Real Food Stories

114. The Period Problem No One's Talking About with Allison Yamamoto

• Heather Carey • Season 4 • Episode 114

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Discipline, perfectionism, and "healthy habits" can sometimes mask a dangerous relationship with food and exercise. Allison Yamamoto opens up about her journey from NCAA cheerleader to marathon runner, revealing how her pursuit of athletic excellence led her down a path of restrictive eating, overtraining, and eventually losing her period for several years.

What makes this conversation particularly powerful is how Allison's story uncovers the societal reinforcement that keeps many women trapped in unhealthy patterns. Despite serious health warning signs, doctors dismissed her concerns as "normal for an active woman." Friends and family praised her discipline and commitment to "health," unintentionally encouraging behaviors that were actually compromising her wellbeing.

The revelation that missing periods signal more than just fertility concerns becomes a crucial turning point. Hypothalamic amenorrhea indicates a body in survival mode, with serious implications for bone density, immune function, and long-term health. Yet this vital information remains largely unknown to many women pushing themselves toward arbitrary fitness goals while chronically underfueling.

Most striking is Allison's description of the mental burden – the constant calculations, food rules, and guilt that ran "like a tape" in the background of her mind despite appearing successful externally. This invisible struggle consumes enormous energy that could be directed elsewhere.

Through her coaching practice, Allison now offers women individualized support addressing both nutritional/exercise components and the psychological factors keeping them stuck. The hopeful message? Hypothalamic amenorrhea is reversible through lifestyle changes, with the return of menstruation serving as tangible evidence of healing.

Ready to transform your relationship with food and exercise? Discover what your body really needs without the rigid rules and restrictions that steal your mental freedom. Your period isn't just about fertility – it's a vital sign worth protecting.

To Learn More About Allison and her programs click HERE

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Speaker 1:

Hi everybody. Today I am with Allison Yamamoto and, as a former NCAA cheerleader turned marathon runner and professed overachiever, allison struggled with managing food and nutrition under eating and, in turn, to maintain a regular menstrual cycle. For years, in an effort to stay disciplined, she avoided rest days, ate strictly foods she labeled healthy and found herself chronically overtraining while struggling to manage her stress. After realizing how prevalent this was, she made it her mission to help others overcome these challenges, to transform their relationship with food, exercise and their bodies. Allison got certified in coaching, specializing in overtraining and disordered eating. She gathered a team of clinicians and created an evidence-based mentorship program that helps you understand what your body really needs and offers the support to overcome the challenges keeping you stuck.

Speaker 1:

So, hi, allison, it's great to have you on today because in the world of nutrition, most of the stories I hear and the women I see claim they need to lose weight and that they cannot figure out food. Now there's an assumption that they are overeating, but I also think there are a lot of women my age in peri and menopause who had disordered eating and carried that into midlife. So those are two things I see a lot. The other thing is that many of these women have daughters who have adopted intense clean eating regimens and are indeed under eating and are experiencing, I think, what you have gone through. So I want to just jump into your story. Can you share with me how you got into sports and then the need and the pressure to under eat and, I imagine, adopt some kind of clean eating regimen and that you said turned into disordered eating?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, definitely so for me. I've always been quite active and I think it's something that's fairly normalized in society at this point, which is a propensity to eat fairly healthy and to participate in activity and exercise, and that's something that was definitely praised by other people in my life and something I genuinely enjoyed growing up and then, when I went in, became a cheerleader throughout college. I'm sure you can imagine some of the either implicit or explicit body standards that are presented either with the uniforms that you're having, as well as the body changes that you're going through when you're transitioning out of high school and into college, and there's additional pressure just in making that transition, about expectations around weight gain, weight changes, new social situations, and so, over time, it was definitely not something that happened overnight as much as the behaviors that I originally intended to really invest in when it came to nutrition and exercise were intended to be healthy and most people were praising them, and I felt like I was meeting the body standards that I was striving for through the changes I was making, and it became a bit of a slippery slope where, over time, I was starting to notice I have a really big interest in nutrition, which turned into a slightly more restrictive diet, which turned into fairly strict rules around nutrition and I think you said it brilliantly which is that so often nutrition advice is synonymous with weight loss advice, and so then, the more I would learn about nutrition, the more the advice that I was consuming was probably mostly intended for somebody who was in a much different demographic than the situation that I was in, and I ended up falling into so many traps that were probably meant for folks that were very bought into diet culture and becoming, in doing so, very under fueled, not even intentionally at first. And on the exercise side, because I'm somebody who's really disciplined, I'm somebody who, when I started training and doing running after I graduated from college, it became this slippery slope where it was okay, maybe I'll do a 5K, now I'm doing a half marathon, might as well do a marathon, and in that type of training and the intensity that I can get at and I think this is true of a lot of other folks that are considered pretty disciplined or they're trying to be very regimented in their training, which is something that we also see in a lot of information or fitness culture even saying discipline means no days off. It means that even if you're feeling like you're questioning or you're lacking motivation, you're going, you're going hard, you're staying to that routine, and that spoke to me and I would do that to a T.

