#281. Your Labs Are ‘Normal’… So Why Do You Feel So Bad?

We open up a rapid-fire Q&A on women’s health, faith, and practical habits that move you from “normal” labs to real energy. We clear up perimenopause vs menopause, expose hidden drivers of hormone chaos, and teach cycle-based training, food upgrades, and lab literacy.

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Download the read your own lab guide: https://labs.fasttofaith.com/

• redefining health beyond diagnoses and hospital ranges
• censorship of wellness info and why alternatives matter
• how to ask questions via site chatbot and sisterhood
• optimal labs vs normal labs and what to request
• perimenopause and menopause explained without myths
• environmental toxins, seed oils and endocrine disruption
• real food basics, protein and healthy fats as inputs
• cycle-based training: when to push and when to rest
• tracking patterns in hunger, creativity and recovery
• Lent, fasting and suffering well with purpose
• why community support accelerates change and trust
• scripture-led mindset for calling and consistency

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Fast to Faith is hosted by Dr. Tabatha Barber — OB/GYN, functional medicine physician, and founder of the Fast to Faith Sisterhood and Coaching Academy.

Transcript

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Cold Open: Plan Around Your Cycle

Ashlee 0:00

It is so important to plan around your cycle. And very truly, honestly, when I started doing this and looking at the calendar, like even when you plan a vacation, look, I'm so serious. Like, look at where you're going to be on your cycle. Because if it's a bad week, like don't do it.

Mission And Show Introduction

Dr. Tabatha 0:23

If you're tired of doing all the right things and still feeling exhausted, stuck in your body, and disconnected from God, this podcast is for you. I'm Dr. Tabitha, triple board certified functional medicine physician, and I help women stop fighting their bodies and start healing them God's way. This isn't about another diet or quick fix. This is about restoring your energy, your confidence, and your faith through fasting, functional medicine, and biblical truth. Welcome to Fast of Faith, where you don't just lose weight and feel great. You step into who God created you to be. So let's get into it.

Listener Q&A Hot Seat Setup

Ashlee 1:06

Hey ladies, welcome back to the Fast of Faith podcast. This is an episode that we are super excited about because it is different than anything that we've ever done before. I am going to rapid fire questions at Dr. Tabitha today. We're putting her in the hot seat. And these are questions that you have been asking. These are questions that you've put in comments either on YouTube or Facebook or Instagram. So know that these are coming from a woman just like you watching this episode or listening to this as you walk with your weighted vest, whatever you choose to do. So, Dr. Tabitha, welcome. Are you excited?

Why Online Health Advice Is Censored

Dr. Tabatha 1:40

I'm a little nervous. I'm gonna lie. No, I'm just kidding. I'm excited because I don't want women Googling for this. I mean, Google is getting better, Nava Chat GPT, the answers, but there's still a really big part that Google restricts and YouTube. It is the world of health and wellness, oftentimes. So I'm just gonna be fully transparent. Hopefully, we don't get kicked off of any platform, but there are governing bodies that decide what gets shown and what doesn't. You know, we just recorded with Dr. Whitfield and had this whole issue, but you're probably gonna get the answer that the food industry wants you to hear, or the insurance industry, or the conventional medical system. Um, I am encouraged to see more and more um platforms showing the alternatives, the integrative medicine, the functional medicine. But even if you go to Wikipedia, it still calls functional medicine quackery. So hello, I'm sorry, but the Cleveland Clinic, which we all like agree is a standard, you know, institution of trust, they have a functional medicine program. So I just want women to understand that what you are finding and searching is being censored. And so that's why platforms like this are so essential and necessary. And when you Google something, you might not get the full answer that you are looking for. And I know because I Google and I see what comes up because it's really important to me that women have full informed consent and like get all the alternatives. Informed consent is risks, benefits, and alternatives. And we don't talk about alternatives in conventional medicine, we talk about what the doctors can provide. For me as an OB, I was like birth control pills and surgery, these are my options. And now, as a functional medicine and menopause certified provider, I have so many other tools in that toolbox, but you might not know that when you're searching on Google. So thanks for doing

How To Ask Questions And Join Community

Dr. Tabatha 4:01

this episode.

