Why Can't I Lose Weight in Perimenopause or Menopause?

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Nikkiey: They're afraid that eating more will gain more fat, and that's the only thing they're worried about. But they don't think about what's actually happening internally to our body, to our cells, to the function of everything that's making everything work for you to get you the results that you want on the outside. I always say you've got to heal the inside before you can worry about the outside.

Nikkiey: What is going on, everybody? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show. Today we are super excited to have a special guest on. Her name is Louise Digby, and I hope I'm pronouncing that last name right. You can correct me if I'm not. She is a registered nutritional therapist, and her team specializes in helping women reignite their spark and fully enjoy life through personalized nutrition and lifestyle strategies. So get ready, everybody tuning in today, for a very insightful conversation on wellness, on all things vitality and reclaiming joy with Louise Digby. Thank you for being here. I appreciate it.

Louise: Thank you so much for having me. And you did get my surname correct.

Nikkiey: Amazing. Okay, good. So let's kick it off and explore. Tell me what inspired you to specialize in helping women reignite their spark and embrace life to the fullest.

Louise: When I first started practicing nutrition, I was working with everyone and anyone with all sorts of ailments and goals. What I found was that for women, this life stage of perimenopause, menopause and that transition was something that really threw them off track, even despite their best efforts and best intentions.

Louise: It was an area where there's so much conflicting information, so much noise. If you look at 10 years ago, it wasn't a trendy thing to be talking about, but now it's suddenly really trendy. If anything, that makes it even worse, because there's even more noise around it. Celebrities are getting involved and talking about menopause and hormones, but not necessarily giving the best information.

Louise: So I think it's an area where there needs to be much more clarity, much more support and much more understanding around what's actually happening during this phase and what you can do about it. So many women are told by their doctors, oh, well, you're just menopausal, you've just got to get through it, there's nothing you can do. You could take HRT, and that's all they're told. It's really frustrating, because there's so much that you can do to really start thriving through that phase.

Nikkiey: Yes, I can really piggyback off of that. It's super frustrating when we're coaching our clients through nutritional habits and fitness habits, and then their doctors say X, Y and Z. You shouldn't be eating this many carbs. You shouldn't be eating this much protein. And no shade to that industry, but I think there needs to be more education on these specific topics for these professionals, because I had to Google this, and they only spend about 10 hours of education on nutrition in their whole education and residency.

Nikkiey: So just to kick that off right at the beginning of the podcast, everyone. People know I talk about that in many episodes. We had Dr. Cabral on the podcast as well, and we kicked it off talking about traditional methods right out of the gate. So it's definitely a little frustrating when we're trying to build better habits in ways that will serve the outcome, rather than just treating something at the symptom level rather than the root level, right?

Nikkiey: So share a little bit with the audience. What exactly do you do, and how do you work with your clients?

Louise: I work with all my clients online, and we start off by doing tests to find out what's actually going on in their bodies, what imbalances they have and what their specific nutritional needs are. It's so interesting. Everyone who comes to me is in a very similar position, in that they're all in that age range of about 35 to 55.

Louise: And they all have the same problem, which is that they're struggling to lose the stubborn weight. But they all have very different nutritional needs and very different underlying causes of their stubborn weight, and also of the fatigue and cravings and all the other things that tend to come along with it. When you start looking into it, one person might need to work on their gut, someone else might need to work on inflammation, someone else might need to work on hormones and toxic load, and so many different things.

Louise: Some people need to work on all of those things. That's why we test, to make sure we're actually taking steps that are going to be effective. When you start reading up on things, there are a million different things you could do or supplements you could take, but you're probably only going to benefit from about 1% of the things that are out there. So we get the information.

Louise: From there, we build a really personalized action plan, which looks at food and lifestyle, so stress, sleep and energy management. We also look at supplements in the short term for correcting imbalances, and we dip into the mindset side of things as well.

Nikkiey: Beautiful. Love that. That's what the industry needs more of. It's no longer these one-size-fits-all approaches, or PDFs to download where you follow a set calorie or nutritional guidance and you're following the same plan that 50 other people are following.

