Your Favorite Guest Moments of 2025

00:00What would you say is like the ideal weekly training split for someone that's like 50 years old? A minimum is two times a week. Minimum. If we're doing total body compound movements, we're really focusing on the strength, and that's great. If we want to start accumulating more lean mass, and that's bone and muscle, then we're looking at three times. That's the minimum. You don't really want to eke it out to going every day, which some people are like, oh, more is better, because we also really need to focus on recovery. You can't build without recovery. People are always like, oh, I can't spend that much time in the gym. I'm like, if you have an hour a week divided into 20-minute segments three times a week, you can get a lot done in 20 minutes in the gym when you're looking at strength training.

00:42Dr. Stacey Sims. If you don't already know who she is, she's a world-renowned exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist who's flipped the script on the one-size-fits-all approach in fitness and performance, especially when it comes to women. She is the author of ROAR and Next Level, and her mission is grounded in one of the most powerful truths out there. Women are not small men. We need to train, we need to feel, and we need to recover differently, especially for those of the women that are listening to this right now that are navigating hormonal changes as they're going through perimenopause or menopause.

01:17So, today, we're diving into how women can build muscle, lose fat, feel strong, and actually understand their bodies. And this episode, guys, is going to be packed with some truth bombs, and I just can't wait to get into Stacey's brain and her drop all of this knowledge here. Dr. Sims, welcome to The WarriorBabe Show. Thanks for having me. I've been looking forward to this. Let's go.

02:10What actually changes in how women should train once they hit this stage of life, like perimenopause and menopause? Yeah, so I like to bring people back to that conversation around puberty, right? Because we hear, and we've all been through it, we know that your body changes, and you have all these things that happen, and then you get your menstrual cycle. So, we're on the other side of things, where we're starting to see our body is unwinding our ovarian function. So, what does that mean, really? Like, we're having more and more anovulatory cycle, so we're not dropping an egg.

02:44If we don't drop an egg, then we don't produce progesterone. We're seeing that we're having more flux of estrogen, and our body has been affected by a continuous cycle of estrogen and progesterone for decades. Now, every system of the body is starting to be affected. We see it from brain changes, cardiovascular changes. We see it when you go get a blood test, and all of a sudden, you have high cholesterol, and you're like, I've never had that before. I don't have a family history. It's primarily because of estrogen and progesterone and how they have an interplay in every system of the body.

03:16We talk specifically about skeletal muscle. We see that estrogen is really tightly tied to how our muscles respond and how strong our contractions are and how powerful they are. We also have the other side of things where our body, by aging, is becoming less and less responsive to protein intake and to resistance training. So all these women who up to this point have been, oh, yeah, I get 20 grams of protein after training. I've done my HIIT. I've done my CrossFit Metcon.

03:48I've done my 3x10s or 3x15s. I've gone into fatigue. None of that works now because our body's like, oh, wait a second. We need more protein to stimulate anabolism or to building a muscle. We also need to find a different stressor that's going to create adaptive response. Because our bodies are really kind of used to not being threatened. So if we are able to create a stress that's going to cause a threat that the body's then like, oh, I've got to build more muscle. I've got to have a powerful contraction.

04:20Then it's going to respond in kind. So when we take that into translation, it's like, okay, what are we doing here? We want to look at that power-based range of lifting. Or we want people to learn how to lift heavy properly. We want to do compound movements. We want to have adequate rest between our sets because we want a central nervous system response. Because if we're having a central nervous system response, it's the nerve saying, hey, wait a second. I need to be able to stimulate all of these muscle fibers for really strong contraction.

04:53How am I going to do that? Okay. I need some more of this neurotransmitter around so I can actually jump and contract these muscle fibers. In these muscle fibers, I also need my myosin and actin to be really on point. So let's stimulate the myosin a bit more so the myosin and actin contract strongly and bond together. And then by the nature of having to have more lean mass, if we are having a continuous stress from central nervous system and also peripheral nervous system,

05:25then the body's like, okay, I need to be able to build more mass to keep up with what's happening from the brain. So when we're looking at the training scope, it's no wonder that people who are used to doing like the hit and the higher reps and lower weights not finding a change. Because it's not the right kind of stress we need when we're starting to have these changes in our hormones. Yeah, that makes total sense. So for the women that are doing those types of activity, like you're saying like focus on more compound movements, put more stress in the body with the weights.

05:57How about with the women that are like in menopause? Like is it the same thing like strength training, compound movements? Is there anything differently that would be done during that phase of life? No. When we're seeing what's happening is we're having that wind down during perimenopause. So we start to put those new patterns into place, the body's responding because we see the biggest change in body composition is occurring over that menopause transition. So when we're doing the heavier weights and we're actually looking at loading the body properly, not only are we stimulating lean mass development, we're also stimulating bone.

06:29And both of those are really important. So when we get to postmenopause, we have those patterns into play. But if you're listening to this, you're like, oh, I'm well past that perimenopause. It's not too late to start because if we start lifting heavier, we're putting stress on the ligaments and the tendons and the muscle. We're also building bone to support that. And when people are like, oh, you know, I'm 62. How can I lift heavy? It's like, well, we don't want you to go in and do a heavy deadlift right now. Let's look at where you are and phase it in a relative way, just like we would any other person in any other phase of their life.

07:03So what you're basically saying is like lifting is essential. It's not optional really, right? Exactly. What would you say is like the ideal weekly training split for someone that's like 50 years old that wants to build muscle? You know, we see that a minimum is two times a week, minimum. And this is total body movements for that. If you are looking to actually build on top of the strength. So if we're doing total body compound movements, we're really focusing on the strength. And that's great. If we want to start accumulating more lean mass, and that's bone and muscle.