Ashlee 4:01

Yeah, you're welcome. I also want to address a couple things. There are other ways that you can ask Dr. Tabitha a question and she can answer it on every website. So if you go to fastafate.com or shop.fastafate.com or even just drtabitha.com, there is a little chat bot. It is either pink or orange and it'll look like a little text message bubble. You will click on that and you can actually ask Dr. Tabitha a question. It has been trained to answer like her, all of her episodes are in there. Anything that she's ever talked about gets put inside of that little chat bot. So you can actually ask her a question at any time. It's really cool. Another way that you can ask her questions or any of her certified uh coaches is by joining our sisterhood community. And you can do that a couple ways. You can join our five-day challenge, and so it is a $5 five-day challenge that you can join. It's called Empowered by Faith, or you can join our Fast of Faith um program. So there's a couple ways where you can get inside. That's a private community, and you can really ask some more one-on-one personalized questions inside of that. So that is something that we do on a private platform in our Fast to Faith 2.0 app. So there are other ways. You're only one person. That's the cool thing about you certifying coaches, but also technology, and we're utilizing that. So please look at that little chat bot on the bottom of all of our episodes. So here we

Rethinking Health Beyond Diagnoses

Ashlee 5:26

go. The first question that we have is how has your approach to health and wellness evolved over the past decade?

Dr. Tabatha 5:33

Oh my gosh, it's evolved so much. A decade ago, I would have been 39, 40 years old. I didn't know what health and wellness was, actually. I I was in the world of disease and diagnoses. I all I saw was medical problems. And I thought that if someone didn't have a diagnosis, they were health and wealth and well. But the truth is, health is not the absence of disease. It's a whole other spectrum. And in that I want women to start to really understand. And um, if you have not been told you have diabetes, that does not mean you're healthy. So we get this misconception because you go for your annual visit and you get this clean bill of health. Oh, you're fine. We'll see you next year. Meanwhile, your labs are trending toward diabetes, they're trending toward um hormone imbalances. You have raging gut issues that aren't being addressed, or an autoimmune condition that you're told to just live with and that we will manage. And that does not mean that you are healthy or well, yeah, right? So it's so good. Yeah, we we have to change how we're looking at things and understand that it's just a different spectrum. So we're not trying to avoid disease, we're trying to create health. And when we do that, the first thing that I had to learn was that my body is for me. God actually gave me an amazing body and I was treating it terribly. Um, I was talking bad to it. I was calling it every name in the book. I was not nourishing it, I was treating it like a garbage can: MM's, Mountain Dew, Taco Bell, McDonald's, all the things because I was busy. I had every excuse, every reason. And God really had to convict me on some of this stuff and say, you know what? You get this one vessel, and if it's breaking down, it's not my fault. I actually created it to heal and thrive until your last day, but you continue to destroy it and break it down. And so what we talk about in Fast of Faith Sisterhood is this the scales, this balance of like, are you in inflammation and destruction or are you in healing, repair, and restoration? Who's winning that fight, that balance? And there's things that cause destruction, and there's things that cause repair and restoration. And what I recommend to women is get curious, stop shaming yourself, feeling guilty, um, living in the pit of self-pity, of like, woe is me. I I got these bad genes, I've been, you know, passed down these diagnoses or these addictions. Like, we have to break up with all that garbage because the truth of it is we are more than conquerors, we are overcomers. God equips us, but we have to do things differently. We have to show up and make different choices, and that starts with our mind. So, in order to heal your body, you must first renew your mind. Romans 12, 2, that's what we do. Everything around here, right? Yes. So that is what I would say is it takes a perspective change. It takes some understanding of there is a whole world out there that you might not even know about or have any awareness of. Like I was just totally clueless until I wasn't. And once your eyes are opened, you can't go back. You have to trust that God is making a way and showing you these things. So if you're listening to this episode, that is a sign from God. He has been telling you, do it different, show up different, make different choices, renew your mind, get scripture in your head, start believing

Destruction Vs Restoration Mindset

Dr. Tabatha 9:45

that God actually has a better health journey for you. You aren't meant to suffer. You just are not. It is a flat-out lie from this world. We live in a broken world and we're all just like hamsters on the freaking wheel, thinking, oh, this is how it's supposed to be. No, stop conforming to the pattern of this world.

Ashlee 10:07

Get off the wheel.

Dr. Tabatha 10:08

Get off the wheel. Yeah.

Sponsor: Omega-3s Vs Omega-6s

Dr. Tabatha 10:10

Real quick, I just want to interrupt this conversation for something super important. Even though we need to take care of ourselves spiritually, emotionally, and physically, we do have to take care of ourselves at a cellular level. And that is why I have my Fast to Faced supplement line. So let's just take a minute to hear about something that might be the game changer that you need in this season. We didn't talk in detail about the difference in omega-3s versus omega 6s when we talked about omega lift. And it's so important because the standard American diet, one of the worst aspects of it is the high levels of omega-6s.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Like that's what's destroying ourselves. Yep. Right? 100%. You know, oftentimes we don't really have a choice. I mean, if you look at your labels, if you if you go out to eat like the average human being, you are going to have omega-6s. Omega-6s and omega-3s are called essential fatty acids. What the name implies, they're essential for the functioning of your body, mostly stored on your fat, um, but they're very essential for the functioning of your body. Both of them are, but however, in a one-to-one ratio, meaning you don't need a whole lot of omega-6s. Now, omega-3s are phenomenal. Omega-6s, though, in too much, like you could have a ton of omega-3s, and you're it's it's omega-6s though, if you have too much of that particular omega, it turns into inflammation. So you do not want to have too much omega-6s.