Speaker 2:

But as a result of that, I would fall down these paths where eventually I was realizing I was super anxious if I felt like I was even considering taking a rest day or feeling guilty about some of the food choices that I was making, and it got to the point where I ended up losing my period for several years.

Speaker 2:

Going through the healthcare system, there was a lot of confusion about whether or not that was just a natural, normal thing that would occur for folks that were especially women, that are more active, that are especially doing any sort of endurance training or cardiovascular work, and so I didn't even think that there was an issue for a long time.

Speaker 2:

And then, through the work that I did to actually recover, I learned so much about nutrition and what actually matters. I learned a lot more about where some of the patterns I was falling into with exercise were actually not even conducive to some of the fitness goals that I had, and I think the most important thing that I really, really underestimated is how much more freedom and flexibility, and even lack of stress and anxiety. I gained from making those changes, and when I did so, that's truly what inspired me to really invest in creating a framework and a program that would help other women who are struggling with this and provide the resources that I wish that I had had on day one of starting down this slope and this kind of like slippery, more disordered eating compulsive exercise territory that I'd fallen into.

Speaker 1:

Okay, thank you for sharing that. We have. That's a lot to unpack. So, because there's, you know, there's a lot of things going on. I think the first one is just society's ideals, for let's just talk about women, you know, being very active and healthy, eating, and, and, but is it, does it fall under the guise of like being really thin? And you know, it's like this whole like ideal of what a woman should look like and be like, and and you were getting a lot of praise for that, right, I mean, you were getting a lot of just accolades for like the healthier I'm using air quotes here like the healthier, you were eating right, and and really, and even to the point that you were not then getting your period for years, and and even having medical professionals. It sounds like dismissing that all in the name of like well, you're an athlete, you are, you know you're eating healthy, you're you're doing, you know you're thin, that that's okay. Is that correct? I mean, is that that you, that you were getting dismissed by medical professionals?

Speaker 2:

Yes, surprisingly so. So I, especially in the early days of losing my period, would go to my doctor. I went to a series of doctors and they would, and I and I I can empathize with their situation because they're seeing, I'm sure, just the whole gamut of conditions. Coming in their door and seeing an otherwise healthy, presenting young adult woman who's still walking and doesn't need any sort of major, not bleeding anywhere I'm not chronically sick, necessarily, so I can empathize. But yeah, the reality is that it was misguided information in the sense that they were saying oh well, you know to the extent that you are a runner and you're eating healthy and you're exercising a lot. This is expected is a lot of the information I got. This is normal. Expected is a lot of the information I got. This is normal.

Speaker 2:

And I think that the other thing that was really challenging was because there's a lot of stigma around your relationship with food and even body image, where it's almost as if, to your point, there's so much pressure that's implicit or explicit to meet certain body standards but at the same time, to do it in a way that's implicit or explicit to meet certain body standards but at the same time to do it in a way that's seemingly fairly effortless, that I was in huge denial that I even had body image issues or that I was even trying to meet some sort of standard with my body. That wasn't something that I had willingly and very admittedly come to light and would have said to you at, you know, at the heat of all of this happening, like, look, I'm having major body image problems. That's definitely not something I would have said. And so I did find that it was also hard for me to find avenues where I could find the support that I was ready to have in an interesting way at that time, and so I think that having the medical professionals say stuff like you know, this is fine, was actually, in some ways, music to my ears, because I was like, all right, then I don't really need to make changes, I can stick to this thing. That feels really safe.

