Emotional Release or Hormonal Imbalance? How to Tell the Difference?

I’m back! After a 4-week break, I’m returning to our weekly episodes with a heart full of reflection and a whole new chapter unfolding. In this episode, I open up about the big shifts in my life — changing jobs, navigating motherhood, and questioning what it truly means to run a business from the heart.

I also dive deep into a powerful conversation on hormones vs. emotions. Sometimes what we label as “hormonal imbalance” is actually unprocessed emotion — resistance, stress, grief, or just not allowing yourself to feel. I share how learning to trust the universe, ride the waves of life, and tune into your body can be the most healing thing you do.

If you want to learn more about yourself, your body, and creating a fasting lifestyle. I highly recommend my signature course where multiple women have experienced massive shifts in their health and wellness: Start Now

Or book a VIP Strategy Session Today: Book Now

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to I Am Well Podcast. I'm your host Gemma, a nutritionist and a hormonal fasting coach. Passionate about self-development through a holistic lens, but my biggest mission is to help empower women and get them to reconnect and trust their bodies again. So if you are a woman who just wants to better herself and live her best life, you are listening to the right podcast.

So let's get to it.

Hello everyone and welcome back to the I Am Well Podcast. I. I'm back. I am here. I did not abandon you all, even though I'm pretty sure that's probably what it all seemed to look like. Guys, I have so much to share and I am getting straight stuck into this episode today talking about is it hormonal or is it emotional resistance?

Because this is [00:01:00] something that I have gone through. Many, many times myself, always thinking that it has something to do with my hormones and that's why I'm up, or, or blaming it on, I'm in my luteal phase, blaming it on, oh, I'm in my menstrual menstruation phase, and then I think that is the reason why I'm feeling this way.

But sometimes that is just an easy way to cope and get out of things and not facing things head on. And that was me for a bit. And still is me to this day. I am a cycle sinking coach. I love talking hormones. I'm a hormone special certified hormone specialist. I love talking all the things that hormones.

It just fascinates me. Women's hormones in particular, I. Yet, still to this day, there are times where my emotions do take over and it takes me a while to pull myself up on it. And I always say this to my clients, it's not about you going back into that emotional cycle or, or [00:02:00] the reaction or from your emotions.

It's how long you stay in it and how quickly you can pull yourself out of it. Right now I'm sitting here, by the way, wearing a face mask on my face. I am like giving my myself, it's like a sheet mask. I'm giving myself a full self-care experience while I'm also doing this podcast because I'm like, why not?

I'm actually in my ovulatory phase. So I'm in a good phase of my cycle where I'm feeling good and feeling. Um. Very talkative and feeling very sociable. Yet there are still things that happen within. You know, within life, that of course will drag my emotions down and make me more reactive in the moment.

And as I said, it's how quickly that you can then pull yourself out of. So anyway, just to recap, where the hell have I been the past couple of weeks? Well, I have been going through [00:03:00] many different things. I'm not gonna lie guys, and I'm so glad I went through this. So then I fully understand what my clients go through on a day to day, but when I got my full-time job.

Well, it was part-time job. Um, the one that I, if you have been following me for a while, uh, the one that I got a couple of weeks or a couple of month months back now, it was amazing, perfect opportunity. And, uh, if you've listened to that episode on that, you know, the big changes ones, everything happens for a reason.

Um, I highly, if you haven't listened to it, I highly recommend going back to, in listening to that one, 'cause that one I talk about how maybe the path that you're on. Isn't the one that you thought you'd be on, um, maybe you are on, you've been diverted to another path. Like for me, I ended up needing to get an extra job on top of my, it's like my side hustle to my business because I have a family with two kids.

Like most coaches that I see [00:04:00] online, they don't have kids of their own. Like, yes, there are coaches out there that do, but they would've made pro. Probably establish their business before they've had kids, whereas like I'm establishing a business while I'm in it with kids and not saying that that is impossible.

No, I've seen many people do that, but. I definitely underestimated what that would be like. Also then having a job to do as well, so working for someone else. And I loved the, the business, the company that I was working for. Um, there were just, it was just, there were a few things where I was like. This is not for me.

This is not like I was starting to get into like a nursing position and I knew, I was like, hang on a second. This is not going to be my career. This is supposed to be my side hustle, but yet it's turning into a career. And I questioned, you know, what the hell is going on. And I always, you know, I'm very like.[00:05:00] 

Spiritual and really believe in the universe has my back and it's guiding me. So I was like kind of questioning it at the time, which I'm sure people have gone through and going, what the hell? Why am I on this path? Why is it, you know, why have you put me here? Why, what's, where am I supposed to go? And I literally had to learn.

Everything that I have learned over the past three years and put it into action, I had to trust that the universe had my back and I was on this journey for a reason, and now I am happy to say I've got a new job and it's so much easier. Not a lot of, not a lot for me to do, which is great because as I said, it's my side hustle, but this is not my career.

