Do you think you might have a sluggish thyroid? If so, check out this episode with Jo and Megan Lyons of The Lyons Share Wellness. Jo and Megan discuss all things related to thyroid health: symptoms of an underperforming thyroid, how to diagnose a problem with your thyroid, what to do if your thyroid is not working, and how to optimize thyroid function through nutrition and lifestyle.
Want to learn more? Follow Megan on Instagram at @thelyonsshare OR check out The Lyons' Share website.
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Do you think you might have a sluggish thyroid? If so, check out this episode with Jo and Megan Lyons of The Lyons Share Wellness. Jo and Megan discuss all things related to thyroid health: symptoms of an underperforming thyroid, how to diagnose a problem with your thyroid, what to do if your thyroid is not working, and how to optimize thyroid function through nutrition and lifestyle.
Want to learn more? Follow Megan on Instagram at @thelyonsshare OR check out The Lyons' Share website.
Thanks for listening, we hope you enjoyed it. Follow us for more tips, tricks, and support in our private Facebook Group, Boost Your Metabolism After Age 30.
Take our FREE quiz: What's Sabotaging Your Metabolism?
Follow us on Instagram @couture_fitness_coaching
Check at our website and blog.
Grab our free mini course - The REAL Reason you can't lose weight
Want to start boosting your metabolism today? Buy our $79 DIY, self-paced "Master Your Metabolism" course.
Want customized plan for boosting your metabolism? Learn more about our 1:1 coaching
Reserve your spot with a Couture Coach: Buy a 1:1 coaching package
Well, hey everyone, you have Joe here from Couture Coaching. Welcome to the podcast. We have a guest today, Megan Lyons from the Lyons Chair Wellness, and we're going to talk all things thyroid health with Megan today. First, let me just give you some ideas about what's going on at Couture Coaching right now. We just kicked off our April Metabolic Makeover Program and all of our clients are working on their up-leveling their nutrition and fitness habits and getting more energy. So that's going great.
Speaker 1:We always have our $79 do-it-your-night or dirt-yourself class available called Master your Metabolism. Links to that are in our show notes and, as always, if you just want to schedule a call with us, we're happy to get on a phone and do like a weight loss strategy call with you, and links to that are in our show notes as well. Get on to the topic at hand today. So, like I said, we have Megan Lyons on the call. Megan is very credentialed. She has a very interesting past, which I'm going to ask her to talk about in a second, but currently she's double board certified in holistic nutrition and a clinical nutrition and, as I mentioned, owns the Lyons Chair. Megan, do you want to tell us a little bit more about your credentials. And then I think your journey is fascinating as to how you got to, because you didn't start out as maybe someone focused on nutrition. You had a different background, so do you want to introduce yourself and talk about how you got where you are today?
Speaker 2:Absolutely I will. And first of all, just thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity to chat with you and your audience and I'm very excited to share some thyroid tips today. I'll kind of weave in the personal story as well as the background and how I wound up here. It starts with me just always being a high achieving child, and that will become important as we get through this story.
Speaker 2:So high achieving in whatever I did. I danced. I wanted to be the best dancer. I loved school, I wanted to be the best in school, all of that kind of stuff and that really worked out in a lot of areas. I got the opportunity to go to Harvard for undergrad, which was so amazing, really loved my time there and I studied economics and when anyone graduated, the job that they wanted was to be a management consultant. So, just being that overachiever, I did that. I signed up and got the offer and went into management consulting for several years, which I actually really enjoyed. It was a great experience, a great opportunity to understand how the business world works and to meet some really incredible people. I did get my MBA in there and went back to consulting after that, but something started burning in me through my own personal health journey at this time and basically what was happening was all the ways that I was being an overachiever.
Speaker 2:That was working out for me, like in career and education, that was great, but in health, being an overachiever doesn't really work out very well. So at that time, way back in the day, before social media, I was getting my information on health from magazines like Shape Magazine and Self Magazine and all this stuff, and they were telling me just eat less, eat half a protein bar for lunch and spend two hours on the elliptical. And so I was doing it I'm a really good rule follower and I was going, going, going and just driving myself into the ground and I wound up in a doctor's office at the age of 23 saying I feel terrible, I have no energy, something's wrong. And thankfully they tested my hormones and the doctor, very well meaning, said you, at 23, have lower hormones than the postmenopausal women I work with. Something must be just like a fluke in your body. You have to be on medication for the rest of your life, and I just knew right then that that wasn't the answer.
Speaker 2:I never like to use blame for health, but in an effort to take responsibility for my own health. I thought what am I doing that could be causing this, and I knew I was overstressed, I was underfueling, I was over exercising and all that together. I was like I can work on this. But that got me really interested in nutrition real nutrition, not just magazine nutrition. So I started studying, I got a couple of certifications while I was still consulting, and then ended up leaving that job and starting the lion's share wellness in January of 2014. Since then, I've done a master's in holistic nutrition the two board certifications, like you said and I'm just about to finish my doctorate in clinical nutrition, and I just genuinely love what I do every day. I feel so aligned. I want to prevent as many people from feeling the way that I felt, without answers, as I possibly can, and that's what drives me on a daily basis.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, your story is sounds so familiar, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think it will, doesn't?
