Supplements to Support ADHD & Hormones - Erica Garber, Functional Nutritional Practitioner

*Not medical advice. Please consult a medical practitioner before starting any new supplements or vitamins. 

7-Day FREE trial + 20% off your first month of Attempting Motherhood Community

In this episode, we are joined by Erica Garber, a functional nutritional practitioner based in Canada. The discussion covers what it means to be a functional nutritional practitioner, the supplements recommended for ADHD and perimenopause, and the significance of hormones in ADHD management. 

Erica talks in detail about her 6 M's morning routine (Matcha + Lion's Mane, Mindfulness, Movement, Medication, Meal, & Mushrooms) to help individuals with ADHD and perimenopause. 

The conversation also delves into Erica’s newly launched perimenopause program, Beyond Being, highlighting its benefits and importance. 

We round off the episode covers the importance of community, maintaining cognitive health, and thriving in the second half of our lives. 

Connect with Erica: 

IG: @foodmoodnutrition

Resources:

Rainbo 11:11 Mushroom Tincture

Focus Plus Supplement

Skip to:

00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction

00:09 Understanding Functional Nutrition

00:17 Navigating Supplements for ADHD

Thank you for listening!

If you like this episode please share, rate, review, and subscribe.
Each time you do our little community grows!

Coaching and free resources:
AttemptingMotherhood.com

Attempting Motherhood Community (7-day all access trial +20% off first month in The Membership) The community space is completely free, but you can trial access to all spaces for 7 days and then decide if you want to join The Membership. 

Join the Community

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, medical professional, or mental health professional.
I am sharing my lived experience. If you relate to any of the content in these episodes, do your own research and speak to a medical professional if needed.
There are free resources available in my links:
 https://linktr.ee/samattemptsmotherhood

If you enjoyed this episode please share, subscribe, rate, and review. Each time you do our little community grows.

Follow Sam:
https://www.tiktok.com/@samattemptsmotherhood
https://www.instagram.com/samattemptsmotherhood/

Follow the podcast:
https://www.instagram.com/attemptingmotherhood.pod/

For more information and resources head to: https://linktr.ee/samattemptsmotherhood

Buy me a coffee (an opportunity to show appreciation for the content you've enjoyed).

Transcript

 Hello, my friend. This week, I am joined by the wonderful Erica Garber.

She is a functional nutritional practitioner. We get into what that is in the first part of the episode. So if you're scratching your head going like, uh,  We will cover that. She is based in Canada, but we go through, essentially, the supplements that are so commonly talked about to help with ADHD and supplements that we, he, that we see so commonly talked about to help with perimenopause.

She is on Instagram as foodmoodnutrition all one word together.

If you head there, you will also be able to see in her links. She has her perimenopause program that has just started. She is a fellow late diagnosed ADHD mama

And if you are someone who wants a little bit of help navigating the sometimes very sticky hard to understand world of supplements and what is talked about online, I highly recommend giving her a follow.

As always, all of the details are in the show notes, the supplements we've talked about, how you can follow and learn more from Erica.

And any other info that we talk about in the episode. 📍 

  Just one quick note before we jump in.  In this episode, we talk, obviously, a lot about ADHD. We also talk a lot about perimenopause. And these are two topics that obviously are very close to my heart. I am Both of them, perimenopausal and ADHD. If this is something you want to learn more about, specifically how your hormones impact your ADHD, I've just done a workshop on it, which you can find located in my Attempting Motherhood community.

If you go to the show notes, there's a link there. You can try for seven days. No card needed. Absolutely free. If it's not for you, you can just be done with it. Basically, I'm telling you how to get that workshop for free.  Go and sign up for the trial. If, and I hope you do, but if you decide that you love it and you want to stay, then you can sign up for the ongoing membership.

 Alright, now on to the episode. As always, I hope you enjoy. 📍  

Thank you again so much for taking time . So I thought you would be a great guest because you're hitting on so many things that I also talk about all the time and especially where you have come out with your perimenopause program.

I am just stepping into that phase, which I've been talking about, , for the last year, I stepped into it. So I think it's really important in general for women, and as you talk about, there is a special importance for those of us that are ADHD to understand what this  hormonal upheaval is going to do to our life.

So, yeah, Erica, thank you.  Thank you for having me. Yeah, absolutely. We will jump into. Your program and all of your work, 

so you are a functional nutritional practitioner.  So I I had said to you that nutritionist is a term that I think in most places it's fairly unregulated, but I know you're in Canada, and I understand like a functional nutritional practitioner, you do have actual qualifications. Could you explain? 

 I went to, it's called the Institute of holistic nutrition here in Canada. It is a private college that has been certified by the government, 

and so my private college, they did a lot more holistic wellness health scope.  We get really into all sorts of traditional Chinese medicine and, more, holistic practices that I can include in my services. So hopefully that makes sense.

Yeah, and you do know 

you understanding, how to read blood work. So if someone comes to you and they've had a panel done, you can be like, yeah, great. This is what it looks like. You're deficient in. This is what it looks like. Maybe we should try. Either a supplement or etc. Exactly.

Yeah. Yeah, I can do all functional testing, order them, read them, explain it to you, tell you what your optimal range should be versus like, the average person tell you like, this is what we need to target, especially when it comes to, as we get into perimenopause and aging okay, your cholesterol is going up.