07:37Then we're looking at three times. That's the minimum. You don't really want to eke it out to going every day, which some people are like, oh, more is better. Because we also really need to focus on recovery. You can't build without recovery. So people are always like, oh, I can't spend that much time in the gym. Like, if you have an hour a week divided into 20 minute segments three times a week, you can get a lot done in 20 minutes in the gym when you're looking at strength training. Heck yeah. And so many women.

08:09Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, Warrior Babe is here for you. At Warrior Babe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle, and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results and results that last.

08:44Look, don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right. Let's get back to the show. I think like they're more about moving the body more. They've come from the age of I need to eat less and I need to train more. And now the narrative is like less is more, right?

09:16Yeah. What would you tell somebody that – because we see women that like want to train six days a week and they're like having a hard time even breaking that type of habit and understanding, hey, less is more. Two, three times a week is all you really need. How would you navigate a situation like that with someone and just be like, hey, we need to pull it back and why? I feel like that's a conversation I have every day many times a day. I bet. Same. I should be like go to this podcast and listen to it and the answer is right there. Yeah. Yeah.

09:47I mean, again, coming from the endurance background, a lot of my friends are still in that and I have friends who are coaches and that kind of stuff. And so they're still locked in that mentality. And then the general everyday person is like, oh, I need to get X amount of steps per day and go to the gym and do this and that. I'm like, well, actually what we want to do is we want to polarize. If you work out every day, can you hit a max intensity on one of those days? And they're like, what do you mean? Can you do sprint interval training on one of those days? Can you do 30 seconds full on as hard as you can and repeat that a few times?

10:19And most people are like, well, yeah. And then they go try it and like, no, I'm always too tired. It's like, that's the thing. You're always in this kind of moderate intensity. If you're exercising every day at the same intensity and trying to do the same thing with the idea of burning calories to lose weight and do body composition, you're not. You're just creating this cascade of sympathetic drive and stress that's not going to allow your body to understand exercise stress. From a mental standpoint, sure, maybe we do want to go outside every day, but it doesn't mean do the same intensity every day.

10:55If we pull it back and go, we want three key training days in a week. And these are the intensities that we want. And when you go to lift and we're only lifting, it's hard. Like you leave feeling like you've done some work. It's not about supersetting to try to get the burn. It's about actually putting in that hard work because that's how the body responds. So when we start putting in these little teasers of tests of how hard can you go and how well can you recover, people start to get it. It takes some time, but it's all about let's see how you can polarize it.

11:30Here we have a hill that everyone likes to walk up. I'm like, how long does it take you to walk up the mountain? And people are like, oh, I don't know. I go up and down a couple of times. Like, let's go up once and try to get up there in 12 minutes. And most people are like, no, I can't do it. I was like, if you're rested and recovered, you can do it. So then people try and like, oh my God, that was so hard, but I feel so good. It's like, yeah, but don't do that every day. But let's shift our gears to nutrition because that's where I feel like a lot of women are stuck. Like I feel like every conversation I have with someone on the nutrition topic, it's like I'm looking at it like a deer is looking at headlights.

12:03You know, like women are eating like 1,100 calories, 200 calories thinking that it's going to help them drop fat. It's going to help them drop weight. But they're not seeing the progress that they want to see. And in fact, they're gaining weight. They're losing muscle or they're feeling just constantly exhausted. So and they think that something's wrong with them. Right. Like that's a narrative that I hate to hear. And I want anyone listening. Juan, it's like it's that's not the case. You're not broken. And I want us in this conversation to help them see like it's one, it's not their fault.

12:34And two, it's like they're just they need the right strategy for where their body is at now. So with all that being said, many women, like I said, are eating 1,100, 1,200 calories and wondering like why they aren't seeing the progress that they want or losing fat. Can you speak to the one to the danger of that? And especially for women that are in the phase of menopause and going through that that journey, but more so the danger of just eating. 1,100 and 1,200 calories. Yeah, it's not enough. Like we've been caught in this narrative probably from the 100 years of cardio stuff where, you know, calories in, calories out, eat less, burn more.

13:11And we have to remember that inherently we are biological beings that require food. And if we are not eating enough to support just general health, the body perceives it as being a threat. And the body is like, wait, I want to stay alive. So I'm going to start conserving every possible high metabolic costs that I can. So if you're only eating 1,100 to 1,200 calories a day, that's not really even enough to touch a resting metabolic rate. We see on average a resting metabolic rate is around that 11 to 1,200 calorie point.

13:43So that's like lying in bed and not even blinking, right? So this is just the basic amount that your body needs to survive from all its breathing and heart rate and blood circulating and brain and everything. But as soon as you get up to pee, you need more calories. It's like your body needs food to do all of these energetics. And if you're not eating, your body's like, I'm bringing it all down. I'm only going to allow the essentials to work well. So I need to preserve the brain and I'm going to keep trying to fuel the brain.

14:18I don't have enough blood sugar. So I'm going to start using some free fatty acids or ketones and amino acids. Where does that come from? It comes from your lean mass. Your lean mass is very metabolically active. And that's one of the first things the body is going to go after and say, hey, you're too metabolically active. I can't conserve you. So I'm going to break you down and use you for the sum of the parts. So when we start seeing women who aren't eating enough, we see this, right? They put on belly fat. They put on a lot of extra subcutaneous fat.

14:50They look a little bit puffy. They're losing lean mass. They're not responding to training. And then they can't sleep well, right? Because they're in the sympathetic drive where their body's in this really highly stressed state of there's no nutrition coming in. How am I going? Like I'm getting ready to fight or flight is that continuous feeling. When we get into the menopause transition, unfortunately, we see a big shift in body composition with this change in the hormones because the body is under a sympathetic drive.

15:21So that's why we are always thinking tired but wired because we're having these shifts and the body's under a little bit of normal stress from these shifts because it's starting to find a new biological set point. So we start seeing conversations between the liver and free fatty acids that are floating in the blood where now the liver is like, I need to store you in around the organs in case I need to be able to access you, which is why we get visceral fat. We also see that we have less ability for insulin to pull sugar into the muscle.