Nikkiey: I love to hear that you're doing what the industry needs more of. It's great. You mentioned that out of the gate you do this testing, and then you work out what nutritional guidance you need to give the women. Is it predominantly women you work with, or do you work with women and men?

Louise: It's just women.

Nikkiey: Women. Awesome. So with that focus, what do you feel are the most common nutritional challenges or deficiencies you see in the women you work with, especially coming back from the testing? And how do you address them by giving them the proper protocols to follow?

Louise: On the surface level, before we even do the tests, it's often really clear that many of the women who come into our program are not eating enough to start with. They're just not getting anywhere near enough nutrients, be that the macronutrients or the micronutrients, the vitamins and minerals. They're just not getting enough in.

Louise: So while we're waiting for the tests to come back, we're often working on getting some foundations in place: getting enough protein, enough carbs, fiber and fats. And many of them, their minds are blown by just eating more.

Nikkiey: Talk a little bit more about that. What's the common amount of protein you see your women eating on a regular basis before you start figuring this out with them?

Louise: I think many of them probably struggle to get 10 grams of protein into their breakfast or lunch.

Louise: Dinners, people tend to find a lot easier. But we're like, no, we need to be getting protein into that breakfast. If you can start your day with protein, you're going to feel so much better. You're going to feel more energized, have fewer cravings, better control over your food choices and so much more. So protein is a really big one. Even though there's more and more awareness around it, I think it's still something we need to keep mentioning, because even when you've started working with someone, the protein just seems to start tailing off.

Louise: And it's like, no, you need to keep that protein up. So that's a big one. Then once we've actually done the testing, there are some common themes we see. B vitamins are not necessarily deficient, though often they can be. But so often we see that people have a really high need for B vitamins. They might be getting a normal amount in the diet, but they actually need much more than a normal amount. Because when you're under a lot of stress, like so many women are, if you're not sleeping properly, if your hormones are imbalanced, you need more B vitamins.

Louise: So we really often see a high demand for B vitamins. We very often see a lack of antioxidants in the diet and an increased need for those as well. And vitamin D is so often way too low. The doctors have often tested it and told them it's fine. But what the doctors consider to be okay and what we consider to be optimal are very different.

Nikkiey: Why is that? How are we going to fix that?

Louise: It's really amazing, isn't it? Because research shows that a much higher vitamin D has so many benefits, from reducing the risk of cancers to improving immunity, reducing the risk of things like COVID, and improving mental health, energy and hormone balance. The list goes on. And it is so often overlooked.

Nikkiey: Wow. We definitely need to work on that. You mentioned antioxidants. How can people get those through dietary measures?

Louise: A good place to start is looking at really colorful fruits and vegetables, the really rich colors. Deep blue, like blueberries, dark green leafy vegetables, oranges and the red berries as well. All those lovely colors are a sign of antioxidants.

Louise: Then you've also got things like black seeds and beans, which are a great source of antioxidants too. Herbs and spices. So getting ideally fresh plant-based foods into your diet is going to get you a considerable amount of antioxidants. There are also things like dark chocolate and coffee, which are great sources of antioxidants as well.

Nikkiey: Nice. I eat dark chocolate every night before I go to bed. Yeah, I do. Beautiful. Awesome. A couple of follow-up questions there. You mentioned vitamin D, the B vitamins and antioxidants. If someone isn't able to get this testing done, or they're still along their journey and not yet ready to jump into a program or sign up with anybody who will do testing for them,

Nikkiey: what are some signals that someone may be lacking in these areas?

Louise: I think often the symptoms are quite non-specific. But if you're generally feeling like you're not 100%, if your energy is not as good as it could be, if you're getting lots of aches and pains, if you're getting a lot of premenstrual symptoms, if you're trying to lose weight and it's not happening and you feel like you're doing all the right things, that is a top, top sign.

Louise: So, I guess, not getting the results you would expect despite eating well and staying active.

Nikkiey: Yes, that will definitely be a big needle mover, if you can get deeper into the data of the body and what's going on. The second thing I want to circle back to, and this is a little more selfishly for myself: I'm not a big vegetable eater, right? But you're mentioning that a lot of fruits and vegetables, especially colorful ones, have tons of good antioxidants.

