Women’s Hormones, Nutrition and Stress Explained with Naturopath, Monica Keys

Feeling overwhelmed by health advice that sounds great online but falls apart in real life? Monica, a Naturopath and Nutritionist with over a decade of clinical experience in women’s hormonal health and fertility, joins me for a grounded chat about what actually helps when you’re juggling family, work and a body that’s asking for more support.

We get into the nuts and bolts of a personalised approach: tracking your real rhythms (hunger, energy, sleep, emotions), building nutrition that you can sustain, and understanding why stress can block progress even when you’re eating “well” and exercising. Monica shares why so many women under-eat, how protein and nourishment change the game, and why progress matters more than a perfect plan you cannot keep.

We also talk fertility and hormone balance in a practical, evidence-based way. That includes reviewing blood work like ferritin, setting clear targets, and using simple lifestyle supports you might not expect, like warmth and helping your body feel safe. The conversation goes deeper into stewardship, faith and responsibility, especially when you’ve done what you can and still need to trust in God's timing.

If you found this helpful, please subscribe, share it with a friend who needs more energy and more peace, and leave a review so more women can find the support they’ve been searching for.

Transcript

Welcome

Meet Monica And Her Work

Mel 0:22

Welcome to Beyond Organised, the podcast that helps you simplify your life and amplify your purpose. I'm Mel Schenker, life coach, speaker, founder of She's Organised, but, more importantly, a wife and mum of four little kids. If you've ever felt overwhelmed, like you're constantly juggling everything but never quite catching up, this is the place for you. Here we go beyond just the tidying up and creating systems. We're talking about real life strategies that bring order to your life, but also we talk about the things beyond the organising, the things that really matter, like your parenting relationships and so much more. So grab your coffee and let's dive in. Welcome back to another episode of Beyond the Organized. I have Monica here with me today. Now Monica is a naturopath and nutritionist with over 10 years of clinical experience. She specializes in female hormonal health and fertility. She's known for a practical, evidence-based approach that helps women understand their bodies and make sustainable changes. And outside of work, she's also a devoted mum who believes health should support real life, not complicate it. And from what I see, she's also a dog mum. So welcome to the show, Monica.

Speaker 1 1:36

Thank you so much. I love the name Beyond Organize. Like coming.

From Teaching To Naturopathy

Mel 1:41

It's about all the things that are important in life once we get the organizing out of the way. Yeah. Amazing. So I would love to hear what got you into your profession and doing what you do. What inspired you?

Flexibility Burnout And Seasons Of Mum Life

Speaker 1 1:57

Yeah, what what inspired me is I got out of school, was working as a kindergarten teacher, loved it, loved the children, but realized oh, a lot of them were having complex issues, complex health issues, complex behavioral issues. And there wasn't a lot I could do, but you know, document their behavior. There's conversations with the parents. And I was starting to, you know, explore better health myself and you know, seeing a naturopath, and I it just inspired me. I thought I would love to help families and children in their everyday lives, like, you know, basic nutrition that's practical, what's going on with their sleep, like all the things that they're doing every single day. How can I influence those so that they're going to get a more personalized and thorough outcome? And that's really where it started. And yeah, from there, my gosh, it's it's taken me so many places. You know, I've worked on health retreats, I've I've just done so many things. It's it's been amazing.

Mel 3:06

It really has wow. So do you find like are you working full-time in this? Does it work around your family? How do you make this work when you've got family enough to cover?

Speaker 1 3:18

Yeah, it's it's it has changed and evolved over time. When my daughter, who's now 12, was a baby, I was still studying a little bit. I was sometimes just seeing clients like for an hour or two here or there, fit fitting them in when I could. And so it's definitely evolved over time. You know, I I was living in Melbourne at one point and I had two clinics that I was running full-time, and that was really busy. That was really busy. Yeah, but also you're working when you're working for yourself, you do have a bit of flexibility. Like, you know, you can still go to an appointment that you need to go to, and you know, you can fit in family life around it. So th there's pros, pros and cons, of course.

Mel 4:03

Yeah, with different seasons, yeah. I get it.