Speaker 2:

And meanwhile everyone else is telling me that they might even envy the fact that I'm so disciplined, and so it was a huge reinforcement on every angle of staying stuck, and I think that that's what made me take so long to even admit that I needed to make changes, and that's one of the biggest regrets that I have is not making some of these changes sooner and earlier, and I think that in part that is because I was also seeing the positive feedback loops and the signals where folks were telling me it's okay or it's actually good and what you're doing is positive, and that external validation is hugely reinforcing to some of the habits that I was kind of continuing to invest in.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. I mean you were getting nothing. But no, keep going, right. I mean this is good, even though in your head, intuitively, it sounds like you felt like something's not right. I mean something was nagging at you. But you were a young woman, I mean, who didn't really have the words right to say, like I'm having body image problems. I mean that right, that's like nothing that you would really think of as a young adult. You know to like, say to people or like, or to even speak up and say you know what this isn't right, like something doesn't feel right, I'm not getting my period, or I mean right, and you have doctors who are you know. If doctor says it's okay, then I guess it's okay. Yeah, I mean it's, and and it sounds like even just support from I am I correct friends and family, and I mean no one was really saying to you something's not right except for you, right? Am I correct with that?

Speaker 2:

It's so interesting because I think it's one of those topics that's really hard, especially intergenerationally, for us to talk about. And I think that the thing you bring up about the mother-daughter dynamic is really interesting because so many of the women that I work with can point to or easily recall instances where someone because we've talked about the societal pressures but so many of those are reinforced really close to home. So the amount of instances or examples that somebody can point to, an instance where an aunt or a grandmother or a mother or someone a female figure that's really close to them has most likely unintentionally said something that reinforced some of those standards for them can be really tricky and really really common and, again, very unintentional. But I think that in part it's also because folks that tend to be high achievers or set high standards for themselves care a lot about how they're being perceived by others or really get fed by the external validation. I think oftentimes what I'm seeing is that those are the same people that are less likely to admit where there are struggles that by society standards are considered shameful.

Speaker 2:

And to your point that I thought you mentioned really elegantly, which is that it's a complex issue, it's something that, yeah, there could be a component with body image. There could be a huge component about stress and stress management. That was a huge factor for me, and a lot of the positions that I was carrying and the pressure I put on myself for my career definitely fed into how I showed up in those other aspects of my life as well, and so that's only two of many, many factors. There's like perfectionism was something that was huge for me as well. That was something I never really understood or identified with until I really understood exactly how that can show up in different ways for different people. And all of those things combined, as I got more and more educated about what really motivates and drives some of these rigid routines with food and exercise did I start to feel like I could identify with some of the issues that I had suspected I was experiencing for a while.

Speaker 2:

But it's something where if other people around you are also struggling and don't realize that they're struggling, then it's way easier for the cycle to be reinforced within a friend group or within a generational line, because when it's so normalized at that point, then of course you're you're not really sure that you're experiencing those issues, because other people are saying well, this is just what I do to be healthier. This is just what I do to be healthier. This is just what I do to stay fit. And then you're now thinking, okay, well, again, this is normal or necessary. And I'm going to continue to do what I'm doing already?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean I know when I grew up that all the major players, you know, my mother, my grandmothers, I mean everyone was on a diet. I mean everyone. You just were not good enough unless you were dieting to get thin. I mean you just.

Speaker 1:

And we were subtly taught like women aren't really supposed to like food. So it's a little different than yours, because you were like an athlete and I was not really that. I mean, I was athletic but not like, not like where you know, into like sports, like you were. But so we were just supposed to not like food and really watch we're eating, go on diets, cons, on off diets and and feel bad about our bodies. You know the generations, you know.