Dr. Tabatha 11:47

Before the food industry really existed, you could get away with eating salmon once or twice a week because you were not getting omega-6s in your diet. But now we we're getting them everywhere we turn. We're getting them in their coffee drinks in the morning. We're getting them in our, you know, everything. That's why potato chips are bad for you, not because of the potatoes or the salt, because they're soaked in omega-6 seed oils. And so we're just combating this. And that is why we need omega-3s in such high levels. I can't even tell you how different I feel when I add in omega lift because I do tend to consume a lot of omega-6s. Um, just with traveling and having two teenage kids, so we're never eating dinner at the same time, or we're always grabbing and on the go. And so I have to combat that. I have to counteract it.

Normal Labs Vs Optimal Health Ranges

Ashlee 12:50

You touched on this a little bit in the beginning, and it is about labs. And you go to the doctor, and labs are normal. That's what you get told, and you created a how to read your own labs guide, which we'll have in the show notes today. Can you explain a little bit about why we're told our labs are normal and why they're really not optimal?

Dr. Tabatha 13:10

Yeah. So medicine in general was born out of acute illness. So when thing when you break your arm, you you know, have to have that casted or fixed. If you, your appendix ruptures, you need emergency surgery, if the baby's not coming out right, we figured out how to deliver by cesarean section. Like that whole world was born out of an acute situation need when we started seeing infections and epidemics, and um, we created penicillin as an antibiotic to kill bacteria that like changed the whole landscape of medicine. And so we go into the future, and now we're struggling with lifestyle diseases, and that we don't know how to handle in medicine because there's no surgery, there's no antibiotic, there's no cure, it's a lifestyle problem. It's your daily choices all day long that are leading you astray. And so we're actually looking to the wrong people for our help to get us well again. And that's what I would encourage people is understand that the lab ranges that you see on the labs that your doctor uses to interpret your labs, those were created for hospitalized patients in acute situations who are deathly ill. So when a TSH level range says 0.05, it used to be eight when I was in med school, I think it was. And then they shrunk it down to six. And what that means is you need to be in the hospital or you don't. And so we were using these lab ranges to evaluate do you need to be hospitalized? Is your sodium out of the 135 to 145? So you need to be in the hospital with an IV to correct that imbalance. But what we did was we took that acute care situation and we brought it into doctors' offices. And now we get these lab panels, and of course they're in the normal range because you're walking around and you don't need to be in the hospital. But we get this false sense of I'm healthy. It's not that you're healthy, it's that you're so not metabolically drained that you need intervention in this moment.

Ashlee 15:37

Yep.

Dr. Tabatha 15:38

But in the meantime, you have underlying lifestyle diseases brewing, they're smoldering like the tiny little embers in a fire. And all you got to do is add a little lighter fluid to that, and you're gonna be a hot flaming mess. So here's what I want you to understand. We need to look at the lab ranges differently. There's optimal ranges, and then there's your mess, you need to be in the hospital ranges, and we are looking at the wrong ranges. So when I first started studying functional medicine and they explained this concept to me, I was just like, what? What are you talking about? TSH shouldn't be above two. And the the cool thing is conventional medicine is starting to come around. Like reproductive endocrinologists now acknowledge they have um showed the research that a TSH above two makes it really hard for women to get pregnant because we're not ovulating consistently. The thyroid is suppressing ovulation in the ovaries. And so, yes, the optimal range is less than two, but it took decades of telling women that your thyroid's fine, there's nothing wrong with you, and these lies being perpetuated so that it's really hard to shift that narrative. And it's not gonna happen overnight. It takes time, so you still have thousands of doctors around the world who think a TSH of six or four is good and it feels like garbage. I'm here to tell you, I'm living proof when I had that elevated TSH level. I was falling asleep at my desk, I was 30 pounds heavier, my like I couldn't remember stuff, my brain wouldn't work. And it's because my thyroid was struggling and not optimal. So that's why we created the lab, you know, PDF for you to just look. And then if you're way outside of that, maybe you need to work with a provider like our team, but find someone who understands the difference between like hospitalized ranges and optimal ranges.

