Confessions of A Wannabe It Girl
The podcast that delves into the raw reality of achieving your dreams. Hosted by Marley Freygang who thought she had it all figured out, the show explores the gritty details of what it really takes to "make it" in today's world. From the high-pressure demands to the relentless hustle, she shares her experiences of the less-than-instagramable side of chasing your dreams.
But it's not all doom and gloom. With refreshing honesty, she provides actionable tips and advice, aiming to empower listeners with the confidence, clarity, and direction, they need to become an “it girl”. Whether it's starting a business or breaking into a new career, each episode features unique interviews, practical advice and carefully curated insights.
So tune in to "Confessions of a Wannabe IT Girl" and join us to help filter out the BS and become the next "it girl”.
Confessions of A Wannabe It Girl
🔁 Hormones 101: How Mastering Your Body’s Chemistry Can Elevate Your Life Game
This episode is about to be a big game-changer for you! We talking about hormone health and what we don't know about our hormones is scary!!! In order to take control of our lives and feel our best you have to listen to this episode with Maddie Battle from Balance with Maddie.
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Hi guys and welcome back to Confessions of a Wannabe it Girl. I am still buzzing around Europe, so I hope you are enjoying these replay episodes. Unfortunately, my acne has started to come back a little bit and it has got me thinking a lot about hormones and hormones health. So I'm taking a look back at this episode with Balance with Maddie to talk all about understanding body chemistry and Hormones 101. Welcome to Confessions of a Wannabe it Girl. I'm your host, marley Fregging, and I'm here to help you filter out all the bullshit and become the next it Girl.
Speaker 1:This podcast explores the reality of what it really takes to make it out there. As it turns out, it is way less Instagrammable than I thought it was going to be. I'm still very much a work in progress, but there's simply nothing else I'd rather be doing than chasing my dreams. So let's learn from my mistakes and work together to achieve our dreams with more confidence, clarity and direction. Let's get after it, hi guys, and welcome back to Confessions of a Wannabe it Girl. We are joined by Balance with Maddie. Thank you so much for being here, maddie. Yeah, I'm so excited. Thank you for having me. I am so excited to talk to you because I think hormones are really a kind of trending topic. But you are a holistic nutritionist and you have a certification in clinical detoxification but hormone imbalances have affected you personally. Can you give us like a brief history and your story of how you got into this hormone understanding journey?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. I went on birth control when I was really young in grade nine I think I was 13 for hormonal acne and I just had the absolute worst time with it. It was so hard on my mental health, so hard on my body. I had no idea what was going on and then I finally went off of the pill and, of course, got all the hormonal acne back irregular periods, painful periods, all this stuff Was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome, which I had had the whole time but had no idea because, like the pill band-aid method, you know the whole thing.
Speaker 2:And then I just kind of went on this health journey, just kind of figuring out how to reverse PCOS symptoms. I ended up going to school for holistic nutrition after I became, like a Reiki certification, a Reiki practitioner, and learned all about mind, body, spirit connection and decided to specialize in helping other women with hormone issues and transition off birth control pill and fix their hormonal acne. Because you know, I just went through such a hellish journey on my own and now I love educating women and helping them do the same.
Speaker 1:It's a very personal journey for you because you went through it, so you understand all the struggles of those who are in it Exactly. As someone who also struggles with hormonal acne and has been on birth control since I was 13,. I think it's a very common thing that we are kind of unraveling right now is not maybe our best move?
Speaker 2:Exactly Like more people are kind of waking up to okay, is it really beneficial? Do I really need it? Is it helping, is it hindering? Like what are the long-term repercussions? So I think it's like a really important conversation to be having. And you're right, more and more people are kind of looking deeper into their health, which I think is really great, and really important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so very want to be it girl thing we would like to move towards in 2023. So one of the things is like hormones. I feel like it's a very glazed over topic in school. We talk about like sex ed and there's like a two second thing about this is estrogen and this is testosterone, and then we are like that's covered, moving on. But like, what do females need to know about hormones?
Speaker 2:Okay, fair. So when people say like hormone balance, we're usually talking about sex hormones and there's other ones like cortisol and insulin and all these other ones. But when we're talking about sex hormones estrogen and there's actually three different types of estrogen progesterone and testosterone. So one of the most important things that, like I wish we learned in school was that all of these hormones are changing every single day within our own personal cycle.