Speaker 1:it. Yeah, for women especially and I think it's different for women. Somehow we got the message like, don't you know, the less you can eat, the better off you are. Push it as hard as you can in the gym, but eat as little as possible and that's what you should do. I don't think men get that eat as little as possible message in the same way that women do. But I did the same thing and I too. I mean I am an attorney by training. I was at the top of my class in law school. Yeah, I entered my profession with that same driving mentality and, yes, it carried over to the gym. I've told this story before. But after I graduated from law school, I was, you know and took the bar, and most normal people are like, might use that year to like settle into their career. No, I mean I decided I was also going to train for a marathon.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:And. But I had, and again, I had been a subscriber to Shake Magazine my entire teenage, through law school, through college.
Speaker 1:So, I mean, most people, look, I thought I was an expert. I really did think I knew a lot about nutrition and so I kicked off that marathon training and my idea was like, if you can just skip a meal, you know, or just eat as little as possible, I had no idea how to fuel my body for that marathon and it didn't work. I mean, I finished the marathon but I was so burnt out, my body was so burnt out, I had so many injuries by the end. But, yeah, I just thought that you were supposed to hit it as hard as you could in the gym and eat as little as possible, and that works for a little while.
Speaker 1:My Allison, who co-founded this company with me, I mean she did that long enough that, like, she lost her period and same thing. I never it never landed me in the doctor's office. But when she went to see the doctor, they were like, yeah, you know, and never once asked about her nutrition or asked about you know. It was just like, and she was not underweight. I think if she had been underweight they probably would have asked that, but she didn't have great body composition, so I think they didn't suspect like it could be or didn't just didn't even nutrition, didn't even enter the picture, or what are you doing to your body with exercise?
Speaker 1:And women can just really stress their bodies out with that hard driving rule following mentality. So I think your story is very common, unfortunately. So let's get into the topic at hand. What are what? I know? A lot of women think there's something wrong with their thyroid. So fourth question, and probably think that's why they can't lose weight or why they're struggling to lose weight. What are some general symptoms of someone who might be having an issue with their thyroid?
Speaker 2:Yes. Well, I think the reason why so many people women especially think that they have a thyroid issue is that the symptoms are so common and they can be symptoms of so many things. So there's a lot of overlap between thyroid symptoms and many other conditions. I think we'll spend most of our time today talking about hypothyroidism or slow thyroid. But I'll give you opposite ends of the spectrum, because some people out there do have hyperthyroidism, which is too speedy of a thyroid. So if we have hypoh, which is the more common, everything's slow. We can think of digestion as slow, so that's constipation.
Speaker 2:Weight loss is slow. You might be gaining weight or having difficulty losing weight. Your energy is slow, so you're feeling tired and fatigued. You might have hair loss. You might have brittle or dry skin. You might have brittle or dry nails. You're feeling depressed, Mood is slow. Everything is just kind of slow and sluggish.
Speaker 2:On the hypothyroidism side and then, in contrast, hyperthyroidism, these are people who generally feel quite anxious. They have insomnia, they can't sleep, they're losing too much weight. They might be having abnormal hair growth. Also temperature dysregulation, For both across hypoh and hyper. We might have decreased libido because thyroid impacts other sex hormones. We might have voice changes. We might have some brain fog, we might have changes in urination. There are just so many different symptoms that might stem from thyroid. I am confident every single person listening can at least relate to one of those things that I've mentioned. I know for sure I can too. So it becomes a little bit difficult just to diagnose it based on symptoms. But for sure when I see someone who is fatigued, even though they're eating healthily, they are having some weight loss resistance, they do have that constipation, that bloating, that hair, skin nail change I'm always going to check the thyroid.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. And so what specifically? How does one figure out if they truly do have a thyroid issue? I know I've heard from a lot of women like well, I went to the doctor, they checked my thyroid and they said it was fine, it's definitely within normal. And so how does someone know if their thyroid is functioning properly? What tests if the doctor says, oh, everything's fine, nothing to worry about, should you listen to that? Yeah, what are your tips for figuring this out?
Speaker 2:I mean the great news. I like Western medicine for what it is. I go to doctors certainly if I break my arm or something, you want to take me to a Western medicine doctor and not to someone like me. But in terms of thyroid measurement, what they are trained to do is just make sure that you don't have an imminent issue that's going to cause like a major catastrophe tomorrow. And so the one and only thing that they're testing most times is something called TSH, which is thyroid stimulating hormone. This is actually not a thyroid hormone at all. It's secreted by the pituitary, which is in your brain, and it's the alert signal. So if your TSH is high, your pituitary is saying alert, alert, alert. We need more thyroid in here, which means your thyroid is low and this trips people up a lot. So TSH is high, that means you have the low thyroid, hypothyroidism.
