Becoming HER by Leslie Jackson

Hidden Health Secrets of Top-Performing Entrepreneurs

• Season 1 • Episode 18

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Your health isn't separate from your business. It IS your business.

That's the truth most high-achieving women learn the hard way.

You can have the best strategy, the sharpest offer, and the most disciplined calendar… but if your body is running on fumes, your business is too. Your revenue, creativity, decision-making, magnetism.. all of it lives in your biology.

That's exactly what I unpacked when I sat down with Jess Martin on the Abundant + Aligned Podcast. 

We went deep on the health secrets top-performing entrepreneurs swear by, and why most high-achieving women are leaving performance, income, and energy on the table because no one ever told them.

This interview first aired on Abundant + Aligned, and I just HAD to share it wider with you.

We get into:

  • The invisible ceiling keeping high-achieving women stuck — no matter how hard they grind
  • What your cortisol is doing behind the scenes and what it's quietly costing you
  • The body-income connection no one in the business world is talking about
  • Why healing, biology, and high performance are the same conversation

So if you've been feeling depleted, plateaued, or like you're working harder than your results reflect, this one's for you. 

Steal these secrets and implement them today.

JOIN SHE’S A FORCE TODAY

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CONNECT WITH JESS

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SPEAKER_02

You're listening to Becoming Her, the show for ambitious women who want more for their health, purpose, and life. Every week, we're diving into real conversations with women who are building impact, healing, and creating lives they're excited to wake up to. In my world, it's about becoming the strongest, boldest, and brightest version of you. I'm Leslie Jackson, your four-time certified functional nutritionist and integrative health practitioner. And if you're ready for the stories, strategies, and truth that actually up-level your life, you're in the right place. Hey loves. Welcome back to Becoming Her. Quick context before we dive in, because today's episode is really special. What you're about to hear was originally recorded as an interview on the Abundant and Allied podcast with Jess Martin. And if you don't know Jess, she is an industry-leading business mentor based in Australia who specializes in helping women build premium brands. She's the real deal. And she asks really good questions, which is why this conversation went where it did. The feedback after it aired was so overwhelming that I knew I had to bring it to you here too. In this one, Jess actually interviews me. We discuss how your health isn't separate from your business. It is your business. Your revenue, creativity, decision making, magnetism, all of it lives in your biology. We unpack the invisible ceiling in keeping high-achieving women stuck. What your cortisol is quietly costing you in the body income connection. No one in the business world is talking about. If you've been feeling depleted or maybe plateaued, or like you're working harder than your results reflect, this episode is for you. Huge thanks to Jess for having me on Abundant and Align. Go follow her show. And now let's get into it.

SPEAKER_01

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Abundant and Align podcast. Leslie, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited to have you on today. Oh, thank you. I'm so excited to be here. My audience are full of high-performing women who are very passionate about their work and committed to the mission of being wealthy with a legacy, making an impact in this world. However, as we know, in order to be that version of us and hold that much success, we need to have the health behind us. We need to have the biology that would support holding on to such large levels of success. So today I wanted to ask all of the questions that we are wondering when it comes to optimizing our health as high-performing women so that we can continue to hold large amounts of success without burning out and without becoming chronically ill. But before we get into that, you are obviously a functional nutritionist, so we have the right woman in the house. You focus on root cause healing for women, which I absolutely love. You are not about a band-aid, you know, a band-aid result. You get to the root cause. And I think there are so many hidden root causes that so many women are not educated on. And that's what I wanted this episode to be about today. But along with that, you're obviously the host of Becoming Her. You have built an online community of over 10,000 women and men who follow your journey. And I think that just speaks volumes to how much you care about health and how much this conversation is needed in today's modern world with everything we all have going on. So before we dive into all of the questions I have planned today, I would love to just start with your story. How did you end up in the health space? Why did you choose this path?