Ashlee 17:54

I love that. I think that's a really great way to say that. Um, I don't think I've ever heard you say it like that before, and I I love that, it's really powerful. Um, okay, so the next question comes from so many times. This has been asked in different ways, and it's either about perimenopause or menopause. What are those things really? Like what is perimenopause? What is menopause? And I want to put in a little plug here. You did three amazing episodes with Candace Cameron Buret

Perimenopause Vs Menopause Clarified

Ashlee 18:23

that you can listen to. Wim ladies, if you haven't listened to those, I highly recommend because Tabitha really breaks it down into three different episodes and answers this question. But can you just give us a high level like what is menopause? What is perimenopause? And why do people, women, just feel completely unprepared for these seasons?

Dr. Tabatha 18:43

Yeah. This is really important because it is all the rage right now. Everybody's talking about it, but a lot of people that are talking are clueless. I'm just gonna be real and honest. I'm sorry. Um, and I was clueless as an OBGYN, I'll full fully admit. Menopause simply means you have gone a year without your period because your ovary factories have shut down, they're no longer producing and hormones and ovulating. And when you hit the year mark, that has been considered the definition of urine menopause. Some women they will jump back in and start producing again, but it's rare. And usually we see consistently elevated FSH levels. You want to check that more than once, you got to check it a few times. And perimenopause is this blanket term that is supposed to describe the time before that transition, before menopause. And when I went to medical school a long, long time ago, we were trained that perimenopause was one to two years before the menopausal transition. The average age is 51. So around 49 or so, you might start to have some changes. You might start to skip a period, or they might come a little closer together. You might have some mood swings, um, or more PMS, some night sweats. Now, women are defining perimenopause as this 10 to 15 year journey of misery, of like roller coaster of emotions and weight and all of these symptoms. I love y'all, but that's not perimenopause. I'm just gonna tell you the truth. We call it that so that women finally feel like they're understanding what's going on and they're feeling heard. But the truth of it is it's hormonal dysregulation. You're in chaos. You are in chaos for multiple reasons. This is not normal. Just because we are all experiencing it does not make it normal. Okay. That is a really important thing because now what I'm seeing in this social media trend that's taken over is oh, thank God, I understand what's wrong with me. I'm just in perimenopause. And then they live in misery for 10 to 15 years. Don't sign up for that lie. That's crap. Yeah, you definitely don't have to do that. No, you don't. You are in hormonal chaos because of what's going on in your environment and how it's affecting your body. So, number one, our diet is absolute garbage in this country. We have destroyed our grains to the point that our body does not recognize wheat anymore. It thinks it's foreign. And so now we see everybody with these gluten sensitivities. It's because the pesticides, the organophosphates, have destroyed the protein so much that our body thinks it's foreign. So our poor gut is always leaky. It's always our immune system's always on high alert. And that tells our ovaries that it is not safe in this. Environment to reproduce, so shut down the factory. And so you see all this hormonal imbalance happening. Infertility

Environmental Toxins And Hormone Chaos

Dr. Tabatha 22:08

is like out of control. The other thing, environmental toxins. We now have this whole world of plastics that did not exist. When I was a child, I don't remember like hardly any plastic in my life.

Ashlee 22:22

Yeah.

Dr. Tabatha 22:22

And now it's literally everywhere. I'm looking at it all over the place. And it's in our body, and our body doesn't know what to do with it.

Ashlee 22:30

There's so much toxin just on our clothes.

Dr. Tabatha 22:32

Oh my gosh. Some women will get, you know, clothes that have fire retardant or um chemicals, polyester chemicals, different things. As soon as you start working out and exercising in those clothes and sweating and your body's absorbing those chemicals, like women get really sick. And so we have got to get back to natural fibers and get these chemicals out of our clothes. They act as endocrine disruptors so that our hormones, our hormone receptors are being signaled when it's not actually a hormone, it's a chemical.

Ashlee 23:36

Yeah, it's so good. And what we do, we just have to pay attention to all of the things in our environment and control what we can control. So our homes, especially, we can control what happens there. Yeah. Um, okay, so if it's not just hormones, what actually helps?

Dr. Tabatha 23:55

So many things. We need to get back to basics.

Back To Basics: Food As God-Given Fuel

Dr. Tabatha 24:00

Here's the truth of it God designed the world and us to live in it in such a beautiful way, and we fight it all the time because of our ego, our pride. We think we know better, we think we can improve things and make things better. And to a certain extent, that is true. God gave us brains to invent and create and improve things, but foundationally, there are some things that He said here's how your physiology in your body works. It's like the biology of your body. Like a plant um takes the oxygen and the sunlight and creates, you know, the photosynthesis and the chlorophyll, and that's how it grows. And God said, Here's your body. I actually created it to function on animal proteins, plant proteins, plant fiber, and healthy fats. And if you aren't getting those in your cells, your cells won't function properly. They won't do their photosynthesis type situation. I'm trying to like keep this kindergarten level. Yeah. Um, but that's the truth of it. And then we don't give our bodies how what they were designed to have. It's like what I say in the fast of faith in my book is you put diesel fuel in your regular car that calls for unleaded. Just because it's a fuel you're putting in that car, that car will break down. The combustion, the engine, everything will break down because it was not designed for diesel fuel. So you can't run your car on it. It will blow up. And that is literally what's happening. We're trying to run on this fuel that we've made in the labs that's absolute garbage that is not nourishing. We're not eating our healthy fats and our clean proteins and fiber. We're not drinking water anymore. We're drinking these chemicals, like these dyes and just like literally, they're chemicals, they're not even like real drinks. And we're like, why are we struggling? Uh, because you're putting diesel in your unleaded tank.