15:56We have more insulin resistance. And it's because the body's like, I need to conserve blood sugar. I need it for the brain. So there's all these things that are going because we're under a bit of stress. So if we're like, let's feed the body and let's train appropriately, we start to see better conversations across the organs, which allow us to not store visceral fat, but to take fatty acids and put it into the skeletal muscle to be used at rest to increase our body's ability to pull glucose into the skeletal muscle and the liver without insulin.

16:30So we start to see better metabolic health. If we're not feeding it, we don't even start to have an impetus on that. I feel like everybody needs to rewind that whole last bit and just listen to it over and over and over again. Like I'm over here. I have chills and I'm screaming yes in my head because of all that you just said. Like I'm so glad you just said that. And the way that you broke it down makes it so understandable as to what is actually going on. Because it's not like a lot of women know like, hey, this is what's happening around my liver.

17:02It's visceral fat equals this. Like it's not the brain doesn't compute like that for women that don't have the knowledge that you have or the bubble that we're in. And we eat, sleep, breathe this kind of stuff. So I just thank you. That's the exact message. I just want to continue hammering home so women can understand how important it is to eat food and eat the right amount of food. Today, guys, I have Alicia here with me. She's also known as the midlife maven. And I know this is going to resonate so hard. At 51, Alicia completely transformed her entire health and fitness journey and proving that midlife is just the beginning.

17:38So after also a 13-year-long career as a portrait photographer, she's now on a mission to empower other women in their prime to embrace their strength and vitality through strength training and nutrition. And everybody listening, once you start following her, wait till you see how ripped and incredible she looks. I'm so excited. Yeah, let's go. I'm so excited to have you on here, Alicia. Thanks for being here. Oh, my gosh. Thank you for having me. This is so fun. Can't wait. Your vibe is so great.

18:10Your energy is so great. We're going to have so much fun today. And something I see, too, that you do on social media, which has inspired me because I'm only at 2,000 steps today, don't yell at me, is to get out there and get my 10K steps in. Yeah. Walking, too. Yes. Huge. Like, walking is my new favorite, absolute favorite thing to do. I do not run anymore. I walk and I hike. I live in Washington State, so we have, like, a million hikes here. And we hike all summer long. We're snowshoeing this winter. Like, it's just my favorite. It feels so good. That's amazing.

18:40And my body loves it. Yeah. Yeah. When you stopped CrossFit and you went back into what you just said you did, what did, like, did you have to lose weight? Were you skinny fat? Were you overweight? Like, what was the- I wanted to lose, like, 10-ish pounds, 10 to 15. I just had, like, a little extra layer going on. And so I went into a caloric deficit at first. And I did that for about three to four months. And then from there, it took a minute for me to start losing weight because my body was adjusting to the protein. Because I had not really tracked my protein like that before.

19:12And I was like, whoa, hold on a second. And so it took a minute for things to kind of start happening. And then once they did, it was, like, really kind of quick. My body started to respond. And from that point, I was like, okay, I'm happy with what I'm weighing. I just want to recomp from here. I just want to, like, stick with what I'm doing, stay at maintenance, and just push hard in the gym and recomp. And that's, like, that was crazy, too, watching what happened over the next year. You just said maintenance. Because I say maintenance is where the magic happens. Like, sometimes. Oh, yeah.

19:42Although people can go into a cut, some people shouldn't go into a calorie deficit or a cut. So you mentioned maintenance there. Like, you just lifted heavier inside the gym. That's what you did. Yeah. And when you see the pictures of me when I was at the end of my cut, like, a year later, it's insane how I just – And I wish I would have done a DEXA, like, at the beginning of my maintenance. Because I know that I put on so much muscle. You just – like, I completely changed my body composition. It was crazy. Insane. Yeah. And then my maintenance – like, what women don't realize is that, you know, so you're in maintenance.

20:16And then as you're putting on more muscle, your maintenance – actually, your calories go up because muscle is so efficient. And muscle just burns through your food. So you get to eat more food. It's freaking awesome. It is freaking awesome. I just wish more women understood that, which is why you doing what you're doing and this, you know, you coming on and sharing this message. I always say, like, whenever I hear people saying the same thing that I'm saying, it just – it makes it feel good because it's like, oh, Nikki says this, but at least she's saying this too. So it actually might mean something and it gets more believability behind it.

20:48Totally. And I think especially with my generation, because my generation, Gen X, it's just been taught something completely different. And so it's very hard to get this through. Yeah, 100%. But, yeah. So you did all of this around 51, right? Yeah, as I was turning 50. So were you experiencing any signs of premenopause or are you going through? Oh, yeah. Definitely. Yeah, no. So, yeah, definitely. I felt like as I was going into – for sure into my mid-40s, I was – like, perimenopause was coming on.

21:19And I definitely noticed that with just the activities that I was doing and then also with alcohol. Because I decided to cut out alcohol after, like, a 20-year relationship – 25-plus years relationship with alcohol. I was like, this just is not doing it anymore. This is – my body is just, like, we are done. We are not handling this like we used to. We need to be done. It was just making me feel like crud. And then also I had goals. Like, I had things I wanted to do and it was just getting in my way. So I completely cut that. You just notice things that your body just responds to differently as you're coming into Perry.

21:49It's like, uh, this isn't doing it anymore. Yeah, I love watching your story. I think it was last night where you're pouring your seltzer into a wine glass. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I drink it out of a goblet. A little goblet. Or like a chalice, I call it. Dancing to rap music at that time. Yeah. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yeah. Because I'm just like, you know what? I'm more fun sober than I was before. I'm, like, more fun now. My energy is, like, skyrocket, you know? Hell, yeah. What motivated you? Like, you talked a little bit there. What motivated you to fully, like, take out alcohol, take out processed sugar?