Well, it's going up because, your estrogen is going down and, it all comes back. It really  does. So, yeah, so it's, I really love my profession because I'm allowed to do a lot more in supporting someone, but it also helps me work alongside with naturopathic doctors to help.  With their protocols and then bundle us up so that they can get the best of both worlds, 

it's very ADHD friendly in that like you can dabble in a lot of different interest and still be able to help people and still be able to offer evidence based care. Yeah, exactly. 

Yeah. That's all I do is research. I spend so much of my time. Oftentimes I call myself a health detective, which has been fun

I often get people who've been to so many different doctors and specialists, and then they're like, not looking at the full picture because they maybe don't have the time.  I just had a client who came to me after eight years of seeing so many different practitioners  and turns out she had mold toxicity.

 I was very tenacious a year to find out what was going on because she presented with so many different things, hormones yada. But yeah, she was like, why are you the only person that discovered this? And it's well, ADHD, I went down so many rabbit holes, but also I am, I have the time to do that.

A doctor is working, you know, how many patients they're seeing in a day, whereas I had her and five other people, 

yeah, but a lot of the times, and this is not a knock against doctors, it's more a knock against their training, that they're only taught  You know, even a GP, they can't know everything, but even when you get to a specialist, if you go to,  I don't know, a GI specialist, they're not looking at whether, well, GI specialist might hopefully look at if you're hypermobile, but they're not looking at you as a full person.

They are looking at you from like  whole to whole because that's their. Specialty. Yes. And they are going to look at everything through that lens. And it's again, not a knock against them. It's just we need to, especially when it comes to treating a whole body human, we need to look at the whole body human. 

Yeah, the extensive health, like I always tell people, you're going to be very annoyed with me. Like they're, you're, the symptomatology test I send people is, we'll take them 45 minutes to an hour, like just, and it asks them the same questions over and over because it's all different, connected to different body systems, so  just because you have dry skin doesn't mean be off the loop. Reasons, and so I'm like, just be patient, do it when you're like, you just said this at the time, but just no I don't leave any stone unturned, and the health history, I'm like, tell me about being a baby.

And they're like, no, 

I'm here because I'm like 45. And you're like, yes, I understand. 

Yeah. I'm like, please tell me, did you have a lot of earaches? And they're like, well, , and then I, it all of a sudden turns everything on and they're like, oh.  So, it's I love that aspect of it, but some people,  maybe I came here because I'm burping a lot.

I'm like, okay, well, dysbiosis.  So, yeah. Yeah. So it's a lot of fun, but yeah, I think it's, I do feel like, very lucky that I get to do that extensive health history, 



If you're okay, I'd like to talk a little bit about what supplements, what herbs might help those of us with ADHD. And then also because the poison's in the dose.  If there are things, because I know certain herbs you should not take them long term, every day, etc. And when you look at different Blends will say that market themselves, especially for ADHD, a lot of what we're going to talk about.

These different new tropics are included. But what I always tell people and I don't give nutrition advice. It's just in general. I always tell people look at the dose, because if they're not including a dose that is clinically significant,  is it just there as a word on an ingredient to be able to market it and say, Hey, This includes XX,  which has been shown to increase focus, but you would have to take five times what they're recommending for it to actually work.

Exactly.  Yeah.  But for me, my favorite supplement for my focus that I found really well is focus plus from pure encapsulations.

Have you used that one before? 

No, see, and I'm such a disadvantage because a lot of stuff isn't available in Australia or I have to pay like. 50 shipping. 

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So I'll find the comparable and actually send it to you so you can put this in the show notes. Yeah, so for me I found so what it has in there that I really is it has the L theanine, the ginkgo biloba. But Copa Maneri is it's called it doesn't have any of the mushroom. So I do add those in has vitamin B6.  And it has magnesium  and it's just this a really lovely blend that I find really helps with my focus.

So I take three of those a day. 

Oh, throughout the day.  

Three. I take it three in the morning. So, I take that focus plus in the morning and I will do the dosages because I do find, and I'm going to tell you one more supplement I really that's. Really fire for my brain. But the Ginkgo biloba and the Bacopa, I find really helpful with like memory and focus and like being on the vitamin B6 is really great because you need that to make your neurotransmitters.

Oh, and then it has the green tea extract. So I just find it gives me that really focused calm focus. And then I'll use it again in the afternoon for when I'm, like, having my afternoon slump, and then I use.  I've really found the most impactful supplement is mushrooms. So I found this 1. it's called  again they have this blend called the 1111 blend, which is like a mix of all their blends, but the most mushroom that I found really helpful for my brain is lion's mane  that when I'll just take a tincture, a full dropper in my morning matcha with collagen. So that 1, I just have found lion's mane has been, like, the 1, I've really noticed, especially for energy and just really long term effect clarity.  So, when I say 1 dropper,

if you just do a few drops for me, it's like a full dropper.  Which are typically, 

I know they're all different size, but they're typically like three to five mil. 

Yeah, exactly. So, that one I found really nicely going with My matcha in the morning with my collagen. So I get my protein.