SPEAKER_02

In my previous career, I was a vice president of sales, the technology space. And that was a very demanding role from an energetic perspective, from breast resilience perspective. And in that role, I was doing a lot of traveling, like very, very rarely home. And I was also in the mindset of like, I always want to be the best of the best. Like I'm just competitively wired. And I, you know, love pushing the limit. I love seeing how high performing I can become. Like, what can I produce? And of course, in that sales role, it was all about competitiveness, you know, and who could travel to see more clients, who had better relationships with these clients, and you know, who could get the most sales. And over the course of that career, I sold over $18 million in technology. And I killed myself doing it. And so once I got uh about halfway through that career, I started to grow up a little bit and I started to kind of look around and see like, are the leaders that are my leaders people that I aspire to be like? Do I want to live their lives, you know? And when I was honest with myself about the answer to that question, it was no, because I'm not speaking for all of them, but there were some, there were quite a few that were not very well and not very happy in what they were doing. And I don't necessarily think that it was the work that they were doing, but I do think that it was what they had to sacrifice, what they thought they had to sacrifice for their work. And so that's when I started to question, you know, when you just look up to these people and to be like these people, but there's like this like voice in your in your gut that's like something's not pulling you or magnetizing you to this path. And it led to me really pushing myself well beyond my limits. And my limits were low because my input was poor. My sleep was poor, my hydration was poor, I was drinking alcohol all the time, I was people pleasing all the time, I wouldn't go wherever they told me to go, no matter what I had to sacrifice, my personal life was trash because I sacrificed everything for my professional life. My nutrition was airport food. Like I was not giving myself a chance. And one day I was on the way to the airport and I had a panic attack in the Uber. And I realized on that day, okay, like body is saying like no more neglect, no more pushing us to my limits, no more people. We have got to set some boundaries. And so that was the day that my nervous system like gave out on me. My nervous system, my immune system, I was getting sick a lot, and um, getting sick a lot was disruptive to my work. I was getting anxious before presentations and calls and client meetings. And I was sick of being so uncomfortable and feeling so unsettled in my mind and in my body that I decided I was gonna have to do something about it. So after that point in time, I started doing all the research could because I did not want to go the Western route to help myself get my shit together. I really wanted to figure out how to heal it naturally because about five years prior to this, I had had just an unfortunate run-in with Western medicine, where I had learned that I had been misdiagnosed with ADHD and put on a medication for about three to four years that I was never supposed to have ever been on. And that run-in really rewired my relationship and expectations towards how vulnerably I can depend on Western medicine to fulfill my health needs. So, because of that, I found myself in what I thought the peak of my career. You know, I was V, I was, you know, had biggest client, great sales, I was like succeeding paper, but internally, my body like this is not sustainable. And so that's when I started doing a lot of research. I became a nutritionist because everything that I was researching was pointing to if you want to heal your weight gain, your acne, your anxiety, your anxiety, depression, um, energy, fatigue, like all of these things was pointing to nutrition, movement, sunlight, hydration, health, hormones, inflammation, like all things that are functional nutrition. And once I discovered that I actually had liberty over what my experience was in my body, I was like, oh my God, like I can actually do something about this. Like I can influence my experience inside of my body by using the food that I'm eating and by the routines that I have and the movement and the workouts and hydration. And that was such an empowering and life-changing realization. Like I before this time thought I just woke up and whatever energy I woke up with was energy that I had to work with for the day. Wherever my nervous system was for the day was what I had to work with for the day. And I just thought that I just had to accept it. And then if there were any issues, I would go to a doctor. They would have to put me on some medication to fill some void in my health. And then what was really interesting is I stopped people pleasing, I stopped drinking, I stopped eating and allowing anything into my system. And I got really meticulous about when I would actually hop on a plane and go see people. It had to actually very much make sense. And I started setting boundaries, I started holding myself to a higher standard, and I started to outperform those that historically I was like kind of neck and neck with in the company. And when I started to outperform them without sacrificing my sleep, staying out till, you know, midnight, two o'clock in the morning, entertaining clients, traveling all over the country, doing whatever, you know, also not doing cocaine. I was not doing Adderall. Those are all things that like very common uh happen in the sales space. And I was not bearing my body to the ground. I was riching my body. And I would start to get compliments from people post like presentations that I would do. Like, Leslie, like you are so well spoken, you are so energized, like you really like demand the attention of the room, like you hold the room very well. And I didn't get compliments like that before. You know, I would get the job done, but I started to really rebrand myself. And in that role, I started to be the sales rep that would take my clients to the spa, or I would take them to the wellness place. I would gift them with something that was wellness oriented. When I would host people, I would host them with proper human food that was nutritious and they would feel good afterwards and they would have a more productive meeting because of it. And so I just made it. I just rebranded myself. You know, I completely transitioned. And then my clients and my peers started asking me more about why my skin was so bright and clear and why I was so energized and why I was in such a good mood all the time. And I started talking about nutrition so much that I was like, I think it's time. I think it's time to pivot. I think I have found my calling. Like, this is the thing that I can't shut the fuck up about. And it's changed my life. I've helped so many people and my my family and friends, you know, at this point. And I was just like, nobody told me about this, and so many more people need to know about this. Yeah. And I'm gonna make that happen. So that's how I got to this work. I'm now a functional nutritionist and integrative health practitioner. I started out as a nutritionist, really just focused on the fundamentals of how to nourish the body. And then as I got deeper and deeper, I started acquiring uh skill sets and certifications from some of the most globally world-renowned functional medicine doctors. And that led me into uh functional lab testing, which is like game-changing when it comes to the root cause and accessing peak performance, accessing more energy, more mental clarity, more resilience, and all the things that a high performer is required to create in this vessel to meet their most powerful version of themselves. So that's how we got to where we are today.

SPEAKER_01

You are exactly where you're supposed to be. This path was mapped out for you for sure by your soul. And you can just tell. And that's why I always like to hear someone's story because you've usually walked this journey yourself, which is why you have come to help others. And so I just always love to hear that background story and what really what really had to go into your personal journey for you to now help others. What I love about your work is we're not sitting here today just talking about weight loss or improving your skin. We're talking about communication skills, holding a room, commanding attention, um, you know, outperforming others when it comes to program launches and social media growth and visibility. And while if you're listening to this, if weight loss is on your agenda this year, or if you want to improve your skin, everything we're talking about today is obviously going to help with that as well. But it's so much deeper than that. And I and I like to point that out because I think sometimes health does stop at weight and skin quality. And so maybe there are high performers looking at themselves in the mirror and they've got the body of their dreams and their faces glowing, but they're forgetting how are you showing up in meetings? Are you tripping up over your words? Do you have brain fog? Are you waking up in the morning tired, but you've got to get on that meeting? Like health is so much deeper than how you look. And that's what I wanted our conversation to pull apart today. The hidden symptoms that so many women are missing and pushing to the side because what they're looking at at the mirror, in the mirror, is what they want to see. Now there's so much I want to unpack for us to get there today. But you mentioned you started outperforming others when it came to your success. And as I mentioned at the start, you have a large Instagram following. I know you launch and sell out incredible programs within your space. We've had the pleasure of working together within a mastermind. So I know the kind of numbers you're seeing in your business. I would love for you to paint the picture. How has your health had the impact specifically on your business?