22:21Well, you know, I am. Well, I will say I am a woman of faith. So I definitely felt like something in my spirit. Like, and I've heard somebody else say this before. Like, it just wasn't aligning with me. Just, like, spiritually, mentally, physically. And every way, like, every aspect of my life, it just, like, was not aligning. It was just not matching up. And I'm the kind of person, as you can see, I kind of go all in with what I do. And so alcohol was not, like, I understand that some people are like, hey, I just need to moderate. It's too much for me to completely cut it.

22:52Hey, if that works for you, if moderation works for you, and you can, you know, moderation is zero to two glasses a week. That's moderation. And what people consider a glass, I mean, what I used to consider a glass was, like, more probably, like, three glasses. So if that works for you, that's great. But for me, I knew myself what I needed to do for me. Like, every person has their own decision that they need to make, and they don't need to compare with anybody else as far as when it comes to alcohol. You need to do what you know is best for you. And I just knew in the depths of my soul that it needed to be completely gone because it was

23:23too habit-forming for me. It was, like, four or five, six days a week. And I could, yeah, oh, yeah, I could do, like, anywhere from a glass to a bottle. Easy, easy. Or even more on the weekends. I'm like, this is just not, I can't do this anymore. I need to completely be done. That's amazing, first of all. Kudos to you. That's really hard for people to do. First of all, acknowledge. Like, I think I love that you said that you're a part of, like, you listen, you have faith or spiritual, like, universe God. Yeah. That is, you had the voice inside of you and you followed it.

23:54And that is amazing. Yeah. What, at that point, was this when you were, like, were you still doing the crawl? Like, where was this in the mix of your transition to CrossFit? Yeah. I was in the middle of CrossFit. And so when you stopped it, did you see, like, results, like, come quicker? Well, you know, they call it the sober glow, too. And, like, I definitely, it was, like, my skin. It was, like, my eyes, my skin. I took selfies, like, every day for months. And even, like, it continued over the months.

24:25Just my skin and everything just came. It was, like, everything became more vibrant. So much more vibrant. So much more alive. So much just, like, glowy. Like, it's, it's, I mean, it's, it's a toxin. At the end of the day, you're putting a toxin in your body. So, it was, it, to me, it was, like, this is a game changer. I just felt like a new woman. New woman. Kudos to you. Kudos to you. I hope you're inspiring anybody that's listening to this right now to take that first step. And just incredible that at 51, like, you transformed your entire body and you did the basics.

24:56So I just want to, like, drill that back in. Macros, protein, strength. Yeah. So for any woman that's listening to this, because the majority of women are, like, 45 to 65 years old that listen to this podcast. For any woman that is in that, like, midlife who might feel hesitant about starting strength training, what advice would you give them to help them first take that first step? Well, I mean, I know that it can be overwhelming, like, to think about going into the gym or where do I even start? Or, like, am I going to get, I know women think about getting bulky, but I mean, like, do I look bulky to you?

25:29I'm not, you know, like, it's, it has, it's going to, your nutrition is going to indicate, like, how bulky you're going to get. So I would just say, get out of your own way with your mindset, like, get out of your own way with whatever preconceived notions that you have. And, like, look at these women who are transforming. And there's so many women online that you see and look at what they're doing and see what they're doing and listen to what they're saying. Like, there's absolutely no reason why anybody couldn't do this. Like, we're just doing the thing. We're just being consistent.

26:00And it doesn't, and that's another thing I think that our generation has been taught is that, oh, this is going to happen so quickly. Well, it's going to take months, if not years, to build the body that you want. And so that's where you have to fall in love with the process. And you fall in love with the whole process of what happens because it's going to take time. You don't need to set a time limit on things. Like, just start doing the thing and start chipping away and just fall in love with it as you're doing it because it's going to take time. So, amen to that. I actually want to dive in a little bit further with you on that because if you do, like, everyone listening, if you follow Alicia on Instagram, you can see the fact, like, her consistency shows in the results that she has with her body.

26:36And you're speaking to, like, the generation of women that grow up with, like, Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers and, like, you're putting your body. I always say you're putting your body. They expect to put your body into a microwave. It out comes a toned body. Then I say, if, like, you can expect. You can just accept that your journey is going to take anywhere from 8 months to 12 months to 18 months to 2 years. You stop looking and chasing the outcome and you just start getting addicted to the journey. You start falling in love with the journey. You can start to be happy now, whether they're waiting for a result to happen, and then you finally can be happy.

27:08So, what would you say, like, are the – because I also say, like, people follow macros. People do strength training workouts. But it's the tip of the iceberg. What people don't see is, like, the bottom of the iceberg, like, what you put in on a daily basis, your consistency, you show up, your willpower, your persistence, your patience. So, like, can you talk to the audience about what that means to you and why you show up and you keep the promises to yourself every day? Well, I mean, who doesn't want to wake up feeling like a million bucks? You wake up feeling like you have confidence.

27:39You feel good. You have high energy. Like, you walk around just owning your womanhood and feeling amazing. Like, who doesn't want to wake up feeling like that? You prove to yourself that you're just a badass and that you can do hard things. And your confidence, like, skyrockets. And you feel so freaking good. Like, who doesn't want to wake up that way? It takes work. And, you know, I will say it takes a lot of mindset work, too. And I think that's not touched on enough is just where your mindset is at and how you speak to yourself. And, like, just really getting your mind right for this because I think that's where people get caught up with the mindset stuff.

28:17They get a little stuck. Yeah. Yeah. I totally agree with you on that. They're stuck in the old, like, stories, limiting beliefs. Big time. Even the patterns of where they saw their mom being on a diet after diet. So they think they have to do the same exact thing. And then that carries on into their habits. And then it's really hard to change the behaviors. And then recognizing that, like we mentioned earlier, is like you got to kind of get out of your own way. I always like to say if you're expecting – if you're doing the same thing over and over and over again, this definition of insanity. You're in expecting different results.

