The MiDOViA Menopause Podcast
Welcome to The MiDOViA Menopause Podcast! Your trusted source for evidence-based, science-backed information related to menopause.
MiDOViA is dedicated to changing the narrative about menopause by educating, raising awareness and supporting women in this stage of life, both at home and in the workplace. Visit midovia.com to learn more.
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The MiDOViA Menopause Podcast
Episode 021: Enhancing Gut Health with Janell Hartman
Boost your digestive health in our latest episode! Our special guest, Janell Hartman, shares her remarkable journey from client to colon hydrotherapist, highlighting the profound health benefits she experienced through colonics. Janelle's insights into colon care and the emotional aspects of digestive health are not to be missed.
Ever wondered how aligning your daily routines with natural rhythms can transform your health? We break it all down, from the importance of a substantial midday meal to specific techniques that calm the nervous system. Discover how simple practices like breath exercises and targeted massages can relax your nervous system and enhance your well-being. Plus, learn about the benefits of structured water from fruits and vegetables, and how the Ayurvedic concept of Dhinacharya can promote balance and soothe your body's energies.
Finally, we delve into the critical role of the vagus nerve in regulating stress and digestive health. Learn how to identify and address vagal tone imbalances with techniques like singing and humming. We also discuss the importance of seasonal, organic, and local foods for optimal digestive function, and why adequate protein intake is crucial, especially after menopause. Tune in to discover expert guidance on optimizing your gut health, understanding the impact of meal timing, and more. Don't miss out on these invaluable tips to support your overall wellness!
Welcome to the Medovia Menopause Podcast, your trusted source for evidence-based, science-backed information related to menopause. Medovia is dedicated to changing the narrative about menopause by educating, raising awareness and supporting women in this stage of life, both at home and in the workplace. Visit medoviacom to learn more home and in the workplace. Visit Medoviacom to learn more. I'm one of your hosts, april Haberman, and I'm joined by Kim Hart. We're co-founders of Medovia, certified health coaches, registered yoga teachers and midlife mamas specializing in menopause. You're listening to another episode of our podcast, where we offer expert guidance for the most transformative stage of life, bringing you real conversations, education and resources to help you overcome challenges and reach your full potential through midlife. Join us and our special guests each episode as we bring vibrant, fun and truthful conversation and let us help you have a deeper understanding of menopause. Hey friends, I'm excited to share a significant milestone that you may have heard mentioned. Medovia has launched the first ever menopause friendly US accreditation program. This program sets a comprehensive standard overseen by a third party panel of experts, ensuring air quotes. Menopause friendly is more than just a term. It reflects a real commitment to meaningful, sustainable workplace changes. It's important to us that menopause friendly logo is a meaning Rachel, I've got to do it again. Five, four, three, two, one. Hey friends, I'm excited to share a significant milestone that you may have heard mentioned. Medovia has launched the first ever menopause friendly US accreditation program. This program sets a comprehensive standard overseen by a third-party panel of experts, ensuring air quotes here that menopause-friendly is more than just a term. It reflects a real commitment to meaningful, sustainable workplace changes. It's important to us that the menopause-friendly logo is meaningful and marks a high standard within the menopause space. We hope you'll join us on the journey to becoming menopause friendly. Logo is meaningful and marks a high standard within the menopause space. We hope you'll join us on the journey to becoming menopause friendly as a leading pioneer in the States. You can find more information at menopausefriendlyuscom.
Speaker 1:We have a fun episode today. We talk all things poop. Yes, you heard me right. We're talking about colon care with Janelle Hartman.
Speaker 1:Janelle works with clients interested in stress management and addressing source issues to resolve chronic and acute digestive imbalances. She has the gift of holding space for the process of personal attunement to signals and requests expressed by the body and helps generate enthusiasm in those just beginning returning to or well-traveled in their healing journey, struggles with digestive issues and depression early in life spurred her towards her path of healing. Yoga was a monumental aspect of her mission for balance, as it recognizes the body, mind and spirit as an inseparable system which must be tended to as a whole. This was a lifesaver during her decade of social work with homeless women, where she came to embrace the value of self-care and serving others. These days, her love of art, music, meditation and world travel Keep her busy creating and exploring inside and out. Side note friends we had some sound difficulties with this episode, but we decided to post it anyway. It's packed with great information we didn't want you to miss. So disregard the bits of sound challenges and enjoy Janelle welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:We're so excited to have you. Thank you.