Speaker 1 4:07

Healthcare treats are a bit harder. That would mean time away from family. Um both good and bad. Both good and bad, yeah, yeah. Like a lot of the guests would be like, I feel so relaxed. I'm like, of course, you might still have a whole family. Like exactly. You don't have all this, you know, stimulation going on. All the stimulation, yeah, yeah. Um, so you know, I it's like any mum, it's always a juggle. I've lowered my expectations over time. I've also got a point now where after 10 years, I've found I need to do lots of different kinds of work. And that really helps prevent burnout. Because when you're, you know, hearing really heavy stories from people and you're getting an insight to the complexities in their relationships and their minds, it's heavy. And always, yeah. Yeah. So I I need to balance that. So um sometimes now, like I'll do a little bit of disability support work, and somehow that gives me a bit more scope, a bit more balance. Or I like to do some behind the scenes like herbal medicine making for some companies, and and that gives me a way of using my skills with in balance. I I think balance is really important. It really is. We're gonna do it. Yeah, yeah.

Mel 5:29

I completely agree. That's what I help people with.

Speaker 1 5:33

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, that way you're not doing the same repetitive thing seven days a week, you're breaking it up into different aspects of that. And I I can't recommend that enough for longevity. You know, there's different stages. You have to build your skills sometimes, and then when you've got them, it's like, okay, I need to diversify them and refine them now.

Mel 5:55

And I think even for sorry to interrupt, but I think even for people who love routines, because I I I could easily eat the same thing, breakfast, lunch, dinner, I could do the same thing every day. But then, yeah, having a variety and changing things up again, I don't mind if every Monday I'm doing the same thing, every Tuesday I'm doing the same thing. And that I think having the variety though, then throughout the week is yeah, it it just helps long term to kind of not burn out because it gives you that that different thing to look forward to for the next day. Yeah. So it keeps you going. So even if you're someone that loves routines as much as I do, it can be great to spread those routines out further to break things up and have some creativity in there.

Speaker 1 6:42

Like you've really, you've really nailed it on the head. I mean, routines help us achieve more, and that's certainly what I've found. Like with routine, I actually get more done all together. But I plan for that adaptability and I plan for that creativity. Yeah, I I plan for that to exist. It might be like, yeah, you know, Wednesday is like this and Monday is like this. And of course, life still happens and throws on things sometimes. More freeing though, isn't it?

Mel 7:14

It's just more free.

Speaker 2 7:15

Absolutely.

A Whole Life Approach To Health

Mel 7:16

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Because I I used to be too organized, overorganized, to the point where I had no joy and I was miserable and asking God, what the heck's going on? And it's like, I need to chill out a little bit, I need to let go of control a little bit. So yeah, balance is just critical for anything that you're doing to have a healthy balance and not be too far one way or another. Life is too short to get caught up in these things. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So at the moment, how do you help people? Like, what's your method or process in what you do?

Speaker 1 7:57

Yeah. So I predominantly am working with women, sometimes men. It is nice in a couple to be influencing both, but often it's the woman that will seek me out. And so I'm I'm finding out as much as I can about her body, what kind of symptoms it's giving her, what it feels like, what its rhythms are, from like when are you hungry? When are you more tired? When are you more emotional? All of these things. And then what does her everyday life tend to look like? What is her week? What does her month look like? So before I'm even suggesting anything to her, I want to know her. What is she doing? What are her goals? What are her plans? And then we're looking at those minute things that she's doing. You know, is she is she hungry when she wakes up in that first hour, or is she not? Is she exercising at 10:30 at night or 10:30 in the morning? Like, you know, what is what is she doing and how is that fitting into her life? And so, you know, through that, yes, I'm I'm focused on getting her her supplement routine, getting her her diet and her meal plans that are personalized to her, looking at what other lifestyle methods could be something simple like dry skin brushing, it could be using hot water bottles every day, you know, trying to increase overall body temperature. It could be simple things like that that we're using. We could be making sure that her feet are covered all the time so that you know her ovaries are gonna be warm. It could be really simple things like this that we that we're in that we're incorporating, but it's impossible to look at just one aspect without the others. So it's like, well, how are your finances? Because you're preparing for a baby. Like, what are your financial goals? How are you reaching them? What does that look like? Let's do a bit of planning. You know, how's your how's your work going? What is that looking like? How can we plan a bit for that? You know, in that'll come up relationship things as well, because you know, our relationship stories evolving, our communication, our stories that we're telling ourselves or telling our partner, and our habits are there, and it's like, okay, what does this look like? So often people will go away from the first session with me and be like, oh my gosh, this is my life is like, whoa, I wasn't quite expecting this. It was like I've just seen everything in one. It's like, but I've realized, you know, over the years, with more and more studying seeing more and more people, it has to look like that if we're gonna get results. And we're gonna have to do that.

