Welcome to season five! I am getting back to the basics this season, today’s episode is something most people tend to overcomplicate, which is how to eat to support your hormones. This episode is specifically for you ladies as so many of us have spent years dieting or in a high stress state due to all of the plates we juggle.
During this impactful conversation, I share the three main ways to create safety in nutrition and what that actually means for your body. I also give an example of a typical day of a healthy diet, my tips on how to get more protein in and how you can tell if you are eating enough to properly fuel yourself.
In today’s episode, I cover:
TDEE Calculator: tdeecalculator.net
Links/Resources:
Patreon
Master Your Minerals Course
Free Resources:
Free Healthy Period Starter Guide
Mineral Imbalance Quiz
Mineral Training
Thyroid Training
Feminine Periodical (monthly newsletter)
References
Cortisol being higher at rest
Gender differences in physiology
Interval training
Listen Now
Transcript:
Amanda Montalvo [00:00:00]:
You. Welcome to the are you menstrual? Podcast, where we dive deep into all things women’s health to support you on your healing journey. I’m Amanda Montalbo functional and integrative dietitian, also known as the hormone healing Rd. If you enjoyed this podcast and you want to keep learning, check out the podcast Patreon, where I share a bonus episode with additional downloadable resources each week. All right, welcome to season five. So excited to be here. I am really excited to go back to the basics.
Amanda Montalvo [00:00:38]:
This season. We did a whole season on mineral deep dives for season four, which was really fun, and we got super nerdy. I really enjoyed it. I love hair testing and testing minerals in general. And I just think there’s so much that we can learn and benefit from. One of the interesting things when we get into testing, it doesn’t have to just be like mineral testing. It could be like, honestly, any sort of functional lab testing, blood work, whatever it might be, is that oftentimes we get specific results. And if you’re working with a good practitioner, then it often goes back to the foundations.
Amanda Montalvo [00:01:12]:
And so sometimes it can feel like, is lab testing necessary? I would say in certain cases it can be helpful. In certain cases, it’s probably not going to change much, for example, if someone doesn’t have good foundational daily habits in place. And so that’s where I think just kind of going back to what does it mean to eat for your hormone health? I’m going to have an episode on how to support healthy stress hormone levels because, of course, that has a huge impact on our hormones overall. And then lots of other fun episodes planned on supplements that can create more imbalances in the body, very commonly recommended ones. I’m going to go into how to support your liver through nutrition because I think there’s a lot of misinformation out there about that. Like, not great information that’s actually going to support liver function. And we’re going to talk about gut health. We’re going to cover a lot of really cool topics, but it’s going to be more from the perspective of what can I do right now as a beginner or maybe as someone that’s trying to go back to the basics on my health journey to support these things.
Amanda Montalvo [00:02:17]:
So I’m really excited. Today’s episode, we’re going to be focusing on how to eat to support your hormones. And it’s just in the nutrition space, the wellness space, especially on social media. We overcomplicate this. I really think people overcomplicate this. I think when I think of what it means to eat to support your hormones, I’m thinking of, how can I eat in a way that’s going to support my female physiology? Because that’s going to really dictate what you do. Most women have done lots of diets throughout their lives. Maybe they’ve gone through patterns of restrictive eating, which stresses the body a ton and creates this hormonal chaos.
Amanda Montalvo [00:02:59]:
And that chaos could be in the form of actual sex hormones, like causing PMS, hormonal concerns related to mood, or even like irregular cycles, painful periods, things like that. Or it could be related to stress hormones and blood sugar issues. And you might be thinking, I don’t have those issues. But if you have an energy issue, then you probably have stress hormone and blood sugar issues or thyroid. Probably one of the most common ones that I see is like, hey, I have hypothyroidism. Or maybe my thyroid is not bad enough to be diagnosed with hypothyroidism, but I’m kind of moving in that direction. It’s definitely not optimal. A lot of this goes back to how we’re eating and living every single day and our history with that too.