SPEAKER_02

Oh my gosh, it's like it's the vessel. My business is my body, my body is my business. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like to launch, what do you have to have? You have to have energy, you have to have clarity, you have to have resilience, you have to have discernment, you have to have self-confidence, trust, self-respect, you know, all of those things. And a big part of my work is something that you you've probably noticed this in your work too. The mindset that it takes to be a woman who holds an incredibly successful business and doesn't sacrifice herself along the way is built. It's built every single day. And when I'm at a launch, I get very lentless about how I protect my energy and what I'm focused on for throughout that time frame. And that's because those resources are limited. Like we all have that 24-hour window day, and yes, everyone has different obligation levels, but some of us have more energy than others. Some of us have more brain fuel in the tank than others. Some of us have more mental clarity for more hours of that day than others. And that is the edge. When you're able to produce more, hold more, perform more, and you love how you look, you love how you feel. You know, I've definitely seen where business owners, especially in the online space, are getting to a state where they don't love how they feel, and then they avoid visibility, that impacts their business and it's just this negative cycle. What I have seen is business owners that have cystic acne or bloating or weight gain, and they're not loving how they're feeling, that damages their confidence. It also, if they aren't able, or they don't feel like they're able to hold those habits and the routines that create a really well-represented presence, a presence of vitality, a presence of radiance, they oftentimes will avoid the camera. And when you avoid the camera, when you're an online business owner, that negatively impacts the momentum of your business. That negatively impacts your visibility and being able to find the people that really need your work. You know? And so what I have found is that because my skin is clear, because my skin is bright, because my energy and frequency is high, because I feel sexy in my skin and competent in the way that I carry myself, it makes me more magnetizing. It's a something that a lot of women desire and can have if they earn it and build it every day. And um I think it's really important. I mean, specifically for me, I like have to be an embodiment of my work, or I will not be trusted. I will not be respected. I do this and I take care of myself for me, but also to be an inspiration and a ray of hope for women that are also business owners to believe that it's possible. You know, I was just on an Instagram live today with Samantha Daly. Um, she's a client of mine, and she was talking about how she is also finding that she is able to have more energy to give to her business. And she's finding that she has a lot more capacity and resilience to hold the things that her business is demanding of her. And she talks about how she talked about how she was magnetized to working with me because I wasn't an embodiment of my work. And um, so I think for all of those different reasons, it's not an option to not take care of yourself, you know. And from a mindset perspective, you build self-respect by doing hard things and proving to your belief system that you can do hard things, showing up consistently so that you know that you can rely on yourself. And that positively bleeds into your mindset and your work, and your clients will respect you more. You know, I've definitely had some clients that have, you know, have maybe lost excess weight and they're walking around with a lot more confidence now, and they're like, people are treating me differently, like in a positive way. Like they're like, people are responding to my presence differently. And I'm like, hell yeah, they are. Because people, every one of us here knows it takes a lot of discipline to be in good shape. It takes a lot of discipline to take care of yourself. And it's a respectable thing to do. And people will treat you with more respect when they know that you have standards for yourself and they have to rise to them as well.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's someone they can trust, it's someone they want to be around. And I love that you spoke about the energetic component, the influence your health has on your energy. Because we talk about this a lot on the show. It doesn't matter how good your content is, how well spoken your content is, the words you're using, why people choose you is because of that energetic pull that you have. It's the command that you have, and that's an energetic, it's a magnetic component.

SPEAKER_02

But of course, conviction. It's like when you're convicted in who you are, you are confident, you know what you're talking about. People are like, oh, I want to follow that person. Because they're confident and they move with the conviction of a leader.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, 100%. And again, you need the health, you need the vessel behind you in order to create that magnetism. So, with all of that, I want to pull apart a lot of your teachings and a lot of your work because. What we have made clear is your health should be a non-negotiable, and really pouring into your vessel should be a non-negotiable in your business. And, you know, a combination of mindset and health, I believe, is the most powerful combination you'll ever focus on within your business. So we often hear about high cortisol in women, high-performing women, and being stressed. But I know you often talk about low cortisol and even flatline cortisol patterns. What's the difference? What's the cause for high cortisol, low cortisol, and what symptoms differentiate the two?