Speaker 2 10:33

You've got to have the whole picture. You've got to have the whole picture.

Stress Weight And Eating Enough

Mel 10:37

Yeah. Because there's no point helping with a dietary thing if there's something completely counteracting it and adding stress to the body that's just not gonna help. So I'm not I'm not a professional in your area, so I'm not pretending to know, but I have struggled with my weight and that for most of my life. I have seen naturopaths and that too, and I do understand enough to go that I could eat well, exercise well, and I still didn't lose a gram because the stress that I was under was just not helping. And then I've had I've got four kids, so obviously I've gone through the four full-term pregnancies, and that is more stress on the body. And it's funny because I remember the doctor even saying at one point, because I was trying to work something out, she goes, Oh, you must be under a lot of stress. And I'm like, No, things aren't that bad. She goes, think about it, Mal. You're pregnant, you've got this, this, this, this, this, this going on. And I was like, Oh, well, I guess my body is under stress. I just didn't mentally sort of yeah, necessarily pick up on it. But there's a lot of factors that go into how we do things. And I mean, food and exercise and all that's a great help and great start, of course. But man, it's not gonna do much, I would think, long term if we don't deal with some of these other things. My understanding.

Speaker 1 12:05

Absolutely. Well, look, well, kudos to you for just being so capable that you're like, oh, am I stressed? I didn't even realise. I just either that or you're just running blindly around four kids, and you're like, I don't know what's going on. Yeah.

Mel 12:20

Look, I was in that particular moment. I'd have to say that there's probably a little bit more stress I'm recognizing now. Yeah. I think that was about three kids in. Now it's four. Okay, yeah. And I'm running the business and the podcast. I'm thinking, okay, I can see how my body is. You can see it now.

Speaker 2 12:37

Yeah. Yeah.

Mel 12:38

It doesn't matter how much I love what I'm doing and where I'm at, it's there's a lot going on.

Speaker 1 12:42

So it's acknowledging that it's a lot. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, some women I can see it can be like, you know, you're eating great. Like, you know, if I look at your macros, your microsh, everything's great, but maybe you're just not eating enough for what your body requires because it's trying to heal and balance hormones. And so it needs more. It just needs more right now.

Mel 13:05

That was one of my problems.

Speaker 1 13:07

Yeah. Yeah.

Mel 13:13

But yeah, but then you just think I've got to eat less, I've got to eat less, I've got to burn more than what I consume and all of that. And it was not wasn't working for me. It doesn't help.

Speaker 1 13:23

It's, you know, it's so common.

Mel 13:24

It was adding more stress to my body.

Speaker 1 13:27

It's so common. A lot of women are doing this like eating like a bird type thing, or not not eating regular. And it's it's that mindset change of you've got to think about nourishing your body, having energy, nourishment. I need the fuel. Sustainable.

Mel 13:42

Sustainable long term, right? None of those things were sustainable. And so even if I did lose some weight, it didn't stay off for long because it wasn't sustainable. And it's not that I went back to, you know, a whole lot of junk food and stuff. I'd go back to just eating a bit more or something. And then and it was just, it was horrible. But in some ways, I've got to say, I'm grateful to be free from that uh oppression because I didn't realize, and you probably see this a lot, and that's probably why it weighs heavily on you as well with what you deal with. But like when food and everything is such a controlling thing, and I was I was held captive by it for 30 years of my life, you know, and I'd have to say the last four or five years, I haven't been a slave to it as much, and yeah, I'm still not the perfect weight, but I can actually get on with my life to the point where I've accepted. Look, I've had four kids, I'm not getting rid of everything. There's gotta be some bits with me. I but I can get on with it. I I get in the pool with the kids, I do things now, and I've just I'm okay with who I am and what I've done. I've also realized I don't know if you see this, but I look back and go, oh my gosh, when I was 20, I wish I recognized how good my body was then. I would love to go back to that. And now I but the narrative I've been saying to myself now is you know what, another 10, 20, 30 years, I'm gonna look back on now and go, I wish my body was that good. Like even looking at his skin, like what? That was amazing. Exactly. And it's like, you know what, it's perspective, depending on what age, what time, what season you're in, it's all perspective. And I'm choosing to live in a perspective that, well, for starters, I see myself more the way that God sees me, but also appreciating the fact that a few years from now I'm gonna be like, oh, I should have appreciated how I looked a bit more.