And if anyone is listening to this that is trying to create their own business and can relate, just remind yourself that if you need the extra cash, don't be ashamed of that. That is fine. That is normal. Everyone does that when they first start off. [00:06:00] And just remind yourself it is. That's the way it's supposed to be.

The universe is guiding you on this way. For you to learn some things and boy am I learning things. Anyway, so that is where I've been for the past. I don't know how long it's been a couple of weeks and I'm really glad that I took that time off so that I could come back to you guys. 'cause I have learned so much in that time, not only about myself, but also about my hormones, also about how to navigate.

Stress and busyness in life, and make sure that that's not affecting your environment. And make sure that's not affecting your hormones too, because that is the thing, like I know what it's like guys, like, I know I, I'm on that end as well. It's not like I just do this business and that's it. I I also run a household.

I also have, you know, another business that I'm working for, so. Of course that's gonna bring up a lot of stress. So then how do you navigate your hormones around the stress? How do you navigate fasting around all of that too? [00:07:00] I am so glad that I've gone through this and I feel like I believe that I was supposed to go through it this way so that I can tell you guys how it.

How to do it, how it's working for me, I'm actually feeling the healthiest I've ever felt, even though now I'm like the busiest I've ever been, which usually is the opposite. If someone's more busy, usually they're, you know, doing quick things to quick, unhealthy things just to get by. Um, and you know. It's easier to grab, takeaway or something than it is to cook a healthy Whole Foods meal.

So I can't wait to share with you everything that I've learned over the next few weeks, and I really feel like it's going to help so many women out there, so many moms out there. Um, but for today, for today's episode, we're actually talking about. Whether or not you can figure out if it's hormonal or if it is emo an emotional resistance.

And I think, I believe like [00:08:00] this is quite common for women, especially when they're going through, say, a cycle in their, a phase, in their cycle where, so something like ovulation, right, where you've been told. Well, I've probably told you in one of my episodes, Hey, when you're in the ovulatory phase, you are stimulating all these amazing neurotransmitters that are gonna make you feel amazing.

You've got the serotonin, you've got dopamine, you got gaba, you got acetylcholine, you got BDNF. You got all of these neurotransmitters being stimulated that you're like. Oh my God, I am feeling amazing. My hair is growing, my skin is glowing. I'm talking to all these people. I'm feeling confident I'm an extrovert.

And that is the case, right? But what if you are not feeling like that? What if one in one cycle or another you are, and in your ovulatory phase you are feeling crap. You don't wanna get out. You feel awful. You have all these negative [00:09:00] thoughts. You're getting really down on yourself, and you're like, I'm And you are doing all the things you're telling.

You're doing what I have told you to do. You are tracking your symptoms, you're tracking everything. So you're like, hang on a second. I'm feeling anxious. I'm feeling worried. I'm extremely bloated in my ovulatory phase. What is going on? Or I must be having some sort of hormonal imbalance, right? And that's what your mind will go to straight away.

So how, what I call outsourcing your power then is what most people do is where then they will go to their doctor to go and get a blood test to be told, give me a diagnosis so I can fix this. So I can start feeling better on my ovulatory face. And it's called outsourcing your power because it's easier to give someone else the power.

Over your body and let them tell you what is happening to you. Then to go deep and do the inner work and understand what is [00:10:00] actually happening. Because nine times out of 10, it is probably your environment. It is probably the stress you are under. It is probably the million things that you have to do that's on your plate.

It's most likely a mindset thing, which sounds so annoying and so simple, and you just want to slap me, I'm sure, because you're like, no, Gemma, I'm getting signs of bloating that that's a symptom. You've told me this is a symptom, so this is where I need to check my levels, right? Okay. I've talked about bloating around ovulation before, and yes, you can get bloated if say you are not detoxing estrogen properly out of the body.

So yes, this can be a hormonal thing, but the root cause could be a stress thing. It could be a stress thing, guys. It could, I'm not drawing out that it couldn't be necessarily the foods that you are eating and and things like that, but I've had many [00:11:00] clients now, and every time I go through with my clients, it always comes back to the environment they're in, the thoughts that they're thinking, the situations they're in, and just having someone to talk to and then me picking up on it.

And saying, hang on a second. Why were you feeling like that in the moment? You know, what are you, why do you feel like you're not good enough? Because that is a stressor that is gonna make you feel like crap, and that is what is going to cause this in quotation marks. Hormonal imbalance. And nowadays, what you'll see on social media, what you'll see on TikTok every, on all your reels is everything like balance your hormones, um, fixing hormonal imbalances.

Take this and just to balance all your hormones. And I think we overdoing it now. I think we're overusing it. Um, definitely hormonal imbalance is definitely a big thing for women, but. One [00:12:00] supplement, one pill, one diet change isn't going to change it as much as it will if you change your environment, especially if you are under that emotional resistance that I'm talking about.

