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The Rejuvenating Health Podcast
Join Women's Health Nurse Practitioner, Lindsey VanSchoyck for a weekly dose of Precision Medicine as she addresses the hot-button topics specific to Women's Health, Fitness and Nutrition, interviews expert guests and hosts round table discussions with the team of dedicated functional health care specialists.
The Rejuvenating Health Podcast
E162 | The Midlife Depletion Trap
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If you’re doing “everything right” and still feel exhausted, puffy, anxious, foggy, and stuck, we want you to consider a different story: you’re not broken, you’re depleted. So many women in their 30s, 40s, and 50s get told their labs are normal while they’re waking up at 3 a.m., losing hair, struggling with workouts, and watching weight creep up. That disconnect is exactly why we’re talking about nutritional depletion in midlife women and how perimenopause often acts like the messenger, not the cause.
We walk through the depletion pipeline using a simple bank account analogy: years of stress, dieting, pregnancies, breastfeeding, poor sleep, gut dysfunction, inflammation, alcohol, and medications create constant withdrawals with very little replenishing. Then we explain why “normal labs” can still miss the root cause, because reference ranges are designed to catch disease, not measure optimal health. We also share a practical list of labs to consider, including ferritin, vitamin D, fasting insulin, A1C, a full thyroid panel, B vitamins, inflammatory markers, and more.
From there, we get specific about the nutrients we see most often: choline for brain fog and memory, ferritin and iron storage for hair loss and energy, magnesium (and why magnesium oxide is not the move), omega-3s with EPA and DHA for mood and inflammation, B12 absorption issues tied to low stomach acid, and vitamin D as a hormone that needs fat and magnesium to work well. We also make the case for the unsexy basics: 30 grams of protein at each meal, strength training, sleep, and auditing your supplements so you’re not wasting money on proprietary blends and low-quality forms.
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Medical Disclaimer And Ground Rules
SPEAKER_00Any views, thoughts, and opinions expressed on the Rejuvenating Health podcast are solely those of the speakers and are intended as such. Please consult your trusted healthcare practitioner for medical advice. Let's go, girls.
When Symptoms Make No Sense
SPEAKER_01If you are a woman in your 30s, 40s, or 50s, and you are exhausted, foggy, gaining weight out of nowhere, waking up at 3 a.m., losing your hair, anxious for no reason, and also being told that your labs are normal, today's episode is going to change the way that you look at your body. Because what if you are not the problem? Like, what if your body is actually just screaming for nutrients? That's an idea.
SPEAKER_00You just did an ad, like an advertisement. But really, like this is a super good conversation because most of us are overfed and undernourished. We see this every day, and women are blaming themselves, thinking like they're lacking motivation and discipline and willpower, and like physiologically, like they're just depleted. Like, and no one's really connecting the dots of years of stress, like childbirth, dieting, hormone shifts, inflammation, poor sleep, your history of antibiotics, your gut dysfunction, like your nutrient deficiencies. Like we're literally women running around trying to survive on like empty gas tanks.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. Like the environmental factors are uh definitely not running in our favor. And so today we're gonna talk about nutritional depletion specifically for women in midlife and the symptoms, the science around that, the lab markers that nobody else is checking, and the supplements that are pushed on you that are garbage, and why women are really, really underserved in this in this way in conventional medicine. And you know, that this episode might explain why you haven't felt like yourself probably in the last five to ten years.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think and it's sometimes it's just a lack of knowledge or and not even being aware. Like most of us aren't shopping at a farmer's market, like and so we're not getting fresh fruits and vegetables like from the soil and the ground right here that we live in. And you're probably not aware that like when foods travel, they start losing their nutrients. When you freeze, like I I get it, frozen vegetables are better than no vegetables, but all every time like you move further away from its source, you're losing nutrients from your foods.
SPEAKER_01So
The Depletion Pipeline Explained
SPEAKER_01yeah. Welcome back to the Rejuvenating Health Podcast.