Speaker 3:I'm thrilled to be here.
Speaker 2:We met. I've been taking yoga for you for years and you were my yoga teacher when I got my yoga teacher training and last April, and I saw you was at a restorative yoga class, so it's been a while. But it saw you was at a restorative yoga class, so it's been a while, but it's really great to have you on the show.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you.
Speaker 2:How'd you get involved with poop? Sorry, we're going right to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, you know, I, I was a client at the clinic that I currently work at called tummy temple for around five years, um, getting colonics before I became a colon hydrotherapist. And, um, in, when I went in, I felt like a colonic was a little bit like skydiving. It was more of a dare and I was just into trying stuff. But what I found was such a contrast before and after having the garbage taken out of me, and it really just it made a huge impression on me. I actually processed a lot of emotions. I mean that area of the body, solar plexus, second chakra, root chakra so much going on there. And and then was learning so much from the technician that was helping me.
Speaker 3:The woman who was giving me my colonic educated me all about my digestive system and the importance of needing to move the garbage out and to poop, and I feel like that was the beginning of a revolution in my health journey, even though I kind of considered myself really healthy and didn't really think I had anything wrong with my bowel movements. But the improvement changed my life in some pretty key ways, you know. So I, my second colonic, I decided that I was going to be a colon hydrotherapist and it was kind of funny because I I told her you know, I'd love to become a colon hydrotherapist, but I feel like it's probably a very competitive industry, you know. And she's like do you really think people are lined up around the corner?
Speaker 3:to be a colon hydrotherapist Level of excitement is definitely like this could be your Dharma, you know, and indeed it was. I'm still excited about it is that day to this very day.
Speaker 2:That was 12 years ago, so could you describe to our audience what a colon hydrotherapist does? And if they came to see you, what does that mean and look like?
Speaker 3:Sure, yeah. So when you come into the clinic we do an intake. We have some questions about your lifestyle and some of your patterns with food and you know, elimination patterns, things like that, practical questions, and then a colonic involves laying very the closed system colonic, at least laying very comfortably onto a table like a massage table, and the instrument that we have is meant to help irrigate the colon. So there's some tubing that's attached, gently inserted, and you basically relax and lay back and we fill you with water that has a gentle, mechanized pressure. We can control the temperature and the pressure. We're usually going very gently, but it's a little bit like an enema. If you've ever had an enema. It fills you up and we are able to actually eventually go all the way around the colon and so usually we'll go in a little while.
Speaker 3:There's an urge to go, you know the client will then just kind of go and it goes into the tubes or there's no smell, there's, you don't have to deal with any poop. It goes in a little glass, kind of like a little window where I can see things flowing and, as you may know, there's a lot you can tell about what's happening in the body from looking at poop. So it's just a broad data for me to analyze as it's going out and I'm rubbing the belly and massaging and kind of detecting where there's gas or some stuck spots. You get a nice belly massage and the whole thing is actually very relaxing. And so many times we kind of fill in, fill, fill the water in, let it flow out afterwards and you have a much better day than started.
Speaker 1:So yeah, Well, it's so interesting to me, Janelle. I've never had one done, but I imagine that I imagine it does feel good, not the process, but just the emptying as well. And I'm curious, because of what we do here at Medovian, helping women in midlife and menopause, if there is a link between hormones, digestive health and overall well-being.
Speaker 3:Absolutely yeah, and I mean specifically focusing on menopause. That's a time, you know, when the estrogen is going down, the cortisol tends to rise, and when cortisol rises, that does start to suppress the digestive system as well as other things. You know, if we are, if that cortisol is flowing, usually that's an indication to the body that it's not time to digest, Definitely not time to reproduce. There's a lot more blood going out away from the organs and stuff like that, and so that can definitely increase dryness and constipation. When digestion and the peristalsis slows down, the vagal, the vagal functions, the vagus nerve functions turn down, then that's going to affect motility.