28:48This definition of insanity. Albert Einstein. Big time. Yeah. Yeah. Mindset. Like, that's something that needs to be addressed at the beginning of the journey, at least, like, subtly to bring self-awareness to it. Because if that can't get right, people think that they can't do it, then they're not going to be able to do it. They think they can do it and they change the narrative. Then they're going to be able to see themselves excel. And that's exactly what I was telling myself when I started this whole thing. I was like, you can do this. You are absolutely able to do this. You can do this. And also telling myself, you know what? I love you like this too.

29:19I, like, telling myself, I appreciate you, body, for everything that you brought me through, for everything that you've done up to this point. Like, thank you for getting me to where I am today and for providing everything that you have. Like, you can still love yourself and love your body but want more. That's okay. You know? But still believe that you can do and accomplish more. And I think that's a sweet spot that a lot of us have a hard time finding. You know? But that's something that I honestly, I feel like I worked years to accomplish that with my mindset.

29:49Like, loving and accepting me where I am and, like, still saying, you know what? We can do more. We can go even further. Let's go. Unstoppable, baby. That's some resilience right there. Let's go. I love it. Quick break. If you're finding this episode helpful so far, it would mean a lot if you could hit pause for just a second, leave a quick rating or a review, or share it with someone who could benefit from it. Your support helps more women discover these tools to build muscle, lose fat, and feel confident.

30:23Thank you so much for being a part of this journey with me. Today, I have an internationally renowned hormone expert, a nutrition scientist, and the founder of Dr. Brighton Essentials. She is a board-certified naturopathic endocrinology, a certified menopause specialist, a sex counselor. And, I mean, what has she not done? She's also the best-selling author of Beyond the Pill. And is this normal? Dr. Brighton is here today, everyone. And she is on a mission to help women uncover the root causes of hormonal imbalances and reclaim their vitality through informed science-backed choices.

31:01And today, we're diving into all of the things, perimetopause, hormonal shifts, mood, libido, energy, and what it truly means to take control of your health through every phase of womanhood. And I'm really excited for this conversation. Dr. Brighton, welcome. Yeah. Thanks so much for having me. I'm very excited to jump in and talk. Everybody, she sent over some of the best questions. So I'm going to tell you right now that you're going to want to share this with your friends because we are going to bust so many myths. And I'm going to give you everything that your doctor should have given you in every single visit you've ever had but hasn't yet.

31:35Amen to that, lady. I'm super stoked. Cool. So for many women, let's first start off in the bucket of hormonal imbalance. Perimenopause feels like it just like sneaks up on them. I've learned that it can start as early as in your mid-30s, right? So what are the earliest signs of hormonal changes that women experience? What should we be paying attention to? Yes. What every woman needs to know about perimenopause is that hot flashes are not the first sign.

32:07Irregular periods are not the first sign. The very first hormone to decline in perimenopause is progesterone. So progesterone is only made after ovulation. The onset of perimenopause is when our savings account of eggs is running out. When you're out of eggs, you enter into menopause, which is 12 consecutive months of no period. The next day, you're postmenopausal. So you get a birthday of like no periods. Yay, menopause. Next day, postmenopause.

32:37But before that, what we see is that progesterone begins its decline. What do those symptoms look like? Worsening PMS. So you're more irritable. Your partner chews their food loudly. You're like, I'm getting a divorce. Like, I'm out of here. I can't be with this person anymore. I'm so irritable. Because what progesterone does is it stimulates the GABA receptor in your brain. So you make progesterone or you take oral micronized progesterone and your body converts that into allopregnenolone. That hits the brain.

33:08GABA lights up. GABA says, chill. You love this person. They're not that annoying. And we're going to get really good sleep. We're going to go to sleep and we're going to stay asleep throughout the night. So if you're someone 35 or older and two, three, maybe even five days before your period, you're having night waking or you're waking up much earlier. So instead of waking up, you usually wake up at six. Now you're waking up at four or five. That can be pointing towards a progesterone issue. The good news is, is that in that phase, in the early perimenopause phase, there's still

33:42a lot we can do naturally to get the ovaries to work for you and help mitigate these symptoms. How? What can we do? Yes. Okay. We'll go right into it. Give it to us now. Okay. So if you are experiencing increased PMS, you are having breast tenderness before your period, you're irritable, you're having insomnia or sleep issues. There's several things that can help. So number one is we increase our vitamin C, whether that is coming dietarily or coming through supplements and vitamin B6.

34:13With vitamin B6, we're going to be looking at like 20, 25 milligrams coming in a day. Those are going to support the corpus luteum, the temporary endocrine structure that's left behind post ovulation to produce progesterone. There's an herb known as chase tree berry or vitex. We typically use that at 200 milligrams. That can also help with supporting ovarian production of hormones and it can help during that luteal phase. Now, the other thing we got to look at is stress. Stress is absolutely the number one thing that will rob you of a really easy period.

34:50The reason is, is that when the brain perceives stress, your body wanting to survive no matter what, says make stress hormones, survival hormones, don't make reproductive hormones, expensive, potentially gets us pregnant in a scary environment hormones. We need to survive. So your body being really wise is going to shift in that way. The problem is the modern woman is living under chronic stress day by day by day. And evolutionarily speaking, the way you actually developed your entire hormonal system does

35:24not match what is happening in your environment. So what can we do with that? We have to look at where we can mitigate stress and where we can cut out stress. You cannot control all stress, but you can control your response. So I have several articles on drbrayton.com and one I would recommend people to check out is vagus nerve stimulation. I also have a podcast episode going through this of ways that you can stimulate your vagus nerves. So there's certain breathing exercises. There's massage exercises. The vagus nerve runs from your brain.