SPEAKER_00I know. Okay, let's talk about the woman who's doing everything right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I feel like women listening to this are probably screaming, like, I'm eating healthy, right? Like, I'm doing all the things, I'm trying to work out, I'm taking the supplements. Like, why, why do I still feel terrible? Why is this still happening to me?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and because you're surviving, you're in survival mode, and we're not really like thinking about replenishing. And the the biggest like misconception I see is that if you eat somewhat healthy and you take a multivitamin, that you think that you're okay. And I'm not a fan of multivitamins, like to be honest. I think they have a little bit of a lot of stuff, and you're just still nutrient deficiency. Like most women that we work with are like so depleted before they even hit perimenopause. Like, they've done years of dieting, years of not eating enough protein because you know they couldn't get away with it when they were 20, stress elevated for decades, not sleeping, blood sugar instability, pregnancies, breastfeeding, birth control. No one even thinks about birth control, alcohol, medications, ultra-processed foods, gut dysfunction, inflammation, like all of that drains your nutrients. And then you hit perimenopause and menopause, and your body's like, I'm done. Peace. Yeah. Checking out.
SPEAKER_01It's like the straw that breaks the camel's back.
SPEAKER_00Like you can't compensate anymore.
SPEAKER_01And I think what most women don't realize is that perimenopause isn't the bad guy. Like it didn't create the problem. It is it's the detective, essentially, like it exposed the problem.
SPEAKER_00That's huge. Like this is such a port and important distinction, guys. Like perimenopause and those hormone shifts, and when you start, like it's essentially your body is saying, like, hey, I can't keep robbing Peter to PayPal anymore.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like something has to give. Yeah. So you talk about this all the time, like how women are stuck in this depletion pipeline. So can you explain what that means?
SPEAKER_00So think of your body as a bank account. Like when you're born, you have this huge bank account, especially if you're like a breastfed kid, like you're getting all these amazing nutrients from your mom, but all these life events happen and you're taking withdrawals, like pregnancy, huge withdrawal, breastfeeding, holy moly, huge withdrawal. Your daily stress, withdrawal of money, dieting, withdrawal of money, poor sleep, withdrawal of none money, exercising, alcohol, inflammation. Like we're just taking money away, away, away, away, away, and eventually your bank account is gone. And we're not like we we've spent years taking away and not replenishing. And then you hit your 30s and 40s and you start having that estrogen roller coaster, your nervous system is more sensitive, your blood sugar is less stable, recovery becomes harder, muscle mass is declining because you're not strength training, and suddenly you wake up. Like, I don't know, have you ever heard like a woman be like a hit 40 and life went downhill? Like, and but really like your body's been under this huge amount of stress for years.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think this is where women will, you know, either gaslight themselves or allow like be gaslit in, like we said, in the conventional medicine space, because you know, they'll say things like I don't feel like myself, and then they're told, well, like, okay, welcome to aging, like this is just how it is. And so then we slowly just accept these symptoms, like, oh, well, this is just what happens when women age, and it that doesn't have to be the case.
SPEAKER_00And aging is normal, menopause is normal, like it is a normal process. But it doesn't, but feeling exhausted, inflamed, anxious, foggy, like that's not normal. And that's not like your future, it's not inevitable.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
Why Normal Labs Still Miss It
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And this is why we go into such detail that we do when we talk about our labs and why the idea that quote unquote normal labs don't really mean anything. So I want you to go off on this because I know that this is like your hill that you will die on and it drives you insane. But when women get told that your labs are normal when they're still feeling horrible and they have all these crazy symptoms that are quote unquote unexplained, can you tell us why that happens?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because normal ranges are like the sickest of sick people. You're like you're getting normal ranges of like the sick people in the population, not the healthy people in the population, right? Like these lab ranges are designed to identify disease, right? Not health. Huge massive difference, right? Like you can have a ferritin of like 22, and they're like, oh, you're just on the low end of normal. And I'm like, like giving me a heart attack over here. Like you can have low ferritin, low B12, low vitamin D, low magnesium, low omega, blood sugar dysregulation, thyroid dysfunction, inflammation, and you can still be normal.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Normal. But that doesn't mean that your body's functioning optimally.