Speaker 3:So for sure, that's a time when, in Ayurvedic terms, if that's I don't want to introduce such a huge concept, I imagine you probably have introduced Ayurvedic terminology in your podcast but it's where vata tends to rise, and vata is that air and space energy that brings dryness. Is that air and space energy that brings dryness? It can bring bloating, it can just kind of bring that, that like less motility, less digestive fire and juices, all of which contribute to constipation. So that's one of the mechanisms.
Speaker 1:And that it is interesting. Stress is so interesting, isn't it? And cortisol and what that does the body, body, and I want to come to that a little bit more and unpack that in just a few minutes. But as we think about the constipation and some of those symptoms of the hormonal changes in the body, I want to go deeper here. What does that look like? If I am someone that is in midlife and I'm beginning to see my hormone, the estrogen specifically drop, I'm beginning to experience some of this constipation when the poop exits our body. What are some of those changes? What does it look like? And how would I know that, beyond the constipation right, the pain of constipation and the bloating, how would I know that there are things going on in my gut that I need to pay attention to?
Speaker 3:well, I think it's like stools just become a lot drier.
Speaker 3:Um, stools become drier, it doesn't always feel as complete, so you know that feeling when you pass a bowel movement and it just all comes out and and usually there's nothing on the toilet paper because you just thing off that wasn't done, um, and so like like there's a if it's doesn't feel complete.
Speaker 3:If it's drier, um, also it could be like um, oftentimes, uh, when there's reduced motility, there can be more bacteria growing in the poop and so it can cause that bloating. Um, that's also a result of like reduced peristalsis, which is in the small intestine where the food actually digests the oregas of the colon. Peristalsis, which is in the small intestine where the food actually digests the orogus of the colon and digestive juices that are firing, which comes along with that kind of that reduced motility. Then there can be less like good volatile gallbladder bile, which helps break down fast, and so we can get a sludgy effect. It can feel like slow and sludgy. So that's when you start seeing streaks in the toilet. So it could go from being slow and sludgy and kind of greasy to super dry and pellety and just not feeling complete. And those are some of the things that when that vata imbalance is there, from that rise in cortisol, that drop in estrogen.
Speaker 2:What should your first line of defense be when you notice that it's? You know that it's doing not what it's supposed to be doing and, by the way, when you taught me this the first time, I always look now when I when I'm finished, and make sure that it looks right. I don't want to bring everyone along in my house to let them show how well I ate and drank water yesterday or whatever what's your first line of defense when you notice it has that kind of characteristic.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, the first thing I would think about is okay, how can I actually start to reduce the vata and start to bring in the vagal tone? That's the beautiful thing, is that the vagus nerve is really what is ruling this whole thing right, and so we want to do things that are going to nourish that. So, um, some of the things that, um, I would do is definitely like take a peek at everything. Well, am I? What is my sleeping routines? What is my eating routines? Is that erratic? Am I moving with circadian rhythms? Am I having my big meal in the middle of the day, like empowering digestion, you know? Am I doing things that are? Am I letting my mind turn off? Usually, that air and space energy, you know, the air element is in the heart chakra and the space is in the throat, and so a lot of that body energy moves up. Now, what we want to for elimination is out right, and so what is it that's going to relax the nervous system? There is a host of amazing biggest nerve exercises. Now you can go on YouTube and go down the rabbit hole of breath, of eye movements of um, of certain types of massage, um, and, and so I would say, like, start addressing the nervous system. But then you know, this is a time when also taking some good digestive enzymes, having that routine minutes before your um, before your your meal, to just get a little bit more hydrochloric acid flowing, think digestive juice is flowing right. So number one is the nervous system. Taking some deep breaths, you can even press in on the left side of your, underneath your rib cage, and press downward on your stomach to help to traction the vagus nerve and get it ready to digest, because usually the constipation is happening way before we get on the toilet, right, it's happening in the upper GI, with not processing. And so, um, helping with the vagus nerve, um, hydration is a big one and you know, you may know this I think this is getting more and more well-known is that drinking water, out of just drinking water, is not really the way that our bodies want to be hydrated Like.
Speaker 3:We need to be having structured water that's in fruits and veggies and, you know, adding some electrolytes and things that the body wants to actually really, really, you know, aloe vera juice, these are the things that are going to hydrate you way more than just body.