SPEAKER_02

I love this question because this needs to be talked about more. And the only thing that ever seems to be getting talked about is having high cortisol. I see so few women having high cortisol, and I see so many more women having flatlined or depleted cortisol. And cortisol is our stress hormone that is produced by our adrenals, and our adrenals are responsible for producing cortisol, adrenaline, and DHEA. So, what does it feel like when you have high cortisol? High cortisol feels like you are extremely overly energized. You are jittery, you are anxious because there's like a lot of pent-up energy inside of your body. And it's actually kind of hard to make strategic decisions. You can make quick decisions, but they're not always great decisions. And I don't typically see women that have high cortisol because they feel on top of the world. They are like high off of high cortisol. And I that's typically women that are in like their 20s, mid-20s. And then once women hit typically around their 30s or 40s and they've been functioning in that overdrive mode, their body starts to not be able to sustain it. And that's when the nervous system and your adrenals tend to hit a wall. And once it hits that wall, cortisol plummets. And once cortisol plummets, you feel lack of motivation, you feel foggy, you wake up after eight to ten hours of sleep at night, still exhausted. It takes you hours to actually like wake up out of that fog after you wake up in the morning. You tend to avoid social settings because socializing is exhausting. Most like just regular average things that women do are just too much to ask of yourself. Everything just seems overwhelming, everything seems overstimulating, and like it's just too much, like the smallest of tasks. And a lot of women, I've actually seen mistake adrenal depletion for depression because it's like you lose your zest for life, you lose your fire. And that's why I want to be clear in that I don't demonize cortisol. Cortisol is a really powerful hormone, and we need it to be able to activate mental performance and to activate our energy. Now, why is it depleted? Your adrenals are oftentimes starved of minerals. And high-functioning, high-performance women go through more cortisol than the average woman. Because we love performance, we love output, we love production. And with that said, for your audience specifically, high performance women cannot afford to be nutrient and minerally depleted. Because when your adrenals, when your hormones, when your metabolic system is starved of the vitamins and minerals and nutrients, like the resources that that system needs to function, it crashes out. It flatlines. And so a lot of people talk about high cortisol because it does cause puffy face. It does cause you to gain weight in your abdominal area, which is like no woman wants that. And that's visible to the eye. And most people equate what their nutritional intake is to whether they're fat or skinny. It is so much deeper than that. What high performance women need to do is they need to have a higher standard for the quality of the nutrients that they allow into their system. They need to have dense nutrients in the food that they allow into their system. We need more B vitamins than the average woman. We need more electrolytes than the average woman. And when I say electrolytes, that's sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. Because our body, okay, here's the thing: if you don't want to shrink your life to accommodate for very low capacity and weak resilience, you need to increase your input to keep up with your output. And I'm not just talking, I'm not talking about macros and calories right now. I'm talking about your vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, F, B vitamins, your electrolytes. And that's what we need to be more focused on is the density of the nutrients that we're putting into our system, as well as protecting our body from chronic sources of inflammatory foods, which is the ultra-processed. And we can get into that if you'd like, but it's about increasing the quality and the density of the resources that you provide your body with through hydration, sleep nutrients, and also protecting it from the sources of inflammation that suck the energy out of your body.

SPEAKER_01

I love this conversation because it's there's a trend towards high protein diets and your macro consumption within your diet, but certainly not enough on mineral and minerals and the mineral diets we should be including, which was actually my next question. Mineral depletion is another conversation you hold a lot on your social media and how this is contributing to burnout. Actually, before I get to this question, what I just found really fascinating about that is often you do hear cortisol demonized. You mentioned you don't demonize cortisol, and that conversation has clearly highlighted we need it in our body and it serves a purpose. But I think there is such a there is such a um negative connotation.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. We assume cortisol is powerful. It activates our energy. Cortisol and adrenaline is what supports our stress response. Yeah. We need to be producing it. It's what literally wakes us up in the morning.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And in my testing, I test to see like what times of the day for cortisol is adequately, adequately producing. And when I can see that a woman is clinically adrenally depleted, aka burned out, she's not producing cortisol in the morning. And typically I see cortisol highest at night, which is when it should be the lowest. So what's not common knowledge is that I know the word burnout is all over the place right now, but I've also had lab results come back where I'm like, you're not clinically burnout. You're not burnout at all. Your hormones are actually very strong, but you got to stop drinking the wine every night. You got to get sleep. You got to get some movement in throughout the day. So what's interesting in my work is I was literally talking to Sam about this today. She was saying that one of her favorite parts about working with me was not identifying just what her root causes were, but also what was not relevant to her. Because there's so much noise out there today about high cortisol, parasites, mold toxicity, hormone imbalances, thyroid imbalances. So much so that if you like you can really embody that and be so distracted because you don't know what your numbers are and what they're not. Yeah. So there's there's a lot of metrics to that. And I found it to be really empowering to be able to identify, like from a clinical perspective, am I burnt out? Yes, no. I can see it. I can see if your adrenals are crashing out and not producing what they're responsible for producing or not. But also I want to say if you are clinically burnt out, that is absolutely reversible. You can heal up, you can come back from it over the course of about three to six months.

SPEAKER_01

And I'm pretty confident the more women are hearing this conversation, they're in the low cortisol category more than the high cortisol. Again, the conversation I speak with women in business every single day, and it's usually those symptoms that they're experiencing. The foggy brain, the lack of energy, the they know they've got shit to do. Today they're mid-launch, but they just don't have that spark inside of them. And you you see that so much. I've lost my spark. I've lost my spark. And I love that you mentioned a lot of people then put that into the category of depression and anxiety. But it's a hormone imbalance. It's it's the cortisol. Um, again, I'm loving this conversation. So I want us, I want us to go back now to mineral depletion. What do you believe is driving mineral depletion when it comes to modern life?

SPEAKER_02

Minerals typically come from your hydration. And in human history, we haven't always had this ultra-sterilized water system. And we need a sterilized water system because there's a lot of prescription drugs and things like that that's like in our in our water systems today, and all kinds of toxins that we also don't want into our body. But um, our water is not as minerally dense as it once was, which is why the big fad of like adding electrolytes to your water is so prevalent today and fair as it should be. You know, we need to be adding more minerals back into our water because that sterilization process of our water is killing off the minerals in our water. So our water is not as dense in minerals as it once was. Our food is not as dense in minerals as it once was. Uh, with a lot of modern agricultural practices today, the pesticides that are used on the soil weakens the density of the minerals in our soil, therefore leads to weakening the density in the food that is harvested and then put into our body. That's B. C is oftentimes our food is being transported all over the world now. And in human history, most of the time we were growing our food in the backyard. There were 10 steps between when we harvested it and when we put it into our system. So from the second that that food is harvested off of that plant, its nutrients start to get lesser and less, less and less potent. So, I mean, in America specifically, our food travels an average of 1,500 miles from where it was harvested, then sits on the shelf of, you know, the grocery store, and then we get it into our system. And that's not, and that's accounting for if people are spending most of their time in the produce section, where I'm seeing a real disconnect, especially driven by like the fitness bros and like the fitness industry, is that everybody's worried about their protein and their sweet potato. It's like, get your ground beef and sweet potato and broccoli in. And it's like there are thousands and thousands of thousands of different types of produce today that are vehicles for the vitamins and minerals that our body needs to function off of. Like our thyroid, it requires selenium, iodine, zinc, and iron. Those are not in the sweet potato and the ground beef. They're in the produce, the greens, the leafy greens, and like all of the luscious produce that we have access to today. And where I'm seeing so much depletion is there is this hyperfixation on protein and carbohydrates, and we're completely missing, completely missing the most prominent source of vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein, nutrients that feeds our microbiome, that keeps our microbiomes balanced. And I'm also seeing a lot of people have leaky gut. And when you have leaky gut, your body has a harder time even extracting and using the nutrients that you are getting into your system. So there's there's like it's a multifaceted layered issue. And on top of the fact that we are more stressed and nutrient-demanding than we have been in human history. So we're not getting enough nutrients and we're demanding more functioning from our body while giving it the least amount of resources than we ever have before.