Speaker 2:But this number one is not the only metric we should check. And number two the ranges, in my opinion, are not optimal. So the range for most TSH testing is somewhere around 0.5 to 4.5. That's like your standard conventional range In functional medicine. We like that to be on the lower end. We don't want your pituitary screaming hey, there's problem in here. So we want the TSH to be lower, which means your thyroid is producing more hormones. Now that is a lagging indicator. So only after thyroid dysfunction happens for quite a while does your TSH go off. And still that's the only thing that most conventional practitioners are testing.
Speaker 2:So what I would recommend people ask their practitioner for is a full thyroid panel that not only includes the TSH but also includes the two hormones that your thyroid gland does produce. It primarily produces T4, the first output from your thyroid gland, and your body converts that into T3. It does actually produce a teeny bit of T32, but most of it is happening through a conversion process. So let's test that T4 and T3. And then hopefully people have notes or an ability to take notes, because I'll give you a couple more to add to your list as well. We also want to test the free T3 and free T4, which is kind of like the reserve capacity after your body uses what it has. Your body uses what it absolutely needs to have T4 and T3. The free T3 and free T4 can indicate how much kind of extra capacity you have. And then just three more Reverse T3 is almost like a U-turn as your body is trying to convert that T4 to T3.
Speaker 2:It might take a U-turn and go the wrong way into reverse T3, which might happen if you are excessively stressed, if you're dealing with toxicity or something like that. This is a really common one, where people might have normal numbers of TSH, normal numbers of T4 and T and maybe not T3. Maybe they don't test T3, but then we test their reverse T3 and that's really high. Well, that means it's all being converted into something that's unusable because of stress. So that's a really important one. And then last two I would add on to your list are the anti-TG and TPO antibodies. These are indicators for a condition called Hashimoto's, which is actually an autoimmune attack on your thyroid, which is more and more prevalent these days. So if you ask your practitioner for all of those TSH, t3, t4, free T3 and free T4, reverse T3, and then the TG and TPO antibodies, you'll be totally covered and you'll be able to figure out if your thyroid actually is the issue.
Speaker 1:Okay, very practical question here. Do most Western practitioners, will they go along with this? I mean, will insurance pay for this? What if your doctor says I don't even know what, no, you don't need all of this. What's the practicality of a doctor actually agreeing to get all these tests run?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I'm in Texas. I think it depends on where people are. I see clients from all across the world and I tend to find the stereotypes might be kind of true, like in California. A lot of people's practitioners are more likely to get on board with this, and maybe it depends on I don't know what kind of factors it depends on. I won't hypothesize there, but I've definitely had clients come to me and be like Megan. I'm not even going to try, can you please just place the order, because I don't want to fight that fight. And then I've had many people who bring in the list and poof, it's no questions asked, they get it approved, and most people are probably somewhere in between where the doctor's like I don't know, I'll just test the TSH, t3 and T4. And then if there's an issue, we'll go further. I don't think that's optimal. I firmly believe that everyone should have access to their own personal data, but that's just kind of where we stand right now, where there is a little pushback sometimes.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so if that is the case, where can a person get these tests run? How can someone to read them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, most functional medicine practitioners will have zero issue with doing this. I run any of my clients who suspect thyroid issues. I'm happy to run this panel for them. A functional medicine doctor, a functional nutritionist, any kind of other practitioner, should have no issue in running this.
Speaker 1:Okay, and are they expensive tests to run if you're doing it without a doctor's orders or it depends on what else you're ordering.
Speaker 2:So most of these labs that I run personally, they get less and less expensive as you order more and more. But I'm guessing if someone were just to run this thyroid panel and nothing else, it would probably be about $150, which is expensive. It's not crazy like $5,000, but I wish it would be free for everyone.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, no, that sounds at least affordable. So, okay, so those sound like some good alternatives if your doctor is not amenable to running the tests. Okay, some follow up questions, and you kind of alluded or started answering some of them. So what if the kind of like in terms of like what you said happened to you? What rolled a stress, and the very sort of stressful lifestyle Under-eating, maybe over exercising how does that affect one's thyroid? What? Which of those thyroid markers is going to be off if you've done that to your body? Or if you have like a stress, your thyroid is having like a stress reaction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what I, when I actually dove into this, I was so determined to find Anything else you like. I told you I'm a rule follower. I will do anything. If you had told me only eat tomatoes the rest of your life, totally do it. Do this form of exercise every day. Totally do it. I will do anything for my health.
Speaker 2:Stress is the hardest one for me and it still is to this day, and so I was really hoping that would not be the root cause answer, and it almost always is. I'll be honest, it almost always. I will say it always has something to do with it. Is it the only cause? Many times no, but it almost always has something to do with it. So the, to answer your specific question, the markers that would be most impacted that reverse t3 will definitely be higher in a stressed individual, and the t3 as well. So that conversion process between t4 and t3. It relies on several nutrients. Specifically zinc and selenium are the two most common nutrients, but also it doesn't happen in a fight or flight state, so that those two are almost always off, and someone with excessive stress and then the Hashimoto's is a really interesting case as well.