Nikkiey: So how would you encourage somebody who may not be a vegetable eater to start eating vegetables?

Louise: There are lots of things you can do. One of my favorite ways to sneak in some veg is to make sauces out of vegetables. You can do this really easily: you can just boil up some veg and blend it up. Or if you want a deeper flavor, you can roast some veg, like onions, garlic, carrots, celery and squash, roast them with some olive oil and blend it up.

Louise: Then you've got a sauce you can turn into a curry sauce, a bolognese sauce or a chili sauce by adding a few extra ingredients like tomatoes or spices. You've got a sauce that is crammed full of veg. It tastes great and is going to be a lovely addition to a meal. You can eat it as a soup instead. So that's a really easy option you can make up in a big batch.

Nikkiey: Beautiful. Okay. I'm going to add spices. I like spices. Just add spices to everything. Okay, cool. So nutrition is your thing. You do nutrition very well. Talk to the audience about the role nutrition plays in boosting our energy levels and our mood when you're giving the body what it wants. You mentioned that a lot of women, while you're waiting for the testing to come back, have their minds blown

Nikkiey: by how much they're actually under-eating. And I'm sure once you explore with them and educate them on nutrition... How does nutrition boost energy? How does it boost our mood? How does it do all the incredible things it does when you start eating more food?

Louise: It's such a great question. When we're taught nutrition, not as someone who goes to nutrition school, but just growing up or at school, we're told that it's calories in versus calories out.

Louise: And that's all that matters. So we have this perception that if we just eat a little less, we're going to be healthy and we're going to lose weight. But there's so much to be said for the quality of the food you're eating and the actual nutrients and antioxidants and all those other things that are in food, because your body needs those things to repair and regenerate. In terms of making energy, we make energy from our vitamins, minerals, proteins, sugars and fats, from water and from oxygen.

Louise: There's quite a complex chemical reaction that happens in what are called the mitochondria, which are the energy factories in your cells. This complicated chemical reaction makes energy for us. So if we're lacking in nutrients, or we're dehydrated, or we're not getting enough food overall, we're just not going to be making as much energy. That means we're not going to be repairing. We're not going to be building muscle.

Louise: And that's going to start to impact your production of hormones as well, because we make our hormones from our nutrients, proteins and fats, from cholesterol. So if you're lacking, you'll start to develop imbalances in your hormones. We also detox using nutrients. So if you're lacking in nutrients, you're not going to detox as efficiently, which means you're not going to be removing pesticides, pollution, hormones and toxins that are produced in the body.

Louise: That's going to start to build up and cause damage in your system. So the role of nutrition is just massive.

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Nikkiey: Wow. Can we eat that up? The way you scientifically broke that down, I think that's the best way it's been delivered on the podcast, how and why nutrition is so freaking important.

Nikkiey: Like you were saying at the beginning, a lot of women are afraid that eating more will gain more fat, and that's the only thing they're worried about. But they don't think about what's actually happening internally to our body, to our cells, to the function of everything that's making everything work for you to get you the results you want on the outside. I always say you've got to heal the inside before you can worry about the outside showing the results.

Nikkiey: So thank you for breaking it down like that. Okay, I have to ask this on this podcast: what's your take on carbs?

Louise: That's another great question. It's such an important question. I think they're really important. I think your typical Western diet is too carb-heavy, and they're typically very processed carbs. But the typical diet approach goes too far the other way, taking them far, far too low.

Louise: Some people do really well on very low carb or keto. But what I typically find for women between 35 and 55, perimenopausal or menopausal, is that they need some carbs to fuel their thyroid and their hypothalamus. Otherwise, your metabolism is going to slow down, and it can have a very stressful impact on your body and can actually inhibit your weight loss and your well-being.

Louise: I think everyone has a different range where they feel best. So I'm not a fan of saying you need this many carbohydrates per day. I think it varies based on where you are in your menstrual cycle, and it varies depending on how much exercise you do and the type of exercise you're doing. So again, it's very individual. But I'm very much about finding the amount that is enough for you, without it being so much that your blood sugars are racing high and low.