Speaker 2:So either 28 to 35 day cycle, hopefully, is what we're at, and each day our hormones are completely different. So it's so different than a male body where their hormones reset every 24 hours. Ours are different every single day and depending on where we're at in our cycle, we're going to feel different, we're going to have different cervical fluid, we're going to have different energy and want to nourish our bodies in all these different ways. So that's part of like what I love educating women on is kind of cycle sinking and being more intuitive with our body, because we grow up in this nine to five life and we're not taught how to listen to our bodies and we're not even taught about exactly like what our hormones even do or what the purpose of them is. But it's very useful to know where we're at in our cycle, and if we did know that, then our lives would be a lot easier.
Speaker 1:Right, I feel like I've seen a lot of people talk about this. What really is cycle syncing Like? What does that actually mean?
Speaker 2:Okay. So what it actually means is that, based on where you're at in your menstrual cycle, you sync your life to it as much as possible. So, for instance, when you're on your period, your hormones are the lowest that they're at throughout the rest of the cycle. So progesterone and estrogen are very low and it's kind of like our inner winter. So we'd want to be turning inward.
Speaker 2:It's kind of when you're feeling like less social, you want to stay at home, cozy up, you want to nourish your body with grounding foods, iron rich foods, because you're losing a lot of blood, like it's a big deal. You know you're shedding a part of your organ, right, and so making sure that you're not pushing your body. So that's not the time to be doing high intensity workouts because hormonally we don't have a lot of energy at that time. So that's when you want to be walking, pilates, yoga, so it's being aware of where you're at in your cycle and then sinking your exercise. It's being aware of where you're at in your cycle and then syncing your exercise, your food, to an extent, and kind of being aware of how different you feel at different times.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what I'm getting from that is like, on some level, everything affects our hormones. Yes, so what are, like, the good and bad things to do for your hormones?
Speaker 2:So I think learning about where you're at in your cycle is key. So being a little bit more intentional, I used to be like, okay, I'm either like on my period or I'm not on my period. Yes, very easy. Yeah, very easy, very basic. And the thing about what we learn in school is that our period is kind of like the star of the show.
Speaker 2:But in reality, our ovulation is actually the star of the show, because the whole point of our cycle and whether we want to have a baby or not, our body wants to be fertile and have a baby. So our body wants to ovulate because when we ovulate, we create progesterone, which is so important for so many different functions in our body. It's basically like our natural Xanax, like it alleviates a lot of anxiety. It's good for our bone health. There's so many amazing benefits to progesterone and we don't get those benefits unless we ovulate. So if we are paying attention to where we're at in our cycle, then we're able to help our body out with the process.
Speaker 2:So, for instance, a lot of women don't ovulate because they're super stressed out and that means that you're not going to be creating the progesterone that you need in order to help with the anxiety and all the other health benefits that you get, so just make you more stressed out. Exactly that's the thing, and there's so many other things that go into not ovulating too. Like you know, you need to be nourished in a specific way and you need to have low inflammation, and there's so many things. But, like, our hormones dictate almost like so much of our daily life, and so much of our daily life also influences our hormones too. So it is like an important thing to know, and I wish that we learned more about that in school, instead of just you know a little bit of sex education. It's important to educate women on how their bodies work, how ovulation works, how the cycles work. You know you can only get pregnant actually six days of the month, and we learned that. I feel like I've been lied to.
Speaker 1:I know because we kind of were. I've heard that now and I'm like what? And we just fear, monger us into believing you are like a walking, breathing, fertile thing.
Speaker 2:Just a baby maker through and through, I know, and if we knew that then we could learn how to have natural contraception and learn how important it is to take care of our bodies so we can create the right amount of hormones. Like there's so many things that go into it, but just general. I think health education is really important.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's get into what we didn't learn in school. What are the cycles for a female? We've talked about the one we know, which is ovulation, which is having your period, and then there's three more.
Speaker 2:Okay, so how it works is the first day of your cycle, is your menstruation phase.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you start with your period, really.
Speaker 2:Exactly so your day, one of your first like day of your heavy period bright red blood, like not spotting, but like first full day of your period. That's your day one of your cycle, in your menstruation cycle, which is technically also in your follicular phase. So the first half of your cycle, before you ovulate, is your follicular phase and then when you're menstruating, it's kind of like a mini part inside the follicular phase.
Speaker 1:Like a subcategory.
