So I would like take three eggs, hard boiled eggs. I'll carve out the yolks cause I didn't want the calories. And I

46:43would refill the yolks with salsa and I would eat those three egg whites before I would go to the gym and work out for an hour and a half and like lifting weights and cardio, like killing myself. And then I wouldn't eat again until like 1 PM. And then I would eat a huge lunch and then a huge dinner to try to hit 1200 calories. But I didn't want to eat like a snack or basically any breakfast because I wanted to be able to eat like big meals, the other two meals. So people wouldn't notice what I was doing. Cause at school,

47:14I was a teacher at the time. And I didn't want the other teachers to like say anything about what I was eating at lunch. And then I didn't want my husband to make comments about what I was eating at dinner. And then on the weekends I would binge. So I would eat 1200 calories during the week. And then on the weekends, he and I were actually teaching abroad. We would go out and we would stay out till four in the morning. We would drink endless amounts of alcohol. I would eat whatever the heck I wanted all day long that we'd order a huge pizza on Sunday and split that. And then we get like great, great popsicles

47:45and eat those. And then Monday would start again. And I was back to 1200 calories and hour and a half workouts. And that's just like one snippet of the 12 years, but that's the kind of stuff I was doing in different ways for 12 years. And I finally, you know, I lost and I gained 45 pounds multiple times. And the issue was when I would lose a lot of weight, I would get so much praise. Like, Oh my God, you look amazing. Like, what did you do? And the truth was like, there was one point where I was injecting myself with HCG shots, which is a pregnancy hormone that zaps your appetite. And

48:20then your, the diet is that you eat 500 calories a day. So it's eating 500 calories and injecting myself in the stomach with HCG, hiding the needles. At the time I lived with a guy, a roommate hiding them. So he wouldn't say anything. And like basically denying all social events with any of my friends, cause I don't want them to see what I was doing. If I did go out, I would drink hot tea while everyone was like having alcohol. Um, and I was honestly not that great to be around. Cause I was

48:51strung so tightly. I was neurotic. I could not relax. I was constantly comparing my plate to what other people were doing other people's workouts, like hated my body. I just wasn't kind to myself. And eventually I just hit this breaking point where, you know, I started struggling with hormonal imbalances. I started, I was like 29. I was, I had moved to LA. I was working in this high pressure job in marketing. I started developing severe migraines, um, and hormonal imbalances. I

49:25completely lost my menstrual cycle. I was flatlining energy levels throughout the day, the 3 PM Starbucks. That was me. Like, you know, I would drink four cups of coffee in the morning on an empty stomach. Then at 3 PM, I would get more coffee. Um, I try to eat like a rice cake for breakfast. Like it was just crazy. And I eventually was like, enough is enough. And my mom has always been a health educator, like my entire upbringing. And I, I knew that she wouldn't want me to do things the way I

49:56was doing. So I just kept a lot of it from her. So I finally went to her and said, you know what, mom, I need help. I need your help. And she helped me to, at the time I was on hormonal birth control. She helped me to safely transition off hormonal birth control. We tested my hormone levels in saliva, which is what we now offer through our family business that I have with my mom and sister. It's called your hormone balance. And we test, we've tested thousands of men and women's hormone levels over the last seven years, um, in saliva, which detects estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHA,

50:33and cortisol levels four times throughout the day. And so my mom at the time was doing this hormone testing. I wasn't working with her yet, but she gave me the testing. We did it. We saw that I was estrogen dominant. We saw that my cortisol levels were all over the place throughout the day. And I had to just, I had this come to Jesus moment where I was like, I got to get off this roller coaster. And I started gradually adding in carbs, which I was really afraid of. I started dialing way back on the high intensity exercise. I was doing like bootcamps five to six times a week. I was doing

51:06bottomless mimosas every weekend. I dialed back on that. I started adding in more walking. I learned about strength training. I started taking supplements and bio-identical progesterone cream, which is natural and structure and function to the progesterone our bodies make uniquely not to be confused with synthetic progestin found in birth control. But I started using that based on my test results, which we never recommend unless you've actually tested your hormone levels. And all of these things combined over time, like after eight months, I got a natural cycle back. I got my energy

51:43levels back. My sex drive started to improve, which was also really low. I honestly didn't gain a lot of weight at all. Like I don't even really remember gaining weight, even though I was adding in more food. I did it. I almost was doing like a reverse diet, which I didn't realize at the time, but I was like gradually adding in like a carb with breakfast just because I wanted to see how my body would respond. And I didn't want to overwhelm myself by adding in so much food all at once. And I was eating carbs again and I was having better energy and I just felt so much better. And so I decided that I wanted

52:17to help other women do the same. And so I quit my job. I became a health coach and don't get me wrong. I didn't just become a health coach overnight. I worked like four jobs on the side, like serving at a restaurant, doing social media, like blog post blog writing, like all this stuff. And then eventually my mom left her job as the director of education at ZRT hormone labs, which is the lab that we use to test the hormone levels. And she started her own consulting practice.