Speaker 1:

And then I think it's interesting because I do see a lot of women that I see have, I think they're passing things on to their daughters, you know, and I see them. You know, because then I see their daughters, you know like I see them. You know, because then I I I've see their daughters, you know like I, I see them and then they ask me if I can see their daughters, because their daughters are just not doing something right, you know, and things definitely get passed on, is what I'm trying to say, and we want to break that, you know, break that chain and learn. You know. So you're, you are learning. You learned, then, how to really it sounds like make peace with food and eating. How did tell me just a little bit more about that? How did that come to be? Did you find someone? So, after all, these doctors were saying you're fine, you're good, what was the light bulb that went off for you or that turned the corner for you?

Speaker 2:

I think for me, because I'm somebody that likes to seek out a lot of information I had eventually gotten to the point where I just got educated on the topic myself, and it was kind of nice because this was right around the time that terminology like female athlete triad and then what eventually became relative energy deficiency in sport became more widely known. I don't think it's commonplace yet, but there was enough research and enough kind of clinical developments that were coming out that I could actually acquire information and start to understand. And so one of the biggest things that was a motivator for me was learning about how under feeling and overtraining can have negative health impacts, independent of just your menstrual health, which was something that what I had been told was not necessarily a priority if you weren't actively trying to conceive, and so for me, that was an easy excuse to put it off and put it off because that wasn't one of my primary goals. But when I started learning, oh, actually these types of issues are not just about my menstrual health. This is impacting everything from how I am experiencing my day to day. So I'm realizing that I'm probably more irritable, I could be experiencing more fatigue, but not to mention that some of the things that were much scarier for me especially someone that cared about being able to exercise and being able to be active was bone health injury, my immune system being compromised. So some of these more critical areas that can have impacts a lot quicker and increasing my risk of, for example, stress fractures, which can occur when your bone density is compromised, which can occur when you're at very high risk of this if you are experiencing hypothalamic amenorrhea, like I was, which is when you're missing your period. That that was one of my biggest nightmares is. It's an injury that's really chronic, it takes a long recovery time, it essentially takes you out, and not to mention that already, as women, bone health is such a key factor that we should be prioritizing, especially when considering longevity.

Speaker 2:

And, as somebody who was active, thinking about compromising my bone health so early was really what was that light bulb moment? For me? It was realizing oh no, this isn't just a do I want to have a baby right now or not? Problem. This is. I'm actually really impacting my baseline health and even my own performance.

Speaker 2:

Like the things that I thought were making me stand out as somebody who's more fit or who's healthier have now gotten me to the place where I'm actually the opposite, like I'm compromising my fitness because of some of these habits that I'm falling into.

Speaker 2:

Because of some of these habits that I'm falling into, and I think that one of the things that's interesting is the other areas that ended up being some of the biggest wins for me when I started to gain more peace around food things like not feeling so much guilt about what I was consuming or not feeling like I had to think about food all the time and that it was something that was always on my mind. Those things I didn't fully realize until I started going through recovery how much those were impacting my life, and that's probably one of the biggest changes that actually ended up occurring, and so I think it was like sort of the aspects that were the most terrifying that really encouraged me to change. But then, in doing so, unpacking all the other side effects that were amazingly life-changing for me was some of the stuff that I wish had been the major inspiration points for me earlier on in the journey.

Speaker 1:

So that's just so interesting that you say that about not having your period.

Speaker 1:

and then the risk factors, that it's not just that wanting to get pregnant or not get pregnant, but that irritability, fatigue, bone health, I imagine, heart health, I mean so the same thing happens with women in menopause If they are chronically under eating, and there's I mean, there's been studies done about this that there's a risk of you know, underweight, under eating, that the likelihood of you going into early menopause, which then in turn is you know, so this is like before you, like you know, in your like early 40s, you were in menopause that ups your risk for heart disease, osteoporosis, cognitive decline, premature death, I mean. So it's, it's one you know, it's kind of the same. So I mean, if you carry this, these habits, into your later adulthood, you're, then you know you're continuing those risks of of all of these other things, and it has not really anything to do with getting pregnant or not getting pregnant. I mean. I mean you know it does, but I mean it's, but there's all these other risks that surround it. So it's that's, that's.