Speaker 2:Exactly A subcategory. Oh, you're a list girl. I can tell me too. Yes, me too, I love it. Okay, so during your menstruation this is your inner winter, as I was saying you're focusing on nourishing your body, resting, because you're using a lot of energy to menstruate. You're nourishing with iron rich foods, dark leafy greens, grass fed meat, lots of healthy nourishing like root vegetables, and then you're also, you know, walking Pilates yoga. You're not doing a lot of high energy workouts because your hormones are really low at that.
Speaker 1:So don't do a Barry's boot camp class.
Speaker 2:No, do not do boot camp Do not Exactly so.
Speaker 2:Then as we go into, then your period stops. Then you move into the second half, so your follicular phase, where we are held by estrogen. So this first half of our cycle, our estrogen is going up and our progesterone is staying pretty low and we are. This is our inner spring. So we're starting to get a little bit more social. Yeah, you're creative here, you're productive, you're starting to like kind of come out of your shell in that way. You're nourishing with different foods and you're starting to get more energy.
Speaker 2:So this is like strength training starts to get more and more intense as you reach ovulation. Then, when you ovulate, that's when the best time for a Barry's bootcamp exactly hit workouts, high intensity strength training, maybe more cardio, and you're focusing on, like, water rich foods. Some women tend to bloat during their ovulation, so more, more water rich foods can be helpful. Foods high in antioxidants, foods high in foods that are good for the liver. And then this is our inner summer. So we're feeling super social here. This is when you want to book a photo shoot or a party, or you also like your libido is the highest because, technically, like your wedding, exactly your wedding.
Speaker 2:Exactly. That's the best time, yeah, best time, if you can plan that far in advance, exactly, and that's most ideal because you're feeling the most like yourself, you feel the sexiest. This is when your body wants to make a baby. So like you're going to be like the horniest ever and you're going to be like the hungriest ever, like great couple of days here corniest ever and you're going to be like the hungriest ever, like great couple of days here. Sex and food, amazing, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:And then the next phase, which is the last phase, is the luteal phase, which is like our inner fall, and here we're focusing on also being productive. And in terms of workouts, they're going to be higher intensity, like moving down to lower intensity the closer that we get to our period, if that makes sense, yeah, so starting off with like more intense, just like ovulation, and then you're kind of getting over towards your period. And this, this second half of the cycle, is driven by progesterone, because your progesterone that you created after ovulation is going to carry the rest of the cycle through. So here you're going to be focusing on making sure you're not stressed here, making sure that you're doing lots of liver support to try to like move estrogen out and more like iron rich foods, magnesium rich foods, again to like, build up to your period and then it starts all over again.
Speaker 1:Why do?
Speaker 2:you want to move the estrogen out.
Speaker 2:So basically, part of hormone balance is making sure that your body is detoxifying the estrogen that we're creating at an optimal rate. So that can mean the endogenous estrogen that we create in our body and it can also mean the exogenous estrogens that we get from our environment. So we get a lot of xenoestrogens, which are chemically they're man-made estrogens, but they act very similar. They're basically very similar in structure in our body as natural estrogen. So from plastics, tap water, all of these different things that we take in daily from our environment can act as estrogen and this can bog down the liver and it can create an estrogen imbalance in the body. So we want to make sure that we're doing tons of liver support all the time, to make sure that we're doing tons of liver support all the time and making sure that we're moving that estrogen through to make sure that we have a healthy estrogen and progesterone ratio.
Speaker 1:So if you're, on birth control. Are you still going through these cycles? Are they muted? What's going on?
Speaker 2:Yes, good question. So you're not going through these cycle phases at all. It's basically one long phase, like if you see a chart of all the ups and downs of all the hormones, versus when you're on the pill. It's basically a flat line because you're not ovulating, right? That's how the pill works, right To keep us from getting pregnant. So you're not creating that natural progesterone, you're not having the fluctuations and you're pretty much missing out on a lot of health benefits by being on the pill.
Speaker 1:Yes, If you've been on it for a prolonged amount of time, you've been at that flatline state for a very long time too.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly. So that's a lot of what I help women do is recreate that connection, that brain ovary connection, because if you haven't ovulated for years and most women are in this situation, I was definitely it takes a little bit of time to reestablish those systems. So you need to be replenishing. There's tons of nutrients that hormonal birth control depletes while you're on it and those are very similar to the very nutrients that we need in order to have hormone balance in general. And then there's also other systems too, so it's really hard on your drainage and detoxification systems.