Amanda Montalvo [00:03:41]:
Because sometimes maybe we have a lot of great habits in place now, but we’re coming from maybe like a five to 15 to 20 years past of eating in a way that was super stressful for our body. So I’m going to go through a few major areas that I like to highlight and just help make all this nutrition stuff for women’s health make sense. And it’s really going to be coming from a female physiology lens. So I always get questions of like, can men do this too? I mean, I would say it may not hurt them, but I’m specifically talking about women because I’m thinking about how women already have naturally higher Cortisol levels at rest. We are more sensitive to going longer periods without eating and to blood sugar and changes in general. So ideally, this is information for women specifically. So the first area that I like to go into is creating safety through nutrition. I think this is probably the most important one and the one where I think everyone should start.
Amanda Montalvo [00:04:42]:
And what do I mean when creating safety through nutrition? This means allowing your body to know that it’s getting the nourishment that it needs on a regular basis in order to know that it can carry out all of its normal functions, like reproduction, for example. Reproduction takes a ton of energy, right? Especially if you conceive, like pregnancy, tons of energy, breastfeeding, tons of energy. So all of these things, your body has to feel that it has the resources in order to do that. So your body is not going to want to ovulate, have a nice strong ovulation and everything if it doesn’t feel safe. And that could be related to many things, but a big part of that is our nutrition. So letting your body know that it will regularly have food available, it’s not going to be restricted, helps to create a safe environment that allows that physiology to thrive. A lot of women have gone through periods of restrictive diets, maybe undereating. Sometimes the undereating is not even on purpose either.
Amanda Montalvo [00:05:42]:
I’ve seen so many women that they followed a specific diet for their health. Maybe they had a diagnosis or something and they’re like, Well, I did AIP, or I did Paleo, whole 30, whatever it is. And they didn’t mean to be undereating, but it just so happened that they were. So it doesn’t even have to be intentional, right? It could be something that just kind of happened because you cut a lot of foods out, or it could be intentional undereating. And then eating extremes, like intermittent fasting, those all put additional stress on our bodies. And nutrition for women’s bodies should reduce our stress, right? I think that feeding yourself properly, like regularly balanced meals, supporting blood sugar, I think that’s one of the best ways that women can actually reduce their stress, because there’s a lot of mental emotional stressors that we cannot control, but we can control what’s on our plate and when we’re eating. So I think that’s one where hopefully that empowers you. It makes you feel like you want to make your food less stressful.
Amanda Montalvo [00:06:40]:
You want it to be a positive thing and something that’s helping you work toward optimal health and hormones and not something that’s hindering you. So how do we do this? How do we create safety on a day to day basis? Through food. Number one is eating enough. So I often get like, how do I know if I’m eating enough? We’ll talk about that, but eating enough food to meet our metabolic demands. So how much energy our body needs to do, run all the different functions to support our movement and anything in our regular daily activities every day, eating that much, matching that amount, tells our bodies that, hey, we have plenty of energy coming in. So you can use that energy, burn through it, and we can continue on, right? You maintain your weight, you’re continuing to burn that much energy. Your metabolism is going strong. Thyroid function is going to go strong.
Amanda Montalvo [00:07:33]:
Your body is going to make adequate stress hormones. You’re going to ovulate. That’s what eating enough is going to allow your body to do. When we don’t eat enough, our thyroid and just our metabolism in general is going to reduce the amount of energy that we are using because we’re not taking enough energy in. So our bodies are really smart. They’re going to adjust for that. This leads to our metabolism slowing down, and that’s just going to match whatever that calorie intake is. This is why so many women that unfortunately I see all the time are like, hey, I’m only eating like 1000 calories a day, and I’m working out, but I’m still not losing weight.
Amanda Montalvo [00:08:12]:
I’m actually gaining weight. That is your body not feeling safe, being super stressed. I mean, stress hormones are probably sky high. That is impacting insulin resistance and fat storage and slowing down that metabolism because your body is like, even though we’re doing all these things. I’m consistently not getting enough energy to carry out all these different functions. So I’m just going to slow it down. This doesn’t mean that it slowed down forever. It just means that at this time, your body is like, we’re not going to carry out anything that is not 100% necessary.
Amanda Montalvo [00:08:45]:
Which means you’re not going to carry out all the functions that are necessary to support healthy hormone levels. So you can get an idea and you can gauge whether or not you’re eating enough by calculating your total daily energy expenditure, or TDE. You’ve probably heard it referred to as using a TDE calculator online. I’m going to link to one in the show notes. It’s literally just tdecalculator net. If you don’t want to go to that link and you just want to type it in, you could probably just Google TDE calculator as well. What is your total daily energy expenditure? It is the total amount of energy you burn every day. So this is for vital functions.