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and women especially get dismissed because so many symptoms are vague and can be applied across different, different um root causes. So we're when we're talking about things like fatigue, anxiety, brain fog, weight gain, mood swings, like those symptoms just tend to get normalized. This reminds me of, you know how they've done those studies where essentially when they're raising kids with like with um childhood development, and it used to be that the stage that would be normal, quote unquote, for a baby to walk was like at an earlier stage. And then over time, because of the way that the healthcare system shifted, and then we were having all of these kids that were being um placed in scenarios in where they weren't spending enough time like on their stomachs. They weren't mo they weren't using their motor skills, they weren't crawling earlier, and therefore they weren't walking earlier. What we did was over time we just changed the standard. So the conventional medicine system was just like, well, now it's normal for a kid to walk when they're 18 months versus 12. Like we'll just move the standard. And we do the same thing with the quote unquote, yeah, yeah, with healthy population. It's like that's not, like you said, it's an it's the average of this the standard American population, which is a sick population, unfortunately, if we look at the data.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and those symptoms that you described, like you said, can be uh can be so many different things. And your doctor doesn't really want to go do the investigating, probably to figure out the root cause of what's causing that, and the fact that like so many things can play into it. And a lot of these issues, like thyroid issues, ferritin, gut health, like a lot of them are because of nutrition, nutritional insufficiencies.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
Choline And The Brain Fog Clue
SPEAKER_01So let's talk about one of the most overlooked nutrients in women's health right now, which is choline. Because I would be willing to bet that a lot of people haven't even heard of it, or if they have, they have no idea what it is.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they definitely don't know what it is. But like it's something that I learned and first heard about. Like, I I'll be honest, I didn't know what it was until I took my wild health genetic course. And like you can have genes for choline deficiency. Um, but choline is so important for brain health and neurotransmitter production and liver detox and cell burn cell membrane integrity, memory, your nervous system function. And estrogen actually helps produce choline naturally. So when you have that, if you're postmenopause, like and not having that estrogen, then yeah, your your choline is gonna start to decline. And when estrogen starts to decline in perimenopause, you're also gonna have choline deficiencies. But you you can get choline from food. And when your choline starts to drop, it's one of the main reasons why brain fog kind of ramps up a little bit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. And this is where uh that brain fog is gonna feel like, oh, I can't remember certain words, like when you're trying to think of a word to describe something in the moment, or I walk into rooms and I forget why, or I feel like mentally really sluggish. And again, now these can also be tied to some other things. Like we said, you know, there can be multiple root causes. This can be like you're just really overstressed and overstimulated, and you just need to slow the hell down. Yeah. But it can also be a choline deficiency, and again, you wouldn't know if you weren't testing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's like essentially if you're deficient in choline, your brain's underfueled. Like choline's uh is used to make acetylcholine, which is a neurotransmitter that's really heavily involved in learning your memory, your cognitive performance. And most women aren't eating near the adequate intake level because for god forbid, we were told that egg yolks were terrible for the devil.
SPEAKER_01They were increasing all of our cholesterol and making us all fat. Yeah. So how do women get more choline?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like I always laugh, like we're just avoiding egg yolks because of the low fat craze in the 90s. That yolk contains choline and vitamin A and selenium and like B vitamins and healthy fats, but you like you can also get choline from salmon and beef and liver and chicken and and shrimp, and honestly, like this is another reason why restrictive dieting kind of backfires in midlife. But like eat your freaking egg yolks, ladies. Like it's good for your brain. Like, yeah, and you don't have like you can eat multiple of them, not just one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
Ferritin Problems That Get Dismissed
SPEAKER_01Let's talk about the other big defense deficiencies that you see most often. I know iron or like ferritin comes up a lot.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we did like a whole podcast on this. You should go back and listen to it. Yeah, right. But ferritin is huge, and literally, if you're a menstruating woman, even if you're not a menstruating woman, like I see women all the time walking around with ferritin levels of like 12 and being told that they're fine when your ferritin should be like 60 to 80. And meanwhile, your freaking head of hair is falling out, you're exhausted, you're anxious, you're cold, you're short of breath, you can't recover from workouts, and like optimal ferritin for many women is much higher than the bare minimum needed to avoid anemia.
SPEAKER_01Like, yeah, and that's where they're that's where they're comparing. It's like, oh, well, if you don't want to be anemic, then this is where you need to be like, I don't want to be just above anemic.
SPEAKER_00Like Yeah, so iron is your storage. So you have to think of iron iron and ferritin go together. So like iron is your cash on hand and ferritin is your storage. So technically you can have a normal hemoglobin, a normal iron, but your savings account is literally like it is depleted, and that is needed for your thyroid, like your thyroid and your hair and your energy and your dopamine and your metabolism. And so one really good way to know if you have low ferritin is like your hair is falling out, you're not able to exercise, you got cold hands and feet, heart palpitations, like yeah, and the biggest like the biggest thing women miss, like head, like most women in perimenopause have heavy periods, and this is draining their ferritin years before like an anemia ever exists.