Speaker 1:

That's very interesting that not getting your period when you're younger also has this very similar risks to it. And kindness for yourself, because the need to be thin and the pressure to be thin and be an athlete, I think, is so applauded, you know. And so for you to realize on your own that something's not right, that you are, it's going beyond just not getting your period and the space it takes and the time it takes in your brain to constantly thinking about food right, constantly wondering, like I have. I have to imagine that, like you might've thought at breakfast, you, maybe you overate a little bit and so you're not going to, and then what was going to happen for, like, the rest of the day, or right, I mean, was it, was it habits like that that were just were just on your mind all the time?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it was everything from okay. If I'm gonna do this thing for lunch, then how is this gonna impact the rest of my day? To okay, if I was eating something and I wasn't feeling full afterwards then literally just a physiological thing that they've done. You know so many studies on how, when you're under eating, you develop, as a survival mechanism, sort of an obsession with food. So you're thinking about what is my next meal. You're thinking about what am I going to be able to have and you're scrolling through whatever platform of choice, looking at really appetizing, looking foods it's something that is inherently wired into us when we're under eating. Is that obsession that again, you don't even necessarily realize that it might be happening, but you're starting to think about food, a feeling like I was trying to calculate how things are going to fit in and what impact that's going to have, or trying to follow and adhere to all of these guidelines that I was really holding myself to on such high standards. And so it just is, hitting from all angles and thinking about during those years, all the other things that I could have been thinking about during all of those moments. It is crazy and and to think about how much of energy that took up and at the time I was still. You know, it's not like I paint this as if you know all day. This is all I was thinking about and that's absolutely not the case. You know, anyone who was interacting with me or who knew me at that time they saw me doing all these other things. This is something that was happening just internally within me and yet I was still striving really hard in my career and training for all these other things. So it's not something that is everyone is wearing very clearly on the surface.

Speaker 2:

These are things that the people that you see walking around you never know, because I think also there's a lot of misinformation in terms of some of these issues. They occur at every single body size, they incur in any age. They incur male, female. There's just so much myths, I would say, or misinformation about what the prototypical person who's struggling with these types of issues looks like that we think or would expect, and in reality, the prevalence is much more diverse and I think that one of the things that's also interesting that you're mentioning is that one of the biggest triggers that they say is inducing some of these more disordered patterns or can create eating disorder related or even disordered eating type of patterns are the combination of a propensity for dieting which, to your point, is something that was really normalized for a lot of generations, a lot of people combined with transition events, and so, as women, our body composition, like our bodies, are changing as we age, as we go through different phases in life, and those types of events can trigger the onset of this slippery slope at any stage, and so it could happen later, during menopause.

Speaker 2:

It could have happened earlier, like for me, when it was more of like that, high school to college or college to graduating. But those are all key points and factors when we're more at risk of starting to feel like we need to put the pressure on ourselves to take on more control with food or with exercise or our bodies, or, however it is, when we're navigating some of those more stressful or unexpected or uncertain transition points.

Speaker 1:

I think a lot of women get to the point with eating that it's just running like a tape in the back of your head, right? I mean it's not like you said. You were productive, right, you were an athlete, you were going to college, you were like succeeding in all other areas, but in the back of your head you're probably subtly just constantly thinking about the food that you were going to eat or not going to eat, your hunger, right, it was just sort of like playing on autopilot. And I think that's not just women your age who are chronically trying to under eat, and you know, it's all it happens for many, many women. It's all it happens for many, many women.

Speaker 1:

And then I think and I think you mentioned the word control, you know that that's a big word in the world of like menopause and perimenopause, because all of a sudden, where you feel like you're very in control right of your food, like for most of your life, when you go into menopause, there is a lack of control because your body is doing something that is just feels very out of your control.

Speaker 1:

I mean, you are losing your estrogen, you know a lot of things are going on. And when a lot of women then start maybe gaining weight or gaining like, and they they just look at food and they gain weight and you know like, and it's very. It's really, really distressing to women who have been. You know where you were like I have like this grip over what I'm going to eat and how much, and or not eat, or and, and it's so it's very distressing. So I mean, I think I'm so happy to hear that you have really made peace with your food at a younger age. So when you go to the rest of your life, you know, and when you get older and your body is shifting and changing, you can be prepared for that that there is. You know that you're not totally in charge sometimes of your body. You know that you're not totally in charge sometimes of your body. You know and, but you can be, but not in a in a crazy way, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I love that.