I got my little energy boost but the 1111 one that I was just talking about with the mushrooms, I've just really found like an energetic difference because they work so well on calming you like, right. She's in there until they calm you down. And then  chaga is in there for your immune system.

And then, You got the lion's mane for your brain. And so I liked that blend a lot. 

Here's my big question though,  because I am not somebody who can just choke something down because I know it's good for me.

It has to be like  a tolerable taste or that I can put in something. 

Yeah. All the mushrooms are so funky.  So yes, I get you the 1111 rainbow and the lion's mane had no flavor to me. It was just like in my matcha. No problem. So, so, and do you do flavored 

collagen in your matcha 

or just unflavored?

I had unflavored, it was the organica one. 

Yeah, the bovine collagen one I find is fine. . 

So Lion's, Maine. . We see tons talked about for DH adhd. L-theanine also see, which is, I know you can get a, like an individual healthy neat supplement, but it is in green tea and especially matcha and higher concentration in matcha. . Magnesium, you mentioned, so I don't take loads of supplements, but magnesium glycinate I take every single night and I do notice,  honestly, the biggest difference that I noticed that I was not intending was like it's helped with period cramps. 

Helps massively. Yeah,  

because it's that's the one that like relaxes you so you at night so it relaxes your muscles versus helping and I take it 

at night before bed. And I'm sure at this point, it is totally like a psychosomatic thing. But on the nights that I forget to take it, I'm laying in bed and I feel like the restless leg because that's 1 of the reasons I started taking it.

So I think it's just oh, I know I didn't take it and I feel But maybe it's because it really does help. Other thing I see, there are two other ones that I see talked a lot about for ADHD. So ashwagandha.  

Oh, yes. Yeah. 

Yeah.  I'll ask you because ashwagandha is toted for its benefits in curbing cortisol. 

But I see it a lot in blends where you would typically take them in the morning. And in the morning, we want a cortisol to spike. So taking something that dampens that seems It's  counterintuitive 

to me. Yeah. Yes. So you have your cortisol spike in the morning and then you're supposed to naturally go down 

obviously  if you're a night ADHD person you definitely want to take the ashwagandha at night. So some people have that if they're, like, in a weird phase of adrenal fatigue, they have that excess cortisol in the morning that is causing them to not actually be able to function, so you're in overdrive and you can't think clearly because cortisol kind of hijacked your brain, you can definitely take ashwagandha in the morning to help with that adaptogen stress to bring it down.

So it's right before your cortisol kind of bottoms out, it is. Really revs up and so those people that are experiencing that, whether you're in a really high stress state, it'd be really weird to take some ashwagandha in the morning. But yeah, that's exactly what you're talking about with these collapsed blends. 

It's very interesting that so I always tell people to like, if you do like a golden milk or like a tumeric golden milk latte at night, put your ashwagandha in that. So to help you like ease into the night. But if you are having that 8pm,  like 9pm, like rev up, which I get right now, because my.

It's all messed up. I just, my high functioning brain right now is at 8pm at night because I'm like, having such,  trying to do too much. So I should start taking my like, golden milk ashwagandha around 7  to like, have that kind of wind down time, which is what I was trying to do with the reishi.

Reishi, people say it differently. And 

this ashwagandha one, I feel like I've heard mixings, whether you can take it all the time or whether you should not take it. Long term consistently,  

I always try and switch them up. Like rhodiola is another great one. That is amazing for the brain and to be an adaptogen.

 I just find for herbs, especially I like to rotate them.  I like to do things in isolation to see how it will work in my body. To see if I'm getting the impact, 

and that's why I really liked the lion's mane when I took it. I was like, Oh, I've, I'm like actually feeling this. And so then I did the 11, 11 blend and I felt that too. So I was like, okay, great. But yeah, so with the ashwagandha, you can do it at night. I like to rotate them. Not that I would ever remember to do it on a schedule, but eventually, hopefully I would get bored and then just add in maybe like a rhodiola instead, or like another kind of calming herb like lemon balm.

But yeah, so the ashwagandha is really great because it is an adaptogen, but it is the one that you could take long term forever. Oh, okay, cool. I just like to keep my body on its toes, guessing. Yeah, just maybe it would be great if I stopped this for a bit.  Also, I think that's the 

upside of ADHD is like, we struggle with consistency.

So taking something every single night forever and ever is probably not going to happen anyway. So,  

yeah, except for our magnesium I can't even remember to take 

my meds every day. So.  

I know.  I know. But they're so addicting. Don't let your kids take them.  

Oh,  

yeah. And then, but then I'm like, did I turn it upside down yesterday or did it, was it today?

I have an alarm, but then I snooze the alarm of okay, I'm right in the middle of something. I'll do it. Snooze it like a couple of times and then it goes off and then it's 11 o'clock and I'm like, oh.  Like I've, again, I actually, it worked out not in a good way, but in a good way the other day of the benefit I get most from my stimulant medication is emotional regulation.

As much as I wished it helped me with like focus work and task prioritization, it just does not, or not the way that I  think it helps other people based on how they talk but it does help my emotional regulation. And it was a day when like everyone was home and I was just like. Rabby and irritable and aggro all day and I said to my partner, I was like, it is not good that I forgot my medication, but in a way it is because it's days like this where I realize.