Speaker 1 15:51

Absolutely. But I mean, look at the function of your body. You were able to have four children. Like that is a fantastic body. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It did its job well. It did its jobs its job well. Some women are, you know, they're trying to get that body that you have. Yeah. Or and I mean your husband must like you, like, you know, four kids. It's like it's so it's so it's pretty helpful. You're running a business, you're doing a podcast. It's like the body's working pretty damn good. I I think it's pretty marvelous. Like, wow.

Mel 16:24

Yeah.

Speaker 1 16:25

That's it. That's it.

Mel 16:27

So what is one thing that you wish more women would know in what you do? Because I've kind of hijacked this a bit, so I'm gonna let you professionals think on this.

Speaker 1 16:39

Oh, one thing, one thing I wish more women would know is to just pace themselves. And it's something I've had to learn. Progress is good. Getting it all done, maybe not in a day, maybe not in the way that you think. Progress. Just have to go, it's not perfect, but it was some progress. I got a little bit further along towards that thing uh I'm doing in my house, that thing I'm doing in my business, my house, being a bit cleaner, whatever it is. It's like I I didn't get it all done, and I don't think there's a single day at the moment where I do and have for all, but I'm progressing every single day. And to me, that that's pacing, and and that's what I have to teach people. It's pacing. You're not gonna get all these results in one day or one week, but you're gonna make progress and you're gonna keep making progress and keep that steady pace where we're not going too slow so that nothing is happening and and you know, the train is not weaving, but we don't need to rush either, we're just progressing all the time. And to me, that's kept me working as a mom, it's kept me balanced, and I see it in other women too. I'm like, consider this nitpicking at yourself, which you know, we're so good at, which really that nitpicking should just be about clarity or truth or facts, but we use it towards ourselves instead, like, oh my gosh, my cycle wasn't perfect last night. These are the kind of kind of things I might hear from women. Oh, you know, my my my diet was like this or this. It's like, okay, that's fine. You're still progressing, you're still pacing yourself well. That's okay. That is okay. Progress is good, we'll take it.

Mel 18:24

Yeah. I love that message, and that completely aligns with even what I do with helping women with getting organized and all of that too. And it sounds like you're saying the same thing with their health and and their food, because it really is about long-term sustainability, but also you want to enjoy each day, you want to have time each day to enjoy what you're eating or what you're doing, depending, you know, whether we're talking about health or talking about organizing. I mean, it's all part of our lives, but any win is worth celebrating, it's worth acknowledging.

Organisation As The Nutrition Secret

Speaker 1 19:02

Celebrating. And you know, what what you've said is perfect because really to have good health, it requires organization. And that's that's something I've said to so many women. It's like if you come home from work and you're hungry and you're tired already, and there's no dinner options, no good choices are gonna be made in that moment. Like reach for the quickest and easiest thing. Yeah. So I and I'm like, that's the same for everybody. I'm like, the easiest way to eat an 80%, 20% diet where 80% of the time you're on track, you're getting your protein, you're getting all those things you need is a bit of organization. Um you know, that that's the secret. Everyone's like, what's the secret to nutrition? Just still being a little bit organized. There's no way around it, unfortunately.

Mel 19:54

Yeah. Well, I have to look at what days, like I know on a Tuesday I'm gonna be home late. I kind of get home at dinner time. I'm in the city all day, get home, and so I know I'm not gonna have time to cook. So then on the Monday night, I've cooked enough stuff, or sometimes even the Sunday night, I've cooked enough stuff that there's the leftovers and that. And my husband just has to quickly make a salad to go with it, and we're good. Like it's sort of preempting, and it doesn't even have to be that you're making big meal plans and stuff. I mean, yeah, obviously you you teach your way, but I know for me, a lot of the time it's just making sure that I've got good leftovers, some of the chicken leftover or whatever it is that's just easy to heat up, or the chicken I can even eat cold with the roast chicken. Um and then you just add the salad and that with it, and boom, there's another dinner, and it took five seconds, and it's quicker than going to get takeaway. And it's certainly a lot cheaper than going to get takeaway. Yeah, it's it's very costly now. It's crazy. Yeah, uh, yeah. I can't even believe. I mean, we saw, I know this is not probably a great thing to talk about, but let's be real here. Yeah, um, we um when we went away not long ago, we went to get a McDonald's share box thing with the family, and there is six of us. And I could not like my husband and I look at each other like, clearly we haven't bought this in a while because I don't remember it being this expensive.