Speaker 2:

What you were saying about how the cyclical nature of it so that for the women that are going through that right now the menopausal transition and then the pressure that they were experiencing throughout their lives with dieting and then are recognizing this earlier on for their daughters or any of their children, and being more proactive about getting them support and being able to offer them those resources earlier on is amazing, because it's never too late to make some of those changes for yourself, and being able to offer that gift to somebody way younger, I think is such a huge way to pay it forward, because the reality is is, even if you're attempting to be really perfect, it's so hard to you know, when we're talking about control, to exactly control how either we're going to pass those things down or how someone else is going to be conditioned, based on the other factors to relate to their food and their exercise, and so I do think it's a resource that can be invaluable and life-changing for someone earlier on in their journey who could be either starting to fall down this pathway or may not be able to seek support from their mom or their grandmother, whoever it is, because of either that relationship or because of some of the behaviors that they've seen, or simply because it's a really shameful topic and it's hard to go to someone that you also seek approval from to get that type of support, and so I think that being able to be supportive or proactive about getting that type of a resource for the younger generations is something that is of a resource for, you know, the younger generations is something that is an incredible thing that you're mentioning happens.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I hope that that happens more and there's more conversation around that, because, honestly, the pressure to stay thin even in your 50s and 60s and look good in a bikini when you're 65. I mean, you know, you've seen on social media, I mean, this is highly praised at the cost of your health. That we're not. We don't want to be thin or in shape because of for health reasons, but for vanity reasons, and it's still. It just continues on and on. I hope that the conversation can start to shift, but it's a big ask, I think, in our society. So I'm just curious.

Speaker 1:

You know, as someone who is much younger than me, when I grew up, my influences were magazines, that magazines had diets in them, and that's where I got a lot of information from, you know, and then my, my relatives and everything. But for you, growing up, social media was, you know, like front and center. What's, what's your thought about the prevalence of disordered eating and social media? I mean, do you think it's? I mean I think it's out of control. Personally, I mean, I think the I just makes me crazy going on like Instagram and seeing some of the wacky things going on. What's your take on that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think there's sort of two angles to this that come top of mind for me.

Speaker 2:

So one is that there is so much out there in terms of what other people are doing, so that comparison trap becomes absolutely pervasive and something that you can feed yourself all the time. And I think that that can be really challenging, especially when one we have no idea what those people are, when one we have no idea what those people are, what their lives are like, what they're doing, and yet there's this expectation that, oh, if I do every single thing that that person does, then I'll be able to achieve their whatever it is that we want, that they have, and that they're sharing about their lives so much online that you feel like you could emulate some of those things and that that's something that's achievable. And so I think that you feel like you could emulate some of those things and that that's something that's achievable, and so I think that that's something that can contribute a lot to the pressure that folks are experiencing online. And then I think that the second angle to a lot of the the comparison aspects is that it's the sense of removal, when maybe we were seeing a celebrity in a magazine or on a billboard. The psychology around comparison is such that, yes, we do see that person and feel like we should emulate them and that's the gold standard. At the same time, we acknowledge, oh, that person is fairly removed from me in the sense that they have either a different status or they have a different career path, and it's sometimes slightly easier to see the difference between yourself and that person If you view them as like a celebrity figure or something else, versus some of the people that we're seeing online are people that we feel like we should be, we're on, they should be, they're similar to me.