Speaker 2:Any autoimmune condition requires multiple things. It does require a genetic predisposition, but then it also requires a trigger, which could be a virus, it could be stress, it could be something like that. And finally it requires some kind of intestinal permeability or inflammation state, some kind of Altered terrain, and so when we combine all of those, someone has, let's say, the genetic predisposition for type 1 diabetes and they have a little bit of a gut issue and then they get this virus poof. That's where it starts, and same thing is suspected with Hashimoto's. No one fully, fully understands exactly what causes autoimmunity yet. I hope we get there soon, but we're pretty sure that all those three things are Required. So if you are in that stressed out state that alters your terrain, your microbiome and and all kinds of other, your inflammation for sure, but then it also can be the trigger that sets off the autoimmune condition in the first place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. Well, let's talk about maybe what stress looks like, because you and I both so number one you we could have someone listening. This is like well, I'm not doing anything for exercise, I really don't have time to pay attention to my nutrition, I'm working 80 hours a week, so that is that a stress that could cause these issues.
Speaker 2:Absolutely stress is. I like to refer to it as a stress bucket the technical term is allostatic load, but I think a bucket's an easier way to refer to it and the things that go into the bucket are activity. So this means under activity or over activity. We need that sweet spot. It's malnourishment or improper nutrient intake, which most often means that we're just not getting Enough of the good quality foods that our thyroid and our body needs. You may be eating enough calories, I don't know, but you may not be eating enough actual nutrients. So that's the stressor. Mental, emotional, physical stress for sure is a big stress, is a big drop in that bucket. Lack of sleep, lack of good quality sleep, and even things like toxic exposures, like Well, toxic people that's not what I meant, but that's a stress too. But really like breathing in pollution. If you live right next to I don't know some kind of factory or you have a Bunch of toxins coming into you in any other way, any of those things can be stress on the body.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I think for maybe people wired like us, Someone would have had to tell me that that like listening to train, to train for a marathon and not eating enough I know I wasn't eating enough protein. Yes probably enough calories, or just weird calorie. I mean, I would probably, rather than like, prepare for that long run, I would probably eat afterwards because I was hungry and my body needed it, but like, but I would have said before all of this oh no, that's what I'm doing to manage my stress.
Speaker 1:Yeah and so understanding that you know overdoing it in the gym.
Speaker 1:That could look like doing six hour-long hit classes a week, yeah a lot of women are kind of we again We've been kind of maybe brainwashed us the right word to think like, no, that's self-care, but doing that on top of well, number one, that I would not ever. I would say that's too much hit. Yeah, it's too much. You know, if you want to work out six days a week, let's, there are other things to do. Yeah, you can kind of diversify that a bit. But Hmm, and then again I think for women, a lot of times we hear good nutrition and think Slashing foods out, not eating yeah.
Speaker 1:I think, as little as possible, maybe fasting, but that that's all stuff we're doing for our health, not causes of stress. So I think it just might be news to a lot of women that under nourishing your body, under fueling your body, is a form of stress on your body. It's not always the healthiest thing to do.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, I agree, and I used to really struggle because I was like well, there are Olympic marathoners out there that are running 90 miles a week and they don't have a problem. And you're telling me me running 40 miles a week is a problem. That doesn't make sense. But I had to recognize exactly what you're saying. Well, if that were, if you were fueling your body perfectly and you were an Olympic marathoner who gets like two massages a day and Sleeps for 14 hours a day and doesn't have outsides, I'm sure they have stress in life, but like they don't have another job that they're worrying about, their bucket looks a whole lot different. Then, if your buckets already full with mental and emotional stress and you're under nourishing, which is more stress, and you're not sleeping, and then you're doing some kind of crazy cardio on top of that, it's just a cumulative load on our body and so often we don't consider all pieces of that. And, just like you said, the under nourishing oh, it's absolutely huge.
Speaker 2:I almost guarantee everyone listening the problem, at least for the clients that I see most frequently, the problem is less about what they think it is, which is oh, every Friday night I eat a candy bar. Well, cool, that's fine. I don't really care, unless you're eating, you know, 98 candy bars per week. Maybe we need to make some changes, but if you do something once a week or whatever, absolutely not a problem. The problem is that you're not getting enough nutrients in most of the day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we're singing from the same hymnals. Yes, yeah, I mean and, and yes, certainly people are overeating at times and maybe eating a lot of processed food, but we always try to tell people rather than especially women like, let's, let's not worry about slashing things from your diet, let's see what you need to add in. Oh, guess what, once you are Feeling your body in a really nourishing way, you're giving your body what it needs. Number one it's gonna respond to the exercise and puts that you're giving it yes. And number two Guess what? All those things, the stuff that we really don't want to be eating.
Speaker 1:A lot of you, those cravings will probably go away because you're giving your body what it needs. Like, and you will feel great and your energy will be better. So let's focus on seeing what we need to add in. Okay, and I think the other thing on stress is just as women, it's almost like a badge of honor. I mean, talk, show me a woman that it doesn't say, like, my life is so stressful I'm raising this many kids. I have a really stressful job I'm, but you know that I'm doing it all and isn't that what I'm supposed to be doing?