Speaker 1 21:27

Yeah, right. It's not even a cheap option anymore. So it used to be like you'd get takeaway and it was cheap, and now it's like, oh, it's it's not cheap. That that's not why you do it.

Mel 21:40

This same amount of money. I mean, last night we did a big barbecue cookup. We had all the sausages, had the chicken kebabs, had the salad, made some like side salad y thing, what's it called? Pasta salad kind of thing. And uh but I had like a whole spread of things and it cost less than that, and the kids loved it. They love the chicken kebabs. Oh my goodness.

Speaker 1 22:03

It's like weather. Yeah, that's that's amazing. Yeah, it's so true. And you know, it doesn't mean that as a family you could never get takeaway or that could never happen. But you it's kind of ideal to plan for that. To be like, oh, this is what we're gonna get, and this is roughly when we and it was.

Mel 22:24

We're we're on holidays, it was part of the plan, but we're just kind of like, geez. That's mind-blowing.

Speaker 1 22:29

I know it's mind-blowing. It's mind-blowing, it's it's crazy. Yeah. We're gonna all have to become back like they were in the 70s. I I was actually reading recently like the kind of meals that families would eat in the 70s, and there's a lot more legumes, they're cheaper, and there wasn't all these takeaway options or pre-packaged meals, it just wasn't available. Yeah, but they're also paying off a mortgage and one income back then.

Mel 22:55

It's like you know, look, it's all relative. I think every generation has got its own struggles and its own things to deal with. But I know from what I'm seeing, and and probably what you're seeing too is that there's a lot of information coming at us everywhere, and there's a lot of things to compare with, a lot of people to compare with now, as well. And comparison certainly is the thief of joy. Um, and it just and there's just so much going on that no wonder women are so overwhelmed and so exhausted, and just they'd rather just go to bed than try and deal with anything. Like whatever. It's just I get it, it's hard, but I love that you're dealing in an area that I don't really deal with very much. I can help a little bit with the meal planning in terms of their timing and scheduling of things, but as to what to eat, that's not my thing. That's not what I do, and I'm still learning it myself.

Speaker 1 23:58

We're always learning, that's great. But yeah, you've touched on the organization, which is it's so important. Yeah, it's so important.

Where To Start With Food

Mel 24:06

Yeah. Yeah. And what's something that you find if if there's a mum out there that's like, okay, where do I get started? What's the best way to get started? What's some advice you might have on that?

Speaker 1 24:20

For a lot of them, it will be their nutrition because that is gonna boost their energy quite a lot. Yeah, it's something they have to do. You have to eat every day. So I know that they're gonna be able to afford to do that. You know, I I'm not adding in anything that they're not already doing. And and that's why I love nutrition. It's like, you are gonna eat every day. So you are doing this thing already. I'm not asking you to go skydiving or something crazy. Oh gosh, no, no, no, no. You're here doing what you're doing. So, you know, we might look at when is she shopping? Is she shopping weekly? Is she shopping fortnightly? What are some of the meals that she's having for her family? The average Australian only has three recipes that they tend to rotate and go to. Isn't that crazy?

Mel 25:06

That's a bit boring.

Speaker 1 25:08

Yeah, it's it's crazy. It's boring.

Mel 25:16

I'd say I'd have at least seven I rotate around. And even then, there's a few that I'll pull out once or twice a month, and I've got a number of those. Like, I don't know, like three?

