Menopause, Unscripted.

Let's Cook: The Ultimate Veggie Bowl (Featuring Period Besties Podcast!!) || Episode 29

• Heidi Gastler X Stray Kat Studio • Season 1 • Episode 29

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Welcome to the very first installment of our Let's Cook series on Menopause Unscripted! In this episode, we're heading into the kitchen together over Zoom to create a simple, nourishing, and delicious Veggie Bowl packed with ingredients that support energy, satiety, and overall wellness in midlife.

Veggie Bowl Ingredients:
• 1 cup brown rice or quinoa
• 1 small roasted sweet potato, sliced
• 5–10 roasted Brussels sprouts
• 1 cup chickpeas
• 2 handfuls arugula, baby kale, and spinach mix
• ½ avocado
• 1–2 scoops herb tahini
• 1–2 scoops hummus

Check Out Period Besties Hosted by Stasha Washburn & Katie Bressack:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/period-besties-podcast/id1733680738

Follow Katie Bressack:
https://www.instagram.com/katiebressack/
https://www.facebook.com/KatieBressack/
https://katiebressack.com

Follow Stasha Washburn:
https://www.instagram.com/stashawashburn/
https://www.youtube.com/@UCVf3h04rTJDr4pJlb78OikA 
https://www.facebook.com/StashaWashburn/
https://theperiodcoach.com

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Menopause Unscripted is a women’s health podcast hosted by Dr. Heidi, the creator of Hey Dr. Heidi. Each episode delivers expert insights, real-life stories, and evidence-based information to help women navigate perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause with confidence.
This podcast covers topics such as menopause symptoms, hormone replacement therapy, pelvic health, sleep changes, intimacy and relationships, osteoporosis prevention, brain fog, mood shifts, and healthy aging. With a focus on science-backed advice and approachable conversation, Menopause Unscripted offers clarity, support, and practical tips for every stage of midlife.

Whether you are experiencing early menopause symptoms or seeking resources for post-menopausal health, Menopause Unscripted is your trusted source for reliable information and open conversation.

Want to be on the show?
Think you’d be a great guest or know someone with an important story to share? Email us at connect@heydrheidi.com.

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Produced By Stray Kat Studio & Katherine Donovan
straykatstudio.com
https://www.youtube.com/@stray.kat.studio

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SPEAKER_02

Thanks for joining me on Menopause Unscripted. Remember, the change is just another beginning. Welcome back to another week of Menopause Unscripted. I'm Dr. Heidi and I'm joined by two of my friends today, Katie and Sasha, who you'll meet in a minute. And we have a special kind of interactive episode going on for you today where we're all in our home kitchens and we are going to be working with you to make a very healthy, very protein and fiber-laced real food bowl. So this is a little bit of a cook-along. So if you have your ingredients, great. If you don't, don't sweat it. You can always come back to this and make it another day. So with that being said, would you two ladies introduce yourself and tell our audience a little bit about yourselves, your background, and why we're all cooking together today?

SPEAKER_05

Oh, you want me to go first? Yeah, because I want to present a guy pointing at me.

SPEAKER_02

Whoever.

SPEAKER_05

I love it. I'm Stasha Washburn. I am the period coach and founder of Period Coaching School. So I certify people now to become menstrual cycle coaches and peri-menopause coaches. Uh, I am a board certified health coach. I've also run restaurants and I had my own restaurant in Los Angeles. So I love to cook. I have farmers market booths. I did all of the food things because I love to eat. Like food is my love language. In fact, I just texted my neighbor and was like, why are you not coming for for dinner? Your husband is gone. Like, let me feed you. So do you know what we're making tonight? Exactly. I did tell her, I was like, I think I know what we're having for dinner tonight, but we'll see how it goes.

SPEAKER_02

It's so much earlier here that this is my lunch after we're done.

unknown

Yeah. Perfect.

SPEAKER_01

I can attest to that. Sasha is an incredible cook and she makes amazing gluten-free bread. Like I've never had any better bread than she's made. So thank you, Sasha, for all of those yummy treats.

SPEAKER_02

And my name is Can you send me a loaf? Can you send me a loaf?

SPEAKER_05

I can send you the link to it. It's very easy and it's very good.

SPEAKER_02

Beautiful. I need it.

SPEAKER_01

My name is Katie. I'm a holistic nutritionist and women's health coach. And I have been in practice for 16 years this coming October, which is mind-blowing to me. I work with women in all stages of life, supporting their hormones from misperiods, irregular periods, heavy cramps all the way through perimenopause and beyond, and really helping women build those foundations with diet and lifestyle, stress management, and really just helping them feel better in their body so they can kick ass in the real world. I love that.

SPEAKER_02

And could you please tell us, Katie, because you're the one who sent me this recipe, could you walk us through what we're doing here today with this recipe?

SPEAKER_01

Yes. So I love bowls. I feel like bowls are one of the easiest things to make because whatever's in your fridge, you can throw it in a bowl. It looks prettier than for me, anyways, than putting it on a plate because you can kind of put things in different areas and add different dressings, different toppings, different condiments. So today we're making a really simple veggie power bowl. And simple is best, honestly, because you can always add on, but the base is really, really helpful. So just to share ingredients one cup of brown rice or quinoa, a roasted sweet potato, roasted Brussels sprouts, a cup of chickpeas, and then a mix of your favorite greens. You could do arugula, which is my favorite, baby kale, baby spinach, half of an avocado for some good healthy fats. And then it's up to you. You could do hummus on top, you could do tahiti. Some people like tahziki. There's so many different things that you can do. But the best thing about this is that this is the base. And then if you want to add more protein to it, we're gonna do some chicken and hard-willed eggs today. You can do that. You could add salmon would be great with this. So bowls are amazing because you can prep everything on a Sunday and then put everything in the fridge and pull things out throughout the week for lunch or dinner and just add things to for be creative. I think that's what the best part about having the base and then be creative with how you're gonna cook and what you're gonna do to it. So this is what we're gonna be doing today. And you can get the recipe on Dr. Heidi's Instagram page as well. She's gonna have all of that listed out for you if you didn't see it already.

SPEAKER_02

And it'll be all in the show notes too. So if you are following along, great. And if you're not, you can find it, you can watch this again and cook along with us at your at your leisure. I'm gonna just kind of tell you everything that I meal prepped before because I do all my meal prep on Sundays, which is one of the ways and strategies I use to help allow me to make healthy meals at home. So yesterday I sheet pan roasted. And I know this doesn't look like what your picture showed, but I did my Brussels sprouts and my sweet potatoes together. And as I admitted to you earlier, I peeled three sweet potatoes last night and realized that two of them were not actually sweet potatoes and they were Japanese Ms. But same, same, but different, just a different color. So I have a little bit of mix of veggies, and then I cooked my chickpeas before. I totally think people should use canned chickpeas too, but I decided to give it my hand at like cooking them from dried, which I'm super excited about because I'm gonna be honest, it's the first time I've ever cooked them from dried. And then I did brown rice because I prefer it to quinoa. Everyone's got their preferences. And then I grilled chicken sundae, which I've got on here, which probably doesn't look super appetizing, but I'm super excited to put in the bowl. And then Avo and arugula. What do you ladies have?