35:55It innervates your heart and it innervates your gut. And this is a way that we can access the rest and digest aspect of our nervous system. We can hum. We can sing out loud. We can do deep breathing. That will shift us to more resilience against stress. And then I ask people in my practice, I say, can you go through and do basically a stress inventory? I just want you to brain dump all of the things that are causing you stress. And then I want you to look at what are you unnecessarily putting on your plate? Because we do that.

36:26We look at, we think like, oh, I'm the only one who can do this best. Does it really have to be you? Do you really have to sign up for that PTA thing again? Do you really have to volunteer for this extra thing? Like, where can you offload stuff? And then when you look at like, what is perceived stress and what's actual stress? Because the things that we sometimes are writing down and we're like, oh, this is a source of stress. When we write it down and we look at it, sometimes we're like, actually, I'm making that up in my head. That's not real stress. Like, I need to let that go.

36:57And then there's my favorite one, which is, you know, everybody talks about like a detox diet. I'm like, detox the people in your life who are toxic. So take a look at that. If there are people in your life that when you spend time with them, you feel more exhausted, drained. You go home, you think about the interactions, you hate on yourself about things. Those people, they got to go, especially if you're in a healing phase of life. And that doesn't make them bad people, makes them not the right people for you and your hormones.

37:28Yeah. Wow. So such good advice already so far into this episode. I want to ask you, what are your like most common myths and misconceptions that you often hear from your patients about perimenopause and hormone health? Actually, I hear this one from other providers and that it's that perimenopause and menopause are just natural. So if you're having symptoms, you just need to like write it out. And you know what I find really funny as somebody who has been prescribing hormone replacement therapy or menopause hormone therapy for over a dozen years, this is part of my core training

38:01and my background in medicine is how many of these doctors, primarily gynecologists, who are out here telling women just to raw dog their way through menopause, suck it up, get through it. It's natural. Don't use these hormones. They'll cause cancer. Some of them sending me nasty messages being like, what are you trying to kill this patient? Giving them HRT. I'm like, no, I'm trying to give them back their life and like, you know, let them not lose their mind and actually enjoy a fully lived life. Or feel like a stranger in their body. Yeah. Yeah. And now these people are like, oh my God, sign me up.

38:33I want this HRT and I'm also going to be an expert in it. And I'm like, could you just for a minute recognize the fact, I mean, there's like a few gynecologists out there who I think are in the menopause space doing a great job. And they do talk about how they had no background, no training, and they did do a disservice to their patients. And I'm like, we have to have that dialogue to build trust with patients because the people out there that you denied hormones to, they absolutely remember you. So I think that is one big myth in that space is that, oh, you should, it's natural.

39:04So you should just deal with it. You don't have to just deal with it. And you don't have to use hormones if you don't want to. That's one option. We can also use, there's a lot of natural therapies that we can use. And nutrition and lifestyle goes so far. And I will be the one to tell you, HRT is not enough. And I don't care about these people singing it like it's the gospel that's going to save your life. It is not enough. You have to be looking at nutrition and lifestyle as well. The way you show up every day to live your life has such a tremendous impact on your outcomes.

39:37And I think anytime we put basically this paywall between people of like, if you want optimal health, you have to see a provider, you have to get a prescription. It's very disempowering because there's a lot that you can do now with or without hormones. And there's also other medication options that we can use. If you're like, I don't want to go the hormonal route, I'd rather try something else. So you shouldn't just suffer through it. There's lots of options, lots of things that we can do. The other myth is that, you know, this is a new phenomenon, perimenopause, that it wasn't

40:08even a thing until like, you know, this generation of millennial women who are talking about it. When really, I mean, it's been documented for hundreds of years, perimenopause has always existed. And so the concept that like our ancestors didn't have this, therefore you don't need to have hormones. Yeah. I hate to tell you this, but our ancestors died in childbirth a lot, a lot. Um, and they also didn't make it like past their fifties. Like our life expectancy has been extended.

40:39And so with that, we have to pivot and we have to look at how to support women much better. The other thing I'll say, the other myth is that if you take hormones, you're going to get cancer. Um, that's a big one. Uh, there was a study called the women's health initiative. They used, they, they used much older women than we initiate HRT with these days. And they already had the onset of certain disease processes. So we weren't going to reverse those hormones aren't going to reverse those, but the concept

41:11that these hormones cause cancer, we have to really pill it back. And as the new research is coming out, what we're seeing is that progestin, which you find in hormonal birth control tends to be the one that is more associated with cancer than the bioidenticals that we use today. Premarin, which is a pregnant horse whose urine we took and extracted estrogen from also not great, but using your own biological hormones doesn't show the same risk as we see with the

41:46synthetic hormones that we were using. So I just released a podcast episode. I have several where we talk about estrogen and breast cancer. And the latest one with Dr. Felice Gersh is great because she talks so much in detail about how estradiol, the, the form that we use in hormone replacement therapy actually helps glue the cells together so that you don't get metastasis, which is what kills us in breast cancer. So this is one, I know there's going to be people that are commenting being like, yes,

42:19it does cause cancer. And you're going to kill people because this myth is so, it has been so perpetuated by the media, but medicine got it wrong. And science got it wrong to make that blanket statement. And I want women to understand that smoking, drinking alcohol and binge eating ultra processed food. Those are higher risk factors for breast cancer than using a very small dose of estrogen hormone replacement therapy with progesterone HRT as well.

42:50They got to be balanced out. And when it's done right, because when it's done right, we're using the lowest dose to support your body. We are not trying to get your period back or get your levels back to what they were when you were still menstruating. And today I am really excited because I am joined by a powerhouse entrepreneur, a certified health coach and a wellness advocate with over two decades of experience in building and scaling successful businesses. She is the founder of Alex and I'm going to say it's Alex Andrea, right?