Nikkiey: Beautiful. Thanks for sharing that. A lot of women who listen to this podcast are implementing strength training and doing strength-based exercise, yet they're afraid to eat carbs, and they're afraid carbs are going to make them fat. So we've got this hashtag rolling, make carbs great again, going on within the community, because they need to power through the workouts. They need the energy. They need the glycogen for repair and recovery and all those things. So I wanted your take on carbs coming from a nutritionist.

Nikkiey: You've talked before, as I was sampling your stuff, about how hormonal changes can impact your weight, and you've touched on it here, and how a lot of women will simply reduce their calorie intake and try to burn more calories. There's a woman inside our program who was doing F45 classes and then those hot workout classes that are inside saunas, and she was doing those back to back.

Nikkiey: And she was only eating around 750 calories a day, and she was wondering why she wasn't getting results. She's since cut that in half and doubled her intake, working with one of the coaches. Can you explain how that actually makes it worse and how it can cause further weight gain?

Louise: Yeah. What she was doing, and I see this in so many people, particularly women, is under-eating and over-exercising. The reason that's a problem is that when we don't eat enough, it triggers a stress response in our body, an evolutionary response that comes from when we were cave people.

Louise: If there wasn't enough food around, our bodies produced more cortisol, which basically helps us extract energy from our muscles and raise our blood sugars so we can keep going and have energy. But in the modern world, when we have that same stress response, we don't actually need that energy, so we store it as fat, particularly around our middle.

Louise: So when you're under-eating, you're triggering that stress response, that starvation response that makes your body want to hold on to your energy and stop you from wasting away. Then when you add in really intense exercise, that drives those stress hormones up even more, which magnifies that response. At the same time, it's also really destructive to your sex hormones, because it's really important for your body to be able to respond to stress and danger.

Louise: During that time, your body doesn't want to be reproducing, because that's not safe. So your body is going to down-regulate your sex hormone production and up-regulate your stress hormone production so you've got all the energy to respond to the danger. That means your sex hormones become imbalanced. And we also know that stress hormones suppress thyroid function, and your thyroid is really important for the speed of your metabolism. So that's why under-eating and over-exercising will actually stop you from losing weight.

Nikkiey: Again, thank you so much for articulating that so clearly. A lot of women forget what's happening internally and are just worried about the results they're getting on the external side of things. They forget to stop and think, am I fueling my body appropriately to get me the results I want? Breaking it down and giving more education on this stuff is so important. So I appreciate what you're doing and that you're sharing more about the things more women need to hear.

Nikkiey: Let's talk about inflammation. What is inflammation?

Nikkiey: Hey, hey, just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to the show. It means a lot. I hope you're enjoying it, and there's so much more to come. If you are enjoying it, hit the subscribe button. I'd appreciate that tons, and it would also help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too. Thanks so much, guys. Let's get back to the show.

Louise: Well, that's a really good question. Have you got an hour?

Louise: Let me do a PowerPoint presentation for you. What inflammation is supposed to be is a response in your body where you increase blood flow to a certain area to encourage healing. But inflammation can become uncontrolled, and it can become systemic, so it's throughout your body. That's when it becomes damaging, and it can cause inflammatory symptoms like arthritic-type pain, acne or other skin problems, fatigue and depression.

Louise: Most symptoms have an inflammatory nature to them. So when inflammation becomes uncontrolled, it can basically exacerbate any problem or underlying imbalance you have in your body. It can be disruptive to your hormones, and it can certainly be involved in difficulty losing weight, difficulty achieving the results you might be expecting, difficulty building muscle. You name it, really.

Nikkiey: And can you get inflammation when you're under-eating and not giving your body what it needs through food?

Louise: Definitely, because cortisol is very inflammatory.

Nikkiey: Yep. And if your cortisol is spiked and elevated, or you have no curve, that can make you gain weight, right? That's the fat-storing hormone, right?

Louise: Yeah, absolutely. And with inflammation also tends to come water retention. So not only does it make you gain weight, it also tends to make you puffy as well.