SPEAKER_05

Amazing. I did the same thing. I she I sheet pan roasted my, I don't know if it'll zoom over there, my uh Brussels sprouts, my sweet potatoes together. So I popped those all together and roasted them. And actually, I did that this morning because it was just easy peasy and delicious. And uh I it was easy to do. I did uh hard-boiled eggs on Sunday because I also do a lot of my batch cooking on Sundays. So I did all of my uh hard-boiled eggs on Sunday, and then I'm gonna use the rest of them to make probably deviled eggs for tea because I host I'm hosting ladies mountain ladies' tea this week.

SPEAKER_02

So I'm probably gonna turn it mountain ladies' tea? How cute and cool is that?

SPEAKER_05

It's our little weekly, a little weekly group. So uh I got hummus. I used to make my own hummus because the citric acid in hummus sometimes bothers my tongue. I have geographic tongue. Uh, but I was lazy this week and I just went ahead and bought it.

SPEAKER_02

So it's Saturday.

SPEAKER_05

Oh nice. I like it. And then I made my brown rice and a rice cooker because rice cookers are for so much more than just rice. I one of my favorite pieces of kitchen equipment, and as a chef in my previous life, I recommend having a rice cooker in your house. They're cheap, they're easy. You can do. In fact, I steamed the hard-boiled eggs in my rice cooker. No way, that's the thing. Boom. Yep. It's so good. You can steam veggies, you can do all sorts of stuff in a rice cooker, you wouldn't guess. Uh, so I definitely recommend that. And I cooked, I actually soaked my brown rice beforehand for 24 hours with a little bit of apple cider vinegar to help make it more digestible. And then I cooked it in bone broth, which I always have. Uh actually, there's a crock pot right behind the computer right now that is making bone broth right now. So there's always a crock pot of bone broth going in my kitchen. So that's I think everything. Oh, and I haven't been able to get good avocados. So I'm doing the old Costco avocado in a cup deal. It's just avocado and sea salt, so there's nothing in it. Uh, but at least I know that the dollar I spent on this versus the avocado, I'm actually getting the avocados.

SPEAKER_02

So I know I did the thing where I'm like, so can you give me one that's ready for Wednesday? We're gonna see. I mean, it's always a bit of a, you know, it's always a bit of a gamble, but we're gonna hope that this is beautiful when I open up because I've been holding on to this baby bad boy since Saturday, and I'm still busy.

SPEAKER_05

Mine have all been soft on the outside and rock hard on the inside lately.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, and it's like such a thing, it's like you get it and you're like, it's good for like, you know, five seconds, but I think that way just brilliant because the whole idea with this is make it easy, accessible, so we can cook at home. So that little cute cup of guacamole for the win.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I always like to get the avocados hard too. And then if you put it in a brown paper bag when you need them, because unfortunately, since leaving LA, I also don't have the best avocados.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And something that I've been doing, just buying them harder and then putting them in a brown paper bag. I can give you a tour of what I did. So we usually do everything on Sundays as well, but we were coming off of spring break. The boys went back to school Monday and it was just kind of chaos all last week. So we kind of shifted things and we've been doing a little bit throughout the week. So after Stash and I actually did a podcast earlier, I came out and roasted some veggies. I did sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts. I did a little bit of olive oil and some sea salt. And I made quinoa. I did this with bone broth as well, because I love good bone broth. I personally don't like the taste of quinoa without a broth. I feel like it tastes too grainy. You're also supposed to rinse quinoa first as well, and that helps. And I do that too, but I still feel like it's too grainy, especially for a bowl. I like having the flavor. So I did that. And I have some hummus as well. Costco find. And what I'm gonna add on top, besides the arugula and the avocado, is I'm gonna add some extra cashews for some extra protein to kind of keep it like a veggie bowl. But I just love different textures in bowls. So the smoothness of the avocado, the crunchiness of the cashews and the veggies, and the smoothness again of the quinoa. Um, sorry, the hummus. I feel like that really helps stimulate my taste buds and I feel more satisfied with my meals. So that is why I decided to add something really, really crunchy in there too. I'm gonna look and see what nuts I have in my cabinet.

SPEAKER_05

I want to add sauerkraut. I did this morning when I was thinking about this recipe, I was like, I feel like I need something crunchy in it. And I have some homemade sauerkraut and I have plain and I have some that I put caraway seeds in. So I think I'm gonna keep a bowl with one of each and see which one I like with this better. But I gotta have some sauerkraut, something like cold and crunchy in there. That sounds really good.

SPEAKER_01

You can also add like some tart uh dry cherries or some cranberries too, to kind of give it a little bit of sweetness, or even pomegranate seeds would be good with this recipe too. If you were just if you always need something sweet after, add it in when you're getting the proteins and the fat, and that would help satisfy that after meal I need a sweet right now craving that so many of us get.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, like yeah, all of us. I think we all sounds like we all did bone broth for our rice and our quinoa as well, which I think is a really good tip. I've never heard about the apple cider vinegar before. So do you just use straight or just like with mix of water?

SPEAKER_05

Just a little bit in water. And if you're doing dried beans, dried grains, any of those, it just helps to make them more digestible down the line. It's like a little bit of pre-digestion, so to speak. Yeah. The apple cider vinegar, that fermentation process, just does that first round of releasing some of the right, because seeds and grains, all of those things are supposed to go through the digestive tract of an animal and make it intact to be spread down the line. And this helps remove that defense mechanism so it's more digestible for us. But it's just water with like a splash of apple cider vinegar in it.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. I'm gonna actually try that because I have really like a lot of problems with like low digestion. I have to actually take you know digestive enzymes oftentimes when I eat. And that's part of why I tried cooking my chickpeas from dry this time, is to see if I can digest them better. It'd be a little less like gassy and balloted and see if it helps my digestion with that. But I'm trying this tip next time because I've never even heard that.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, it's really helpful. I had a really like beans, legumes, those kinds of things really kind of bloat me. So I've always done it where I'll just get them out the day before I want to cook them, let them soak overnight, and then cook them the next day.

SPEAKER_02

No, that's a great tip. I say the beans, beans, and edible fruit song did someone the other day. And they had never heard it. And I was like, Am I in like a totally different generation? And I was like saying, saying the whole thing, I had the worst singing voice, but now I'm kind of like obsessed with singing it. And if you can hear my dog, he's currently singing it down by my feet because he wants me to just I thought that was my dog, and I was looking.

SPEAKER_01

I'm like, where is she?

SPEAKER_02

No, it's Doc. He's down here and he's like essentially singing the songs of the sad people, you know, waiting for the chicken because he wants something to drop.

SPEAKER_05

I thought it was one of my dogs too, but they're both passed out on the floor, right here, but on the floor.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, no, we just have like I'm super interested if I could tip this down. You can see him. What's you? Yeah, can you see him down here?

SPEAKER_03

Oh, yeah. There's his face.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, he's like, and he's singing the song of those people.