Because every now and then, I know you're not on stimulant medication, but  you just take something and you think oh, is it even working? Do I even need to keep? And I'm like, it's days like these where I go oh, no, yes, it really does make a big difference.  

And I think it also anchors in the prompting of remembering.

Do you know what I mean?  I don't want another day like that. Yeah. I'm like, okay. Yeah. That's actually why I like took my ADHD medication in haste was I was like, I just can't handle this anymore. Like I need something. I'm like my worst fear came true, but it's okay. I just have to get back on the horse, but it was really bad. 

It was like, 

it's so hard finding what works for your body. I recently tried, so I'm on Vyvanse which some places is called elvanse, but it's the same thing.  It's extended release Lisdexamphetamine,  but  it wears off in the afternoon. And so I coupled that with a non stimulant that has fantastic research starting to come out around helping specifically for emotional regulation. 

But, caveat for anyone listening It originally and is still used as a blood pressure medication. So it is a alpha 2 agonist if you, if people understand the neurobiology and want to go down that rabbit hole. Essentially, it works more with your norepinephrine or your noradrenaline receptors, which fire a lot when you're having issues with emotional regulation.

Anyways, it worked really well until my body got the blood pressure medication. Memo and then my blood pressure got  very worrisomely low. So I had to stop taking it.  All that to say it is hard to find a medication that works, but there are also lots of different medications, stimulant and non.

And I hate doing the trial and error game, but unfortunately, everyone is so unique that it's the only way. That you can figure out what works. I feel like it's this like elaborate ruse that social media has created that you see people who are like, oh, it's my first day on ADHD medication.

And then they're like, a quick transition, they're like, Oh my God, is this what everyone feels like? This is amazing. My brain is working. And I'm like, I have never had that. I just have days where I'm like, yeah, I feel a little less like I want to blow up at everybody. Or Oh yeah, I was able to actually stay on task for more than five seconds.

But I have never had this smack me in the face. Oh my God, is this what normal people feel like?  

I know. I've actually not heard that other than on social media, like all my clients who have ADHD,

so on. Meds and nootropics and adaptogens and all the different rest. What are some things that you suggest? 

People with ADHD, especially women with ADHD can do to support ourselves and I guess we'll just let's table medication because  that's everyone's journey and who knows, but  yes, I understand. You should check if you are taking supplements and etc. Whatever medications you're on for what interacts, but  Supplements and things that we can do to just help ourselves out. 

Yeah, so I tried to come up with I need to keep everything very simple because  despite my brain liking to overcomplicate it to keep it interesting. I don't do it even though I think I'm doing it. So. This is it's going to sound very simple, but it helps me. To actually do it simple. And so, yeah, so I do, I try, okay, so this is like what I came up with before I went back to work  from with having my child.

So I'm going to lead this with saying I probably get 2 or 3 things out of this done in a day in the morning. So I really need to leverage my mornings because that's when my brain is most on. , obviously, leverage your brain. When it's good for you, some people have a late start, and they like the afternoon.

So I would suggest doing these things when you can leverage your brain. But for me I do the 5 Ms. So, right now, because I'm not sleeping very well, I need espresso to get out of bed and luckily. That is, my husband does that every morning to get me out of bed. Love language. It's so nice. It's the best.

Yeah, him and Romilly, they go make it and that's how mommy gets out of bed. But caffeine, like espresso and stuff is not good for my brain. It really overstimulates me and my thinking becomes very cluttered. But espresso is fine. get into drip and I'm done.  I do my matcha in the morning with my lion's mane and my collagen. So that's my little like morning matcha latte. And then I do,  mindfulness. So something that I really need. A lot of and people say I don't like to meditate. It's boring, whatever. I just have one earbud in all morning  of like my favorite meditations.

And so it's just like a way to ground me and help with my breathing to get focused so that I just find and now there's one. My meditation that I listened to that is like a vagus nerve breathing exercise.  And so what I really like about this meditation is that I don't realize before my cortisol is even high.

I start doing the breathing. So, it's like my breathing actually allows me, tells me I'm anxious.  So, it's very interesting. , I know meditation is like hard to get into or whatever, but I don't do it like sitting down. I don't do it like, so I just do it while I'm trying to get everyone out of the house.

So, that's something that I need to do. So, meditation and then my morning supplements. So, I take my Focus Plus. If you don't have that, I would take a multi with a B vitamin. So B vitamins are just really great for energizing. You have to take it with food. So we'll get into food in a second because there's caveats with like medication and feeling hungry in the morning.

But I would take a multi with either with a high B vitamins in there or take a B vitamin on its own.  Be complex. Yeah. 

Yeah. 

, and just make sure that they're methylated. So you can just look at that by, it'll say methylcobalamin for, and that's how, you have a good B vitamin, but I take those with food.

I find that's the best for energy and clarity and making my neurotransmitters, my, dopamine and everything.  I just take the focus plus because it has my bees in there.  And then I do movement. So I walk my daughter to school every day.  And that's when I talk to myself, I talk about the day, I just  try and get my. Stuff together.  I get it. And then, if I can, I do Pilates.  My new obsession is Pilates. I hate classes.