Louise: It's interesting. It's one of the things I see change very quickly in a lot of the women I work with, in terms of puffiness in the face and around the neck, and puffiness in the hands and ankles as well. That's a really good sign that inflammation is there, and also a good sign that inflammation is reducing when you lose that puffiness.

Nikkiey: Yeah. And my favorite is when women step on the scale and see the number going up, and we're like, hold on, wait a second.

Nikkiey: In a day it went up three pounds. I'm like, it's most likely not body fat. Either you had a stressful workout, maybe something was very stressful the day before, maybe you had a certain amount of food late at night that your body didn't get to process, or there's some inflammation going on due to stress. So, okay. What about toxic load? What is toxic load?

Louise: With toxic load, we're all exposed to toxins. Our liver is designed to help us get rid of those toxins.

Louise: So we are always detoxing. But with modern life, our livers can be under quite a substantial burden, quite a high toxic load. The types of toxins we're talking about are things like pesticides, pollution and hormones. It could be chemicals in our skincare products, fragrances, shampoos and conditioners, and things in our carpets and sofas, like flame-retardant coatings.

Louise: So there are loads of things we're exposed to that our body has to try to eliminate. Livers can be under substantial load, and that can make them sluggish at getting rid of those things, particularly if we have deficiencies or if the liver is a little bit fatty. Then we might not be eliminating those toxins very efficiently. That's something that can inhibit your weight loss progress, because one of the very clever ways your body can cope with that toxic load is by actually upregulating your fat storage.

Louise: Because we store toxins in our fat if we're not eliminating them. So if someone isn't losing weight despite seemingly doing everything right, one of the issues could be a really high toxic load. And if someone loses weight and then plateaus very quickly afterwards, it could be because their toxic load is shooting up, because as they start to release their fat stores, they're also releasing all those stored toxins. Does that make sense?

Nikkiey: Wow. Yeah, that totally makes sense. How would someone know they have a toxic load?

Louise: I think it's safe to assume we all have quite a high toxic load. That's especially true if we're not taking steps to support our bodies through it by looking at the things we're exposed to, making sure we're well hydrated, moving our bodies, and making sure our guts are working properly, so we're having a regular bowel movement every day. Making sure we're eliminating properly and giving our body that opportunity to eliminate, as well as reducing exposure.

Louise: If we're not doing those things, the likelihood is that there's going to be some sort of toxic load present. But if you're someone who feels quite unwell when you start losing weight, some people get almost a hangover-type experience when they lose weight rapidly, that can be because of a sudden, quite high toxic load.

Nikkiey: Wow. Interesting. So it's removing the phthalates, removing the things that are in your deodorants, your skincare, your soaps, your shampoos, conditioners, all that kind of stuff.

Louise: Yeah. Phthalates are one of the main ones. There's a list of things, like parabens as well. But there's quite a long list, and I'm not going to claim to remember it.

Nikkiey: You don't have to. Okay, cool. That's very interesting. I've never talked about toxic load before, but it makes a lot of sense, especially the point you made about plateauing pretty quickly. When you lose a lot of weight and then hit that plateau and try to figure out what may be happening and why you can't break through, it could be this.

Nikkiey: Interesting. Thanks for that insight. One other thing I want to pin and circle back to is that you kept talking about gut health. We're going to put a pin in the next thing and circle back to it. But gut health, let's talk about it. It's definitely becoming more predominant in the space. People are talking about it. People are saying, get your gut health in check. I know and understand that our gut is like our second brain. So can you shed light on what gut health is and what people should be looking out for when it comes to making it better?

Louise: When we talk about gut health, what we're generally referring to is the population of bacteria and microorganisms in the gut. So it's about having enough beneficial bacteria and not too much of the less beneficial bacteria. But it's also about making sure the gut lining is healthy and not inflamed, and ensuring that we're actually digesting our food properly, breaking it down fully and absorbing it properly as well.