SPEAKER_01

Drop the food.

unknown

No.

SPEAKER_01

One more thing I was thinking as I was talking was roasting the chickpeas. That would have I've done that before too, where I could have put them with the Brussels sprouts of sweet potatoes and like roasted those too. Because those I love those as a snack. My kids actually will they won't eat chickpeas, but they'll eat roasted chickpeas. And that was something when you were talking, I was like, Oh yeah, like I totally could have roasted my chickpeas. I just forgot.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, have a little crunchy from that. Yeah, super good.

SPEAKER_05

Great snack, too.

SPEAKER_02

So let's talk just for a second before we start here about like kind of the magic of whole foods. And I just want to pause for a second, talk a little bit about some of the ingredients in here in terms of like the protein, the fiber, because we're all just so sick of hearing we need that. But like, can we talk just a minute for like what's the import of like protein, fiber, healthy fats? Like, what is this gonna do for our systems?

SPEAKER_01

I think the number one thing to think about is I wrote an article recently and I was shocked by this. 95% of Americans are not getting enough fiber, which is huge. That means only 5%, which is a very small percent, are actually getting enough fiber. And for so long, everybody was talking about protein. It's so important amino acids, building blocks. Like we need it, we need it to live. But I think that the protein craze went a little overboard. And in two ways, one, a lot of people just didn't have enough room to eat fiber. I hear that from my clients often. Like, I'm eating so much protein, I don't, I'm not hungry anymore. And also, I feel like a lot of us were not getting protein from whole foods, like you mentioned. Like it was like a lot of the powders and the drinks, and now you can get protein sparkling water, protein powders, like all of these things. Yeah. You bring up a good point because whole food is essential for our whole body to run. I mean, it's it's vital. But I think like people are sick of hearing about protein and fiber, but unfortunately, we need to keep talking about it because still a lot of my clients are not hitting their fiber or protein goals and or they're just getting like that protein in. And without fiber, your whole digestion is gonna get off. Like you're not gonna have that good gut flora for your digestion, your gut bacteria, all of it. And I mean, unfortunately, I know we're having a cooking class right now, but a little TMI. If you're not having a lot of fiber, you're not gonna be having good bowel movements, hence, where everybody's talking about I'm bloating, I'm bloating, and all of these protein powders and different things are causing even more bloating. So I feel like we've had this like cycle of talking about it, and not a lot of women really being able to like figure out where and how to kind of get it in a balanced way where they feel good, they feel energized, and they have a good digestive bowel movement too.

SPEAKER_02

And I again, I know we're talking about cooking, but back to our conversation that we had previously, we're talking about more like incontinence. So many people don't realize that if I am just not pooping properly, it's actually gonna overload that pelvic floor and actually lead into pelvic floor issues. And if we're really getting constipated and having to do a lot of bearing down, that actually can do more damage to a pelvic floor. Or if we're having problems like prolapse, you know, if I'm really bearing down to try to get, you know, the poop out, then it's really gonna kind of aggravate some of those other pelvic floor symptoms, which I think is important for people to recognize too. And speaking from experience, if I have like leakage issues with my own personal incontinence issues, I almost always have to poop. And so if I haven't pooped and it's backed up, then it definitely feeds into that negative feedback cycle.

SPEAKER_05

That makes so much sense.

SPEAKER_02

People know way too much about my incontinence. I gotta be honest.

SPEAKER_05

People know far more about me than they probably want to, but that's all right.

SPEAKER_02

That's why we're here.

SPEAKER_05

Every email that says thank you for sharing that, I didn't realize it, and that's giving down that alone makes it worthwhile.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. I mean, this is like should be we need to have more open conversations about those. Yeah. So, in terms, Katie, if like in terms of levels, like about how much protein-ish and how much fiber would do you recommend for your clients?

SPEAKER_01

So, again, you know, everyone has a different activity level, but minimum, especially perimenopause, we've got to get like 100, 120, 130 grams of protein in there. Um, for someone that's literally getting 30 grams of protein a day, I'm not taking them to 100 at all. We're gradually increasing and really trying to help. And, you know, 30, 35 grams of fiber, which is, and I I think people, it's hard with grams, especially if you're not in our world. And I'm like Stasha, I kind of like measure by love and like how I'm handling, but like three to five cups of fiber. And fiber is in pretty much everything that we're doing today, right? Nuts, seeds, the cashews, the hummus, all the veggies that we're doing, like you're getting fiber. So I think a lot of times people, when we're talking about grams, it's hard to understand. And then also, I think a lot of times people only think of like fruits and vegetables as fiber, and it's they're like, How am I gonna get all this in? But there's so many, everything besides meat and dairy is pretty much fiber.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And for that point, I think a lot of people forget that other things besides meat have protein. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

I remember a long time ago doing the calculations of protein that was in a green juice because of that there was like actually quite a bit of protein in several of the things we were putting in it. And I was shocked by actually how much protein ended up being in like a smoothie with some greens and some uh almonds and that kind of thing. And I just yeah, there's protein in a lot of things as well. So, you know, if you're just thinking meat and veg, fine, but like there's a lot of protein and a lot of in other things, and there's definitely a lot of fiber in other things. But like one of my favorite things to do is just say, well, then add a vegetable, just like don't think about how much. Just go, yeah, if I'm gonna have dinner tonight, and I would normally have like meat and potatoes, like, say a standard American setup, add a vegetable, add something green, add a handful of green beans, add a handful of broccoli, add a handful of or a salad or something. Like it can be just as simple as don't worry about the mud numbers, just throw an extra you know, handful of green beans on your plate and just start there.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I think a lot of times people just get caught up in like the numbers, which is important just because a lot of us are under-eating and undernourishing ourselves, women especially. I don't ever see my husband ever hangry, but um, but it can feel really daunting too. And a lot of women are still saying they only need like 1200 calories a day and they're using different apps, and you know, so it's it's really um overwhelming sometimes to say, like, we're gonna get a lot more calories, we're gonna get a lot more protein, fats, fiber in your diet. So please don't look at calories. We really want to focus on the quality of your food. It makes such a difference in your energy, sleep, mood, cravings, all of it.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Can we just talk about that for one second? I just want to pause because the majority of my women who are coming in and they're perimenopausal, menopausal, and beyond are undereating. And I think that that's really an important point to hit because they think that because I'm eating less, it's gonna help my cardiometabolic situation. It's gonna help my weight. And the conversation I'm constantly Having with them is about their bone health and about their muscle health because these women are becoming more fragile and they're becoming less resilient. They're not healing as well. And especially say they have a surgery. Okay. We're getting a little bit older, we're having a surgery for maybe that pesky rotator cuff, or I decided to have that knee replacement that needed to get done a long time ago. And they're not healing as well as they should or could because they're not as active. And so they literally are calorie restricting to the point where they're not healing. Can we just talk about the import of that for just a minute?