SPEAKER_01

I was just about to say there's a real imbalance. We're pushing our bodies more than we ever have, but that is not being supported by the way that produce is harvested, where we're getting our produce from, the diets that a lot of people are following nowadays. We've really moved away from the traditional ways of eating from the land. So, what are some lifestyle upgrades women could implement to restore this balance? I appreciate working with someone like yourself and actually getting these tests so that you can have a personalized protocol is number one. But if they want to get off this episode and just start to create some lifestyle shifts, what would that be for them?

SPEAKER_02

Where high-performing women are typically the worst is their sleep. And there is no supplement, there is no meal plan, there is no workout, nothing that I could assign that would make up for the lack of replenishment that happens when we sleep. So let me provide clarity on what good sleep hygiene looks like, like what our expectations should be. Because this is number one. Like you must be getting seven to eight hours of sleep at night. And not just quantity, but it's important that you prioritize your evening routine just as much as your morning routine. Because your evening routine and your boundaries around your sleep is what creates your capability of implementing your morning routine. You know what I mean? Like we focus so much on like what's your morning routine? What's your I want to know what's your evening routine? Like, are you downregulating the nervous system? Are you going to bed and actually even realistically giving yourself an eight-hour window to sleep? I see a lot of women sleeping five, six, seven, eight, five, five, six, six and a half hours of sleep at night regularly. There's no supplement that that can solve for that. When we sleep, we rejuvenate, we regenerate. Our brain detoxifies. So sleep is number one. Seven, eight hours of sleep at night, quality matters. Next is hydration. Like I see this mist so much. Being dehydrated causes brain fog, causes bloating, causes poor digestion, it causes constipation, it causes oftentimes if you have acne-prone skin, um, it will cause breakouts, it will cause fatigue. Like you'd be surprised how many women come to me and they're like, I think I have IBS, or I think I'm like constipated. I think I think I have a hormone imbalance, and I'm looking at their diet and lifestyle, I'm like, babe, you're dehydrated.

SPEAKER_01

Which is wild because it's probably one of the easiest things we can do on a day-to-day basis. Stay hydrated.

SPEAKER_02

So half of your body weight in ounces a day is what I recommend for your target, your personalized target for hydration. And make it easy for yourself. Wake up and start your day with hydration because that programs you to want more hydration throughout the day. Third is activity. Like our bodies need baseline movement on a day-to-day basis. And I'm talking about walking. So 10,000 steps is a really great target. Walking helps to generate energy. Like when you hydrate and you fuel your body and you sleep well, and then you move the body. Moving the body takes all of those resources and it puts them to work and it activates your mitochondrial functioning to generate energy. So sleep, hydration, 10,000 steps a day. Fundamentals must must focus on that. And um when you hydrate, it is important to add electrolytes into it so that your body can actually hold and absorb that um hydration. And then workouts. I mean, your skeletal muscle holds about 80% of the responsibility of your metabolic functioning. And when I say metabolic functioning, I'm not just talking about whether your body stores your food as fat or uses it as energy. I'm talking about your body's ability to generate energy. And we have an epidemic of fatigued women. Like if you were to ask me, what is the number one symptom that women come to me for? It's chronic fatigue. It's chronic fatigue, it's bloating, it's weight gain, cystic acne, painful periods, all things that drastically disrupt your workday. Drastically disrupt your mental performance, drastically damage your self-confidence. So um workouts, I am pretty clear on the fact that Pilates itself is not enough, running itself is not enough, strength training itself is not enough. I believe that a well-rounded workout split is leading with strength training. So three to four days a week of strength training, one to two days a week of Pilates or yoga, and one to two days a week of cardio. You need all three. They all serve very different purposes. And anyone who tells you that one of one of those itself is enough, they're wrong. They don't know what they're talking about.

SPEAKER_01

I notice the biggest difference if I incorporate all three of those in my training cycle throughout the week, I noticed so much difference. So much difference. And it makes sense, especially as women. Like we are not the same woman on a week-to-week basis or even a day-to-day basis. You know, hormonally, with our menstrual cycle, the way we want to show up is so different. And the moment I leapt into that more, one, I enjoyed working out so much more. But I was getting more out of my workouts. Even if it was the slower-paced workout, it was the slower burn, or it was just enjoying being in a hot room with Pilates or whatever it may be. But yeah, just realizing that the same workout every single day is one, not farming.

SPEAKER_02

It doesn't meet your body's needs because strength training builds muscle, Pilates defines muscle, and cardio keeps the fat from covering your muscle. And you also need great cardiovascular health too. I mean, obviously it's not as simple as that, but from a purpose perspective, if we're talking about a well-balanced workout split, that's what I use those for. And you will see your physique change in ways you've never seen before if you lean into all three of those together.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I agree. Now, I buy from the chemist these little soluble things you put into your water that are apparently minerals and vitamins, magnesium and potassium and all of the things. Are they a load of BS or are they actually helpful to put into your water? You know the ones I'm talking about that you get from the chemist.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No.