Speaker 3:If your body is in a certain type of mitochondrial and electrical state, it's just not going to absorb water being drank down through your digestive tract, right?
Speaker 3:So we want to absorb it from the foods we eat, and so increasing plants and fruits and veggies, that's also going to increase a variation of gut flora that's going to be able to process things and help and not only that, help, like, balance your hormones, right, eliminate what needs to be eliminated, excess hormones, um, but then certainly just create the balance and and in in the bile, the digestive bile profile, in in, like you know the way that things are, um, the way things are processed, so, um, but, and then with with eating and diet, you know it's like we can say we need to eat, are processed, so, but and then with with eating and diet, you know it's like we can say we need to eat more of those things.
Speaker 3:But exploring the circadian rhythm, the wisdom from Ayurveda of Dhinacharya, which means the wheel of the day, so following practices that match where the sun is moving, how the energies of the day are flowing, because Vata is ultimately reduced by routine, it's ultimately reduced and soothed by routine. So that's kind of that would be my way that I would proceed.
Speaker 1:I like it, yeah, yeah, I mean all of those things we think about. But tying it all together, I think, is really important. So the hydration piece and not just drinking water, I haven't, I didn't think about that. I mean we always think, oh, eight glasses of water a day and then I'm good to go. But it's a good reminder to include the foods that help us absorb, and even the aloe water that you mentioned is good for you. And then, of course, coming back to that vagus nerve it's so important and we really haven't talked to our audience that much about the vagus nerve. It's so important and we really haven't talked to our audience that much about the vagus nerve. I think we could do a whole podcast just on the vagus nerve. But can you, just for a side note here, janelle, talk to us a little bit about what the vagus nerve is for those that don't know what that is, just in layman's terms, what is that nerve is for?
Speaker 3:those that don't know what that is, just in in layman's terms, what? What is that? Absolutely so. We have um on each side. We have these down from from the brain and innervate into the body. And the 10th one on each side is called the vagus nerve and it comes out of the of the brain, behind your, your ears, kind of where the back of your jawbone is, and moves down your neck and then from there it branches out. So vagus means, you know, vagus means like wandering, so this nerve wanders all over the body. It innervates down into the heart and into the lungs and into your whole digestive tract. It regulates your respiration, your heartbeat and all of your digestive processes and it's also modifies our response to stress. So stress and relaxation, it, it modifies your response. So this nerve like if it is happy, everything's pretty happy If it gets dysregulated, and dysregulated means either it's too tonic, which that's where we start to see people who feel nauseated or have a lot of diarrhea.
Speaker 3:You know those are some symptoms of upregulated. You know more of kind of like the, you know really kind of flighty. And then when it's kind of too low, that tone is too low, that's where we start to see these sluggish things where things are just not kind of firing at the right time. Even brain function can be affected by it, and so the vagus nerve, you know, is something that there's certain points where it comes more to the surface, it can be palpated. They're finding all sorts of ways it can be reset with, like you probably heard, emdr, like the eye movements, different breath practices. A beautiful one is singing, um, different breath practices. A beautiful one is singing, humming those things, those types of things. So the Vick is very important, um, for all of those regulations and and thing that really affects it, one of the biggest thing is stress. Stress and dysregulated rhythms in lifestyle. Yeah, stress management.
Speaker 2:It plays such a big role in your life overall, but at midlife, with the cortisol going up and the estrogen going down, and you practice a lot of stress relieving activities, for lack of a better word. Activities, for lack of a better word. What's the best way? You talked about breathing, but can you talk more about how to calm that nerve and what you should recognize when it is elevated and that you need to stop and just kind of reset.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that you know I would say that breath is one of the best, is one of the best reflections of what's happening. I'll have people just tune into their breath, like and notice, are you taking a bunch of inhales and not exhaling? That's, that's a big indicator of of when we're dysregulated. The exhale is what calms the nervous system down. It's that out moving breath and it's also when the diaphragm lifts up to press the breath out of the lungs, which is also pressing on this area that I was mentioning before, underneath the rib cage, this whole upper. We say it's like the upper transverse of the colon, but it's also like where your diaphragm looks into the spine, where your vagus nerve innervates down into your whole digestive tract, and so that needs to be mobile and moving. And so, unfortunately, there's a feedback loop of the stress response where we kind of start inhaling and inhaling and inhaling, which creates a lot of fight or flight, and then the exhale. We can just consciously bring that awareness in to do that. You'll feel a kind of contrast shift right away. A long, slow exhale is magical, um, uh. Another thing is just maybe feeling a little bit like, um, you know, uh, feeling a little spacey, um, feeling withdrawn. It had.