Ashlee 26:18

Yeah, that's really good. And I

Avoiding Gluten-Free Junk Traps

Ashlee 26:20

also think this kind of brings back to the gluten-free situation, too. Like just because it says it's gluten-free, it doesn't mean it's healthy. And so read your labels, and there's probably a lot of words you can't read, and that's a pretty good indication you shouldn't be eating it to be completely transparent.

Dr. Tabatha 26:34

So oh my gosh, that's so important. That's that is one of the ways women can fail in the 40-day program, is if they come in, they see, yeah, we don't really want you eating gluten or grains during this 40-day transition.

Ashlee 26:50

They go straight for the gluten-free Oreos.

Dr. Tabatha 26:52

They go for the gluten-free box and bagged crap. And it's just as toxic. It does you cannot swap out garbage for garbage. We have to get back to what I call faith foods. These are foods made by God, given to us by him since the beginning of time. Animals, plants, herbs, all those things. The stuff we're making in boxes and bags, if it can live on a shelf for five years, it's gonna kill you very quickly.

Ashlee 27:20

Yeah. Okay.

Small Habit Shifts That Create Energy

Ashlee 27:21

So there were several questions that kind of came about about vitamins and nutrients and diet and exercise. So thinking about all of those things that women in perimenopause or pre-perimenopause and then menopause women are thinking about, what are some of the habit changes that you made that had the biggest impact on your journey?

Dr. Tabatha 27:44

Oh my gosh. I remember when I first started on this journey. You know, I was studying at the Institute of Functional Medicine. Mark Hyman was still the director. He was in charge. He had put out this book, Eat Fat, Get Thin. And I read this book and I did exactly what it said in the book. And I was eating a salad with MCT oil and some red wine vinaigrette. I had so much energy after that salad, and it just dawned on me. Oh my gosh, I think it's the MCT oil. My brain is finally getting what it needs. And that is the truth of it. MCT oil doesn't have to be changed, it goes straight into your cells. There's no like active transport that has to happen. And so it just gives you a little boost of energy. You do have to be careful because too much at once can, you know, affect your bowels. But that was a really critical moment for me because it was like I heard Dr. Hyman say food is information, food is medicine, but I felt it in that moment. And I was like, I want more of that, whatever that is. Because when I would eat a bowl of cereal or, you know, a couple pieces of pizza, I was miserable. I would be depressed for three days, or I would just have no energy and I'd want to take a nap. I'm like, why don't I have energy? I just ate. Yeah, it's because I'm eating the wrong things and it's actually depleting me, and it's actually requiring my um B vitamins and magnesium and all the good stuff to break down that garbage I just ate and digest it. So it's like you're you're robbing Peter to pay Paul and you're continuing to stay depleted. So I would encourage everybody like start with one thing and see what it does. But the truth of it is, I've been saying this for a decade now. I was so unhealthy that it was my norm, that I just felt like garbage all the time. That I until I really cleaned up everything, I didn't know what feeling good felt like. But once I got a

Exercise Without Shame: Love Your Body

Dr. Tabatha 30:03

taste of it, I didn't want to go back. And so we hear this over and over in Fast of Faith. Like, oh my gosh, I didn't know how bad it was until I didn't feel that way anymore. We just keep raising our level of acceptance. Yeah, the tolerance. Like, okay, I just now I have pain in my back and my knee. Yeah. And now I have chronic headaches, and that's just how life is. And I just I don't have energy. You're just getting old. Like, can we stop saying that to patients already? It makes me so angry.

Ashlee 30:32

Yeah. So we dived into nutrition a couple weeks ago with our certified nutritionist. Um, and so if you haven't watched that episode, I highly recommend that you go back and watch that episode because she dives into a little bit deeper about nutrition for uh women in perimenopause and menopause. Um, but also let's talk about workouts because I think that's something that really needs to change because so much has been just pushed about cardio, cardio, cardio. And so why don't you tell us a little bit about about how your fitness journey has changed over the years?