I hate  the gym. All of it. But Pilates keeps my brain , interested because no routine is ever the same. And it's really helpful. Have you tried Performer 

Pilates? 

Yes, this is my like, I can't. I'm never, I never thought I would be that person, but I'm like, have you guys tried Pilates?  Because it really strength, strengthens the like left side, right side brain with your cerebellum to help with the emotional regulation, get all the parts talking to each other.

I've never felt so good in my life after Pilates class. So I go twice a week and then so movement of any kind, just move your body, get outside.

That is really what I need to like, get ground myself.  And then my morning meal. So my, my protein. So this is where I find. Obviously, it's so individual that, but you need to, if I don't get my protein in the morning the day is a bust and it's so important for blood sugar regulation, which, as with ADHD, we just don't have the same.

Blood sugar metabolism as everyone else so you really just really want to get the protein in there to help with blood sugar regulation, Getting our brain going and being able to think properly and make neurotransmitters.  But for me I just do a quick way, protein powder with ice.

It's.  With chocolate, so it has nothing else in there, except for a grass fed way because not a lot of people can handle dairy, but I find they can handle a grass fed way.  So, I highly recommend that  that's my kind of like morning protein on the go.  And then if I don't, if I'm not on the go, I just try and eat some eggs with a low carb. So whether that be like a little bit of sweet potato or like a low carb. Bread with some cucumbers hummus but again, that all kind of can happen as I'm like, trying to do my day, but I try to eat my protein within an hour of waking up because if I don't, I'll probably forget or I thought I ate,  and then the sixth M, if you want to add it, which I really like to is mushrooms. I really have just found those to be the most beneficial for my brain.  Lion's mane, as we talked about, has been my go to. And if I get real fancy, I go for the rainbow 1111 blend, but depending on the cash flow of the month, they're expensive.

So I treat myself when I can. But I find if you do get Lion's Mane on its own, it's a lot cheaper than the fancy ones. Well, 

and on that, like on that, cost.

side of it. Obviously supplements cost money. But Lion's Mane in particular, because it is one, like you said it is very popular right now and we see it a lot touted for its benefits, especially for ADHD people. But is it all created equal? Because, like, when I was in the States last year, so my family's all still in America, so we go back to visit and I found a lion's mane powder in Walmart for I don't know, 12. 

This is the caveat of I can't choke stuff down. I had it for three weeks that we were there, and I never actually tried it because I was so worried about how it would taste.  Because everyone's oh, just put it in your coffee, and I'm like, I don't want my coffee to take like, mushrooms, so.

Yeah. That's why I do tinctures. I don't find that they. Oh,  see, I thought tinctures 

would be stronger, but that's a good tip. But so is if it like, I know you can't speak to specifically that brand, but if we find something in Walmart or  I struggle to say this because I really want people to worry, be wary about supplements on Amazon, but if you find something on the internet, how do we know if it's good?

Like specifically for lion's mane, because I know that it's like a whole, we could get into 18 hour Ted talk. 

 From what my understanding is the way that they actually include the like the sprouting body, they'll say it. If it's like legit, they'll talk about using the whole because it's like the filaments that you don't see that are communicating is the beneficial properties, it's yeah, so it's when they use the whole fruiting body,  so sometimes they grow it and then they don't use the whole mycelium  connecting little filaments, and so that was my understanding of why it's a good supplement. And so I don't know what otherwise, if you grow it, what. Why you wouldn't use the whole fruiting body I don't really understand that aspect of it,  but I just know that it is the way that they use it in there.

 I would say that's what I've been looking for. But yeah, it is really important to just not get something cheap in that way. Yeah. People, I think mushroom people are really into it, so they will talk about it to you. So if you see a long spran story of how this was all came about.

You'll be like okay. My mushroom guy at the farmer's market, I'm like  I'm gonna just see you next week because I don't have time. My toddler 

needs me. Yeah, exactly. 

Yeah, but yeah, so that's, that would be my suggestion. 

Cool, cool. Well, and with your five or six optional M's, one thing that I like, the more and more I learn and the more and more.

I research about these different  things that I've gone down rabbit holes for, whether it's ADHD or just a health span or perimenopause. At the end of the day, it's really the simple things that make the difference and lucky for us,  the majority of the simple things are all the same things. So, like how you're setting yourself up for your morning.

Yes, it's great for your ADHD brain, but also it's fantastic for. Your perimenopause brain. Yes. 

Yes. Yeah, exactly. And that's what the one thing that was really great about when I started researching perimenopause is interestingly enough, when we talk about any kind of condition or thing I keep being like, am I just saying the same thing over and over?

It's like omega threes. So I should tell you that, I also Take my omega 3s. So omega 3s are anti inflammatory, they're great for your brain, great for your blood, like so many things. So that's when I take my omega 3s as well. And you take that in the 

form of a fish oil?

Yeah, I take it as a cold pressed fish oil, anchovy, mackerel, like all the small fish so that they don't have a lot of mercury and things in them cold pressed and I take them at night. So that one, a good caveat some people say like, oh, I can't take the show because I broke up. So that's a good indicator that you may need to do some digestive support. 

  If you do find  you have a hard time with that, you can take a vegan omega 3 oil. So that's an alternative. Or you can just take flax oil or pumpkin seed oil any of those.