So emotional resistance, when I talk about that, it means that there are things that are coming up for you in life that you are pushing away because you don't wanna deal with right now. And I know this, I, I know this feeling, guys. You're not the only one I. Totally understand this feeling and right now you are.

You could even be thinking straight away, it's not that Gemma. No, don't even go there. It's not that. And you could be straight away coming, justifying all the reasons why that is not the case. Because it's easier. It's easier to blame something outside of your control and. I did it for so long. I, as soon as I was diagnosed with something, [00:13:00] as soon as someone told me I had Hashimoto's and an Indirective thyroid disorder and I was going to have to be on medication for the rest of my life, I was like, oh, okay.

So that's why I'm tired all the time. Oh, okay. So that's why I'm hungry all the time. That's why I feel really depressed and I got on the medication and. It did a hundred percent. It fixed a lot of things like I actually did lose weight. I was gaining weight. But I still felt depressed. I still felt bad, so I kept going back to the doctors and I kept getting blood tests after blood tests, and they kept saying, you are normal.

You're normal. And I was like, I'm not normal. I don't feel normal. And I was so frustrated and. They said, okay, well you're a little bit like lower on the normal side. Like we can try to get you up or we can try. Actually no, that's not, that's a lie. I was actually optimal. I remember I was right in the middle.

I was spot on with my hormones. That's right. [00:14:00] And I said to my doctor, I still don't feel great. And they said, okay, well what we can do, because you're, you are smack bang in the middle. You are optimal. You are in the. Place that you're supposed to be, but there is a bit of a range there. So we could get you like on the higher end of the scale where maybe you'd feel a bit more energized and a bit and a bit better.

But that didn't make sense, does it? Like why would you not want to be an optimal, I've always talked about like, let's be optimal. I was in optimal and still wasn't feeling great. And the thing was, I kept going to the doctors to go tell me what's wrong, tell me what's wrong. Kept pointing at them and being like, it's your fault.

I'm feeling like this. Tell me what's wrong. Tell me, because I don't wanna feel like. This anymore. And you know, I went on anxiety medication and I went on that for like two weeks and I'm like, I don't need this. And I just realized it's me. And that's the hardest thing. I had to go inwards. I had to go. I'm not happy with where I'm at and unfortunately [00:15:00] I can't blame anyone for that.

I am here. And who I am today because of me, it is so much easier to blame my childhood, to blame my parents to blame. I don't know, schooling to blame people around me. It is so much easier to do that. But what is hard to do is look inwards and understand. Maybe it's me. Maybe I have. The choice here. Maybe I'm the one that keeps pulling me back to feeling like this because I've kind of felt like this for as long as I can remember.

Like, you know, not, not like I was fully depressed as a kid or anything, but it does feel some and a weird sort of way subconsciously, like, it's like my thermostat. It's like where I feel comfortable at. Um. Which is weird, and I wouldn't have admitted that if I hadn't done all the [00:16:00] work. You know what I mean?

Because I would've just felt like I would've been in denial saying, no, that's not the case. That's not the case. But that is the case, and it's harder to do that. It's so much harder to look at yourself and what's going on around you and. In your environment too. When I talk about environmental stress, I'm talking about like, how are you and your partner connecting?

How are you at work with the, with your colleagues? How are you with your children? Like, are you snapping all the time? You should be able to regulate your emotions and it is hard, um, like it's hard to regulate your emotions when you're a kid, right? And if we weren't taught as kids how to regulate our emotions.

Ha. So many adults are all walking around right now not understanding how to regulate theirs. And it's because of this. It's because when we were kids, no one ever taught us how to regulate our emotions. We were just told off, we were given a smack, we were sent to the naughty corner. [00:17:00] We were given time out.

Like no one taught us that. We just need to breathe. We just need to feel our bodies again. And also the co, the, the most, the, the word right there that I want you to remember is feel. We just need to feel and emotional resistance, which is this whole thing that I'm talking about in this episode, right? Is you.

Avoiding feeling because it's too scary to let those feelings in. And I get it. I don't, I don't want, like, I, I feel like bottled up, like tears are about to come up, but I don't want to, I wanna be strong. I wanna be, I wanna be, show my family that I'm brave, that I'm capable that, and I don't even understand why I'm crying.

You know what I mean? But sometimes that's what the body just needs. It's a release. I see these amazing breath work practitioners and they're now teaching [00:18:00] emotional releases because the thing that kids are doing right is they're actually having tantrums and. That is crazy for me to say, right? Because I'm like, Ugh, I can't stand when my kids have tantrums.