Dr. Tabatha 31:03

Oh my gosh, I love this question because there's so much guilt and shame around exercise. Like, why can't I have more willpower? Why can't I have more discipline? And I just used to beat myself up. Like, oh my gosh, you have a day off. Why can't you get off your butt and get on this elliptical that's like two feet away from you? I just couldn't do it at some point. And the truth of it was I was like trying to beat my body and abuse it. I wasn't trying to work with it or love on it. And I I I've come to understand that in order to change your body, you have to love it into change. You have to love it where it's at, and then it will start to do what it needs to do. But it's like a little child or a little dog. The more you beat it and abuse it, just the more it's gonna shrink down into the fetal position and like not function, right?

Ashlee 32:06

Hold on to all that fat and all the cells.

Dr. Tabatha 32:08

Oh my gosh, you just hold on. And so what I learned, I had this epiphany one day. I was doing like a workout video in my living room because my kids were little, you gotta do what you gotta do. And I was so tired I couldn't get through, and I was like beating myself up, going through all that mental garbage in my head. And then I just had this thought wait a second, I just started my period today. I wonder if my hormones affect this. And this was a decade

Train With Your Cycle, Not Against It

Dr. Tabatha 32:41

ago. I wish I would have like jumped on that bandwagon and made an app because you do need to work out differently during different times of your cycle, and that is a real thing. Your energy availability is different every week of that four week.

Ashlee 32:58

Your creativity, like it is so important to plan around your cycle. And and very truly, honestly, when I started doing this and looking at the calendar, like even when you plan a vacation, yes, look, I'm so serious. Like, look at where you're gonna be on your cycle because if it's a bad week, like don't do it because then you're just gonna push yourself to do things, and obviously life is going to happen, whether it's your cycle or whatever, but it is so important to have that knowledge and be okay saying, like, no, I cannot go with you to create XYZ that week because I know where my creativity energy is going to be. And it knowledge is power, and tracking your cycle is power.

Dr. Tabatha 33:42

Yeah, it has absolutely been a game changer. And so I would invite you to get curious about yourself. Like, when do you feel good during the month? When do you need more downtime, more rest time, more carbohydrates? Like this is the kind of stuff we talk about in Fast of Faith because we are not little men. We are not created like them. We don't get to do the same thing all month long. And when women are in this quote unquote perimenopause transition for 10 to 15 years, hello, it's really hard to discern what your body needs because you're having all of these symptoms that your body's trying to talk to you and tell you something, but if you don't know what it's saying, you're just gonna be more confused, more frustrated, and more um apt to give up on stuff. So you have to clean up the foundation, get curious, and then go from there with that information.

Ashlee 34:47

Okay, so before we move on, because I have a thought, but I don't want to distract. So will you tell the listeners what you do now for workouts? Yeah, because you love it.

Dr. Tabatha 34:56

Yeah. And I just want to say so, the first cycle day one is the first day you start bleeding. Um, and it's usually five to seven days. That's traditional. It could be shorter, it could be longer. But that first day, you're probably gonna be low energy. You're probably gonna be like, let me just chill. And uh after a few days of that, you're going to get this energy spike because your estrogen starts to go back up. You're starting a new cycle and it feels really good. And you have so much creativity. You're like, I know I'm not a songwriter, but let me write a song today.

Ashlee 35:35

So true. You know? But I feel like if you're not getting that, you're most likely going into those energy reserves day one through three, and you're forcing yourself to do stuff that you shouldn't be doing. Yes. And so if you're not feeling that, that's because you're sucking it out of you, days one through three.

Dr. Tabatha 35:52

Yes. So give yourself a break that first couple days, especially if you have heavy periods and you're trying to work out of that. You might have an iron deficiency problem. And iron is one of the main ingredients to make your energy, your ATP. So then you have this

Nutrition Across The Cycle And Tracking

Dr. Tabatha 36:07

estrogen spike, you're like on top of the world. Go run, do all the HIT classes, do whatever you feel compelled to go do, like hiking, all the fun things. And then when you ovulate, or the a few days before that, your testosterone's gonna spike because your body's trying to get pregnant and get you to get busy, right? And so you're like, oh my gosh, I just have a desire for life. And maybe that's when you and your husband go out on a date or whatever it is, but capture that time of feeling a drive for life and do something.

Ashlee 36:45

You're probably craving lifting weights too. That's when I like to lift the heaviest.

Dr. Tabatha 36:49

Yes, like get after it, get in the gym, stop being afraid of it, get some lessons, get a trainer, and then once you ovulate and the progesterone starts to increase, that's your body saying, Okay, I'm hoping to get pregnant this month. Even if you don't want to get pregnant, your body wants to, and so it wants to nurture and nest and chill a little bit. And so now you need to like go to yoga, you need to do some stretching or tai chi or Pilates and like nurture relationships, hang out with your girlfriends, go to Bible study, do those things, and then you those hormones drop and you're tired and rest as much as your body requires. So I just want you to understand that it's okay to do things different in different weeks. And I get it. Some women's schedules are are not flexible, they have to do the same things, but now you can give yourself grace because you know why you feel differently than you did last week. You're not failing, you don't suck, it's none of that stuff. Like it's your physiology. Learn to work with it, right?