Speaker 1:and you know, tell me what I'm supposed to give up, and I Think we just have to recognize at some point that catches up with us. And managing stress is probably Especially if you want to lose weight is one of the first things you've got to figure out. I don't know anyone who can do all of that. Ask their body to go into like a fat loss phase, which is another stressor, like your butt. That's the opposite of what your body is gonna want to do if it's under stress. Right, it's going. I've read that all your body reads all stress as like famine or starvation. Yeah, and what it's going to do is just hold on to everything because it's like I don't. We're gonna keep her alive, so we're not going to cut into fat stores, we're just going to keep homeostasis as best as we can to keep her Doing all this crazy stuff she's doing.
Speaker 2:So yes, and thank goodness for that. I mean it's really cool that we have that quote technology wired into us that our body is just doing Everything it possibly can to keep us alive, even if we're not treating it Well. However, I know that's frustrating. People tend to get annoyed with their body. Oh, I'm cutting calories even more and I'm gaining weight. Well, instead of that, I encourage people to say what is your body telling you? Oh, weird, you're cutting calories more and you're gaining weight. Interesting your body must be telling you that's not the answer that some it's feeling too much stress to lose weight right now, so let's see if we can try something else to get the results that you want. It's always a message, not a your body's not trying to fight against you. It's trying to work for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it will fight you if you're doing stupid things to keep you alive but it's not. It's just it actually is doing the opposite. It's yes they were in trying to keep you alive, exactly Okay. So we've got, we've gone through the diagnosis and maybe some of the causes. Once you have been diagnosed that you know something is maybe a mess with your thyroid, what are the? What do we do about that? Do we take medicine? What are the? What's secure?
Speaker 2:Well, it depends on who you ask, and I'm open to a variety of different possibilities. There are great thyroid medications out there. The more common that people might get in their conventional doctor's office is a T4 only Synthetic thyroid replacement like Synthroid or some of these other options out there. The issue there is that if you're stressed and that's one of the root causes You're still not going to convert it well, into T3 and that's the usable stuff that changes our metabolism and hair and temperature and all of that stuff. So I see lots of women Feeling very stressed. Their doctor only tests their T4 and TSH. Maybe they get Synthroid and then they still don't feel better. Well, that's because they're not able to convert it into T3.
Speaker 2:So if medication is going to be your answer, I would encourage people to talk of talk to their doctor this is not a prescription, of course but talk to their doctor about maybe a blend of T3 and T4, which would be something like arm or thyroid or nature thyroid or something like that. So medication could be an option If it's always an individual consideration. But in my field, because I'm more on the functional and holistic side, I like to help people through it via nutrition and lifestyle, and we can almost always Tackle it without medication if the person wants to do that. Is it easier to take a pill? Of course it's easier to take a pill, and sometimes that might be a great answer.
Speaker 2:If someone is like I don't know, working eight jobs and they have 18 kids and whatever else, like great, you don't have time to focus on your stress management right now. That's gonna be okay for a season, but most times I think people owe it to themselves to at least see if they can change the root cause, because medication will always only be a band-aid. So the root cause will be many of the things that we've already mentioned Stress management, which looks different for every person. It doesn't have to be just like taking a bubble bath every day or whatever, and then really figuring out how to well nourish your body and I always emphasize nourish, because I don't necessarily just mean eat more of what you're eating. It's really figuring out what your body and your thyroid really needs and trying to give it that.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, let's, let's move into that. What are, from a nutrition standpoint? What is Thyroid supportive? What are? What is your thyroid love? And what is going to best promote thyroid health from a nutrition standpoint? What would she? What should we be adding in?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. The first thing your thyroid loves is micro nutrients. So micro nutrients are the small ones. Micro is small, macro nutrients.
Speaker 2:I'm sure your audience has heard of the big one protein, fat and carbs and I'll talk about that in a second. You, but your thyroid really loves the micronutrients, which are the vitamins and minerals, specifically the B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc, selenium. I mentioned even vitamin E really important. So when I'm saying all of these, people might think, oh my gosh, now I have to take 18 pills per day. There is a time and place for supplementation, for sure. I think honestly, a lot of people need to be on a vitamin D supplement, myself included. But you don't have to take a supplement for all of those 10 or however many I just listed.
Speaker 2:The best way to get an abundance of micronutrients is to eat a diverse diet, and that's again harder than here's just one pill you can pop, but a diverse diet includes many different colors and varieties of vegetables and fruits.