Louise: All of that's really important, because it's all well and good eating a good diet, but if you're not actually digesting and absorbing it, what's the point? You're wasting a lot of effort, and a lot of nutrients are just passing through. Your bacteria do a lot of that work for you, so having a healthy balance of bacteria in your gut is key, because it helps particularly with breaking down carbohydrates and fibers.

Louise: Some bacteria actually synthesize vitamins for us, and short-chain fatty acids, which are really good for us. So there's a lot happening in the gut. We know that certain species of bacteria can cause inflammation by increasing our toxic load, and they can cause hormone imbalance by reactivating some of the hormones we're trying to eliminate.

Louise: Some of them increase the amount of sugar we extract from our food, so they can result in us getting spikes from foods we might not expect. Some of them will increase our appetite and our cravings. So having that healthy balance can make a world of difference to how we feel day to day.

Nikkiey: Awesome. How do we know if we're digesting things well?

Louise: A really good way is to look at your stools and see: is there any undigested food in the stool?

Louise: Is it greasy? Does it float? If it's greasy and floating, it's probably a sign that there's some undigested fat in there. And if there are bits of food in there, then either you're not chewing properly or your gut isn't doing its job properly.

Nikkiey: I love when we talk about poop on the podcast. That's awesome. A couple of things, too. What about digestion right after eating, like being gassy?

Nikkiey: Is that a good sign or a bad sign? How do we distinguish that? I know a lot of people say, when I'm eating protein, I get the protein farts. Does that mean protein isn't good for them, or it's not digested well? Or is it that they just haven't yet been able to adapt their body to eating protein? What is that?

Louise: It's totally normal to have flatulence. It's normal to produce gas from the food we eat. But when it's excessive or very smelly, it could be a sign that you're not digesting it as well, or that the balance of your bacteria isn't optimal for digesting that food.

Louise: Our gut bacteria are really good at adapting to the food we eat. So most often we can just change our diet and our guts will adapt. But if something is causing you a lot of bloating and flatulence, it might be that you need to increase your intake of it slowly. And sometimes it can be a sign that you're intolerant to something, particularly if it's causing you a lot of discomfort or changing your bowel movements.

Nikkiey: These are great immediate tips for people to pay attention to: how they're digesting their foods, the tips you just shared, and taking a look at their poop every morning. Let's go back to the poop talk. Okay, real talk. Should you be pooping every day? Every other day? Three times? What's the normal cadence?

Louise: The general consensus is that one to two fully formed, solid bowel movements per day is what we should expect.

Louise: Particularly if you're eating two to three times a day, you should probably expect at least one to two bowel movements per day. If you have a less regular eating routine and maybe eat one meal a day, you might not expect as many bowel movements. But we should be eliminating every day.

Nikkiey: Cool. Good. Okay, checkmark, good there. All right, awesome. The one other thing I wanted to circle back to is something you've mentioned a couple of times.

Nikkiey: Water and hydration. What does that do for, I think, everything? Digestion, hormones, the cells of our body. And what would you recommend for daily water intake? I'll save what I'm going to say for after.

Louise: The bigger you are in terms of body fat, the more water you need to drink to be hydrated, because it's very difficult for our cells to retain water when we've got fat in our cells, basically.

Louise: So you need to drink more if you're bigger. In terms of exactly how much that is, I don't think there's a general consensus. There's no research that's been done saying this is the amount people should be drinking. A general rule of thumb is that if your urine is a very light yellow color, that's a good sign.

Louise: You don't necessarily want it to be completely clear all the time, but we don't want it to be dark.

Nikkiey: Amen. Let's go. I love that you went to the urine. Not many people say that. They say, get 128 ounces of water a day, or get half your body weight in water a day. I love that. That's the great answer. What is your urine telling you? What is your poop telling you? All these things are giving you answers. Go ahead.

Louise: And I think if you're eating a relatively clean diet and you're not going too crazy with the salt, your body will tell you how much you need to drink.

Louise: You just need to listen to your thirst. I know that depends on your relationship with food as well, because a lot of people mistake their thirst cues for hunger cues. But if you opt for a glass of water before you opt for the snack, if it's outside your regular mealtimes, the likelihood is that you're probably just dehydrated.

Nikkiey: Amen to that.