Ashlee 37:59

Yeah, exactly. And that's something in Fast of Faith that we teach women and is perfectly how to eat during these different um times, too. Because when you were talking about the progesterone rising, I was thinking about how during that time I get so hungry if I don't eat enough protein and fat. And then what happens is that's usually when I try to go to the carbs because it's like what I'm craving, but it's not what's best for me, and I'm gonna end up crashing, anyways. It seems like that's where the blood sugar gets kind of crazy for me. And so I think it's again, it's important to track and keep notes of all of these things. So I I would say something that we talk about a lot is like we don't really track, we don't really keep things in apps, but when it comes to your cycle, I think this is one time where it's like really important that you do track and keep keep track of it.

Dr. Tabatha 38:46

Yeah, and you're gonna get to know yourself. Yeah, you do. What we see, especially at the medical practice side, is women are so disconnected from their bodies and themselves because they are high performers, they're do do do. And so this disconnect happens, and they're like, I don't know how I feel, I don't

Rhythms Beyond Menstruation And Midlife

Dr. Tabatha 39:07

know what my body's saying, I don't know why my body does this. It's like, well, you're gonna know your body the best. And once you get that information, that's like a lifelong gift that you can always figure out what your body is missing and what it needs. It's so powerful.

Ashlee 39:26

And communicate. It's so important to communicate to your husband. And obviously, you might not sit down to your kids and let them know, like, it's cycle day 12, and mom is feeling XYZ. But I think it is important for even just your friends in your life to just say, like, no, I'm really sorry, but I just know I'm not gonna feel it. So you you have different times of the month where you feel super social, and other times where you're like, I like to just be with myself right now in the Lord. So I think it's okay to say that.

Dr. Tabatha 39:54

Yeah, I I find it so fascinating that men and husbands know their women better than women know themselves. Like, I will have patients who say, Oh, my husband says I'm this during this time. And like he knows her so well, yet she's in denial. She doesn't want to hear it because she feels like it's a dig or it's a cut down. And it's like, no, he's paying attention to you. That's what you're supposed to be doing.

Ashlee 40:22

I know. My husband calls it sensitive Sally time. He's like, oh, that's something I shouldn't say during sensitive Sally time. I'm like, Yeah, thank you. Thanks for recognizing and we move on. So it is, it's important to have these conversations. It really is. And I think even if you're the only one in your friend group that is talking about this, just keep having the conversation because you're gonna impact them eventually and they're gonna thank you. If you're watching this, and I remember when I started really getting into my cycle about five years ago when I got a certification in it, I was like, why do I care about this right now? But I'm so glad that I learned in my early 30s this information rather than waiting until it was too late. So if you're in your 20s or 30s and you're listening to this, it is so important to start making these changes now because you're not gonna go into peri menopause until it's actually time and you're not gonna feel all these weird feelings. So that is my biggest advice from this episode is start to know your body. The earlier you can do it, the better.

Dr. Tabatha 41:25

Yeah. And if it is quote unquote too late, yeah. You're old like me, um, it's actually never too late. There isn't always more to learn about your body. It's just that the season changes, and it's not that you get to monitor or track your cycle, but you still have a natural rhythm. We have circadian rhythms, we have rhythms throughout our days. And when we start to work with that as opposed to against it, or to fight it, or ignore it and disregard it,

Lent, Fasting, And Suffering Well

Dr. Tabatha 42:00

um, it's so much smoother, and you can actually enjoy your life and focus on why you're here, your purpose, your calling, as opposed to your doctor's appointments and your procedures and your medicines and all your symptoms. Like that is such a waste of time. Like, as soon as my body starts, you know, having all these symptoms again, I just I'm like, no, we're not doing that. It's not necessary. Let me listen, let me figure it out, and I can pivot out of that so much quicker. Whereas it used to just take me out for weeks out of time.

Ashlee 42:42

Yeah. When we did our episode in January about going um beyond the resolution and talking a lot about the importance of how a lot of people are setting resolutions later on in the year, making changes because really in January, February, we should still kind of be in that hibernation. It's still winter, like our body's in a season. So, right now, as women are listening, we're in the thick of Lent. And so talk a little bit about fast of faith and Lent and how they go together.