Speaker 2:It's really hard on your gut and all of these pillars of health that you need to be sorted out before you can reach hormone balance, because your body doesn't care too much doesn't care as much about ovulating as it does about all these other things, like it's not going to ovulate and create a baby if it thinks that you're in an emergency state. So if you're really stressed out or you've got tons of gut issues that are creating lots of inflammation, why would it let you create a baby if it doesn't think that it's a safe environment to create a baby? So there's so many things that you need to be preparing your body either before the pill, or, ideally, before or after, to help your body reestablish all of these systems that it needs to work optimally in order to ovulate again.
Speaker 1:So can you start that transition while you're like on the pill and like wanting to get off?
Speaker 2:Yes, ideally, you would be preparing to get off of the pill and re-nourishing all these systems three months before going off of it.
Speaker 1:I do so, like you're not doomed like you can start?
Speaker 2:Yes, of course, and you can even start after, but the sooner that you start preparing your body, the less chance of you getting any post-pill syndrome symptoms, and the less severe they're going to be the more you prepare ahead of time.
Speaker 1:I mean that sounds like a very good thing, because it feels like all these systems are kind of delicate but also like workable. We just have to learn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. And the thing about the pill, too, that we don't learn is that it's really hard on your gut microbiome. So a lot of women who get off the pill, or especially the pill but it can be the IUD as well, because it is still synthetic hormones but especially the pill with the gut specifically, is that it causes dysbiosis, which is like more bad gut bacteria than good gut bacteria strains, which allows pathogens to overgrow because there isn't enough good bacteria to keep them at bay. So I see a lot of women who've got hormonal acne that's stemming from a gut issue, that is, from a pathogen overgrowth like candida or parasites, just because the pill has helped create this environment where things that we don't want in excess are able to proliferate.
Speaker 1:Well, you said the buzzword hormonal acne. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it so you can still get it. If you're on birth control, you cannot get it. You could actually be growing these things in your gut to start debunking hormonal acne for us.
Speaker 2:Okay. So the thing with hormonal acne is that it's a sign, it's a symptom. It's not the actual problem. It's just the sign of the problem and I know I dealt with it for so long. I know it feels like the issue, but it really is just a red flag telling you there's something going on, and usually that is a gut issue. Or it's high estrogen, usually paired with a low progesterone because they're not ovulating, or it's high testosterone, high androgens. So those are usually the three root causes behind hormonal acne and it's very rarely just one. So a lot of women who are dealing with hormonal acne have a little bit of estrogen dominance. Their drainage and detoxification pathways aren't clearing it properly or they're taking in a lot from their environment and they're also dealing with a gut issue which is causing a lot of inflammation in the body and giving them acne as well. So it's very rarely just one. But those are usually the three root causes behind hormonal acne the high androgens, high estrogen and a gut issue.
Speaker 1:Why do we put the bandaid of like a medication on top of it, and isn't that going to just make it worse?
Speaker 2:It does make it worse in the long run, but it feels like short-term solution. And that's the thing with birth control is that basically, what it does is it lowers your testosterone, which lowers sebum production. So in the moment you're not creating this oil and then you're creating less acne. That's how surge in it and then you end up having the same amount of acne, or if not more, afterwards, and a lot of women even get hormonal acne on the pill. So it feels like the solution and if you don't know that there's natural solutions instead, you're going to go for it. It's exactly what I did. I was young and my doctor said this is a solution and I said, okay, like no idea. That's the thing about. You know, I'm not anti birth control by any means, but like it's important to have educated consent, you know you need to know exactly what you're doing to your body.
Speaker 2:When you're going on a medication and it is a bandaid method, like you will have to deal with the repercussions of being on a pharmaceutical for a long time, whether that's the acne again or if it said it was just really hard on your gut, it was really hard on your liver, and now you're having to do a bunch of kind of cleaning up after the fact.
Speaker 1:And will that lead to hormone imbalances or hormone imbalances like genetic? How do we get a hormone imbalance?