SPEAKER_02

Here's the caveat to the electrolytes. What I'm what's problematic today with electrolytes is that there's really cheap mineral-lacking sources of electrolytes today, like LMNT, bottom of the barrel. It's like one of the most prominent electrolytes that I see out. They sponsor everybody. You know what I mean? I'm not a fan of it because a well rounded electrolyte comes with not just sodium. And LMNT has like a thousand milligrams. Of sodium in each serving, which is, in my opinion, too much. So I believe that a well-formulated electrolyte has both sodium and potassium. Sodium and potassium minimum, like baseline. If it doesn't have potassium, it's going to cause you to hold weight in your face. It's going to cause you to retain your water. And you're not going to enjoy how you feel after having too much sodium. So we're looking for sodium and potassium. And I cap, like if a packet has any more than 500 milligrams of sodium, I'm not using it. Or what you can do, like if you have a bunch of a sodium packet and you need to like get rid of them before you switch to another, just space it out across the day. Like a thousand milligrams of sodium in one day, spaced across the entire day, is a totally different equation. But electrolytes are not just sodium. It's magnesium, it's potassium, it's calcium. And without those balancing it out, your adrenals are missing like three-fourths of the picture and the resources that they need to be able to perform. And to answer your question from earlier, more simply, like, how do we create more stress resilience? We support our stress response, which is our adrenals. Our adrenals need more minerals. And how I know that a woman is adrenally depleted or their adrenals are kind of starved of the minerals that they need is A dizziness upon standing. One of the most prominent symptoms of mineral depletion. B is being very easily overwhelmed. Like if just the slightest thing, it's that's not just cortisol. I see people online talking about, oh, that's a cortisol, high cortisol response if you're like get overwhelmed, whatever. I think it's it's not always that simple. And I think I actually see more prominently that the adrenals are depleted, got low cortisol, low DHEA, low, low adrenaline, when any little thing just puts you over the edge, and just like, why did that put me over the edge? Like, why did that take me from a five to a 10 when my husband asked me to make him a latte? You know what I mean? Like it shouldn't, it's that shouldn't take me to a 10. So if you're no, and especially as a business owner, you know, we get emails sometimes that like we really don't appreciate you need tolerance. You need tolerance, you need tolerance, you need resilience, you need to be able to keep it demure, you need to be able to like keep your cool, and you cannot keep your cool if you're minerally depleted, you have no cortisol, and everything is overstimulating and overwhelming you. So I find that when you heal the chronic inflammation and you're not exhausted, A, B, you better fuel your adrenals, your stress response has more capacity. Your stress response isn't so delicate and you can handle more, which means that you can produce more.

SPEAKER_01

And the reality is, yeah, when you are building an empire with a growing team and a big client load and the visibility online, you need the capacity to hold on to more. And it's so much more than the energetic capacity, it's it's your body's capacity to function the way we need it to. Now, you touched on this before, and I'm seeing a growing awareness online around mold toxicity and parasites in the body. What signs might suggest that is something a woman should explore? And is it true? Is it true that if you spit into a cup of water, you can tell if you've got parasites in your body? No, I've actually not heard that one. Did you hear that one? I've seen it multiple times. And I said to Bart the other night, like, I'm tempted to see what this spitting in the cup. But I've seen it so many times on TikTok. They say spit into a cup of water before you go to bed at night. And then depending on where your spit is in the morning within the cup of water, will tell you if you have parasites. I can't. And there are many doctors. Yeah, there are people online spitting into cups before they go to sleep.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, so the only ounce of accuracy around that is that parasites do activate in the evening. If you have parasites, you will typically have anal itching and you will typically have severe sweats at night and severe IBS-like symptoms, like anything, like you can't put anything into your system without a severe digestive reaction. Um, I test for hundreds of different parasites in my stool analysis lab, and it's the least common thing that I see. Like less than 10% of the stool analysis that I run come back with any active parasites. If you travel to like a third-world country that has really poor, you know, water cleansing, um, I would recommend to do a parasite cleanse when you come home. But those are really the most prominent symptoms that I would pay attention to if you were concerned about having parasites. Oh, by the way, if you do have parasites, they can literally be cleansed from the system in a matter of 12 weeks. So that's not a that's not a lifelong diagnosis or anything. They're they're they're very addressable. Mold toxicity. Now, mold toxicity is nasty to the body. It is like rude. It is so disruptive when it comes to some um symptoms. And I find that the most disruptive symptoms when it comes to mold toxicity is neuroinflammation, which feels like you literally can't remember anything. You forget your words, you have brain fog, you have trouble sleeping, or you wake up fatigued, um, a lot of bloating and skin conditions. Like skin conditions are like eczema, rosacea, things like that are typically rooted in either a gut infection, a gut imbalance, a mold toxicity. Um, and mold toxicity is another component that I test in my labs. And that is also not a very prominent thing that I see. The most common thing that I see in my gut microbiome lab testing is yeast and bacterial overgrowth. Uh, so that's what I would focus a bit more on, rather than the parasites and mold toxicity. But I will say when it comes to mold toxicity, there are some unconventional ways of being exposed to mold other than it just festering in your walls. Eating a lot of leftover animal protein that's been like in the fridge, that can accumulate mycotoxicity because it's just like it's not really meant to be cooked and then cold and then just sitting in a fridge for multiple days and it's completely invisible. Like, you know, oftentimes you can't see the mold toxicity. So leftover animal proteins is a pretty prominent source of mold exposure. Um uncleaned faucets, those are really prominent, which is why I'm huge, I'm a huge advocate for reverse osmosis filtered water systems. They that's the cream of the crop when it comes to properly actually cleaning your water. Um and if you're exposed to mold and you don't detoxify it from the system, it can live in the system for decades. So when I do testing, I can see based upon the overgrowth of certain strains of yeast in a organic acids test, if someone has uh accumulated mold toxicity exposure internally. And um that can also be addressed in the matter of three to six months. And so it's not always your current home, your current office. You know, it can be at any point in your life if you had toxic mold toxicity for a consecutive period of time, it can really, really cause a lot of disruption.