SPEAKER_01So then what what can women do to help that if their ferritin is low?
SPEAKER_00So you should always eat iron-rich foods with vitamin C. Okay. So steak and orange juice or steak and a vitamin C, spinach and strawberries, like those are two pairing two things. Don't drink coffee with your meals. Coffee and tea significantly inhibit iron absorption. So you shouldn't be drinking coffee or like if you're taking an iron supplement, you should not be drinking coffee or really eating within a few hours of it. You also need to investigate why it is low. Uh, do you have gut dysfunction? Is your periods really heavy? Do you have low stomach acid? Do you have chronic inflammation? I will ferritin and iron is not something that you should just supplement with blindly because you don't want your levels to be too high either. Because then it's inflammatory. So when you're messing with iron, you've you've got to get that level checked quite often.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
Magnesium Mistakes And Better Forms
SPEAKER_01All right, let's talk about magnesium because I feel like magnesium, magnesium is very hot right now. It's very popular online, and most women are still not getting enough.
SPEAKER_00Because I mean, there's a bajillion different kinds of magnesium, and it does a lot of different things in the body, but it also gets depleted by a lot of different things, right? It gets depleted by stress and caffeine and alcohol and poor sleep and blood sugar and medication. And then we have women taking the wrong types of magnesium. They think they're doing good by taking magnesium oxide, which is basically like the cheapest, least absorbable form of magnesium you can get. So if you're gonna supplement with magnesium, you need like glycinate or malle or theonate, like not the junky, the junky type of magnesium. And like some magnesiums make you poop, some make you sleep, some help with stress. Like pretty much every woman needs 400 milligrams of magnesium bicinoglade at bedtime.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, and also making sure that you're getting it from a source that is vetted. Yeah. And uh I basically don't buy your supplements at the grocery store. Please. Uh let's do omega-3s, because that's another really big one.
Omega-3s For Mood And Inflammation
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and omegas are like everyone should be on an omega for cardiovascular protection, but omegas are huge. So when we eat food, there's omega-3 and omega-6. Omega-3s are anti-inflammatory, omega-6s are pro-inflammatory. Most of our food sources are omega-6s, which are plary inflammatory. So we need to kind of balance that out by taking in omega-3s. Omega-3s affect your inflammation, your brain health, hormones, mood, cardiovascular health, insulin sensitivity. And let's be like, we're not eating a lot of foods with omega-6. Like I live in Illinois. I ain't eating a bunch of salmon every day because it's literally disgusting. Like I would love to, but it's not good.
SPEAKER_01It's not fresh, yeah. Yeah, but you like when we're looking at the omega-3s, I don't think women recognize how much their brain depends on omega-3s, like how important that actually is.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like your brain is 60% fat. So if you're taking an omega, you want to make sure it has DHEA in it, right? DHA, not DHEA that affects your hormones, DHA, because it's one of the major omega-3 fatty acids, and it's literally a structural component of the brain. So it's like you're gonna get so many benefits from it. And it even for cardiovascular health health, and if when we see women deficient in omegas, we often see depression, anxiety, dry skin, joint pain, brain fog, increased inflammatory markers.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And I think this one is important because we get we get asked this a lot. If when we're tink thinking about increasing our omega-3s, can women just eat flaxseed and be good with that?
SPEAKER_00We are really bad converters of omega, like plant omegas, like plant omega-3s, which is a flaxseed, have to convert into EPA and DHA, and we as humans just do not convert very well at all. So we ideally want to get our omegas from uh I'm not eating half these things that I'm gonna get ready to say, so this is why I supplement with one. Um, salmon, sardines, mackerel, anchovies, like you should be eating these two to three times a week. So I supplement because I love salmon, but I live somewhere where I ain't getting salmon and I'm not eating any of that other stuff.
SPEAKER_01Sardines are really good for you. Look, just saying.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So you should so so if you are gonna supplement, which is what I do, look for IFOS, tested fish oil with a high EPA and DHA content. And I love thorns. Also, where you put this fish oil is important. Like most women will store fish oil next to the stove or in more cabinets, and that heat oxidizes fish oil. So you want to store your fish oil, like keep it somewhere cool and fresh.
SPEAKER_01Keep mine in the freezer.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because well, that also like I I know some people are like, I can't take fish oil, it gives me the burp.