Speaker 2:So I think with a lot of health issues, you know genetics is the gun but, like lifestyle pulls the trigger. So you can be predisposed to a health issue, but the way that you live your life is going to decipher whether you actually deal with that issue or not. So with hormone issues, like being on the pill for a long period of time can cause hormone imbalances. Living a lifestyle where you're not eating a lot of whole foods and you're eating a lot of processed, inflammatory foods Stress is a huge factor when it comes to hormone issues, because if someone is stressed out, either mentally and emotionally like we think of how stress is or physically, with lots of inflammation or a thyroid issue or a gut issue, that can cause us to not ovulate, which then creates a hormone imbalance. Low detoxification so people who are not working on their drainage pathways, people who aren't going to the bathroom every single day, who aren't working on their liver, who don't do lymphatic support, like that can all contribute to hormonal acne and hormone imbalances. Using lots of products, like there's so many just chemicals in our environment, so being very aware of what you're taking in, what you're using in your home as cleaning products, what you're putting on your body like all of these things basically add up to its compound effect and that can create a hormone imbalance long-term. The other thing is, too, for a lot of women who deal with high testosterone and high androgens, which is one of the hallmarks of PCOS. So when I was diagnosed with this, I had high testosterone. That's what was causing my acne, along with estrogen dominance as well, which we can also talk about too, because it's really common in a lot of women when it comes to high androgens or high testosterone. Blood sugar dysregulation is a huge part of that. Cortisol dysregulation is a huge part of that. So stress making sure that you're balancing your blood sugar as much as possible. There are so many different kind of pillars of health that go into a hormone imbalance and that's why it can be so kind of complicated because it's usually so different for everybody, so very common.
Speaker 2:A lot of women deal with high estrogen because, again, we're so exposed to so many chemically made estrogens and in our environment and this can kind of cause an imbalance in our body and also, if our liver isn't working through estrogen at the optimal rate that we want, that can cause an estrogen dominance. Having gut dysbiosis helps create an estrogen dominance picture as well, and what this usually looks like is really heavy, painful periods, acne, weight gain, specifically around like the top of the thighs and the butt area just in that one area mood swings and really bad PMS. So if you're the type of person who is completely out for a week before their period really tender breasts, really bad mood swings really tend to lean towards anxiety before their period All of this is really common symptoms of having a lot of estrogen, either in general or in relation to progesterone, because you're not ovulating, or you're not creating a lot of progesterone during your ovulation because you're not having a strong ovulation. So you can have a lot of estrogen relative to your low progesterone. And this is really common.
Speaker 2:Just because so many exposed to so many chemicals in our environment and we don't learn a lot about how to support the liver, how important gut health and digestion is, like we need to be going to the bathroom two to three times a day. No one learns about that, how to do that. Or if you are you know chronically constipated. Why are you chronically constipated? How do you fix it? All of these things are what add up to hormone imbalance and they're all very common.
Speaker 1:So if you go to a doctor and you're experiencing some of those symptoms, no-transcript.
Speaker 2:I would say the recommendation is usually birth control, because anytime in my experience anyways that you go to a doctor and you say I've got really heavy painful periods, it's debilitating or they're irregular, they're going to say, okay, well, here's the pill, this is going to regulate you out. And it doesn't regulate anything, it just like slaps a bandaid over it. What I would recommend is finding somebody who will do hormone testing. But before you even do that, like let's like go back to basics. Like you want to work on regulating your blood sugar. So eating a meal that's based around protein, good quality fat and carbs, so blood sugar balancing meals, eating frequently, not having coffee on an empty stomach, eating breakfast every day, like there's so many things that you can do to help with this process instead of just going on a pill that is marketed as a cure all but isn't really helping you long-term.
Speaker 1:It might help for that month, that year. In the long-term, there's going to be so much at the end of it, that you have to weigh out the options, which is something so undiscussed. It's a lot and like what are your tips for you know, starting to heal or manage, Like, are there certain foods, there's certain supplements you like to see people taking?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. So the first thing that you want to start is you want to balance your blood sugar. So protein, fat and carb at every single meal, because what that's going to do is that's going to make sure that you're not getting like blood sugar spikes and dips throughout the day, and that can totally throw off your cortisol and it can totally throw off your hormones, as your sex hormones as well. So being very conscientious, eating high quality protein and then creating a meal around that, getting high quality fat that is absolutely key. Drinking water with minerals in it so adding in either mineral drops, electrolyte drops, rock salt and lemon is great too. Making sure that you're getting lots of minerals we're taught you need to drink tons of water, but drinking tons of plain water can actually flush a lot of your minerals out. So making sure that you're remineralizing your water that is absolutely key, and because minerals are very important for hormone balance in general.