SPEAKER_01

I was listening to a podcast episode the other day, and the woman on there said that she had mold toxicity, and it was found that it was from years and years and years and years and years ago. Um, which yeah, I think is it's that's really interesting to know because you might look around your immediate surroundings and think, we're good here. You know, I live in a new home, our house was brand new when we moved in. So assuming your environment's fine, but as you said, living in the system all of these years and potentially the cause of all of these symptoms. You know what I'm my the alarm bells are going off in my mind. All of these symptoms you're talking about are quite similar. You know, the symptoms you just spoke of when it comes to mold toxicity, low cortisol are quite similar. And this is why it's so important to work with someone like yourself to truly understand because we may hear these symptoms and and assume, oh, I've got low cortisol. So then you go and self, you know, DIY at home for low cortisol, or I've got mold toxicity. So you're self-diagnosing yourself and then following at-home protocols, but potentially focusing on the wrong thing and you're spending years and so much money as well on all of these trends and supplements for no reason. 100%. Yeah. Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, that's that's the purpose of my work is to collapse the time frame of feeling unwell to feeling your best. And that's why I took functional lab testing in-house in my practice, is I saw like I was able to get my clients much faster results because I went through a phase where I was trying to actually outsource lab testing with my clients' doctors. Most of them, A, weren't certified in it, B, they couldn't get insurance to cover it, which insurance doesn't cover my practice either. Um, that's a whole nother can of worms. But um they also oftentimes weren't willing to even take the time to order to much less, you know, review them. So I was kind of forced into like learning functional lab testing, and I fell in love with it, and I'm glad I was forced into it because um what's what's unique about my practice is that I'm a functional nutritionist as well as an integrative health practitioner. And a lot of people come to me after having worked with a naturopath who prescribed them a ton of supplements, meets with them every like three to four months, doesn't have a nutritionist, they're not working on the nutrition part of the equation. Um, and in my client experience, because of the layer of my expertise, we do the full entire integrative approach. Lifestyle, nutrition, mindset, functional lab testing, supplementation, workouts, like all of it, which is why I don't take on a lot of clients, which is why I have a high-ticket program and service so that I can dedicate a lot of time to the clients that I do take on. And yeah, but you're absolutely right. Like there's so much crossover amongst symptoms, and you won't know. You will not know unless you know what to test for. And that's why every single one of like my one-on-one VIP clients, I run a full metabolic hormone panel. I run a full stool analysis organic acids test so that I can find things that they wouldn't even know to sometimes even communicate.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And I love it. You just mentioned you get results so much quicker by doing that. You know, it is it's shaving off so much time and money by working with a specialist on your health. Um, my final question. So a lot of my work rests on the idea that we are energetic beings and we have the ability through our subconscious mind and identity to heal ourselves and expand ourselves. And there's a growing conversation with thought leaders like Dr. Joe Dispenser, Bruce Lipton, who have found we have the ability to heal our bodies with the power of our mind. I would love your views on the relationship between biology when it comes to healing the body and the mindset part to it, because I'm so sure you bring both into your work. So I'd love your views on that.

SPEAKER_02

I 100% agree. And the most common brick wall that I see standing between women feeling well and feeling their best is a belief that in order for them to feel well or to get the snatched waist or to get the clear, glowing, you know, dewy skin, is that they have to restrict and they have to sacrifice and they have to miss out on the fun things. And where we have to not just kill that belief, let that belief die, is replace it with a mindset of I have a very high standard for what I allow into my body. I do not allow just anything into my body. And the the hard truth is that listen, like if you want to just go with the flow and eat how the average person is eating, expect to look, feel, and perform like the average person. Like that's the truth. And the breakthrough is not in the restriction. The breakthrough is understanding that there are so many hundreds of thousands of different forms of produce and meals that are so nutrient-rich that will make you that don't only taste amazing, but make you feel amazing after you have them. And a big wall that I often see is women not wanting to release alcohol or not wanting to release smoking or not wanting to release sugar and like the glutens and the, you know, the treat meals and things like that. And they're like, I just I don't want to be restricted. And oftentimes it's because they don't believe that they are capable of making a different decision. They don't believe that they can go to a party and not drink. They don't believe that they can go to uh a get-together and not have what whoever is hosting is providing to eat. You know, and they're like, Well, I don't want to be that girl. And I'm like, who is that girl? Like that girl is the girl that holds herself to a higher standard, that makes the extra effort to resource herself with an intake that is not gonna have her battling brain fog for two to three days after she consumes whatever that thing is. And that's the thing. Most people, again, only equate what they put in their mouth to whether they get fat or they get skinny. Yeah. But what I'm on a big mission to debunk is that it's so much more than that. And inflammatory foods can cause inflammatory symptoms for 24 to 72 hours after consuming them, like immediately after consuming them. So the decision process changes a lot once you become more educated on what your nutritional decisions actually mean for your experience and your mind and your body. And I have I have heard multiple women in my programs say, Oh, I am becoming her. Like I am becoming that girl. Like I am becoming the girl that wakes up, has a morning routine, works out, eats well, goes to the farmer's market, has her supplement regimen. And she just like loves who that woman is. You know, it's the woman that like a lot of women desire to be or to become. And there are things that have to go if you want to become that woman. You know, there's short-term consequences. And I was just talking to one of my VIP clients about this today. She was saying that she went to a party and like there was a bunch of cupcakes and all the things, and ice cream and all the things. And she was like, I felt in the moment like I was missing out. And I was like, listen, girlfriend, like everyone that was indulging in those things got about five minutes of joy in two to three days of inflammatory symptoms. So if you can exercise discernment and exercise self-discipline for five to ten minutes while you're watching everybody, you know, throw back that ice cream, you get three hours of an advantage on every single one of them. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Or even like as you said, days, like days beyond like beyond that event, um, which I think is so interesting. And I love just then that you spoke to the identity piece. So what we have just provided the listeners is an at-home at-home protocol to start to implement to become more healthy. So you have the to-do list, you know what you need to do, but what's going to stop you from actually following all of this advice and working with someone like yourself and like myself is that identity piece. If you don't associate as a healthy woman who prioritize herself subconsciously, you're not going to follow the to-do list. You're not going to follow all of the things that we have just provided. So, again, that's why I love these conversations. It's the identity piece, becoming her within the mind first, and then getting all of the steps when it comes to her health. You combine the two. And now not only are you doing the things, but you consistently do the things because it's who you actually are. Um, and you don't fall away from that. When it's so part of your subconscious blueprint, you don't go back. And you're no longer forcing this upper heel, you're no longer trying to push these, this, this way of living. It's just a part of who you are.