Speaker 3:There's a. There's a aspect of the Vegas tone, of the vagal tone they call the safe and social circuit. There's this polyvagal theory where there's a ventral circuit and a dorsal circuit, and the ventral circuit is one that allows us to kind of want to engage with people. It doesn't mean that we're a massive extrovert or anything, but we just feel safe around other humans.
Speaker 3:You start to feel like really withdrawn and suspicious of people when logically there may be some trauma, right, but logically it's like if you check in, it's like I know that logically I'm safe, but my body is reacting to other humans like they're red. That is an indication also and that can come with a lot of anxiety and a lot of dysregulation, just a lot of mental activity that tends to then spin out rather than round and so it's hard for us to hold space in ourselves around other humans. That's another indication, kind of in a psychological sense. Certainly, the dryness, the constipation, feeling bloated, having an appetite that's out of control or one that's kind of non-existent, like a swing in the appetite, that's another issue as well. Those are just kind of a sprinkle of water.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think people realize those things right. Indicators of stress.
Speaker 1:You know what I also love too and I'm going to come back to the singing I just have this memory of my grandpa and my grandma both they used to just walk around the house humming all the time and I thought, oh, you know, it used as a kid, it used to get on my nerves and now I'm like, oh, how I would love to hear them hum. And that was so good, right, it was so good for them and they probably didn't even realize it. Like we all need to walk around singing and humming. A little bit more simple things like that.
Speaker 1:And breath you know, our breath is an amazing thing. We have it from the moment we come into the world to the moment we leave and we forget. We forget that it's there and how powerful it is. So I really appreciate that reminder for sure. Can we come back to diet for just a minute, because I think diet does play a big role correct me if I'm wrong, but in our digestive system and our pooping in particular. Aside from just generally speaking, eating more fruits, for example, to help with hydration, what are some other tips that you can give our listeners as it relates to nutrition and poop, our digestive system?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that a really big one is. You know, I said SOL, seasonal, organic and local. Now, it's interesting because, you know, seasonal, there's so much more to it than just like, oh, it's really great because it's coming out. People have this idea that that's good. It just sounds like that sounds like a good idea.
Speaker 3:Well, one of the things is that that, as our environment changes and our environment changes around us through the seasons, what's coming out of the ground is actually all the nutrition that we need to adapt to those situations. So the rhythm of the seasons in in relation to the food, for example, what's coming out of the ground right now, like asparagus is in season and it's got those kind of stringy nuts, inulin, which is a type of fiber that feeds a certain flora that you need for your, for the functions of this season, you know, just as one example so blueberries are starting to come. We need those for sun protection. You know, like, so there is, there is, there's this way that the um, that and your body really, it really wants to poop. I mean it's kind of like get the garbage out. You know, like your body do that. Yeah, well, being invited by by nature, even these foods and one of the best things you can do is actually make it a project to find out what is local and organic and and seasonal in your area. Go to the store and see if you can actually get up to the recommendation sounds crazy is 30 different variations of plant foods every week. Could you actually like have a variety of, like a rotation of, like 30 different things, which includes beans. There's types of beans and things like that. But like what's on the what's, what's what's in the produce area and I mean we live in Seattle here and PCC is really great about like highlighting what's local and stuff.
Speaker 3:You go to grocery stores or not local, but I mean local and seasonal. You go to other grocery stores and you just have everything all the time. So it's hard to tell. So you have to do a little bit of work to understand what that is. If it's not obvious to you, you know if you're not a gardener or tuned into that already. But you can get a really diverse amount of plants. Now, I'm kind of an omnivore and I know that maybe some people out there start being in a vegetarian, and that's fine. You want to make sure that you're getting enough protein and, in fact vegan or vegetarian, and that's fine. You want to make sure that you're getting enough protein and in fact, after menopause we do need more protein and that is when, like you know, when, it's not a bad idea to start kind of tapping into. You know, like if you're new to eating animal protein, like fish and turkey and these things are a little easier to digest, but bring in a little. I call it animal magic.