Amanda Montalvo [00:09:25]:
So things like breathing your heart, beating, pumping blood to the rest of your body, digesting and absorbing your food, having bowel movements, cell growth and repair, like if there’s an injury, or even like after repairing muscle tissue, after workouts, detoxification, cholesterol and hormone synthesis, hormone production, conversion, all those things require energy. Brain power requires glucose. And then plus your activity and anything else you’re doing in the day, like whatever regular activities of daily living, non exercise, movement, all those things. So everything that your body needs energy for in order to carry out, that’s your total daily energy expenditure. So when you know that you can get an understanding of how much are you currently eating compared to your total daily energy expenditure, and then you can compare the two. I will say this is a calculator and our bodies are not calculators. Sometimes we’re hungrier and we eat more food on certain days, and that’s totally normal. I don’t think we have to eat the same exact amount every single day.
Amanda Montalvo [00:10:36]:
Especially like women typically get a lot more hungry leading up to their period because the metabolism increases. That’s normal. And sometimes women experience more hunger right after their period because estrogen is increasing. It makes us more sensitive to insulin so we can have really balanced blood sugar. I would say you don’t have to eat the exact same amount every single day. This is more so that you can get an understanding of am I way undereating or am I actually pretty close on average to what my calculated total daily energy expenditure is? And if you are like, I don’t really know exactly. Like, if I’m calculating this correctly, you could do a range because when you go type it all in, it does ask, it has you pick like an activity level, which can be a little bit confusing. So if you’re not totally sure if you’re like, I kind of fall between two of the activity levels.
Amanda Montalvo [00:11:34]:
Then I would pick do one calculation with the lower level, one calculation with a higher level, and do a range. And then what I would recommend is tracking your food for like four to five days, ideally a week. Get a weekend in there. I really love the app Chronometer. It shows you all the vitamins and minerals in the food too. It’s very easy to use, nice to look at, and very complete with its nutrition profile for things. So you could track your food for four to five days, maybe a week. You take an average of what your calories, your average daily calorie intake for the week.
Amanda Montalvo [00:12:08]:
Because again, some days you’re going to eat more, some days you’re going to eat less. And then you would compare that to the number that you calculated with a total daily energy expenditure calculator. And again, it’s a calculator. It’s not perfect, but it’s something for you to start with. And if you are eating more than that, say you’re eating well above the number that’s calculated, but you’re maintaining your weight, or you think you are. I feel like we can tell when we’re gaining a little bit of weight, then that’s your total daily energy expenditure, how much you’re currently eating. Because sometimes, and I find this for smaller, more petite women especially, that it’s not quite as accurate, especially if they’re active, they actually have a higher total daily energy expenditure for calories. So if you’re eating more and you’re maintaining your weight, then that’s your total day energy expenditure.
Amanda Montalvo [00:13:00]:
You would ignore the calculator. If you are eating way less than that number, like, say you get 2400 calories a day is the total daily energy expenditure that’s estimated based on everything you entered, and you are eating 1400 calories a day, then there’s your answer that you are probably undereating a lot. And that’s one piece of the puzzle when it comes to how you can slowly make changes to eat for your hormone health. When we are undereating like that, all the functions suffer. Even the vital bodily functions are going to suffer. So that’s something to take into consideration and to slowly start working your way and increasing that intake. You don’t have to track your food forever. I would really prefer if people didn’t.
Amanda Montalvo [00:13:44]:
I think that it can just be like stressful, make you focus way too much on numbers and not enough on how you’re feeling. But it can be a really good way to check in with yourself, especially if you have no idea and you’re like, I think I’m probably eating enough, I’m just going to check. Or, hey, I’m not feeling good, I’m going to see if this is maybe a piece of the puzzle for me. It’s a really great way to check in and just see in real time, okay, I am actually undereating. I’m going to slowly, very slowly start increasing my intake. I would do protein rich foods first because you’re probably not getting enough protein, which I’m going to talk about at the end and all that kind of stuff, of considerations for how much protein, stuff to eat based on different scenarios. But most likely you’re not getting enough protein if you’re undereating. So increasing protein rich foods first is a great way to add calories, but also not throw off your blood sugar too much.