Speaker 2:We can get micronutrients from other foods. I think it's very important to balance your vegetables and fruits, which I'll talk about in a second, but most people I see are just not consuming enough micronutrients from vegetables and fruits. They'll say oh yeah, megan, I eat plenty of vegetables. And then I'll just give them a little post-it note and I'll just say just give yourself a smiley face for every vegetable you eat this week and come back next week and let's see. And they always are like, oh, I was surprised I only had two smiley faces this week or something like that, and we really need to be eating a whole lot more than that. So tons of vegetables and fruits in a wide variety. And then macronutrient-wise, I believe all macronutrients are important. So I will always say eat a balance of macronutrients. But specifically we need to focus on protein, which many of my clients who have thyroid issues are just far under-consuming on their good quality protein. So that's macrowwise, usually where I will start.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, again, same from the same hymnal Our kind of what we of course we're focused kind of more on the metabolism side of things. So we're trying to get women sort of not getting them to not waste what muscle they have and then also build muscle through eating in a protein and lifting weight. So our rule of thumb is to try to get everyone up to 100 grams a day. I think that, while I know that the rule of thumb is higher, that really an ideal or optimal amount is a gram per pound of ideal body Weight, but but yeah, I mean what you just described. I mean lots of lean proteins and it sounds like a wide variety of fruits and vegetables is going to give you. I mean you do use some of those. Things may or may not contain the fat and carbs you need, but that would be a great way to start is. I'm hearing lots of a variety of fruits and vegetables to get those micronutrients in.
Speaker 2:Yes, I have this chart that I use with clients that I originally made in 2014 for a child I don't see a ton of children, but this was an exception and there was maybe a seven or eight year old kid in my office and it had the colors of the rainbow across the top, like red, orange, yellow, whatever and then the days of the week down the side, and the goal was to give himself a check mark every time he had a color on every day and see how many colors of the rainbow he could get. The point is, now I use that chart for adults too. It's really fun to see how many colors we can get.
Speaker 2:Most people have a tendency like oh, I like cantaloupe and sweet potatoes and carrots and that's it. Well, great, you're getting plenty of beta carotene and vitamin C and probably vitamin A, but you're not really getting the blues and the greens and even the whites, which tends to be demonized, but garlic and parsnips and cauliflower and onions and all of that are really healthy. So just see how many colors we can possibly get throughout the day and the week can be a fun game and super, super helpful for your thyroid.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you're making a really helpful point because you're talking about it over the period of a week, and so I think that's probably more helpful than to say, like, eat the full rainbow in one day. I mean that's there are only so many meals in a day. But I really like that you're focusing over a week and not. You know that I a very rule follower. Like trying to eat, although it could be really stressful in a particular day, but you're saying stretching out over the week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'll go even further than that. I mean, it would be totally optimal if all of us grew our own food in our backyard and we only ate fresh picked everything every day. And I am so far from that that it's just going to be okay. In fact, I meal prep for myself for the whole entire week, so I am eating the same thing for lunch, the same thing for dinner, the same thing for breakfast. Do I think that is nutritionally optimal? No, I don't, but that's what works for me and I totally believe in being realistic.
Speaker 2:So I make sure that I get multiple varieties of vegetables and fruits during the week, not just, you know, only broccoli for the week or something like that. But people can see on my Instagram just an example of what I might eat, and then I'm going to change it up the next week. So don't even pigeonhole yourself to. It has to be the whole rainbow every single week. Just do your best. We can always improve from where we are, but don't try to go 10 steps forward. Just go one or two steps and then build from there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and probably the place to start is awareness, like what are the colors you're getting? Yes, I'm thinking I have a lot of red right now Gappals and watermelon and things like that, but maybe in green, but maybe not the blues and something yellow. Yes and some of the other colors. So, okay, great tips. Okay, so that's nutrition. What about exercise? What is sort of thyroid supporting manner of exercise?
Speaker 2:It really is a Goldilocks situation where being sedentary is not good for your thyroid and overexercising is not good for your thyroid. We do want something in the middle. So again, the perfect situation like the equivalent of me growing all my food in my backyard would be maybe throughout the week you're doing a couple strength sessions, You're doing maybe one intense cardio session and then a couple of you know, gentle walks, but a good amount of walking. I'm not saying like a five minute walk, which is also good, and I give that goal to clients all the time, but ideally we get up a few longer walks or bike rides or something, and then maybe one yoga day and one off day, something like that. So that would be a really great blend. But I don't live in a perfect world and I don't expect anyone to either. So I'll just say whatever you are doing right now, let's see if we can get a little closer to the middle.