Speaker 2:The next thing that I would recommend doing is working on your detoxification. So our drainage pathways work in a funnel and if the bottom of the funnel is backed up, the rest are backed up. So the first part of that is your GI and you need to be going to the bathroom at least twice a day and if you're not, that means your liver, your lymphatic system, kidney, skin, lungs all that stuff is going to be backed up because we actually poop out a lot of our used up hormones and a lot of the toxins that our liver has worked through. Our liver puts it in the bile and then we excrete it through our stool. So if it's sitting in your GI, your body's actually reabsorbing those hormones that your liver just works so hard to get rid of, as well as any toxins from our environment, from our skincare, from our tap water, all this stuff. So going to the bathroom regularly and then also working on your liver. So this can be done through whole foods with lots of sulfuric compounds, so cruciferous veggies, brussels sprouts, kale, collard greens, cauliflower, broccoli, all those dark, leafy, bitter greens. Those have sulfuric compounds that help run the liver pathways and run a lot of those estrogens out of your body as well as the toxins out of your body. So you can do all of this through food.
Speaker 2:The only thing that I would recommend that is absolutely imperative for everybody to take and I would recommend it to everybody even if I wasn't seeing them is magnesium. Magnesium is one of the most important minerals. It's involved in over five or 600 functions in the body and we just do not get it from our soil anymore. Our soil is completely depleted of it. So it's extremely important mineral for hormone balance and for so many other things in the body. So I recommend taking magnesium every single day.
Speaker 1:And you said something on Instagram that I thought was super interesting. Not the ones just at Target. They have to be professional grade. How do you know they're professional grade?
Speaker 2:Okay, this is a great question. So the thing with supplements is that it's not a regulated industry, which there's nothing wrong with that, but it's important to buy. It really is You're getting what you pay for when it comes to supplements. So if you look on the back of a magnesium supplement that you get at a drugstore versus the back of a magnesium supplement that you get from a professional grade dispensary, there's going to be so many additives, colors, fillers in the cheaper one from the drugstore, Whereas the one from a reputable company is going to have just the medicinal ingredient and just the capsule.
Speaker 2:There was actually a study done that looked at a lot of cheaper brands I think it was at, yeah, maybe Costco or Shoppers Drug Mart and in a lot of the supplements the medicinal ingredient that said that it was supposed to be on the front weren't even in supplement. It was really bad. It was like 5% or lower of the actual. Let's say it said magnesium, but there was actually like 5% or lower of the actual. Let's say it said magnesium, but there was actually like 5% or less magnesium in it, which is very scary, because what are you ingesting every single day?
Speaker 1:Also just like what a waste of money.
Speaker 2:Waste of money and waste of just resources, just a waste all around. And so how you know it's a professional company is I have basically a trusted practitioner, but also there's professional grade dispensaries, so I have accounts with full script, which is both in the U? S and in Canada, and they only carry professional grade supplements. So that's something that's important too is making sure that you're getting high quality supplements, because it's actually hindering you more than helping if you're just ingesting, you know, die number five every, every single day, as opposed to what you actually want to be taking.
Speaker 1:Great Love that. Also on your Instagram, you talk a lot about parasites. I'm very curious to learn how we could have parasites. How do you handle a parasite? How do you know if you have a parasite? Questions are endless.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yes. Parasites are way more common than people think. I honestly think that if you have a pulse, you have parasites. It's just a matter of the type that you have, the amount that you have and the health of your immune system in order to keep them kind of at a healthy range and your gut health, you know you can have them and it's okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can have them and it's okay. But you want ideally, everybody would do a parasite cleanse once a year In my ideal world, if that's what people would do. But when it gets to the point where you're dealing with gut issues, like if you're constantly bloating, that's not normal and I love this trend of people saying this is my body in the morning, this is my body at night. Like you know, it changes and that's totally normal. I think that's great. But at the end of the day, from a health perspective, bloating all the time is not normal. There's a reason why you're bloating all the time. So if you're feeling like no matter what you eat, you're bloating, or you can't digest fats properly, or you're always kind of burping, if you have any like urgency or these are just like the most common symptoms of parasites in my experience, if you're dealing with constant fluctuation between, like, hard stools and diarrhea, that's a really big indication. If you've got any anal itching, especially at night, that's pretty much tell all. If you've ever had food poisoning, if you've ever gone away on a trip and your gut health has not felt the same after, like, the thing with parasites is that the symptoms are different for everybody and there's so many different types. So a lot of women that I see that have hormonal acne or acne on their shoulders and back. That's a huge indication too.