Are really great for your brain. It's also for anti inflammatory. So I will tell you. So that's something I take and then the multi. But yeah, so back to like, all conditions. It's like sleep, exercise, take your omega 3s take your multi, take your B vitamins. And so I think for me, when I. Do the five M's or the six,  it's okay, if I do this consistently over time, at least when I am like in a stress state, or if I am, I'll be doing one of  six of these things and I'll still be set up for success.

I generally try not to miss my protein cause I definitely notice when I do miss it, it's like blood sugar balancing, like making sure that you're eating your protein with every meal. So if I am going to eat chocolate. Which please do because it's great for you. I try to make sure. 

Yeah, exactly. Don't have a lot of sugar in it. But I eat it with a handful of almonds. For me, ADHD is sometimes you're so hyper focused that , I literally can't get out of it. I just. , I need to finish the thing because I'm so afraid if I don't, I will never get done, which is usually the case.

So I honor that by just having a bag of almonds, like a chocolate bar and like even maybe a banana while I'm there, just like give myself a fruit or a vegetable or like an apple.  That's how I just constantly traveling with snacks, but with perimenopause, the difference there is the biggest thing I've been learning is like you have to manage your cortisol because your adrenal glands take over making your estrogen and , if you.

Are stressed all the time  your sex hormone production shuts down. So you don't make progesterone, which you need to be calm. So it's like chicken in the egg. And here I was like, in the throes of stress, like laughing because it was like the biggest thing I needed to learn, so it's but it is go back to the basics. Don't miss your protein, take your lion's mane. Your ashwagandha for stress is huge. Like making sure that you start to adapt to stress so that it. You don't overreact to everything like you tell your body. It's safe. This isn't a situation in which we need to increase our cortisol.

We can just not release that cortisol, so luckily these things have collapsed. I don't actually have to introduce too many new things. But 1 thing I do with With perimenopause that I learned, which was really interesting is like, when you're in the beginning of it, you want to protect your fertility, you want to make sure you're ovulating so that you can make progesterone. And so that I thought it was just such an interesting way to learn about it. It's protect your fertility. I don't want to get pregnant. But it is to make sure that you're like, Prolonging not that you want to prolong perimenopause, but prolong going into the later stages of it as much as possible, because then you'll still ovulate and have your progesterone and then you can be calm as much as possible

but ways to do that,  a herb that you can take is Vitex. So that is something you can add into your routine if you feel like your progesterone is  lower a lot. And then another really good one is Schistandra, which is an adaptogen, and so 

you're probably familiar, but if listeners are familiar with Dr.

Stacy Sims, that is one that she talks about all the time. And it's cause I feel like we all hear about like bees and even ashwagandha and stuff, but I feel like that's like a sleeper one that she talks about that. Is so important through that perimenopause period. 

Yeah. 

Do you recommend it in the evening or in the morning or does it matter? 

Yeah. So progesterone I like to take more into the afternoon  before dinner kind of thing. I usually yeah,  for this, I'd like to take herbs more on an empty stomach. So they're not competing with other things for like absorption. And so. What I like about that is because progesterone is your calming hormone where progesterone helps you go to sleep and then estrogen keeps you asleep.

So, if you find you're waking up more in the night, maybe because estrogen is starting to lower down, depending on where you're at in your perimenopausal stage,  but schistander,  in the afternoon, but what I really like about schistander.  Just so good. I know it's such a hard, it's  twist, even a style.

It's really twists. Really hard twist. Yeah. Yeah.  Is that Vitex can be just really stimulating.  Vitex helps stimulate your LH to tell your body to ovulate.  Interesting. But if your pituitary is already freaking out that you're not ovulating. It's going to increase your  so continue to try and spike your estrogen, but it's already pushing that.

So it may actually be to stimulating. So, a client of mine said it made her kind of irritable  because it was like. Really trying to push this estrogen production. And so she's found it better on just Sandra, but she's the only 1 that I've heard that irritated her. So just be mindful that um, Sandra is more of an adapted.

So, it will give you what your body needs versus which is the action is to increase progesterone through stimulating.  

And then, so with that if that's my text, how it works typically, do you recommend to people that they take it only in the first half of their cycle to try and stimulate the LH so that they actually, and if people don't know LH is luteinizing hormone and it's what increases to get you to actually ovulate and then the progesterone is Only created if you ovulate.

So if you have a what's called an ovulatory cycle, it just means you don't ovulate that cycle. And as you get into perimenopause, you have more and more of those. If you don't ovulate, you don't have any progesterone that month.  Yeah. 

And then. Your pituitary, it was nuts and  wants to send out more LH and FSH to stimulate ovulation.

And then you may actually have 2 anovulatory periods in 1 month. So that's fun.  And you still don't have your progesterone to calm you down. Yeah. So, yeah. Sorry, I lost my train of thought. Oh, with the Vitex, do you recommend it just the first 

half of the cycle?  

Yes. So,  Yeah, so, in the beginning if, where you're at in your parent menopausal stage,  do that in the beginning to help keep your progesterone going.

But if you,  if there's no harm, if you're like, in more of the middle phase to take it. All the time.  Oh, cool. Yeah, because you're ovulating less and less. And so your chances of making progesterone or less, so it will help keep that going. 