Speaker 2:Many people know, like I knew, I was overexercising. It sounds like you knew once you introspected that and people know they're averse too Like, oh, I'm not getting enough movement. So let's see what we can do If you're not getting any movement right now. Honestly, I just say do anything. It does if you're. If you're a zero, it doesn't matter if you start with strength training or walking or Zumba or whatever. Just do something and then we can optimize from there. I do again think that most of the women I see are under doing the strength training, and I think that's just so important. Thankfully, these days it's getting more attention. I think people know, which is amazing, and everyone's scared of sarcopenia, which is great. We don't want to lose muscle, but I encourage people to do it. It's so empowering to do some strength training and you're not going to get bulky or be Arnold Schwarzenegger or anything like that. Try to work some of that in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. I mean all the things you would have to do to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. You're very far from. Most women are not willing to do so and, ironically, what most women tell us is oh, I just want to tone up or firm up like lifting weights is how you do that.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:There's no other exercise that's going to produce those results. Eating or lifting weights and eating the protein is going to get you toned and firmed up and apparently help your thyroid out too. Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I think another thing like this is nuanced, you're totally right, it's a Goldilocks thing and so one thing that we try to explain to women, especially the over exercisers. Well, one thing I think is interesting is I was like, you know, go big or go home. Certainly, when I was training for a marathon, the days I was doing my long runs, I was I don't even know how many steps. Like running 18 miles is a lot. Well, I think 10,000 steps equates to about five miles, three to five miles. So if I was running, you know, that's far more than the 10,000 steps, yes, but there were days I wasn't doing anything and so I didn't ever realize like, oh, I can go, you know, hit it hard in the gym, but only getting beginning like 3000 steps in that workout. Yeah, Like we just overestimate number one, but still like sending my body into the red zone, like trying to, like you know, to me it was all about the calorie burn.
Speaker 1:So yeah, but I didn't, somehow didn't realize like no, it's your calorie burn over the entire day, yes, the entire week. And just because you went and like, killed yourself on the stairmaster, that you were huffing and puffing and about to pass out for 30 minutes, yeah, that's still only two or 3000 steps, it's your entire exercise. And then you go sit on your butt for the rest of the day. That's right.
Speaker 1:You stress your body out and then you're not really moving it very much. Yeah, so that's one thing I've got. What if they call that like an exercising couch potato?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a real thing that was, I was that too.
Speaker 1:And or I would do something so crazy. I literally did not have the energy to move at all the next day and so I thought I had just really hit it hard and, oh my gosh, I'm so sore and look how amazing that workout was. Well, yeah, over the two days maybe that equated to like 1500 steps where you really want to be in more, like the seven, 8000 sort of activity level. To be a non sedentary person I've heard that like being sedentary is like the new smoking. Yes, and if you drive a desk, I mean that's, that's a reality that you're going to have to combat is being more active generally.
Speaker 2:I agree. I personally I walk every single day, even on rest days, and I know that that can be an intimidating thing to hear if someone is not in the habit of moving their body at all yet. So again, I'm not suggesting everyone has to go from zero to 10,000 steps every day in a moment, but I have eased my way up here. I'm very well trained and balanced and I am totally comfortable going for a 30 minute walk, even on a rest day, and I don't think that over exerts my body. It's even more than that, though just the little bits of movement through the day.
Speaker 1:Oh yes.
Speaker 2:Very frequently I'll have 12 clients back to back during the day, but I schedule in 50, 50 minute sessions and then during those 10 minutes I might do 100 jumps on my rebounder, or I might just run up and down the stairs a couple times in my house or just simply like pace for 60 seconds. It doesn't have to be anything crazy, but just sitting or stand standing right now, even that for 12 hours straight, just standing, is not optimal. We just need a little bit of movement through the day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think walking is a great recovery exercise. I mean walking is super undervalued. I mean it is. You don't? I always say I hate putting on sports bra. You don't have to put a sports bra on. Yeah, you kind of need a good pair of shoes, but other than that you can do it anywhere.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:You don't have to change. You can do it for 10 minutes at a time. You can go for a two hour walk, like it is really the most underrated form of exercise. I agree. And who doesn't like a nice walk, I mean spinning may not be your thing. Running may not be your thing, but it really especially again if you're lifting weights and you're really sore. It's going to move that lactic acid through your body too.
Speaker 2:So yes, and I track all of my everything my heart rate variability and whatever and I notice a significant decrease in health if I do have a day of just driving the desk, even if I've gone to the gym, like you said, that's not the difference mover in terms of my health metrics. That's important and I still do that. But if I go to the gym early in the morning and then I just sit there and don't move for 12 hours in a row, my heart rate variability will drop. That's a sign to me, hey, your body's telling you it doesn't love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:The other point I wanted to make is for the over exercisers who were like, oh, I can't give it up and this is really my message is more like if you're looking to lose weight which is a little bit different than your focus, but we've got to have some runway with you.
Speaker 1:So if you are, if you are doing those six one hour hit classes and getting 10,000 steps in, and if that's if you kick off your fat loss or dieting phase with all that activity, the only place we can do that is maybe the only place we can go is up Meaning. Like your body is going to recognize any decrease in that as a decrease in activity level. And usually when you're trying to get weight off, we have to. We just have to disrupt things a little bit, which usually means some more steps or maybe a little bit more cardio, and so just keeping that pace, you know thinking like, oh, I just have to do this all the time, maybe to manage my weight, like that's the number one, not an effective weight loss management strategy, but if you have weight to lose, like there's nowhere we can go, right, Now sometimes ironically, like when we back it off, that person will lose weight because they're taking the stress off of their body.