SPEAKER_05

One of my favorite uh thoughts, and this is somebody who struggles with eating disordered eatings, right? So I if you talk stuck, start talking calories to me, my immediate reaction is I'm just gonna starve myself. Like I cannot, right? So I cannot even even using an app to try and track my protein triggered me. So I like I cannot, I can't do it. But one of the things that I always come back to is your entire body is literally made of what you eat. Every cell, every strand of hair, every nail, every bone, every everything that makes up your body is based off of the food that you eat. So if you want to have a healthy, strong body, you need to eat a healthy, strong meal. And to me, that's a complete whole food meal so that I can have a complete whole body. And that is the mantra that I stick to. Instead of looking at numbers or whatever, I just think if I want a whole strong body, I need whole strong foods. So that's sometimes it's not the numbers, sometimes it's just I want a strong, healthy body. And we're also bone health, muscle health, but also brain health, right? 70 to 80 percent of women are the ones diagnosed with the dementia, Alzheimer's, those kinds of things. I don't want to forget stuff down the line. So I want a healthy body. I don't want to worry about breaking a hip. I want to be able to lift things when I'm older, and I don't want to forget. So I want to build these things so that I can live until my mid-90s, like everyone else in my family, strong and healthy and aware, you know? That's true.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. Preach it. Preach it. But it's so true. I mean, we've glorified being thin, and you know, I struggle as well with this, just like aging and body changing and all of that, and just coming back to that core of what Stasha just said. Like, I want to be healthy, strong, and in my memories, and like all of that, like it's so important. And I see a lot of what you're talking about, Dr. Heidi, like a lot of older women just being really frail and not being able to even walk well anymore. And that really is concerning for me for them, but also me for myself.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. And coming from like the brain side, you know, it's like I am really aware of women who are coming in who they're coming and telling me, Hey, I'm going to see my neurologist because I'm afraid I'm getting dementia. I'm afraid I'm getting some sort of Alzheimer's. I'm afraid I'm getting Parkinson's. And the very first question I ask them is like, how much water have you been drinking? And have you been eating? And almost every single time, the answer is not enough on both. I'm like, let's get that sorted first. Because if you go to neural neurologist and you're not telling them that you're not eating and not drinking, and they're not asking those questions, who knows what they're gonna diagnose you with, and maybe you don't even have that because you just simply aren't nourishing enough.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, I think it happens to a lot of us, especially when you get really busy and you just forget to drink that water, and then the next day you're not as thirsty, or you know, you you skip working out, and then you it gets harder to go back, like all of those things. It's it's really having a good support system and being consistent versus tracking. I really think it's all about consistency.

SPEAKER_02

Here's a question for you, ladies, and then we can keep talking and start cooking, but is your stomach actually able to shrink? Do people's women's stomachs actually shrink? Or is it just that we feel satiety differently if we're under eating and then we try to start ramping up our our diet again? Do you know that's a great question?

SPEAKER_01

I scientifically I'm like, I don't actually know if the stomach can start shrink. We gotta Google that. But I do know that your body gets used to the way that you nourish it. So it's our bodies love just habits and trends and doing the same things over to help us feel safe. So if you start eating less and less, like you're probably gonna be cranky, you're probably not gonna sleep well, you're gonna have all the signs of not eating enough. But your body will get used to surviving on having less. Doesn't mean it's good for you, but I feel like your body just kind of gets used used to that and can perform, but it's not gonna perform optimally by any means, but it will get you through the day until it won't anymore. And then that is gonna totally wreck your metabolism over time if you're eating the right amount for your body, then totally going and restricting and then eating better and then restricting. Like that's why I women that come into our practices who have been yo-yo dieting year after year after year, and then they're in perimenopause and they're like, I don't even know what's going on anymore, and trying to just help reset and get them that foundation where their body feels safe again. Like that's where it gets a little, you know, a little scary when we're kind of going back and forth to extremes. Cause I feel like we don't do everything, anything in moderation, right? It's a lot of extreme. And then it's like, oh my God, the body starts yelling at you. But we tend to not think it's what we're eating, what we're drinking. We we're like, we need a shiny new supplement, we need something else.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. But technically technically, your stomach, the organ itself, does not shrink, but your capacity does. And remember, digestion is a hormonal cascade, right? So there's hormones that trigger hunger, there's hormones that trigger satiation, all of those things that go along with it. So if you're not eating till, or if you're eating too much, or if you're not eating enough, your hormones are going to adjust to what your quote unquote normal is. So if you're not eating as much, you won't produce as many hormones that help you trigger hunger and satiation and all of those events, or stomach acid. A lot of people talk about having issues with their stomach acid, and a lot of it is because they're not under-eating or they're drinking a lot of water with food and it's diluting their stomach acid. So they're having acid reflux and those kinds of things. So yeah, your stomach doesn't change physically, but the hormonal cascade and then the feeling of it does change based on how you're eating, how much and what you're eating.

SPEAKER_02

Question Tums, yay or nay?

SPEAKER_05

Because you just said indigestion, acid reflux, and like I mean, it depends on the person, but I've had a lot of clients who actually did better without anti acids, but actually drinking a little bit of apple cider vinegar in their water first thing in the morning, maybe with their lemon juice. But those apple cider vinegar drinks are getting more popular and they have a lot of sugar in them. So I don't love those. But I do, I do say, you know, if you start, if you're having that kind of issue, especially in perimenopause, you start to that starts to happen more and more. So start with your glass of water in the morning. And I do coconut water in my water just to help with the little extra hydration, and then a little splash of apple cider vinegar, and that really helps with the acid reflux. And don't drink water before you're gonna eat or during. Like your your water intake is separate from your food intake or liquids, I should say.

SPEAKER_02

So letting the stomach acids actually work.

SPEAKER_05

Yes, exactly. So, like, don't pound a glass of water or OJ or something before you eat. Eat your food and then go have water afterwards or you know, a couple minutes later. Like let your stomach digest, you know, give it maybe 20 minutes and then have something to drink so that you're not diluting your stomach acid. And you'll have better digestion, less bloating, that kind of thing. And just chewing your tooth. And chewing, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Please tell me more because let's just talk about chewing our food and not inhaling.

SPEAKER_05

You put your fork down between bites and you don't put the next bite on your fork until you're done chewing, and then you put your food on your fork and you eat your next bite or use chopsticks.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I mean, most like next time you go out to dinner, look around. Most people eat their whole meal in like five minutes or less.

SPEAKER_03

And I'm guilty.

SPEAKER_01

Try to slow it down. Even with my kids, like they're just like eating, jumping up, running around, dancing. I'm like, please sit down, please treat your food. Uh, trying to teach them young because I it becomes a habit. Like, you just don't even notice that you're being a husband.

SPEAKER_05

My husband grew up with three sisters, and it was 100% if you don't eat, you don't get seconds. So it was really like uh hunger games at the table. And to this day, I mean, he's in his 50s, and I still am like, babe, you don't have three sisters here, just stop chew. You you can rest. And that's like that's how ingrained it is to eat quickly. So yeah, start him young. Good job, Katie.