Speaker 2:Or if you're dealing with a health issue and you just cannot figure out what the heck is happening. You've tried all these things. Some weeks you feel great, some weeks you feel really bad. Usually that indicates that you should be doing a parasite cleanse, and what that entails is a herbal parasite cleanse. I don't recommend going to the doctor and getting kind of the antibiotics because they don't lead to a gut issue. Yeah, it's hard on your gut that you don't take them for long enough to kill them because they all have different like life cycles too. So you want to kill them medicine, like herbally, so you're killing them, you're taking something to kill them, you're taking something to mop them up and you're taking something to excrete them, and you do that a series of times and then you have to re-inoculate your gut bacteria afterwards. It's a whole process, but I've done it a couple of times and every single one of my clients that I've done it with has felt amazing after.
Speaker 1:This is so much, but in a great way, like it's so much and like it can maybe seem overwhelming. You know, I myself am like, oh my gosh, I need to get this together. What's the best or easiest place you think we can get started on our hormone health?
Speaker 2:Yes, okay. So best, easiest place is starting to work out in the morning, not at night. So if we're hitting all the different kind of like pillars, so cortisol regulation, let's work out in the morning because ideally that's when your cortisol is highest. When you wake up in the morning, put your face in the natural light, in your full spectrum light. You don't need to fully go outside. Ideally you'd have your eyeballs in the sun for a good you know five minutes. That resets your circadian rhythm, so that's a perfect place to start Eating within 30 to 60 minutes of waking up in the morning.
Speaker 2:Really important. So you don't want to be running on stress hormones all morning, and if you're the type of person who isn't hungry in the morning, that's most likely what you're doing. You're running on stress hormones in the morning. And if you force yourself this is the only time that I would ever say to force yourself to eat or to do something, because it's not intuitive Force yourself to eat breakfast every day for two weeks and you will become more hungry in the morning and that's a sign of a healthy metabolism. So that's an amazing place to start too. Do not drink coffee on an empty stomach.
Speaker 2:If there's anything that you take from this podcast. It is that. So that is really important as well. That completely messes up your stress hormones as well. And have your coffee with your food or after your food and focus on high quality protein. So grass fed meat, wild fish, chicken, thighs, stuff with lots of minerals in it. Get some more mineral heavy foods, oysters, shellfish. Make sure that you're basing your food, your meals, around protein. A lot of women don't get enough protein and this is a huge reason for blood sugar dysregulation, and your hormones will not be balanced without balanced blood sugar.
Speaker 1:Wow, Maddie. Oh, you are just dropping so much knowledge. I could listen to you talk about this stuff all day. I'm fascinated. You speak so eloquently. You're clearly so passionate about it. Can you tell everybody about how they can work with you, where they can find you and all that good jazz.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. So you can find me at balance with Maddie on Instagram and TikTok. My website is naturalbalance nutritioncom and I work with women in a group program that's also personalized. I also do one-on-ones and I have an ebook on detoxification and drainage pathways alone, and I'm also coming out with a smaller offering soon that is going to be about just transitioning off of birth control and how to do that in the healthiest way possible, and yeah, Maddie, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1:It's been so nice. Guys, that was like such a crash course in hormones. I cannot wait to work with Maddie myself. I've been dealing with hormonal acne and she is clearly so passionate and so intelligent about hormones and hormonal acne. So, guys, make sure to check her out. Guys, if you liked this episode, please make sure to share it with a friend, and I am begging you, begging you rate and subscribe to the show, but also please leave us reviews. We love reviews. I don't know why I said it like that, but, guys, thank you so much for listening and we'll see you next Tuesday. You so much for listening and we'll see you next Tuesday.
Speaker 1:Hi guys, and welcome back to Confessions of a Wannabe it Girl. I am still buzzing around Europe, so I hope you are enjoying these replay episodes. Unfortunately, my acne has started to come back a little bit and it has got me thinking a lot about hormones and hormones health. So I'm taking a look back at this episode with Balance with Maddie, to talk all about understanding body chemistry and Hormones 101. Let's dive in. Thank you.