Speaker 1:But you know you just want all of this kind of balanced. You don't want to be going crazy, you just want to be a generally active person. I would say getting somewhere between you know, seven to 9000 steps a day, getting that balanced meal, those balanced meals with lots of vegetables and lean protein. That gives your body a chance for everything to be kind of operating optimally. Then when you want to change your body in some way, like change your body composition, lose some body fat, we can adjust things so your body has a chance to react.
Speaker 1:But if you are stressing it out in all ways, under eating, overexerts, like that, we have nowhere to go with you and the only thing that a reputable practitioner is going to do is like get things to a place of optimal health for a good period of time to let your body kind of recover. Then we can think about maybe losing some body fat or changing things. But you know you just can't abuse your body and expect then, like because you've decided it's time to lose some weight, that your body is going to respond. I think that's the very hardest thing for women to realize. It is not up to our brains I mean, our brains play and like we have to do the things, but just because on some random Monday we decide, oh, we're going to lose 10 pounds.
Speaker 1:It really depends on what you've been doing to your body. That's right.
Speaker 2:Honestly, to be totally honest, if it were not that way, I would love to exercise for four hours a day, sleep for four hours a day and eat only chocolate. Like that sounds like paradise to me. I could work really hard and exercise really hard and I just love chocolate, so that sounds like a great three meals a day. It's just not the truth. That's not an answer. So we've got to find balance. Even if it feels like, oh, you're going to take me down from four hours a day to one hour a day, well, yeah, if you want health and you want results, even if you want weight loss or thyroid or anything like that, then then yes, we do need to actually respect what your body needs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Okay. Well, I think you've answered a lot of questions. I know that there will be more questions than maybe we can collect those and have you back, because this has been a really great conversation. Anything you want to add or that we haven't covered, sort of about thyroid health or in this area of conversation that you think would be helpful?
Speaker 2:Well, I think this applies to thyroid health, but also health in general. There are so many misleading things out there. There are so many miracle fixes and miracle pills and whatever, and I just encourage people to do the hard thing, which is tap into their body, ask themselves genuinely am I overstressed, am I under feeling, am I under or over exercising? Oftentimes, people know the answer that miracle fix out. There is not going to be the answer. When it is, I will change my tune. I'm not opposed to a miracle answer, but there just doesn't exist one right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think really educating yourself so you understand things like how your thyroid works, what supports your thyroid? What's not great for your thyroid? Same for your metabolism.
Speaker 1:Yes thanks for a minute pause. Now there are is so much conflicting information out there it can make your head spin, but maybe quit looking for the quick fix and just get yourself. So then when these things pop up, you can be like okay, you know, I listen to Joe or I listen to Megan and I have a sense now. What really is good for your thyroid or good for your metabolism? Yes, is this fat burner going to do is? Could it possibly scientifically Fulfill all these promises, right? Oh, you know what? I don't remember Joe or Megan ever saying thing about taking copious amounts of caffeine.
Speaker 1:You know right, senior thyroid or your metabolism so that this may be not right. So if you can educate yourself, and that's a can be investment of time, it can be investment of money if you hire a coach.
Speaker 1:Yes, then you can start arming yourself so that you can figure out and solve a lot of these problems, rather than just spinning in confusion all the time. But yeah, a new fad diet fix pill that's wants to charge you 4999 for never have to worry about weight loss again, is I mean that new one is created every day? And yes, truth of the matter, health is like wealth, it's. It's an investment, it's. It takes time, it takes energy and you have to be knowledgeable. And so they're these quick fixes aren't. There, really isn't such a thing.
Speaker 2:If you are truly after like good health and well-being, I Agree, but it's an investment that pays off now and later, once people Attention to their body. I genuinely feel like 18,000 times better now than I did when I was abusing my body, and I know I'm taking care of myself for the long run, so it's a win-win.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I say like, even if, like, if your goal is like to get rich, like what I explained about nutrition, like it is our base, it is our fundamental energy source. It is what you put into your body directly correlates to how much energy You're going to have, how much Focus you're going to have. So I can't really think of anything worth investing more in than Learning what good nutrition is and giving your body that like it will.
Speaker 1:Yes, life-changing, I mean in all ways I Energy is like our base currency, right, and nutrition is really more elemental than anything else when it relates to that. So, okay, where can we find you? Where can listeners Learn more from you? Tell us about, sort of all of your offerings.
Speaker 2:Sure, well, almost everything's available at the lions shareorg. It's L Y O N S lions shareorg. I have a blog up there. I've been blogging every week since 2013, so tons of free content that I would encourage people to check out. There's links to my Instagram. There I run a small team of nutritionists and all that information is up on the website as well, and I'd love to continue the conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great, okay, well, thank you so much. I know I learned a lot and I just know a lot of women are really going to appreciate the content that you shared. So Let us know at couture if you have more questions for Megan and maybe we can convince her to come back and do a Q&A or something. But really appreciate your time and your wisdom. I think it will help a lot of women. So, but that's you got.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what we got for you today. I will put Megan's information in the show notes so, for listeners, you can just click on the links in there to to find more out about Megan. So, thank you, megan. Have a great day everyone.