Speaker 1:You know, like.
Speaker 3:I take New Zealand grass-fed beef liver capsules. It's freeze-dried and it's like nature's multivitamin and that's one thing that I have found. That's created a lot of really great digestive and regulatory health in my bowels, my belly, in my skin, in my brain. So even if it's like I don't want to eat it but I can take it in a capsule, it's nice to bring that into. You know, it's like lots of plants, some protein, some healthy fats, you know.
Speaker 3:And what's more important than what you're eating is like when and how. Right. So the when could be the seasonal thing, but also when is like really like getting up and having a nice digestive breakfast and then not snacking. That's a big one. Not snacking. Having a really good lunch. The middle of the day is when your bile flow, your digestive bile flows at its highest. You can have that nice big meal in the middle of the day. We know this right, we hear this and then, and evening, if you feel fed, maybe you skip dinner or maybe you have something really light because we don't have as much bile flow then. So, but a big thing too is not snacking between meals. Eat enough Like. I feel like people like to pick at things and they're afraid to just sit down and have a nice big meal you know, but,
Speaker 3:like, well, no, like. Your body likes to have that strength and when you actually feel hungry because you haven't been snacking, that's when your digestive juices are really high. Your body is the most, has the most adaptable way of approaching the food Right, it can really absorb it. If you think about building a fire, you don't want to keep throwing wood on the fire all the time. You have to kind of let it burn and get some space in there so that it can, it can move in our digestive systems, or the same way. Um, stopping snacking in between meals has been a big thing for a lot of my clients and also for myself and my health, and that's an art that's from Ayurvedic wisdom. But there is this thing about like, oh, having these tiny meals throughout the day, and I can tell you that's the way to ruin your digestion over time. It might feel good at first, but then over time you're not going to be absorbing nutrients, you're not going to be making neurotransmitters. You know like it's. It's going to get weird.
Speaker 1:There's so much, just so much conflicting information and it's, it's so good to just reiterate, eating those full meals instead of nibbling throughout the day. Right, we were taught that nibble, nibble, nibble and keep your metabolism up, and so audience she's saying it's not good for our gut. There you go, yeah, us to understand how healthcare providers can help women manage their digestive concerns as they go through midlife. If people wanted to find you, how could they find you? Can you talk to us a little about getting help?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. I work at a beautiful naturopathic clinic in the Roosevelt Lake City area called Tummy Temple and we have a variety of beautiful naturopathic doctors. They're all like specialized in digestion, but then they have there's hormone specialists. We have somebody running the IV clinic. We have, like all these different, you know, NDs with different specialties, and so I, you know, offer colonics there. I'm also a lymphatic therapist, so last seven years I've been, I've been a lymphatic drainage specialist there, and those are that's a really great place to come. You can get an initial consult with an ND.
Speaker 3:We also have an amazing nutritionist who studied at Bastyr. She's been doing it for many, many years and one of her, her magical qualities, she's just so able to connect to each person and and it's not like cause, sometimes nutrition is like here, this is what's healthy, Eat this, and it's like, no, we have to look at the body. I will say your blood type, blood type, eating is really amazing. That's another little dietary tip, but she'll look at that. She'll look at like, how much time do you have? Do you like shopping? Do you, you know, like kids running around? When do you have time to cook? Let's see what you know, what meals would be helpful and then we'll, and then she's really good.
Speaker 3:She's also a colon hydrotherapist and lymphatic therapist and just really smart, and so she can kind of figure out how to make you like food delicious but also fit. You know what you need. She's a great person to ask, like you know what I'm constipated all the time I'm postmenopausal. She would know exactly what to tell you to eat. She would figure it out. Yeah, so that's, that's a really great place to find me and my comrades, who are just brilliant. And then, of course, I have a podcast called Mindful Medicina all one word lowercase podcast, and we have a lot of really great episodes on there. In fact, we do. We've talked about menopause and we've talked all about things that I've mentioned today Amazing.