SPEAKER_02

I think that's a great point because I can tell you I eat like I'm in the hunger games, and it's like for no other reason besides the fact that by the time I eat, I'm usually so hungry that I'm just like hand over fist, you notice you gotta remember to chew. Well, I've got tons of questions about hormones. Should we start putting this stuff together while we're chatting?

SPEAKER_01

Yes. I think we should start with the either the brown rice or the quinoa and put in however much you would like to eat.

SPEAKER_02

I am going to tie my hair back now that we're doing this because I shed a lot of meat. So I'm like, I'm like, I'm ready to get my towel. I've got my shed anti-shedding.

SPEAKER_05

I did um two cups of brown rice dried so that I would have brown rice for the whole week. Nice to make it through.

SPEAKER_02

So I'm gonna use the biggest bowl ever because I I love a giant bowl so I can see it's I love bowls.

SPEAKER_01

I feel like anything you put in a bowl just tastes better. And I like a big bowl so I can see it all.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

Are we measuring with our hearts here?

SPEAKER_05

We replaced all of our plates with these. Those are lovely. Oh, I love those. There's no plates in the house.

SPEAKER_02

We just have lovely multicolored they're those are fabulous. I I'm gonna tell you, I am so hungry that I'm so excited about this situation because this is lunch when we're done. And I don't know if you've noticed how many little Brussels sprout leaves I've been eating, but it's embarrassing.

SPEAKER_05

Oh no. I'm excited too. I had a little hummus wrap before we got started just to have something in my belly.

SPEAKER_02

So you weren't you weren't cooking hangry.

SPEAKER_05

Exactly. Otherwise, you know, you're just shoveling it all in.

SPEAKER_02

As I told you, I got stuck in LA traffic. I got home 10 minutes before serving this, so there was no no eating.

SPEAKER_05

So I don't know if you guys had your chicken joked, but I'm not a huge greens person, so I'm only putting a couple of teaspoons of brown rice in here, and I'm gonna put probably more veggies. Just I I'm more of a veggies and meat digester than a grains.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's we're all different. Okay, so we got the greens in there, and you guys are gonna put your your greens in there next that you're gonna put the greens in next. Yeah, I'm doing my sweet potato and my Brussels sprouts. So what we're talking about, this can we talk a little bit about hormonal health? I know you both do a lot with with younger women with like periods and cycle sinking. Is that a thing with women who are in perimenopause? Obviously, when we're in menopause now, we're not really cycle sinking, but do you do anything with like cycle sinking type things with paramenopausal women? I do.

SPEAKER_05

I mean especially like experiencing it my now myself now. I've had two almost 50 days, so 49 and a 48-day cycle in a row. And I just could not handle a raw vegetable for like those three weeks where I just felt like I was about to get my period, except it was in instead of a week, it was like three weeks long. Could not eat a raw vegetable to save my life. I was all cooked, everything had to be cooked and warm, couldn't have a cold anything. So I've personally experienced it. And when I talk to my perimenopausal clients, they often say the same thing. Like, they may not even see physical changes in their cycle, but they'll say, I'm feeling like I need warm cooked foods. And we're like, great, then that's where you are. Embrace it. Go with those fall luteal phase foods, those sweet potatoes, those roasted squashes, you know, those turkey, kind of lighter but still more oomphy meats, that kind of thing. So soups, roasts, that sort of stuff. And then one day you probably like and I just had a 12-day period, right? Yay, perimenopause. And I again did not want anything cold or uncooked until like day maybe 10 or 11, like just at the end of it. I was like, I could go for a cucumber right now. And I went, oh my God, I probably am coming to the end of this. Like that craving of I could go for a cucumber really signaled to me that actually I might be ending this never-ending period and moving into the next phase. And then just a day or two later, it did stop. And I was like, give me a fresh green salad immediately. So that really you can feel it. And if you're listening to your body and what it's craving, even if it's just like warm, cold, and just you just start there. Cold is almost always follicular ovulation, and warm is luteal and menstrual. So even if you're in perimenopause and things are all going haywire, you can still go, well, do I feel like cold or do I feel like warm?

SPEAKER_02

And your cycle sinking, and just kind of following your heart a little bit.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, because your estrogen spiked that day. And so, like, I've been following my hormones and I had a estrogen spike, and I was like, Oh yeah, I really wanted a salad desperately that day. That makes so much sense.

SPEAKER_02

You are looping, you are looping over there, my friends.

SPEAKER_05

Exactly, exactly. So absolutely, and it just gets wonky, and then at a certain point, you know, you're at that like six months between periods, and then it's like maybe you just go with the moon, or you just listen to your body and you just let it lead you. So, whatever works for you and that relationship with your body and where you are.

SPEAKER_02

Is this the kind of intuitive eating I like to hear about? Like, this is really great. So, what's the deal with warm foods and with like your alluteal phase? Like that warm, cooked. Like, why would you crave something like that during the alluteal phase?

SPEAKER_05

Your digestion is not nearly as strong, we'll say. It's not quite the right word, but for the sake of you know having a conversation, it needs things to be cooked, right? So, like cooking is sort of step one of digestion, it's easier on your gut. So, when you're in that luteal phase, those hormones often trigger things like bloating, constipation. It might slow your digestion a bit. Uh, your emotions can as well. And I know when you're in luteal, you've got emotions, right? So anger can speed your digestion, whereas depression or sadness slows your digestion. So doing those things like warm cooked foods takes a load off. It makes it easier for your body to digest. So those emotions and those hormones don't impact the speed at which it's going through as much, and you can still get the nutrition and nourishment from that food. Whereas raw food is harder for our body to pull all of the minerals and vitamins and stuff out of it, which is fine and follicular when you're strong and everything's moving smoothly and well, and that's great for you to get those raw veggies in and that kind of thing, but it's just tougher in that later phase. So it depends on the person, too, as to like how long it lasts and how sensitive they are, but it's just easier on your digestion.