And I know, you know, this, but again, just for listeners, what most people don't realize, because so often when we talk about perimenopause or women's hormones in general, estrogen is like, Star of the show, but what people might not realize is when you go into perimenopause, the first part of perimenopause, that very early stage when you might not even have very many symptoms, your progesterone is already declining and progesterone is important and Yes, absolutely.

For keeping us calm. It's important for sensory regulation and consolidation and also bone health is a big one. So, it's not just, Oh, I don't have progesterone. I'm not staying calm. Not that you're saying this, but if people are thinking on their head, it's like,  

it is 

so important for a full body system.

Even though a lot of the times around the perimenopause, or women in general, conversation estrogen is what is. Primarily talked about.  

Yeah, and exactly. And so, yeah, and if you keep your body keeps telling you need estrogen you have this unopposed estrogen, which is like becoming quite wild.

And so your progesterone bottoms out a lot.  More you get that drop and so,  yeah, you really want to make sure you're supporting that so that it can come back up and be there more equal versus completely  on other sides of the spectrum.  . So, yeah, 1st, 2 weeks.

If, that your progesterone is dropping more than just estrogen. , I just find for me, it's my irritability and inability. I'm way more reactive. I feel like I'm going through like being a teenager again, like I'm going through puberty. And my emotions feel very erratic, like I'm in puberty or like early pregnancy.

So just know that's your warning sign. That's your symptom that your progesterone is dropping off. 

It's 

like I said 

earlier, I keep having these. These like caveats when I say to my partner according to my cycle and where my hormones should be, like, I should be fine today, but I feel like I want to blow up and I'm aggro and I'm irritable and it just goes to show how fluctuating our hormones can become in perimenopause which you have just released a program, so you obviously work with lots of different type of clients, but you do kind of  Specialized, . In ADHD and now also perimenopause. So 

talk about your new program. Yeah. Because I lost my brain so much in pregnancy, I was really afraid to head into this next phase of life, especially with feeling like my business is getting off the ground, like feeling really excited that I'm like in my middle age and I was really worried that my brain again, knowing that.

In perimenopause, how much you start to go and have brain fog and memory loss, and I just got really scared. I'm very protective.  So I was like, no, I'm not going down without a fight. So I just really tried to create a program where it's a 12 week program to help your whole body system.  It really is a system designed to help protect your brain going into perimenopause to try and keep you sane.

But it really is about just longevity and being able to age without feeling  that you are going to go into any sort of like chronic disease. Like, when I was researching menopause and pain menopause, it was like. Just so many negative things, and I thought there's gotta be some great, good things that are going to happen here. So, I created a program. Not until we get past it 

and then we like embrace our like zero F's attitude.  

I feel like I'm having that right now at the same time. So it's really weird, but I think that's just like the projection. I'm trying, I'm like 

no, I'm pulling that forward.

I'm going to do that now.  

Yeah. Yeah. I do. And I'm like, am I not supposed to be doing this right now? But then I also got worried. I was just like the.  Progesterone lack and like the rage  where I'm like,  anyways, so I created a program to help get like all your body systems online. So it's like digestive health so that you can absorb the protein so that your brain can utilize it and break it down your liver health so that you can cleanse out the toxins metabolize the estrogen. 

Your gallbladder so that you can also break down the fat so that your brain can absorb them. Just. Going the washroom, like a lot of people are still struggling with when you have low hormones to have a bowel movement. Just get all the systems online so that you can feel really good going into this because when you go in with a deficit, you're going to really feel that.

And I probably will go on some sort of hormone therapy like bioidentical progesterone cream or estrogen cream because I really just want all the support, so I teach People about that, like how to assess whether or not this is safe for you. But you really, in order for these things to be effective, you have to be able to metabolize all of these things.

So you don't want to create like a further hormone imbalance by taking a hormone, without like fully knowing where your body's at to start with. So we do like baseline assessment. It's a, we meet each week. I am recording everything, so it will be available for people to watch, 

but one more thing before we go is that community is the most important thing. I really learned from that book I recommended to you by Dr. Luann Brizandine the upgrade. She talks about the brain and like how women in community is how we've survived all of this. And I know we've talked, we talk about it a lot, but we're just not.

In community anymore in terms of living together and raising our families together. And I really feel it. And so she talks about community and being able to just be together and talk about what's working and what's not and all that stuff. So. The hugest part of what I wanted to create in this program is community and like talking about what's working and what's not, because it is a very individualistic, like I talked about with the Vitex, like some person's like, Oh, that made me really stimulated and I couldn't sleep.

I'm like, Whoa. Okay. Let's look into that. So it's called Beyond Being.  I just feel like with my ADHD I always say I just want to be, like, I just want to not be this person who's trying to hyper function I just want to be, and so it's beyond being, like, how do we do all these things without burning ourselves out?

Because the health slews and the menus of, like, how to take care of yourself. Care of your brain. It's just like it's a laundry list. And it's like, how do we prioritize what works for us? And so what I'm there to do is just weed out. It sounds like you need this. And we're just going to focus on this, even though I'm teaching it all, it is very individualistic to you.