Speaker 2:I've been to the tummy temple and I've had a lymphatic massage from you and it was incredible. I can't say enough about it. I actually scheduled an acupuncture session the next day and I was floating on a cloud for like days. I just back to back, I was like I don't know why I scheduled this, but apparently I needed it, so taking care of taking care of it. Well, janelle, this is like we could talk to you for hours and I wanted I know sometimes you do the poop talk at the tummy temple and I've always wanted to be a part of that. So thanks for, you know, normalizing poop and talking through all the things. We really enjoyed having you today. We're going to move on to rapid fire. It's real easy but fun, do you prefer?
Speaker 3:rainy days or sunny days, you know, I um guys that's. It's interesting. I love sunny days. Rainy days are great for getting stuff done inside it's true.
Speaker 1:It's so true because we don't feel guilty when we're inside and it's raining right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, while it rains, I'm like, well, okay, inside. Yeah, I hear you.
Speaker 1:Okay, how about early bird or night owl?
Speaker 3:Early bird. I get up at 4am just about every day and that's a big part of like the regulating nervous system. System doesn't have to be 4am, but before 6am is what's recommended in Ayurveda and that's a really nice time to do those centering practices that set the tone for the whole day, that set that in your body. Yeah, so I'm an early bird big time.
Speaker 2:And April does that early.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know, I know, I guess now you're speaking my language. Get up early, start those practices. You're right, it just sets your day right off the bat. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Hot showers or relaxing baths.
Speaker 3:Relaxing baths. I actually very rarely take showers. I even I have a little tub that I wash my hair with. I am a bath junkie so I don't turn. I haven't turned on my shower in a very long time. I bathe, what do you, do you?
Speaker 1:put anything in the water? Oh my gosh, you just took the question right from me there. I'm like wait, what do you do? Yeah, are there certain things you like to put in the bath?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, kind of all depends If I'm, if I'm just kind of washing myself, get ready for work and not, you know, not really anything. But if I'm taking a soak I do love, I love the Epsom salts, I will use a full big acid sometimes. Just do a little detox, yeah, like some essential oils, yeah, things like that. Yeah, if I'm, if I'm kind of a, sometimes I'll get like detox formulas you can dump in there. If I'm doing different types of metal cleansing or parasite cleansing.
Speaker 1:So great. Yeah, my daughter is a bath person and she takes one almost every day. My husband would come and say where's Rachel? I'm like I bet you can't guess. I bet you can't guess it's. It's good for you in many ways, okay. The last question that we ask everyone is what is the best piece of?
Speaker 3:advice that you've ever received, best piece of advice I've ever received, I think, like if I I've received so much good advice, if I were to distill it down into something that means the most to me, it's um, obey, only love, and I I just feel like there's so much of a um program we have of the tribe and of, you know, other people's ideas and ancestral ideas of who we're supposed to be and and um, you know, I've always been a very kind of rebellious person but I find that like I really have an obedience to my inner voice, to my God inside, and um, and I feel like it harmonizes me, I can feel the harmony of all the yogic teachings and all. So that's kind of like I feel that I'm a very rebellious and yet I obey, I obey love, and that's that brought a lot of happiness and it steered me pretty right through my life.
Speaker 3:So that's the vibe I love.
Speaker 2:Your energy always makes me feel so centered and grounded. Thank you For sure. Yeah, this is really great.
Speaker 1:I do. I love your energy too and just who you are, and there's so many more podcasts that we could have you on because you know so much, not just about poop, but so many other things. So I'm sure this won't be the last time that we see you, but it's been really fun, and listeners until we meet again, go find joy in the journey. Thanks, janelle. Thank you for listening to the Medovia Menopause Podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe for future episodes, leave a review and share this episode with a friend. There are more than 50 million women in the US who are navigating the menopause transition. The situation is compounded by the presence of stigma, shame and secrecy surrounding menopause, posing significant challenges and disruptions in women's personal and professional spheres. Medovia is out to change the narrative. Learn more at medoviacom. That's M-I-D-O-V-I-A dot com.