SPEAKER_01So I'm like, Yeah, putting it in the freezer will help with that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so but definitely keeping it fresh. And here's the thing when you if it smells like bad fish, do not take it.
SPEAKER_00No, it's like rancid.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's also why we don't get it from the grocery store because we don't know how long it's been sitting in there on the shelf. No.
B12 Absorption And Key Symptoms
SPEAKER_01Another one um that I want to touch on is B12, because that's a deficiency that I know we see a lot.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and we see a lot of people taking B12 and they're not taking the right kind because they're not taking like a methylated B12, right? So B12 is your B vitamins are really critical for nervous system dysfunct or nervous system function, red blood cell production, energy metabolism, cognitive function. And most women are deficient even if they eat animal protein. And if you don't eat animal protein, holy moly, like you're real deficient, right? And most women in perimenopause, we see deficient in B because the absorption of B depends on your stomach acid. And what did we talk about a few weeks ago was live stomach acid. So B absorption depends on stomach acid, intrinsic factor, gut health. So all you women pop in acid blockers and methods. PPIs, yeah. Yep, chronic dieting, GI medications, like you're at such a high risk of being B deficiency.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. What symptoms would make you suspicious of having a low B12?
SPEAKER_00Fatigue, you'd have numbness and tingling in your fingers, memory issues, anxiety, dizziness, ADHD, depression, brain fog, like and it's so easy to get a B12. And honestly, like I see a lot of women doing it in pill form, but sublingual methylcoliane is like super good, and it's often absorbed way better than like cheap tablets. So you can get B injected. Too. But like one important thing when you take a B is like get a homocysteine level checked with it because you need to know if you need a methylated B or not.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah.
Vitamin D Works Like A Hormone
SPEAKER_01All right. Everyone's favorite, because everyone should also be taking this. If there are two things that you make sure that everybody has across the board, it would be omega-3s and also this one, which is our vitamin D. Because everyone is low in vitamin D.
SPEAKER_00I was like, they're like, I live in California. I'm low in vitamin D. I'm like, yeah, because you don't you get it from other places than the sun.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like, yes, you do get it from sunlight, but most of us aren't getting a lot of sunlight, especially if you live where I live right now. But if you're working indoors, if you're wearing sunscreen, which you should be wearing, you're also like blocking that. If you live in colder climates, like vitamin D is so important. Like people do not understand that it's more of a hormone than it is a vitamin. Like, vitamin D acts like a hormone. It affects your immune function, your mood, your bone density, your inflammation, your muscle function. Like if you're low, you can have fatigue and depression and illness and rec poor recovery and bone loss. Like it is such, it's so cheap and easy to replace, too.
SPEAKER_01Well, and also even people that spend a good amount of time outside, that's why it's important for testing because not everybody has good absorption or yet converts well. So, like what helps with vitamin D absorption?
SPEAKER_00So vitamin D is fat soluble. So you should be taking your vitamin D supplement with a healthy fat. So eggs, avocado, olive oil, salmon, whatever. Um, and magnesium matters too because magnesium helps activate vitamin D inside the body. So sometimes you can be taking vitamin D, but still not feeling feeling better because you're magnesium depleted. But you should you should take vitamin D with K, with a healthy fat, and make sure you're taking magnesium as well. So we should add in the magnesium with the omega in there that you should be taking.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yeah. So those three, that's like your power three. Yeah. All right.
Protein Targets That Change Everything
SPEAKER_01We have to talk about the thing that we talk about every single episode because it's probably the biggest issue that we see, and that is protein.
SPEAKER_00Just literally please eat 30 grams of protein for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So you heat it hit your leucine threshold because if you're not doing this, you're not going to lose weight. You're going to be able to do that.
SPEAKER_01I just think it's so funny the resistance to this. Like everywhere it's, you know, all these women are like, it's just so ridiculous that I'm being told that I have to eat all this protein. And it's like, we don't like nobody is making the rules here. Like, we're not, it's not like, you know, protein, yeah, is it having a moment as far as like added being added and being marketed right now? But that's not coming out of nowhere. It's just because we've recently recognized how important it is. And so, of course, that you know, big pharma is gonna like jump all over that, or big food, I should say. But outside of that, it's like it just is what it is. It is something that is necessary. You have to do it.
SPEAKER_00And to be honest, like, even if you're not focusing on protein, a piece of toast for breakfast and a salad with no protein for lunch is not healthy. Like you're not replenishing anything with your white lettuce that doesn't even have greens in it.