Dr. Tabatha 43:12

Yeah, I think it's really important if you call Jesus your savior, like it's time to soften your heart and acknowledge just how much he actually suffered for you. Like, uh not just suffered in general for humanity, for you. This the woman listening right now, Jesus did that for you. So if you cannot quote unquote suffer for a minute, like we have bigger issues. And we are called to suffer well. And I have really embraced that idea because it has made me such a better person and not suffer unnecessarily, not suffer because it's self induced, not suffering. Suffer because we can't break up with sugar. Suffer because God is doing something deeper in you. He's working on you and in you and through you to better you, to better other people and to glorify him. So we have to quit suffering unnecessarily for stuff that is not important and suffer for Jesus. And when I think of Lent, like I used to think, okay, let me give up whatever's the least painful to give up so that I can brag about it and say that I did it. Right. And that's just our typical ego self. When you really are giving your heart to God and you're asking Jesus to like make your heart more like his, you want to suffer well and you want to say, what will actually edify me to be more Christ-like and to bring you closer to me and to glorify you so that when people see me walking around or hear me talking or doing something out in the community, they think, man, she must know Jesus. Right. And so when we talk about doing fast of faith during Lent, it's really about how can I take responsibility for my part in what my body's doing, how I'm feeling, how I'm showing up, and then let God do that deeper work in me. And I'll just be honest, it's really hard to surrender. It really is. And I work on it every single day, but there's so much freedom in it, and it's like the best thing you could ever do for yourself.

Ashlee 45:46

Yeah, it's so good. And so right now we're running a Lent special all through Lent for the Fast of Faith program. But if you can't join us for the full um 40 days, you can also just start with our five-day challenge. I think it's a great place for women to start and get a taste of what it's like to be part of our sisterhood.

Dr. Tabatha 46:04

Yeah, I mean, I understand.

Why Community Heals: Join The Sisterhood

Dr. Tabatha 46:06

We are in a trust recession. Why should you trust me? Why should you trust anybody, right? Here's what I'm gonna say. We just follow the word of God as best that we can. We're all human, so we all fall short. But at Fast of Faith, what we are trying to do is live how God is calling us to live. And it looks messy. We have our failures, but we continue to fail forward and continue to be edified and ask God to just mold us into the women He wants us to be. And we do it in a community because that is how God called us to live. And so if that is something you feel like I need the accountability, I need that support, that is okay. We're not supposed to do life alone. Just surrender already.

Ashlee 47:00

Yeah. So the last question is women are listening to this, they're overwhelmed, they feel dismissed, they feel alone. What is your best advice for them?

Dr. Tabatha 47:11

Join the sisterhood. Like, I'm sorry, but you don't even need to know the details of Fast of Faith. You don't need to know the details of the program. If you are feeling nudged, if God told you to listen to this episode, if you are just feeling pulled, you just go with it. You don't get to see all the steps. You just take that next step forward of like, yes, I'm supposed to join. And as soon as you get in there and you see the conversations these women are having, like they're such high level. We are non-judgment, non-gossipy, non-umcritizing. You know, this is not a competition. This is collaboration. We're supporting you, we're your cheerleader. It feels good when you go in there and see how the women are talking to each other. It is not like middle school that you might be experiencing as a grown woman. Hello, we are not in middle school anymore. We need to stop. And so I would say, like, you deserve better. Say, I'm not gonna tolerate that anymore. Just like you're not gonna tolerate being in pain or having heavy periods or having daily migraines. You're not gonna tolerate having gossipy friends that make you feel bad when you leave the group. Like, are they talking about me? Just call yourself higher because God is calling you higher. And that is what I want for every woman because we are raising a bunch of girls to be mean girls, and I can't have it anymore. Like, we just have to show them how to live better. And it really does start with holding ourselves accountable and having higher expectations.

Ashlee 48:59

Yeah, that's so good. Do you have a verse that is laying on your heart that you want to share with

Scripture, Calling, And Leveling Up

Ashlee 49:04

us today?

Dr. Tabatha 49:04

I do, I do. So when I was thinking about this episode, because women always want to know why they want to understand their bodies. That is why I wrote Fast of Faith, the book, to help you understand your body. But we have to get to a point where we also understand that we're not supposed to know everything, that there is a magical part of this relationship we have with God. And so Isaiah 55, 8 through 9, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. So God is calling us higher. He wants us to live of his kingdom, not of this broken world. And it is so easy to get caught up in this broken world. So we have to continue to call ourselves higher. Nope, I actually live of the kingdom. I don't participate in that, I don't eat that stuff, I don't have those conversations because I'm representing Jesus and his kingdom. And so if you can just start to like live into an Isaiah 55 life, like your whole life will level up, your friendships will level up, your marriage will level up, and your health will level up.

Ashlee 50:34

So good. Yay! Yay, have an awesome week, ladies. See you next week.