Blood Tests Iron And Fertility Targets

Speaker 1 25:28

Oh my gosh. Yeah, but you know what you know what it is, people, and they're not putting a lot of thought into it. That's the reality, is like if you have three or four meals that are really good, then maybe just every week you do one or two new recipes and you still keep to to three or four, or or three or four type meals that don't have to be, you don't have to make like some seven-layered lasagna or something ridiculous. Like you don't want to do much energy on it. No, no one's asking for that. I mean, you know, slow cooker, slow cooked meats, barbecued meats, like simple, simple food can be really yummy, really nutritious. Yeah. Doesn't need to be more than that. So we start there. Is it meeting her goals? If she's trying for a baby, is she only eating all cold foods? Not gonna work very well. Is she eating protein with with all her meals? Is she having good fat? Is she having enough fiber? I'm gonna calculate all of that. And then I'm gonna calculate that against her bloods. So I'm gonna look at her blood work and her pathology, and I'm gonna go, where is her ferritin at? What is she eating? Now, to get her ferritin where I need it to be, so that we're not just getting her fertile and pregnant, we're not just getting good ovulation, but we're preventing nausea in the first trimester because she's gonna have more iron, her blood volume's gonna increase easier. She's gonna have more energy, all these things that we want, we're gonna prevent miscarriage even with higher iron levels. Is her diet meeting that? It might be, but then we're looking at how long is it gonna take to get optimum based on what on what she's eating at the moment. And we will literally calculate that and make it really simple. Like you need to be eating this much red meat this many times a week, this much nuts or seeds, this much legumes, and we will make that really simple for her. So that she's like, I've got this, I know what to do. I also know how long it's roughly gonna take. We're probably gonna need a supplement too for most people if they're quite low. So it's it's really detailed. Like ferritin's just one example. But I will match her blood work with where she needs to go to get her hormones and fertility there and what she's doing. Is it gonna meet that target? Um we'll need to.

Mel 27:49

I didn't realize it was so complicated. Even before when we said about the headpack to like stay warm and the the socks on the feet and all this stuff to help with ovulation. I'm like, what? I've never heard of this before.

Warmth Safety And Conception

Speaker 1 28:02

I didn't realize it was so we need we need a woman's body to feel safe and warm. If she can feel safe and warm, she could have endometriosis, she could have PCOS, she could have any of these diagnoses, and she can still conceive a baby because her body, her environment feels safe, her external environment, so it does matter not that she's living in a palace, but that she's living somewhere where she feels safe. Um safe too. Is it is she nourishing it? Does she have enough nutrients in abundance so that the body's like, yes, I can conceive, I can conceive. Well, and of course, prayer, like you know, there's all these things we come into it, but I cannot tell you the amount of times that it's like, oh, that was 100% a God job. Like, how you're having a baby right now when when you were told, like, no, you uh it's not likely you can try and do many rounds of IVF, it's not gonna be successful, and then you this lady's got a baby, and I'm like, this is God's will, like this is yeah, it's it's great when like we know that doesn't matter, even as coaches and and health professional and and all of that, we know what we're doing, we know what we're talking about, but we can only take it so far.

Mel 29:28

There are some things where we just have to rely on God to fill in the gap as well, and and trust that He has a bigger plan and a plan for your life, and one that is good and that pleases him too. And so sometimes if science says one thing, doctor says one thing, then you just do the best you can. And I think someone in your profession really gives the absolute best chance possible to do what you can within your own power and your own, you know, ability, and then you just gotta let God be God. Let him do his thing.

Speaker 1 30:06

Ultimately, do it's it's gonna be his timing, and often I find it's not uncommon that he will do things at a time that means you have to rely on him and you have to go, oh, okay, fine.

Mel 30:18

This is your timing, painful, uncomfortable, like stretching, and you just think, God, I don't want to be stretched anymore. But it's just it's always the way, isn't it? It's when things are just so because it requires faith, and there's just no other way around it because there's this disconnect between where you are and where you want to be, and the only way to connect that is faith in because there's nothing more that can be done. There's just absolutely nothing more that can be done, and you just gotta trust all right, God, I'm letting go and I'm letting you be you, do what you do, and it's so uncomfortable. I'm walking through my own thing right now of that. So I'm saying this as someone walking through it, where as much as I'd love to have everything controlled, everything planned, I've got the next 20 years of my life planned out, you know. As much as I'd like to do all that, I have to just be I can't. I've gotta, I've just gotta let God be God and I've just got to step out of the way. I've got to get out of the way of my own life, really.

Faith Stewardship And Small Choices

Speaker 1 31:27

Yeah, I I honestly he takes me to the same places all the time, and I'm I'm also there again, because that's that's where he wants us. It's like again, it's like, yes, relying on me. Sorry, not not just on yourself. Yeah, so yeah, we're we're all work walking that journey because that's that's where he wants us, reliant on on him. And it's it's tricky. Yeah, we we still need to be organized and and make our plans because there's a balance there too, where you know, for me with people with health issues, fertility, I'll see some Christians and they don't balance that level of self-responsibility in it too. And it's like, well, you're praying and you're asking, but you still need to be a good steward of your time, what you're doing, and your body, and that's you having faith too, is going, I trust you, God, that if it's your will, you'll do this, but I'm also going to move in in towards that as well. Yeah. Where it's easy to be like, no, well, I don't have to have any responsibility. God will just do this miracle for me.