What can we assess that? Like you would. Really benefit from right away. So yeah, so that's the program hopefully just helping people feel good about going into this next phase of life and not Oh, my gosh, why didn't, weren't we taught this in school,  which also, why weren't we taught about this? 

 It's I actually thought that the next phase, like people are like, your 40s are your best time of your life. Didn't you just hear that all the time? We 

grew up being sold. What I call the sex in the city lie, like one, you can't live in a New York brownstone on a  newspaper columnist salary, but also we don't just get a brunch and lounge around and go by designer stuff and like we are managing everything with or without kids.

It is still.  A lot to juggle and we've all been fed this like  BS lie yes, it can be amazing and it hopefully is going to be amazing, but also it's a lot of hard work.  

It's nuts. And yeah, and we're not like in these supportive communities anymore. So, I don't know if that was happening in that.

The beautiful sex in the city, but like I don't live next to my bestie,  and so I just like health for me can get so overwhelming and complicated. And that is what I really want is just to let's focus on the few things that can help us keep us sane, and that's my whole mantra.

So I weed it all out, figure it out. And then, yeah. Tell you, this is what I would do to keep you sane and if you can't do it every day, don't worry. It's about consistency and finding what works for you, yeah, and not consistency, knowing that it's not like.  It's never actually going to be every day.

It's, but you said sticking to the things that, that you miss when you stop taking them,  that will be what, you know, is your key, 

and I always say continuity, not consistency. We can't do consistency. We struggle with it, but we can do continuity. Yes. You might miss a day or 2 here or there.

But it's there and you can come back to it. 

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like I saw my cortisol hump the other day. We talked about the cortisol when you're like so stressed. And I was like, I know it's not, I'm not sleeping. I'm not eating well. I'm not doing the things I know I need, but I'm okay with that right now.

I'm just like going to take some extra vitamins and hope for the best.  Like it'll be what it will be. And I'll figure out my balance when I can come back down, 

yeah, and sometimes it's that, we do have a trade off, we weigh up. I agree with community, like that's the same reason I started my membership, is because community is the most important thing, especially, because I know we're both like brain health nerds, especially when we look at health span of brain health.

Through life, community is one of the biggest factors, and unfortunately our modern life does mean that we can't all live right by our besties, but virtual community can fill some of those voids when we want to  Commiserate and share and commune with people who have a similar experience to us. 

And I like it because I need that because sometimes I find myself scrolling and I'm like, I don't even want to be on here, but I'm looking for something, and it's definitely that community. It's that piece where I'm like, I just want to vent or like kind of rage or, so that's great.

I really need to join your program. Oh my gosh, I really, I don't have a community. I have my own, but I need. a community. I get it. Like mine's a hormone community. It's not ADHD,  no, I get it.  

And if people maybe aren't in perimenopause, one, I think if you aren't there yet still check out the program because you want this information going into it.

And you are very clear, like on your website, that if you're in late perimenopause or postmenopause, like this might not be the thing for you. Like you can still help them, but this is like let's like armor you up to go but if, so if people are in a different life stage, they can work with you obviously only in Canada or is it only in Ontario?

I can work anywhere. My insurance covers. Yeah. I have a few clients in the States and I had one in the UK, 

yeah, anywhere. 

Cool. So any telehealth anywhere. Cool. 

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and I did want to say 1 thing. Sorry, before we go. So I worked in long term care when you're talking about who this week good for.

I worked in long term care for 8 years and I would see people that were really healthy come in. I had we're used to cooking for themselves,  but then they got like, all the delicious things fed to them. And so within 3 months, I would see their cognitive health decline.  And once you let that ball go rolling.

It's hard to stop. So what I wanted to say is that I would see them start to pull back and actually start to choose different menu items when they started to notice that they would like get depressed and start to isolate because of the food that they were eating. So, you can start today like it doesn't matter where you're at.

These changes will have impact and like I saw it with 80, 90 year olds like when they did. Make the switch back. They did come back and their brains did start working again. So anyways, I'll leave people with that because it's  more empowering.  You can start today. It doesn't matter where you're at with your cognitive health  

because I think a lot of people don't realize. 

How dynamic and resilient our brains are, I just finished a neuroscience course and through several different modules. We talked about this French lady named like Jean Clement and I'm sure I'm saying it totally wrong,  but she lived to 122 and they started doing brain testing and cognitive testing with her at 118. 

And by doing specific work, she showed cognitive improvements, like her brain got better at 118. So if anyone is in any doubt of how resilient and amazing our brain is, that is just one testament that  it is never Bye for now. Ever too late.  

That's amazing. Oh, I love that. 

Your socials, your website, everyone can find you  

at food, mood, nutrition is my Instagram handle and then all my links are there, but it's www. foodandmoodnutrition.  com. 

, I'll put it all in the show notes and I'll also put a direct link, not just to your website, but also to the program if people want to specifically look at that one.

And you said you've recorded it. So if people miss the boat and join it a bit later, they will still get access. 

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And then the community will still be running and I'm going to keep running it.  

It's necessary, we need this information out there.

Yeah. And I just keep learning more and more as, as I just keep reviewing my slides and everything. I'm like, oh, there's more. I need to explain more. 

Well, thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you. For taking time.

Yeah. Have a good day.