43:23Like how you pronounce it? Yeah. The most beautiful name that I've ever heard, by the way, like the two combinations. She is the founder of Alex Andrea, simple pursuit, a wellness brand that focuses on simplifying holistic health. And she's also the creator of the pursuit of health documentary series where she explores the intersection of nutrition, of movement, of mindfulness, and of overall wellbeing. And I'm really excited because as we were just kind of like chatting beforehand, she noted

43:54that we have a lot of similarities when it comes to the fitness space and a lot of viewpoints that align. So I'm really excited for her to be here and to share her story and just to be on the show. Alex Andrea, welcome. Thank you so much for having me, Nikki. It's a pleasure to be here. Let's dive into it. You've built your career around like holistic health and self-care. What inspired you to take this path? Well, it's a little longer of an answer than... Go for it. That's why I love broadcasting.

44:25Yeah, sure. So I've always kind of been curious about health since I was a child. And back before I decided to become a business major, I was a bio major because I thought I wanted to be a doctor. My father was a doctor and he really actually urged me not to go into medicine because he knew that my goal with it was to help people stay and be like healthy. And he said, well, don't be a doctor. It has nothing to do with health.

44:58Wow. Yeah. So, I mean, I had a different perspective of the healthcare world from a really young age. And so I, instead of following that path, I ended up being a business major and kind of going the route of being in business. And that ranges from I was in commercial real estate out of college. And then I worked for two high-powered CEOs in New York for a long time that taught me quite a bit. Then I opened my own hospitality company, scaled that, had at one point six locations of hospitality

45:35concepts between two different states and over 50 employees. So during that time, I actually wasn't really focused on, I was like trying to take care of myself, but also raising two young girls who are now seven and 11, hustling. You know, I got married. And so a lot of the things I even kind of knew about health, like I just couldn't focus on as much as I wanted to. And then fast forward to a couple of years ago when my body just kind of, it just, I couldn't

46:12ignore it anymore. And some of the issues I've had with my gut that I really couldn't figure out for so long finally came to a head. I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, which I knew something was wrong. We could never figure it out. And then at that point, I decided it was really time to 100% focus on this lifelong dream, which was to be more in the health and wellness space and to heal myself and through that process, hopefully help others. I want to pivot to one thing that a lot of people think about, like self-care.

46:46They think about it in terms of taking days off or doing like, you know, booking spa treatments, but you like your social media and the things you talk about and what you stand behind, you take it way deeper than that. How do you define self-care in a way that supports long-term health? Yeah. So like most things, I kind of like, for whatever reason, my personality likes to learn the hard way. So my body had been telling me to slow down for a really long time.

47:19And I didn't listen because of my determination. And also, you use this word discipline. You know, I am a very disciplined person, type A. I'm very goal oriented. So I didn't want to slow down because to me, that meant like I was not achieving as much as I could. Right. But it turns out that, first of all, when I came out of the hospital, I didn't have a choice.

47:49I had to slow down and I had to completely shift a lot of the habits that I had every day. So what does that mean? And what does that look like for me? I used to think workouts had to be like five days a week, super hard in the gym. Like, you know, hit hours a day. Yeah. All of that. Well, I couldn't even do that. So I, all I could do was walk. And I think you talk about walking in one of your quick episodes.

48:20Walking is super powerful. And that to me, walking in and of itself is self-care. It is just, it's, it's a, it's a habit that you can have now and for the rest of your life. And it's good for your brain. It's good for your metabolic rate, everything. Right. So, um, part of the things that I do every day is like, I've had to learn to a slow down, like literally slow down, um, the pace of my life and grow patience around that.

48:55And then also being mindful of everything that I'm thinking, doing, like, am I shoving food down my throat quickly? Or am I eating slowly and mindfully? Am I paying attention to how my body responds after I eat certain things? Um, it really is like a mindfulness practice every single day that I have to kind of like, I find myself sometimes I'll slip, like I, just like any human, right? Like I have to bring it back to that.

49:26And every time I do, then I find myself growing that foundation, um, that I need to feel good every day. And people like to throw out blanket terms, like, Oh, just mindfulness and mindful eating and all of that. And really all that means at the end of the day is paying attention to. So paying attention to what you're eating, how you're moving, how you feel. That's all it means. Like a lot of us, myself included for like 42 years of my life, like, Oh, I'll deal with that later.

50:00Like, I'm just going to go, go, go. And I'm going to push, push, push. And that was always what I did before. I physically can't do that now. But what I will say is that I have never felt stronger. I've never felt more, um, overall, like healthy in terms of like my physical body, my mental stability, all of these things have shifted because I had to slow down. And to me, slowing down is self-care like that in of itself.

50:30It doesn't mean rushing to a spa appointment so you can get there, relax for an hour and then rush home. Like people ask me a lot of the times, like, well, what's your, what do you do? Like, what's your practice? Do you like meditate 10 minutes a day or, and I'm like, meditation is great and all that's great. But honestly, your whole day, if you just take the viewpoint of slowing down and taking like one thing at a time and paying more attention to your body, it becomes a layer and a habit that you don't have to stop one thing to do another.

51:06Right. Yeah. Everything can be this sort of form of self-care in a way. That's so powerful. That's the whole statement because it's the flip of like how people view how they need to operate in society where they need to like go, go, go, go, go. And like wake up and the minute that they wake up, they're stressed out because they have to like get to work or they're late. And then it's just like trip trickle effects into the rest of their day. The way that I'm viewing it from how you're saying is like, be more flow, be more with ease as you go throughout your day.

51:36And that's like a pillar of self-care and then like walking and food and all these other aspects that can layer into how you can show up with just a little bit more like flow to your day instead of rushing around. Yeah. I want to bring home something that like you mentioned on your Instagram, which I loved. It was a graphic and it mentioned how you were talking also earlier and how to just pay attention, be more mindful. That's what that means and be more in tune when you were diagnosed with this and you were eating.