SPEAKER_02

I love that. So you both have mentioned a number of the symptoms of perimenopause. Okay, we mentioned anger and moods, we mentioned digestion. We've mentioned hormones. So could we just talk a little bit about hormone support and like what food types and food groups might help to support these different avenue, like different symptoms of perimenopause and maybe help us to just doctor? I know you want the chicken. Give me a second. We're trying to talk about hormones, bro. He is just so whiny for the chicken. He never thought he'd invented it in his life. Okay, can we just talk about the hormone support and like how different nutrients in our foods may help to support the hormones and help us to regulate our parimenopausal symptoms a little bit better?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I mean, I think the number one thing that comes to mind is once you start having really heavy andor longer periods, making sure that you're getting enough iron back into your body. So many women in perimenopause are not even low in iron, but like the ferritin is really low. So a lot of doctors are not testing the ferridin. So if your doctor's only testing iron and you're feeling really tired, lethargic, having very heavy long periods, make sure they're checking that ferritin level too. But iron is like the one thing that comes to mind. Most women, or many women, I should say, are low in iron anyways. We're not, we tend to not eat as much red meat and different things like that. I mean, there's there's vegetarian sources, but different types of iron. Um so going into peri, if you're already low in that, you might already be experiencing that. So that's one thing that comes to mind when you're saying like nutrients from food and perimenopause. And that's something that I look with my clients at. I'm like, let's look at your food, but let's make sure that your doctor is also ordering this blood work because this could be why you feel so off.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. And that's a good point. In perimenopause, you're flicking off a lot more eggs, which means you need a lot more zinc. And as you know, seafoods, uh, liver, certain nuts have a lot more zinc in them, and you may feel depleted because you're pulling nutrients that you may need in other places in trying to compensate because as you're going through perimenopause, everything's firing more and crazy, and you need a bigger boost of those nutrients to get through. And I know Katie and I talk about this all the time. We rarely have a client that has enough magnesium and zinc to support healthy ovulation in their fertile years. So you get to perimenopause, you're already depleted, and now you've got like no stores. You've got, and it takes about 90 to 100 days for a follicle to heal, and it needs zinc and magnesium to do that. So now you're in perimenopause, you got like a 90 to 100 day window where you gotta rebuild the stores and all that stuff. So it is good to make sure you're getting a wide variety of foods that are rich in zinc and magnesium, and those actually help you produce progesterone, which is that hormone that makes you feel relaxed and calm and centered. So it can also not ragey, yeah, exactly. And it can help reduce your progesterone or increase your progesterone production, which can help you feel better.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. No, as someone who's never gonna eat liver ever, ever, ever. I it's not ideal. Where could I get more zinc? Because I have to supplement it, and I want to talk about supplements here in a second. But what foods are zinc rich?

SPEAKER_05

Well, your seafoods, your cell, your shellfish are generally like oysters are a super food for women because and that's probably why they call them an aphrodisiac, because it's it's rich in zinc. Um, but your salmons, your healthy fat things, um, red meats in general, uh, some squashes, like zucchini is uh spinach, some greens have some good high quality zinc in them as well. And I want to say it's cashews, chickpeas. Uh there's a couple other nuts and legumes in there that are good with zinc as well. Uh, dark chocolate. Dark chocolate can be a really good source of zinc.

SPEAKER_02

And it is a source of magnesium too, right?

SPEAKER_05

Yes, it is. And I am gonna say, though, that if you are adventurous and you want to try some liver, but you want to hide it, maybe this isn't for you, maybe it's for a listener, just blend it up or chop it really small, throw it in the Vitamix, throw it in the food processor or whatever, and throw it in your sauce. You're making like a beef bolognese or a chili, or after that 12 day period, I was like, I need liver. I am just like, I never crave it, but I was like, I have got to have some liver. And I made chili with ground beef and mushrooms and beans and all those good things. And I took um frozen chicken livers, organic livers, which by The way are super cheap at most grocery stores. And I just chopped them up really small and threw them in the sauce. No, and I've been doing this for a long time. I can't tell you how many people have eaten my sauce and been like, wow, this is really good. Like I feel really like satisfied.

SPEAKER_02

And I'm like, it's got some slipper in there. And you can't really tell, and you can't really tell.

SPEAKER_05

No. Okay, well. It has a something for me to try. Richer of a flavor, but a flavor that most people aren't familiar with. So they're just going, I don't know, it was really good. Like there's something I'm like, I made it with love.

SPEAKER_02

It's just it's a little sprinkling of love. You know, I think of like liver and onions, like my grandma used to eat. And I was like, I haven't tried it in a sauce. That might be a good way to hide it for myself.

SPEAKER_05

Pate, a little schmear of pate on your sandwich. That's, I mean, I have a French husband, so we almost always have pate in the house.

SPEAKER_02

So we can swear to get the pate as liver.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, and very good. And we make it ourselves, actually, because again, liver is really cheap. So we make it ourselves a lot.

SPEAKER_02

Interesting. You might need to send me that recipe so I can maybe try to get adventurous stuff with this pot.

SPEAKER_01

I know I haven't gotten as much of the liver either. I like the sauce idea though. We do that a lot with like greens with the kids because if they get if they don't see it, they'll eat it. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Isn't that the thing, right? Is that now I'm like, I'm like the child. I'm like, hide it from me. Where can I put it?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. Greens in your sauce is a great idea, too, especially in like chili, which is already dark. And so you add some like dark greens to it. No, and it's just makes it darker. It just looks like oh, this is a real long cooked, delicious stew.

SPEAKER_02

They're never gonna know. They're never gonna know.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know where you guys are. Oh, this one I forgot. Yeah. That was beautiful. When I opened it, um, what I'm gonna do too is I'm gonna drizzle some olive oil on top just for some more healthy fats and some more flavor, and put some like sea salt, um, pink laying sea salt on it too, just for more flavor. You could also squeeze a lemon or lime for additional flavor too.

SPEAKER_02

A little bit of acid, too. If you want to be with me for this reveal, really quick. I'm like terrified.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's a perfect, gorgeous California avocado. See, we got it right with a little tiny little shriveled up.

SPEAKER_02

This never happens. I mean, I'm so excited because this is like never what happens. You're gonna take it perfect. Look at my avocado. It's beautiful, it's a perfect green color.

SPEAKER_03

Love it.

SPEAKER_02

And I'm not gonna do the thing where you spite you get the you spike the uh the pit on the knife because it'll be the time that I accidentally hot cut myself like right now.

SPEAKER_05

So just gonna I think I'm gonna add a little curry salt to mine for today. Ooh, yeah, yeah. This beautiful blend of sea salt and curry powder. I got it actually in San Diego back in the day. Salt farm if you want to california. Oh, I know salt farm.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, they have amazing.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know salt farm and I live here.

SPEAKER_05

Like, dude, you have to. You have to. I hope they're still around.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, oh.

SPEAKER_01

You just got me thinking that pesto would be really good with this too.

SPEAKER_05

I was just gonna say, you know what I like about this bowl is that you could do, like, you can make all these ingredients, right? And then one day you can add some olives and some oregano and some olive oil and you've got a Greek bowl. And then the next day you can add curry and cumin and you've got an Indian bowl. And then the next day you can add soy sauce and uh roasted sesame oil and uh some seaweed flakes, and you've got an Asian bowl. You can add chili powder, because I'm in New Mexico and we add chili to everything. But you can add chili powder and some turmeric and you've got um and some lime and you've got a Mexican bowl. Like you don't have to change the what's in it, you just change the seasonings on it, and now you've got flavors from around the world, a different meal every day.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and you can Americate the meat too with the different flavors if you want to add that on and your Mexican bowl.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, it was you saying salmon that made me go, oh, this would be great with salmon and soy sauce and the little roasted, you know, it that would be amazing. And like fresh ginger.

SPEAKER_01

No, I'm getting hungry. I'm like, fresh ginger, right?

SPEAKER_02

I know you guys are like ready to have dinner, and I'm like, I'm so hungry for lunch. But no, but I mean that's such a great point because so many people with meal prepping, they think it has to be boring and it has to be the same thing. And it's like you can get these base ingredients, right? And then you can change it throughout the week. It doesn't have to be a boring thing, and then you can say, oh kill, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Oh yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, as I'm staring at your adorable t shirt.