Mel 32:36

It's like, no, it's very uh if that was the case, he would have kept us as children forever. That he's given us a brain, the ability to to grow and to respond and be responsible and all of that too. And so I love the fact that I can have adult conversations with God. Yes, I can have childlike ones too, but I can have deeper adult conversations with him that I wouldn't have if I was quite immature in how I was handling my life. So he can see what I'm doing and how I'm trying with all these things and how I am a good steward with a lot of things. It's like, well, okay, you were good with little, now I can give you more. And even with your health, okay, you might struggle with, I don't know, sweets. You might struggle with sweets, and that's something that you I mean, I love chocolate, I will admit. I haven't had any in the house for like a week, and I'm I've got to keep it that way. Um, but sometimes you love sweets, and then you might go, okay, oh no, I've made a big mistake. Oh no, I've had some chocolate. And it's like, well, hang on a second. It's okay. You get back on, you try again, and God will see your crying and your ability behind the scenes when no one's watching. He will see if you actually make that decision to go, nope, I'm not gonna eat that. And yes, okay, you might end up eating it down the track, but he is proud of you each moment in those moments when you're making choices that are for life, that's good choices. And then there might be other moments where he goes, it's okay, you can have that chocolate. Yeah, just have it now and then move on. Like, and it's okay too when you are intentional with what you're doing, and I say this a lot with organizing and stuff. When you're intentional with the small things, then you can handle the bigger things later on as well. So anyway, yeah.

Speaker 1 34:38

We do our part and and God does his part, but like that's it's a relationship, and that's what works. And and it's the same with health too. Yes, he does hit like there's plenty of people that get healed, plenty of all of that, but we still do our part. Yeah, we're still destroying. Yeah, absolutely. Yep, yeah.

Mel 35:00

And one day at a time, let's not get ahead of ourselves. One day at a time. Yeah, uh, yeah, yeah.

Personalised Plans That Become Natural

Speaker 1 35:07

It is tricky. But yeah, look, I I love the work I do. I've seen all kinds of results for you know, women who are willing, they're willing to really examine their lifestyle, they're really willing to take that journey, and they get results they didn't think that they could. They're happier, they have more energy, more joy, and what more could I ask for? What more could I ask for?

Mel 35:33

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think at the very basic level, I think that's what women want is just to have a little bit more energy, a little bit more joy, a little bit more things. But I love that from what you're doing, they could have a lot more, really. And that's that's exciting too.

Speaker 1 35:55

Yeah, I mean, the more you educate someone over time, the more it will just become subconscious too. I have to say, like keeping the same example of like your iron and your and your food for someone who's got low iron. Not everyone does. I'm like what I'm teaching you at the moment, after a while, it will become subconscious. You'll just naturally know that when you're looking at your food. You're not gonna be counting on a measuring, you're just gonna have an idea, like have I kind of reached my target for this week and over time. It'll just become natural. It might be the same when you know someone's learning to eat enough protein throughout the day, which is also huge for a lot of them. I'm going, are you meeting that 60 or 70 grams? At first, it might be like, well, this is how much protein is in all these different foods, and this is an idea of a day. But I'm like, over time, it's not gonna be perfect, you might not always meet it, but it's gonna become subconscious to you, and you'll just start to realize, oh yeah, like I just know and I just get it. So it's it's the work pays off. It's like learning another language, and then over time you're like, oh yeah, I understand it, and and I'm speaking it, and it's just normal, it's just natural to me. Yep, the consistency pays off. Yeah, you learn the language, definitely you just pick it up. But yeah, eat diet is a huge thing, but also, you know, we touched a bit on simple things. It might even be that they're exercising, but the exercise is not right for their fertility, or like you mentioned before, where their stress levels are. It's like that's a great type of exercise for somebody else with a different job, different lifestyle, yeah, different hormone cycle. It's not for you, it's not it's not gonna help you. It's not for you.

Mel 37:41

I like that I like that personalized approach because honestly, we are all so different, our makeup is all so different, so it's great to have your expertise and your pair of eyes on it and looking to see if I can help.