SPEAKER_01White lettuce.
SPEAKER_00Like, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01Your roe, your shredded romaine and a tomato is not doing it with ranch dressing. No, get that shit out of here.
How To Spot Bad Supplements
SPEAKER_00Okay, so then this is gonna dive into the supplement industry because you're probably gonna have to use supplements to replace some of this stuff.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I this part I think shocks people, which we've mentioned a couple times already, but like not all supplements are good supplements and not all supplements are sourced equally.
SPEAKER_00No, and if you're buying your if you're buying your if you're walking in somewhere and buying your supplements, you probably just should throw it in the trash can.
SPEAKER_01Well, and part of the problem is because they're not regulated.
SPEAKER_00No, they're not. But you can get some that are third party tested and like Yes. You can you can buy those.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. But I think women think, you know, like, oh, I'll just take the multivitamin.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but then you look at the ingredient label and it contains like folic acid instead of methylfolate or cyanicobalanic instead of the methylated, or magnesium all oxide instead of magnesium glycinate, and then tons of just synthetic fillers.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like proprietary blends.
SPEAKER_00Which is what it even is that. Like, don't buy anything with a proprietary blend in it. Like a lot of times you can't even process these synthetic forms because of genetic mutations like MTHFR, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but nobody nobody teaches how to read labels on those kinds of things, obviously. Like we're looking at just what's on the front, just similar to the way that we do with food, like food packages.
SPEAKER_00So here's how you read them, ladies. Here's the green flag that your supplement is good. It's third-party tested, it has bio-available forms, minimal fillers. The dosage is not 10%, it's a therapeutic dosage. There's tons of transparency on it. Red flags are gonna be proprietary blends. Like, how many of these? I don't know if I'm gonna shut my mouth, but like even now these like famous doctors have all these supplements, which are just like stuff that they've slammed their labels on top of, anyways.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, a lot of celebrity ones too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah. So red flags, proprietary blends, cheat forms, artificial dyes, megafillers.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah.
Repletion Plan And Where To Start
SPEAKER_01So when we think about the biggest mindset shift that women need for this, is that you know, I think historically we've had this message around midlife that it's it needs to be restricted. Like we have all of like all of these things that we have to change, and like it's gonna be really hard, and like it's just a part of what happens during this season of life. But midlife is not the season for more restriction.
SPEAKER_00No, it's the season for repletion, replenishing. Like your body needs more protein, more minerals, more recovery, more nervous system support, more muscle building, more nourishment, not more over exercising and starving itself and 1200 calorie diets.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And women have been conditioned for so long, you know, to think that just smaller equals healthier. Like, oh, I just have to be, I have to be smaller.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and under eating is one of like the biggest problems that we see that stresses the female body out, like especially in perimenopause.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because you got enough going on during during that time of your life. So if a woman listening feels like, you know, oh my gosh, this is me, or like that, oh, I'm dealing with all this stuff, like where where would she start?
SPEAKER_00Well, don't brush it off as normal. Like fatigue is real and it's data. Brain fog is real and it's giving you data. Hair loss is real and it's giving you data. So don't ignore it. Get some comprehensive labs, not from your PCP that tells you you're normal. You need to look at your ferritin, your vitamin D, your fasting insulin, your A1C, a full thyroid panel, your B vitamins, your inflammatory markers, your hormones, right? Freaking breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and it should have protein in it. No coffee before your protein and get your sleep. Like you cannot survive on five hours of sleep. Audit your supplements and strength train.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think the biggest takeaway from today is that you don't have to feel like your body is failing you. I think we talk about this a lot of like it's not a battle of you versus your body. Like your body just needs some support. And so, like, can you show up and give it the support that it needs instead of you know feeling betrayed by it or feeling like you know you're fighting it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and like you're not lazy, you're not being dramatic, you're not crazy. Like, this is literally just your body communicating with you. And when you start giving your body, like when you start listening to it and actually giving it what it needs, like it's gonna start responding the way you want it to.
Share This With Another Woman
SPEAKER_01So, ladies, if this episode helped you in any way and you know that it would help someone that you know, please share it with another woman so that way they can benefit from this conversation as well. And make sure that you are subscribed so that you see when our new episodes drop. And please, please, please leave a review. We'd love to hear that.
SPEAKER_00And just remember that like healing's not about punishment, it's about giving your body the tools and support when missing.