Speaker 2:

I feel much more of a sense of connection to that person and because it's a curated platform where you can change, you can filter, you can edit, you can there's just so much tooling out there to be able to create a perception that is curated around how you look or what you're doing, that it creates almost like a really dangerous track where you're like, oh, I actually think that I could emulate that person, and also that person is portraying what I believe is super realistic. So I think that's like the one angle on it, which is just that comparison trap, and then the other angle is the availability of information, and I think that this can be really challenging, especially for someone like myself, who just feeds off of information, and when I feel like I'm uncertain or when I feel like I'm scared or kind of unsure, my default mode is to try to seek information. And this can be really challenging because there's a lot of misinformation and it's really really hard to weed through. And, on the other hand, one thing that I think is interesting is especially for folks that are super, super disciplined and probably view themselves as resilient or somewhat self-sufficient. If they are experiencing a lot of this over-discipline around food and exercise, then they can fall into a trap, and this is something that I did for a while, which is just seeking out a ton of information at the expense of realizing that some of the barriers to actually make changes aren't just a lack of information about what you need to do, as much as addressing some of the underlying factors or drivers that are keeping you really stuck.

Speaker 2:

And I think that for me, that was the biggest unlock, because I would really try to go against the grain in terms of making some of these changes or not really understand why I wasn't making the changes faster, and that was a really distressing place to be, in a way, because I am so determined and I had so much information that it was frustrating to me why I couldn't just like force the changes and it always felt anxiety inducing and stressful, and I think that that's one thing that is key to trying to move through some of these things, when you have a really challenging relationship with food or a really challenging relationship with exercise, is a understanding well, what are my actual drivers here?

Speaker 2:

And which is actually something that, if anyone is interested, I'm happy to offer like a free, like resource that folks can use to start to understand what their drivers are, but also to be able to seek whatever support that look like. So, whether that's in a friend or in you know yourself, as a nutritionist who's supporting people, or in a coach or a mentor, whoever it, it is that I think that that can be one of the biggest changes that can make the actual exercise and food-related changes stick and last and so I think that that's also something that can be challenging about the availability of information is that that's what it is it's information, but it doesn't always get to some of those underlying, very human aspects of what is causing us to stay stuck in whatever habit it is that we are continuing to propagate.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think that's a really good point. I mean, I think it's all external. I mean it's all look at me just so out of control. I mean that you know what's happening on social media. I mean anyone can go on there. The influencers who are have absolutely zero qualifications, nothing, and have millions of followers and are just promoting the craziest things and it's just very confusing, I think, to people to pick out what is right and what is not right. And but I think you know you used the saying that your internal drivers. That's huge. So I want to then you know, roll into then what your coaching programs look like. And because you mentioned that you have an offer to identify your internal drivers, let's talk about your coaching and how you work with women.

Speaker 1:

Is it mostly women, or is it?

Speaker 2:

men and women. It's mostly women, to be honest, and it's not that we wouldn't work with men, we absolutely would. It's just that men, I think that there may be earlier in the journey when it comes to acknowledging that there are struggles that are happening Absolutely with men. I mean, the pressure with men even is huge, just different sometimes or more nuanced in a different way, but so huge. But so most of the folks that we're working with tend to be women, um, but so most of the folks that we're working with tend to be women, essentially the folks that come to us, and when I say an active woman or somebody who's you know working out or exercising, it's this is. It's funny that you were saying, oh, you're an athlete. It's funny, cause I didn't identify as an athlete for so long. And when, when we say we say active woman, this could even just be somebody who's you know walking, trying to hit certain step goals even, or has an active job where they're on their feet. A lot these types of issues can happen with any activity level thing that I really like to take home, because I think that a lot of the people that come out very openly with some of these issues tend or sometimes they are like very elite, very professional type athletes, and I think that's amazing because it's it makes it easier to see that there are other people struggling, but sometimes it reinforces this notion of like oh well, I'm not an elite athlete, so I don't know if I would be experiencing that type of an issue. And so the folks that we work with are women that really range in activity and fitness level, and what we do is we provide them with everything from nutrition support, like training, so how they're navigating exercise, and it's really high touch one-on-one support, and you're working with somebody who you're meeting on like a weekly, like a regular basis, and we're addressing both things in parallel. So we're addressing how can we make some changes to make sure that you are not really coming out of this trap of overtraining and underfueling, at the same time with addressing the underlying factors, so that the goal is really you know, you come through and you have everything that you need to be able to actually make the lasting change and to walk away feeling that you've improved your relationship with food and exercise and not just understood which is something that we do as well, which is educate you and understand. Okay, where is there misinformation and what does good actually look like here, as well as, and all of that is based on. I mean, it's incredible how much research has been developed in the space of relative energy deficiency in sports. So reds, um, hypothalamic amenorrhea, even disordered eating there's. There's just so much materials out there. That's amazing.