General Advice Versus Real Support

Speaker 1 37:59

Yeah. But I think that personalized approach, it's a hard thing in a digital world because what people are are doing is they're looking for generalized information. And and I think that's generally cheaper. I get that, I get that.

Mel 38:16

Yeah, not always cheaper than always best.

Speaker 1 38:21

Cheap is not always cheaper, you know. It it can seem that way, but it can be more expensive in the long run because it takes you longer to get there. You you're trialing different things, instead of being like, Well, you didn't need to be doing these five or ten things or buying those five or ten things, you only needed to be doing these three things, and that's yeah.

Mel 38:40

I'm living proof of that, even when it comes to health and that too. I oh, there's some things that I just wish that I did years earlier, and it would have saved me more money in the long run. Just going, yeah. That's okay. Yeah, that's all right. That's okay.

Speaker 1 38:56

We learned that you're learning and you're sharing that information with others. So you can plant those seeds with people too. But I I get it, like budget is a real thing, as I'm I'm sure you know in your work too. Cost of living is high. There is a lot of financial pressure, and there's a lot of debt. And I I don't believe that that's what God wants for us. I really don't. Like, you know, I look at the system that people are, and I'm like, I don't believe God wants you to be in that much debt. I don't want you not only that he wants you to be that exhausted. I don't believe that.

Mel 39:30

Oh man, I I feel like that's another whole thing. That's a whole nother I agree because I feel like the enemy wants to keep us broke, so then we can't step into our purpose and our calling. So you know, it's that is something to look at too.

Speaker 1 39:47

But anyway, we we can't used to be broke, unhealthy, like you know, fatigued, have have these health issues. He wants all those things that are just gonna keep us drained. It's like I can't destroy you or drain you.

How To Reach Monica And Wrap Up

Mel 40:03

Yeah, uh, exactly. And yeah, I think between the two of us, we certainly cover a lot where we're gonna be putting the enemy out of a job. So that's good. That's good, that's excellent. So, Monica, if some beautiful woman is listening right now thinking, I know that I need a bit of help with my diet, I need a bit of help with my fertility, where can they find you?

Speaker 1 40:32

I still find most people find me on Instagram, and that is still a great place. The reason being is that I'd encourage you to send me a message, tell me what's going on so that I can know straight away, can I help you or not? Because I want to be realistic about that. Are you someone that I'm actually going to be able to help? And if not, can I can I point you in another direction? Um, and if I can help you, I want an idea, be able to tell you what that's gonna look like. So I I really encourage, let me know what's happening for you. If, you know, whatever's happening in your diet, are you like, am I are you craving lots of sweets? I've I've been there, it's just it's not an issue I have anymore. That's not that I hate them, but I I don't crave them. I I just don't feel like them. And that is possible control over you. Yeah, I just I just don't even I don't even think about it a lot. And believe me, it was not always like that. Once upon a time it was like a must. You cannot get through the day. So so I know what that feels like, as an example. Or whatever it is that's happening for you, yeah. Just ask me, tell me. And then from there we can look at what's right for you. You know, is it then gonna be that first consultation where we create a plan for you to go away with? I actually find with my clients they go away with a plan. And then we often have communication on WhatsApp in between where it's like you can ask me a question here or there, we can make sure your plan is working, you're sticking to it. So, yeah, I always say just talk to me. So I can be like, hmm, is this actually gonna work for you? Am I the right person to help you? Yeah, because we are all individual and we're getting lost in this digital world where it's things aren't personalized, things are very generalized. We're wondering why is this not working for me, or I'm trying this, and it's not bad, it's not bad to research, it's not bad to try and think for yourself, but it is okay to get that guidance, and I believe we're really encouraged to do that, and then it's it's faster, it's simpler, it's more cost effective, it's get all of your way to get all those things that we want. Yeah, definitely.

Mel 42:56

Lovely. Well, I'll make sure all the details are in the show notes to make it nice and easy for the listeners. But thank you so much for joining us today, Monica. Thank you. I've had such a good time and I appreciate it. Oh, you're welcome. If you like this episode, don't forget to hit subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you want to continue the conversation, you can connect with me on Instagram @shes.organised or for some free resources, head over to beyondorganised.com/toolkit. Remember, organising is a tool to live the purposeful life beyond it. See you next time.