SPEAKER_03

And I think we'll it feels daunting.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah, truffle oil, uh, always never say no to truffle.

SPEAKER_05

Right, right. A little earthy with the curry.

SPEAKER_01

That like that new mommy. But if you just quadruple everything that you make and freeze what you don't use, I mean, and or if things start going bad, like your spinach, berries, anything like that, put it in the freezer and take it out and use it for soups or stews or smoothies so that you're also not wasting food. Because I feel like that's the one one thing I hear always like I just I meal prep and then I don't eat it and I waste my food and like just freeze it, please, like just freeze everything. But yes, you could find great healthy restaurants. Yes, you could do a meal delivery service, but if you are trying to eat really healthy and save money and budget, meal prepping and planning ahead is the best thing that you can do for your health and for your wallet.

SPEAKER_05

A test freezer is one of the best investments in your kitchen to keeping your food and eating healthy. Having just that deep freeze that you could put bone broth in, leftovers in, singled portions. You know, we make a huge lasagna and I take a couple of slices and I throw it in the freezer for those days, right? Or a stew or whatever. Just having a deep freeze, and they're cheap. Like I got mine off a Craigslist 20 some odd years ago when I was running the restaurant in LA, it still runs like a dream and it's still going strong, and I paid like 10 bucks for it. So that's amazing. A little Facebook marketplace, a little Craigslist.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

I mean, whatever it is in your area these days, but it's such an easy way to do it. And then if you have picky eaters at home and you make a bowl like this and you just put all those condiments out, that can like pop sauce, and that one that does, and that one who hates soy sauce, but that one loves lime or whatever it is, they can really mix and match their own condiments. So if you have a lot of picky eaters in the house, you don't have to make four separate meals.

SPEAKER_01

You just make eating with me every night, Sasha. Are you watching my my children? We just pull everything out of the fridge because they'll eat anything with a condiment.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, that's one of my favorite things is we have a lazy Susan on the table. And so when we have a lot of people over, like if we're doing a dinner party or something, I just put sauerkraut and I often make a fermented like curry or something or chutney, some you know, different things. So we've got all these different flavors and different oils and different vinegars and stuff, and we just put them all on the lazy Susan, and then everybody can just rotate around and pick out what they like and season however they want to.

SPEAKER_02

She goes your own adventure, exactly. I mean, and like these bowls, I mean, we just made such beautiful bowls, and it's probably a fraction of the cost of like if we went out for these.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my god. Sweet green, this would be at least $15. I know I was gonna say more than that at this point. Like I mean, maybe $20 at this point. I don't know, I haven't been a sweet green since I left LA, but um, another thing. That's the thing I miss. But yeah, I mean because I still have tons of roasted veggies left. I have tons of quinoa, chickpeas, arugula, all of it.

SPEAKER_02

Oh my god, I have enough for like three more meals, which is amazing. And that's half of this. 100%. Oh, I want to. Can everyone can we all show show our bowls? Mine's like the size of my head, so I don't want to like tip it, but oh wait, let me take a picture. I'm like, I just love oh, talk about your eggs. You put the eggs in it. I didn't do this.

SPEAKER_00

Let me do another picture because I like took a picture of my bowl. Not of everybody else. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Got it? Mike, you're the you're the b-roll expert today.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, so good. Yeah, I like a hard-boiled egg and things. I like, I mean, I'm a cob salad girl. I love Micko salad, and um, and again, you know, like I do really well with proteins. So a hard-boiled egg sometimes is all I need to just uh wrap or on the side with lunch or something like that, just to get a little bit more protein in. Some people really don't like them or they only like them in certain things, like I love an egg salad, a deviled egg, all those kinds of things. So for me, a hard-boiled egg is such an easy thing to do because you can throw it in the rice cooker, steam it, walk away, come back in minutes, take it out.

SPEAKER_01

Or the air fryer. Oh, yeah, the air fryer, yes. Do tell you can put eggs in an air fryer, and I believe set well for mine. I don't want to say everyone's settings, but for mine, seven minutes, and it's got that like poached, runny center that I like. I guess soft boiled. Is that like is that what that was? Soft boiled, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, you can do that with the right cooker too. You just take it out earlier. Then we're at altitude, so everything takes longer to cook up here. So never quote me on cooking times because it takes altitude, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

8,000 feet. Okay, yeah, you you've got some differences on those times for sure.

SPEAKER_05

And you need more water, like you know, you have to basically double the amount of water in a recipe because it boils at a lower temperature. So really the first time I tried to make caramel, it went I've never burnt caramel in my life, and I destroyed three pans in a row until I realized I had to add three times the amount of water to make it work at this altitude. Yeah. So, you know, never quote me on cook times anymore.

SPEAKER_02

Unless you're at 8,000 feet. So if that's your jam and you're watching this, and you are that well, if you're baking, does it take what what happens when you bake?

SPEAKER_01

What do you have to do differently?

SPEAKER_05

You have to use more like oil or egg. I usually just add an extra egg to everything, uh, a little bit more oil or milk. Uh yeah, I mean, we're about the same, we're like a thousand feet lower than Vale.

SPEAKER_02

So we're nearly the same as mammoth.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, we're we're we're like two, three thousand feet above Denver. So it's really high up here. Yeah. So you have to adjust everything. It's been hard, and I don't even think I'm ever gonna attempt anything like a souffle up here.

SPEAKER_02

That thing's not rising for sure.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I'm not even gonna try. No, there's some things that I'm just gonna let go.

unknown

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02

Well, before we all like let each other go and just feel like hoover these bowls, do you guys have any other final thoughts on eating for perimenopause and for menopause for feeling good? Any other tips that you like to give your clients?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, I think one of the things to really, really think about is making sure you're eating enough during the day, balancing that blood sugar so that right before you go to bed, you're not eating a whole other meal or eating a whole candy bar or anything because your blood sugar is spiking again, and then you get tired but wired and all of that stuff, or you're waking up in the middle of the night. I see that so often, we both do, where again, we go back to women not nourishing enough, not undereating, and then just eating too much right before they go to bed. So that's a big sign. If you're not hungry throughout the day, and then you're eating so much food before you go to bed, bed, your body's basically like we can't repair ourselves at night because we didn't eat enough during the day. So you have to eat now. And it just gets us in really irregular, like sleep modes, and we all need to be getting enough quality sleep. Like that's like the number one thing every day. And like, all right, I wake up in the morning. All right, let me plan out my day so I can get back into bed at the right time this evening.

SPEAKER_02

That's a really smart thing, and you just made me think about my favorite movie quote of all time. You've seen Gone in 60 Seconds long time ago. Do you remember Nicolas Cage in that movie at all? Yeah, like I feel like I'm like this way too much, where it's like Nick Cage, and he's like, I'm a little tired and I'm so wired, and you can just imagine the intensity of that. And I was like, That is Katie right now, talking about the Nick Cage moment, which feels like half my life. I'll watch any movie if Nick Cage is in it. If you haven't seen that in a while, it's it's so good. Your husband will like it, it's not too violent, and you just get that really great Nick Cage, super intense energy, and you'll hear my favorite quote of all time. We gotta find out.