Speaker 2:

And so we uh, all of the programs that we offer to people are very, you know, research-based or evidence-based frameworks, and and then we layer that on top, like what are, what are the, what are the drivers and how can we provide? And that's what we. That's why we really hone in on the individualized approach is because, for each person, this requires understanding them, understanding where they are, what their goals are, how they relate to these things, how they're showing up to day to day, even like what is your lifestyle like right now and how do you navigate your own schedule, your own routine, your own relationships? All of those things definitely play into how, to your point, like it's a complex journey that every single person has gone on. It's a complex journey that every single person has gone on.

Speaker 2:

When you hear my story, you're like, oh, there's so much there. That's specific. And that's what we really value in being able to support the people, because we want, you know, as you're mentioning, we want the goal to be like really lasting change, feeling actually like there's more freedom and more flexibility around food and exercise, feeling like you can come to peace with your body and that you're able to navigate the perfectionism that's showing up in your career and how you're managing stress and how you're seeking validation from others or all those other implications that are also impacting how you're showing up in food and how you're showing up in exercise. So it's individualized support, it's nutrition, it's training and mostly women who resonate with some of the topics that we were covering here today.

Speaker 1:

So I think that the takeaway is I mean, everyone has their own story right, so you could lump everyone into these general categories, but everyone has their own background and story and and relationship with food. So I love the high touch and the and the one-on-one coaching and it sounds like you work with women mostly around your age and who are still getting their periods right and or who now are not possibly getting their periods because they're overexercising and under eating. Is that true? Is that? Is that, is that the age group that you work with?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we focus on women anywhere from around high school age all the way up to, I would say, like mid 30s is our core target. With that said, we don't necessarily we won't reject people that don't fall into that demographic, but that tends to be the most common prototype person that's coming to us, and oftentimes they're either experiencing menstrual disturbances or total hypothalamic, like functional hypothalamic amenorrhea, which means that they have, like, lost their cycle. And it's great because for women, it's almost, in a very weird indirect way, having that vital sign. Well, it's not an official vital sign, but I usually like to say it's like. It's like a vital sign for us because it's such a good feedback loop in terms of whether or not the changes that you're making are impacting you in the sense of is it impacting your production of estrogen? Is it impacting you to the extent that your body feels like it's shutting down the non-essential bodily functions, which indicates that it's probably operating in more of like a survival mode, and so being able to use that as a feedback loop is really helpful.

Speaker 2:

And that's everything from oh, actually, are we seeing that you're ovulating? Is late, like is it delayed? Is your cycle length becoming too long? Those are all even leading factors, even if you haven't completely lost your period altogether. But technically, if you've lost your period for three to six months or longer, then that's absolutely. I would highly highly encourage those folks to seek support now. Now is the right time. And it's reversible. It's changeable through lifestyle factors. It's not normal and it's reversible. It's changeable through lifestyle factors. It's not normal Even if you're exercising a lot, or if you're not exercising a lot, not at all, and so that is something that we do focus on with folks.

Speaker 1:

I love that because that is like real solid evidence, right, if you're not getting your period and you're over exercising and under eating, right, we talked about this there's other health consequences, and that's we talked about this, there's other health consequences, and that's important. I mean that's really important. So to then work on this and then have the evidence of getting your period again is like positive feedback, right for your body and for your brain. So that's, that's a that's a great marker and so I love that. Allison, it was really, really nice talking with you and talking to someone much younger. I talked to so many women in like perimenopause and menopause, so it was really nice being able to just get this information and pass this information along to my audience, because my audience has daughters who are, you know, around your age too and could certainly use this help, and I will put any links that you want into the show notes so people can reach out to you, and I just appreciate you being here. So thank you so much.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thank you so much. So, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you so much. I really enjoyed this conversation. Great, amazing, thoughtful questions. So thank you so much for having me.