52:50And I was graduated from IIN and my sister was working in new business development for a catering company. So we all kind of just joined forces and created this family business, helping other women and men, although now we really just specialize in women all around the world to get to the root of hormonal imbalances through testing and natural rebalancing practices, including nutrition, lifestyle, movement and smart supplementation. And so that's our family business. And then I also have my body

53:21bliss by Jess, which is my one-on-one online coaching that I do now as well. So it's like come full circle. And that's why I'm so passionate about this, not just like the cycle syncing and the hormone stuff, but helping women to lose weight in a way that's actually sustainable and to keep it off without having to be always on the hamster wheel. I love that. That's super powerful. Thanks for sharing that and the vulnerable moments of your story. I know that definitely will resonate with a lot of listeners,

53:52definitely resonates with myself. And it's pretty cool to see you on the other end, things you figured out for yourself, but now the message that you're putting out into the world and wanting to help so many women. And yeah, like you said, more women, right? Yeah. Just uncover these things for themselves and be in a sustainable approach to their, to their whole journey. It's awesome. Thank you. Yeah. I really resonate with your story too. And I love that you talk so much about like, I listened to your episode on mindful eating, which is like, we literally could do a whole podcast together on that. And that's

54:25another way that you can, you know, practice reducing stress and forming a better relationship with food and getting in tune with your hunger cues and just being more mindful about what you put in your body, but also how, what you put in your body makes you feel and how, you know, and taking away the morality around food, food isn't good or bad. It's just a choice. Yes. I love that. Yeah. Food isn't like you said exactly food isn't good or bad. It's more so the behavior around what people have thought process behavior of how people act the hormonal things that may be off. Um, yeah, this is all so good,

55:01Jess. I appreciate your time here and being here with us. Um, as we come to the end of this very insightful, knowledgeable conversation, can you let our listeners know where they can find more about you, you know, your hormone balance that you just mentioned and the resources that you offer websites, social media channels, anything that you'd like to mention. Go ahead. Yeah, definitely. So you can find me at body bliss by dress on Instagram, um, and body bliss, by just.net is where you can go. If you're interested in one-on-one coaching, you can apply

55:37for a free discovery call. Um, I work with, like I said, all women and my focus is really, uh, hormone rebalancing, sustainable weight loss or maintenance. I love working with women who want to just maintain and focus on building muscle and improve the relationship with food. Um, so body bliss by just.net for that. Um, and then for the family business, we're at your hormone balance and your hormone balance.com. And if your listeners are interested in actually testing their hormones

56:07in saliva, which just a quick note is much more accurate than standard blood tests. We have majority of clients that come to us that have been tested with their doctors and blood and everything comes back quote unquote normal. And that's not how they feel. That's not their experience. And then when they test their hormone levels in saliva, we're actually able to pick up these hidden hormonal imbalances. And we're also able to get accurate levels of your cortisol levels, which need to be tested four times throughout the day, because as I mentioned earlier, they should

56:37be fluctuating versus one draw that you get through blood. Um, obviously if you want to test your thyroid levels, we can do that too. And that has to be in blood. Um, but if you're interested in that, you can use the code, um, is Mac, what would be a good code? The WarriorBabe Show. Totally The WarriorBabe Show. Cool. So we can use the code macro hour for $50 off our rebalance rescue test kit, which comes with, um, the saliva test plus a recap of your hormone test results with relevant education to help you understand

57:11your results, the root causes, the symptoms, and then natural rebalancing next steps. And then if you want to dive even deeper, you can add on a customized guide, or you can add on a one-on-one call with my mom who will dive into your results and explain what everything means. You think I'm passionate? My mom is like next level passionate about this. Like we have had to set boundaries around talking about hormones as a family, because we could all just like talk about it nonstop. And my poor dad is like, Oh my God, get me out of here. Um, especially too, because it sounds like you mentioned it,

57:45you have another sister. So there does, uh, it doesn't sound in the mix there. No. So my sister is our CEO. So my sister and my mom, they like, I am the one who's like, guys, like dad's here. Let's, let's talk about something else. Let's shift gears a little bit. Um, but we, we really do love it so much. And we've tested, we've worked with thousands of women at this point. Um, we had a course at one point, we want to develop a mother daughter course in the future, um, to help moms and daughters understand each other where they're at throughout their journeys.

58:18Um, so yeah, and we work with women of all ages. So if you're interested, reach out, honestly, we would love to support you. And I have a podcast to the solo 2.0 podcast. We talk a lot about hormones on there too. Amazing. Cool. Jess. Yeah. You guys can find all of those links that she mentioned and the code in the description below her Instagram and all the websites too, as well. Jess, thank you so much for being on this podcast and for sharing your insight, your knowledge, your story, and tons of information that definitely the listeners can, you know, think on light bulbs

58:50going off, let it stir in their brain and start seeing how they can at least take some action on understanding the way that their body works a little bit more. And if they want to do next steps working with you guys. So appreciate you being here. Thank you so much, Nikki. It's been so much fun. Real quick. The only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask for you to do

59:22is if you could leave a review, it will take you 10 seconds and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.

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