52:08You mentioned in the graphic that like food is information, like food is like, can you unpack that? Like what does that mean to you? And like, and also how that correlate into your journey where you were like listening and being more intense, more attuned to what you're eating on a daily basis. Yeah, I think we're all trained to look at food in a certain way. We're look, we look at it as fuel and calories or fat and protein and carbohydrates. And all of that is true, but there's more to it.

52:39When I'm eating something, I think about the texture of the food and the fiber in the food. And, and like, what are the, what nourishing aspects does this food have for me? Is this a calming food? Is this a energetic food? Uh, for me, I actually had to really pay attention to that because of my digestive issues. So like, for instance, if I'm feeling like sluggish and I'm also feeling like my, my digestive tract needs a break.

53:12What information do I need to give it? I need to give it something that's a little bit easier to digest a little bit like more gentle on the gut. So a lot of times I'll, I'll like steam veggies and keep it really simple. Like literally like steamed carrots and some olive oil on top or a soup because I'm knowing that the information I need to give my body isn't just about fats and carbohydrates and all those things. I need to give it something that's like soothing.

53:44Um, and it's the same with like, I actually feel like I could use like a little bit more flushing in my body. So I'll do more juices or things of that nature. Is it a cooling thing? Is it a warming thing? Do I want to be comforted? Uh, do I want like energy? All of those things, if you really get curious about food are really fun. Um, without being, I think we, we like to become too neurotic about it. Like most anyone listening to this podcast, I'm sure knows that we have an issue with some, you know, of the pesticides and, and things that are in, in even whole foods.

54:27Right. We know that. So, but don't, we can't like hyper focus on all of those things either. You have to trust that you're giving your body what it needs enough of to be able to, to process those toxins and that you're, you're moving your body, you're sweating, you're doing other things. And then you can then really find joy and like, it just a different sort of way of looking at food as, as a form of self care and nourishment instead of just, I don't know.

55:01I think we get scared of food. We also get like, we can, there's a lot of things that are, you know, like food is really, it's really interesting and it's what we need to survive and it's beautiful, but it can cause a lot of stress. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's so many, and I'm sure you've heard this too, as well, from the people you've worked with, but some of you women don't eat enough. And it's like the epidemic of like the wellness space is that they go throughout the day. And by the end of the day, maybe they've had a thousand calories, but they don't know what they don't know.

55:32You know, like I always hear that with our babies. It's like, well, I just, I grew up this way and I saw my mom eat this way. And I just thought I had to eat less in order to lose weight. But I like, and then when they get into our ecosystem and I'm sure you also do this with your clients, it's like, we give them more food and they start getting the results they want. They feel more energized. And, you know, and it's also teaching them the mindfulness of the aspects that you're even talking about that make them more aware of how, how food positively impacts all these different pillars of their life. A hundred percent.

56:03How do you like help your people or help others see like how to shift their mindset to see that self-care is so essential? Well, first of all, I want to know what is their morning look like? And I'm not going to tell somebody to completely change everything at once or to wake up an hour earlier if they're already exhausted. What I will say is like, okay, if you're getting up and you're immediately drinking coffee, I'm going to swap.

56:33I'm going to suggest swapping that for hot water and lemon. I'm going to ask you to take one minute to just breathe. I'm going to ask you to take two minutes to stretch like little things. And what happens is if you get positive feedback about that, instead of it feeling like just another task, just another chore, it then starts to become integrated. Like anything else you do, a habit is first it's discipline and then it's integration. And it doesn't feel like anything other than your normal day, how you normally move through the day.

57:11I think that's key is integration. And that's why diets are really hard because, or, you know, crazy cleanses, but like you can't, that's not lasting. It can't be integrated throughout your life. So all these habits have to be first micro habits that just start to become second nature. You can't do it all at once. So it's one step at a time. I think our challenge here is that we're so programmed to think now it's time to relax. Well, now it's time to meditate.

57:43Now it's time to, right? But like in other cultures, it's very integrated. My brother lives in Spain. Their days are very, they walk a lot. The market's right there. So they go and get fresh food on their way home. And it's small amounts because they're walking. They take a long lunch. It's like, these are things that are integrated. And the challenge for us is real. But the challenge for us is to figure out how do we take the world that we live in, the days that we have to face, and make them feel more integrated with these practices that may feel counterintuitive at first.

58:23That's the challenge. And that's like, I have to teach myself this over and over and over. Certain things, other things are now pretty, like I wouldn't, I feel weird not doing it. Yeah, no, I love those points. Like habits, like you need to, if you want something different or you want to experience something different, you have to change what you're doing in order to get new results. And the way you're going to do that is by integrating new habits into your day-to-day. And I know that you align, like it's starting small, like even just like the minute of breathing and the two minutes of exercising or two minutes of stretching.

58:57And like, that'll give you some good ROI on your feedback on how you're feeling. Yeah. And then from there, you want to do it more than just becomes a part of your day-to-day. I want to, like, if you do that for four weeks, then you, you know, go the next day, you're like, oh, I need to do this. Like it just starts to like click. Yeah. You want the positive feedback and you want the joy and you want to feel good. Yeah. That's what we're all trying to do. Your approach to wellness is very refreshing. Um, it's, it's just a reminder that it's not about just how we eat or how we move.

59:28It's also about how we listen to our bodies, how we live on a daily basis and how we can create balance in our lives. So thank you. And anybody that's listened to this, you know, just remember that like small, consistent habits on a daily basis can make the biggest impact for you on, on, in your whole life. So even just like the minute of breathing, when you wake up and the two minutes of stretching and then like see all those positive feedbacks, but Allie, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you and your time. Oh, thank you so much for having me. This has been really fun. Real quick.

59:59If this episode resonated with you or gave you the push that you needed, I'd love for you to pay it forward. Drop a quick rating and review, share the podcast with someone who might need it and help me keep spreading the word. Your feedback not only helps to show grow, but it might just be the nudge someone else needs to kickstart their transformation. Thank you so, so, so much for your support.

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