I can't stand grabbing my, you know, stop it, stop, stop thrashing about, stop cracking it just because you can't get nuggets. So. What do I mean by that? Well, kids throwing tantrums, that's their emotional release and us allowing them to do that. They're getting the emotion out. Some people like say you just let them have the tantrum and you just stay calm and you just stay collected and you wait till they get through it.

I heard someone even say on a video that you can sometimes be waiting their file even up to like 40 minutes to an hour. I am yet to do this. I'm not saying that's easy because I have tried with my kids and oh my God. It's just [00:19:00] that you have that connection as mom to your kids and just watching them go through that is like, you just wanna like be like, it's okay.

It's okay. Calm down. You know what I mean? But it's okay. We're not talking about that anyway today. But what I'm saying is letting your kids have tantrums is kind of a good thing because they're getting out their emotions. But when we, as we get older and older, we're told, well, we're told from a young age, don't have a tantrum.

Stop doing that in public. That's not good. That's rude. So as we get older, we learn to. Hold our emotions in. We learn to f in order to fit in with society. We can't be too loud, we can't be too happy, we can't be too angry, we can't be too sad. We have to be the politest of amount of emotion, if that makes sense.

So. You know how exhausting that is Over time, we're bottling it up. We're bottling it up, and then you think that you're doing the right thing by the [00:20:00] people around you or for yourself. You think you're being brave. But when an act, actual fact that bottling up is creating chemical reactions with your in your body, which is then where the hormonal imbalance can stem from.

So here you are going, okay. I am feeling crap in my ovulatory phase and I'm blaming it on like the doctor needs to do a blood test to figure out what I've got wrong. I've probably got an autoimmune disease. I've probably got this. I've probably got that. Why doesn't he just tell me, oh, I need to go to a naturopath.

I know they'll tell, tell me that. 'cause I bet it's the sort of foods I'm eating. I bet it's the foods that are making me feel like this, but nine times out of 10, it's because you are. Resisting the emotions that are coming up and you're not letting them out. You're bottling them up and it's creating all this inflammation within your body.

So you don't need to fix every feeling. You need to allow the feeling, allow to feel sad, allowed to [00:21:00] be irritated. It's okay, you know? Um, my husband. I love him so much and there's so, but there's times, you know, where sometimes I'll just feel crap and he just goes, I just want you to be happy. And I understand because it's uncomfortable to, to see someone feeling sad, to see someone feeling down.

But that's, those are the times where I say, it's okay. Nothing's wrong here. Like. I'm not angry with you. I'm, I'm okay. I'm happy with my life, but right now what my body needs me to do is it needs me to have a cry. It needs me to feel sad. It needs that. And then once it's out, I'll feel better. Like you see, most children, once they have a tantrum, once they got it all out, they end up feeling better.

It's a release from the body and we need that release. So I want [00:22:00] you, if you take anything from this episode, if you are tracking your symptoms and you are doing all the things that I'm telling you and you're still not feeling great, I want you to give, to allow yourself to have that emotional release.

If you are craving support right now and you are, you're struggling with this, this emotional res release, and you just are struggling, you don't have someone by your side to talk to, I am always here. Please, please, please reach out. You can reach out to me via email. You can reach out to me in my dms on Instagram.

I will always be here for you, especially if you are. You just need someone to be like. I am I am I related to everything that you said in the episode? I need that release. I also have my amazing one-to-one sessions, and we [00:23:00] go through a lot of this. I always say at the start of my sessions, I'm like, we are not doing anything to do with nutrition, with your fasting, with your plan, with your like.

Anything. We are going straight into mindset, mindset first, and that's what we do. We go through mindset and environment because they're the biggest things that we need to change first, so that you are empowered enough to then make the changes to your lifestyle. So if this resonated with you, please let me know.

Please reach out. I'm here for you guys. I'm so glad that I'm back into this. These episodes I have been missing talking on here, missing sharing with you all my life and my journey as well, because I think we're all on a journey and life is insane. And life has these big, big up and down moments, and [00:24:00] we all need to remember that.

That's okay. That's, that is actually a blessing in disguise. That's what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to go up and down on these rides because we're learning things. We're here to learn and grow and be our best selves. So I will be here. I will always be here for you all. Um, in saying that, I do also want to share that my balance program that I turned into a self-paced program is now.

On offer for $99. This has nine modules within it. It has, um, my mindset work. It has the, the, the balance workbook. It has all, everything to do with your hormones. Also, how to read glucose monitors, how to start fasting, and. Everything in between, and it is the program [00:25:00] where I have had the most successful changes with clients.

So I will leave the link in the show notes below if you are interested in this. Otherwise. Please reach out. I have my VIP strategy sessions at the moment going as well. Um, I will also leave the link for that as well and I'm just happy to be back guys. And I hope you enjoyed this episode. Please leading, leave a rating or review if you did, and I will talk to you all in the next episode, which will be back to weekly episodes.

Thank you all for listening. I love you all and have a great day. Bye guys.