Louise: Right. Because our hypothalamus controls both our hunger and our thirst.

Nikkiey: And I love that signal you just mentioned: you may not be hungry, just drink a glass of water, and that's probably exactly what it was. Love that. Okay. You mentioned cortisol a couple of times, so I want to circle back to self-care and stress management. I know the audience would love to hear your point of view and some takeaways to manage those things, especially through nutrition. I like to say nutrition is king and exercise is queen. If you can get your nutrition down pat, the world opens up so much to living a healthy lifestyle and having a healthy body.

Nikkiey: And sleeping well and all of the things. So let's talk about the importance of self-care, especially linked to cortisol and nutrition. Is cortisol something you test on the front end too?

Louise: We don't always test it, and part of the reason is that we just don't feel it's particularly necessary. You can usually see when someone has probably got high cortisol, because they're busy all the time and rarely stop and take time for themselves.

Louise: Or they're someone who is quite highly strung and quite sensitive to changes in their routines, that sort of thing. So I think it's quite easy to pick up on as a practitioner. So we don't test it.

Nikkiey: Okay, interesting. So how would someone handle self-care and stress management to help them get the results they want?

Louise: I think you can tackle it from a few different angles. You've got trying to reduce the overall stress load, which is often easier said than done, but it's worth putting some energy into. That might involve delegating some things so you've got less on your plate, and it might involve adding in some time, if possible, for self-care.

Louise: And they could be quick things, like some deep breathing. It takes about a minute to just stop and do some deep belly breathing, and there's been research done on it. It has such a profound effect on your body, on your cortisol levels. Also things that stimulate the vagus nerve. That could be things like singing, humming, or taking a cold shower.

Nikkiey: I'm just kidding. I know that helps. You would think it's kind of the opposite, but I know.

Louise: I know, right. It sounds stressful, but the effect it has on your body, the constriction of your blood vessels, helps to stimulate the vagus nerve and the parasympathetic nervous system to put you into rest and digest, rather than fight or flight mode, which most of us are in a lot of the time.

Nikkiey: Yeah. All great strategies. For women who are listening, if cortisol is tested, you're able to see the curve, right?

Nikkiey: And if the curve is coming back up at nighttime, there are really good strategies to implement at that point, like you're saying, some deep breathing, shutting down the lights at night. I have what I like to call a smart apartment, and it's all powered by Philips Hue. The lights go down to almost an orange color at night so my eyes can start regulating and get ready to fall asleep. So if anybody has that curve coming back up, these are great strategies. And that's why testing can be so beneficial, because you don't know this stuff until you get the data on the hormones, the thyroid, blood glucose, all of those things.

Nikkiey: So, super cool. As we start to wrap up, am I missing anything you want to share with the audience today?

Louise: I don't think so. I think we've done a bit of a whirlwind tour of the things I usually talk about. So I think we've covered it.

Nikkiey: Amazing. Okay, one last question. For the future of holistic health and your goals, what are you striving for? What's your vision for how this space gets more of a hold, and how we can empower more women to live fulfilling lives?

Louise: My hope is that it will be more accepted that everyone is different and that we need to take an individualized approach to our health. And also that we need to start tackling it from a relatively young age, before we've got problems, because all the problems we develop, the diseases or just symptoms, start many, many years beforehand.

Louise: Usually from habits we pick up in childhood. So if we can prevent, we're going to save ourselves so much time, stress and money, you name it really.

Nikkiey: I love all of that. And actually, one last question: where can everybody find you?

Louise: You can find out more about what I do by searching on socials for @louisedigbynutrition, or you can find me on my website, louisedigbynutrition.com. I also have my own podcast, which is called The Thriving Metabolism.

Nikkiey: Amazing. Louise, thank you so much for being here. We did go on kind of a city tour of all the things you're so insightful on, and I appreciate you sharing your insights and pouring so much valuable stuff into the listeners. I'll have where they can find you in the description below. Thank you for being here. I appreciate your time.

Louise: Thank you so much for having me. It's been lovely.

Nikkiey: Of course. All right, listeners, we'll catch you in the next one. Peace out.

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