SPEAKER_02

It's how you feel, it's the decisions you make, the habits that you live.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. It's like we wouldn't we wouldn't go all day without brushing our teeth. That is no longer a habit that you have to motivate yourself to do and think about. You subconsciously get up in the morning and you go and brush your teeth because it's a part of your hard wire, it's a part of your identity to have oral hygiene. The same with the same can be said with all of this high performance health and lifestyle. It just becomes a part of you once it's absorbed into your mindset, into your identity, and then you're obviously showing up in a way that's so personalized. And I find that is so much more motivating when it's a protocol that's personalized to you and you know everything you're doing has an intention for you.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and I know that you are you are the queen of branding, and I love that so much. And I tend to find the conversion of who a woman was and getting to who she wants to be is a complete rebrand. Like you're not gonna be the go with the flow girl anymore, you're not gonna be the people pleaser anymore. You're gonna be the girl that is particular about where you go to eat because you want to make sure that you have the resources available to you to nourish your body in a way that makes you feel good. You're not gonna be the girl that says yes to everything and now you don't have time for a workout. You're gonna be the girl that makes the time for the workout. And I think one of the biggest parts of resistance when it comes to rebranding into that woman that looks and feels amazing is getting comfortable disappointing the people around you that don't respect your goals. Like you are gonna have to get it. Yeah, like it's you prioritizing you is oftentimes going to have to de-prioritize people that expect you to always sacrifice your priorities for theirs. So that's a whole other part of the process, but it's a rebranding. It's you are literally rebranding how you're representing yourself in your life.

SPEAKER_01

And absolutely you should, like you deserved to have the wealth and the success that I know you are all striving for. And this is how you're gonna create the vessel to hold on to it all and enjoy it when it's here because that is the last thing I want to see. Women with these beautiful big businesses, but they're exhausted and dreading the work every single day. Like that's not what we want. Leslie, this conversation has been so incredible, and I have no doubt they've all walked away with so much value to now go and implement into their own life. But as we've really highlighted in today's episode, it needs to go well beyond a podcast episode, and the approaches that you guide your clients through are so personalized. So, where can they find you and how can they jump into your world?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, well, thank you so much for the opportunity to pour into your community. I just highly respect and admire the community and the orbit that you have created. So it's been a pleasure to contribute to it. Um but if your community wants to stay connected with me, I'm Leslie Jackson. Wellness, Leslie with an IE on Instagram. I also have a podcast called Becoming Her by Leslie Jackson. That's on YouTube as well as Apple and Spotify. And those are really my primary two sources of staying connected with my online community. So I do offer, I offer $50 wellness audits if you just want to like get a baseline to understand like where are my blind spots and what is the opportunity? What is normal? Is this a symptom? Is this something that I should be accepting? Um, because that's that's a pretty prominent thing. You know, oftentimes women are going to the doctor and they're like, yeah, painful periods is just part of being a woman, or you know, fatigue is just part of motherhood. And uh that's a big part of the conversations that I'm typically having with women is just waking them up to this is actually not normal, and you don't have to settle for having to fight through this every day. So there's a couple of different ways that uh we can get in touch. And um, I have a group program called She's a Force that's all focused on hormone healing and inflammation healing. Um, and periodically I do take on one-on-one VIP clients as well.

SPEAKER_01

Amazing. Well, I'm gonna link all of these links in the show notes below so that you can just click through and go and connect with Leslie. And honestly, please do because it's an area of our life that we cannot neglect given what you are all here to create. So, Leslie, thank you so much for sharing your time with us all, your wisdom. I appreciate you so much, and I'm so grateful we have been connected.

SPEAKER_02

If you love this episode, share it with a friend and leave a quick review. And if you want to go deeper, everything you need, resources, programs, and ways to connect is in the show notes. And don't just save this episode. Pick one thing, apply it today, and let it compound. I'll see you next time on Becoming Her.