SPEAKER_05

I think that I I think the biggest um thing is just to eat, like you have to retrain yourself to eat in the morning, and it's not because you're just not a morning person. I mean, I'm not a morning person, but you just have to retrain yourself to eat and don't worry about sitting down and having three big meals. But if that's not what you do, but just having something with a good solid start before you get the coffee, before you get the sugary treat, before you hit, you know, no protein shake, no smoothies. Just start off with something that's a real food, and the whole rest of your day is easier. The whole rest of your blood sugar for the day is easier to manage, your energy levels are better throughout the whole day. So if the if there's one place to start, my suggestion is find something that you can tolerate first thing in the morning. For me, it was turkey bacon, could be an egg, it could be, you know, whatever it is, you know, even a handful of nuts, but just something that has a good amount of protein in it. And you can just start the day feeling a little bit more satiated, and it just makes the whole day easier.

SPEAKER_01

I love that. I literally just told my client that I had this morning because she we're still working on eating breakfast and eating getting away from the cereals and getting protein in. Literally the same exact conversation. I was like, we've got to get you uh eating more in the morning. Whatever time that is, it doesn't mean you have to be eat at seven in the morning.

SPEAKER_05

We just need you eating whatever that first food you put in. Yeah, that first food of the day. Water and then something to eat. Just please eat.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, what is it? Egg cup?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I just made a whole thing of egg cups. Just threw them in a plastic bag. Literally a little bit of potato, bacon, cheddar cheese, and eggs with some garlic powder and salt in them. I've got two bags and I just pop it in the air fryer in the morning. Done. I don't have to think about it, I don't have to cook it. It's just in the air fryer while I'm making all the animals their breakfast. And then there's food in my belly. Because if they don't eat first, I don't eat.

SPEAKER_02

No, Doc finally left me alone because he all he has to eat first. But one of the best pieces of breakfast advice I ever got was to stop thinking about breakfast as only being breakfast foods. And my go-to lately has been blended soup for breakfast. And having like a mug, you know, like having it, because I will have my coffee when I'm on my way to work in the morning is kind of like I listen to my audiobook, a podcast, and drive. But what I've been doing instead is putting blended soup in my mug and drinking that in the morning. So I'm getting a ton of protein, I'm getting that fiber. It's super easy to digest. And it has become my go-to. And that piece of advice of stopping thinking about breakfast foods as being the only option in the morning was one of the best pieces of advice I ever got from somebody.

SPEAKER_01

I love that. I love a good turkey or bison burger for breakfast. Oh, I feel good the whole day. Like lunch grills on Sunday, and I'm like, get me my breakfast ready for the week.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I was I was like, I think Katie was the first person, because I've always loved a burger for breakfast or something like that. And I think Katie was the only other person I've ever met that was like, yeah, a burger for breakfast is the best. I'm like, oh, thank God it's not just me.

SPEAKER_02

I'm gonna try that because that's what I haven't done, but I love that idea. I like cold steak for breakfast in the morning. You know, again, the grilling, you know, grilling situation. I'll leave some steaks I can have that on my way in. Num nom nom. Yeah. Oh.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, most cultures don't have like breakfast. You know, a lot of cultures have soup for breakfast. A lot of Asian cultures will have like a miso soup or something. Like a lot of other cultures, their breakfast isn't like a donut and coffee or cereal, it's a meal. It's just a regular you would eat it for lunch, but maybe it's just a little bit smaller. Or yeah, it's just work America or Western, I guess, societies are really the only ones that do this like breakfast foods thing. So yeah, getting out of the breakfast for breakfast mentality is a huge one. And I love that you said that because it is such a good way of just re-scrambling it. So you're actually eating what you want. I want turkey burger for breakfast with a fried egg on top.

SPEAKER_02

It sounds great. Protein on protein and a little bit of carb carbs and fiber in there. And uh well, man, thank you both for being here. I've got to eat this bowl because I'm about to lose my mind staring at it and it smells so good. But I like to steal this from when I was on your podcast because I loved this. If you could both just tell me your one health non-negotiable a day, I love that you asked that. I think you're getting pointed at. I know.

SPEAKER_01

I'm trying to think like what that one thing. Honestly, sleep. If I go to bed on time, I get a good night's sleep, and then next day I can get my workout in, I can really eat healthy, I think clearly energize. For me, it's all about sleep, and then everything else kind of falls into place. So and getting to getting into bed and being asleep by like 10-ish really is my non-negotiable.

SPEAKER_02

I love that. Sasha, you're Nazi.

SPEAKER_05

Getting some sunshine, I it I can tell, like especially if I've been had a bad pain flare and I've been in the house for a couple days, and I will drag myself out to the front porch and just even just make myself sit out there for a couple of minutes, and it makes me feel better. So I would say the one number one non-negotiable that I can commit to no matter what, is to get outside, even if it's raining, even if it's snowing, whatever it is. I can still get outside and get some fresh air and hopefully some sunshine. It does sun, there we get a lot of snow while it's sunny somehow up here at the same time. So some sunshine in my eyeballs, hopefully in the morning, first thing. But even if I can't do it first thing, lunch outside or something like that. But yeah, outside, fresh air, sunlight on my skin in my eyeballs, that I think sets me up and then helps me get a better night's sleep, too.

SPEAKER_02

So definitely sets that circadian rhythm.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Well, thank you both for that. And thank you for being here and cooking me and playing along with this little game of kitchen time. And I've been staring at your bunt pan behind you the entire time, and I it's just so cute. Love a good bunt. I'm a Minnesota.

SPEAKER_05

The inside's not really nonstick anymore. I need a new one if I really actually want to make a bunt, but that's the definition.

SPEAKER_02

I like it. Did you know that those were invented in the same home, the same town where I was born in Minnesota? Really? Oh little our little fun fact of the day. St. Louis Park, Minnesota, Nordicware is based there. And that's your little fun fact for the day.

SPEAKER_01

I love it. Good for trivia one day. This was made in Minneapolis.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

SPEAKER_05

Got a stamp on it. Yeah, that's so cool. It's heavy too. It's like actual, I think it's cast iron.

SPEAKER_02

Like it is oh, yeah, they are they're hefty.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Well, thank you both so much again for being here. We can all go and eat. You can invite your neighbor over to come help you eat that food.

SPEAKER_05

I've already told her, got on over.

SPEAKER_02

I love it. Well, thank all of you for being here for another week of menopause unscripted. If you enjoyed this conversation, please go check out the period bestie's podcast, where we've had another conversation about all sorts of things women's health. And we really encourage you to like, follow, and subscribe everywhere that. You get your favorite podcasts. If you want to watch us, you can watch on YouTube. And we'll see you again next week, Menopausse. Now I have to end with the boring stuff. While I am a doctor, I am not your doctor. This podcast is for entertainment and educational purposes only. If something in today's episode resonated with you, please bring this to your own healthcare team and self advocate. You always are promoting that. I cannot wait for you to join me on next week's episode of Menopause Unscripted for another hot topic.