Amanda Montalvo [00:14:38]:
And we’re going to go through a whole section on optimal blood sugar because that is very important for hormone health. But it’s a very simple way to just, I’m eating enough or I’m not. I’m going to slowly start to increase my protein intake so that I can meet my needs and also increase my calories very slowly so that you can avoid weight gain, unless you need to gain weight, of course. And yeah, I think that’s a really good place to start. I’m not going to get into fat and carbs because I think that’ll confuse people. But if that’s where you’re at right now, then I would slowly start to increase that protein intake. The other kind of big aspect of other than you want to make sure you’re eating enough, but creating safety and letting your body know that it’s fed and nourished and safe is consistent meals and a predictable routine or rhythm. Some people really hate the idea of a routine, so I think rhythm is a nice alternative for that.
Amanda Montalvo [00:15:31]:
For something, it’s more just like a flow. Like, you know, you’re going to eat, you’re eating consistently throughout the day. It’s not always at the exact same time, but it’s built into your day and how you live. And eating enough is very important and I think that’s where you want to start. But we also have to consider, are we eating regularly throughout the day? Because that is a big part of keeping our blood sugar balanced and ensuring that our body knows that, hey, we’re not going to go super long periods without eating. So that you have to cut into backup nutrition resources in the body and use those instead. You’re going to consistently get them. And when our bodies have that predictable food source, they can relax.
Amanda Montalvo [00:16:10]:
They know like, this is coming. I’m used to this. I very rarely do not get regular meals. I’m going to continue to have a strong metabolism. I’m going to use this energy because I know it’s going to continue to be replaced. There isn’t a concern when the next meal is coming or if it’s coming at all. And they know that they’re consistently fed every day. It may not be the exact same time, and it doesn’t have to be.
Amanda Montalvo [00:16:33]:
It really doesn’t. It’s just more like we have this rhythm where I eat regularly, I feed myself. And it’s not about being perfect. It’s more just about eating regularly and having that as part of your routine where it’s like you prioritize that versus going like six to 8 hours without eating, just because it’s not like a part of your typical day. And sometimes life happens. Sometimes we have emergencies, sometimes we have work stuff come up, life stuff, whatever it might be. But the typical day for you would be like eating breakfast, lunch, dinner, having snacks as needed and not going super long stretches without food. That’s consistent and predictable.
Amanda Montalvo [00:17:20]:
And that is a really good thing for our bodies and our female hormones because that’s when we’re going to be able to keep our stress hormones stable and our blood sugar stable. When we start having these shifts in stress hormones, like say we go a really long time without eating and our blood sugar drops, we’re going to release a stress hormone called cortisol. And that’s going to start to break down other tissue for energy, typically from our liver. And that’s going to break down glucose, give it to the system to keep our blood sugar stable. And then eventually we’re going to use up a lot of that glucose, which is not great for your sleep. So I see this a lot where clients will come and work with us and they have a hard time sleeping at night. And we look and it’s like they don’t have a great appetite. They have a really hard time eating throughout the day.
Amanda Montalvo [00:18:06]:
They’re definitely not eating enough, and they’ve probably been undereating for a while. And that has a huge impact on how they’re sleeping. Because at night we’re already fasting, so we don’t want to fast during the day. We want to consistently feed ourselves so that at night when we’re fasting, we have those glucose stores in our liver to trickle out and keep our blood sugar stable. At night when we don’t, what’s going to happen, we’re going to release that stress hormone cortisol. That’s going to wake us up. But your body has to do it because its main thing is survival, right? So that’s a really big part of it. I think that if you can eat consistently, that’s like half the battle.
Amanda Montalvo [00:18:44]:
So eating enough, eating consistently, and having a predictable schedule or rhythm for yourself throughout the day, and if you’re like, I am nowhere near that. A place that I like to have people start is breakfast, which can be sometimes the hardest meal for people, but it’s going to give you the most bang for your buck. Because if you are starting your day with a high protein balanced breakfast, then that means that you’re going to most likely have balanced blood sugar and balanced stress hormones. When we’re delaying that breakfast, say we aren’t hungry. Not a great sign. That’s a sign you’re probably running on stress hormones and your metabolism has probably slowed down because it’s been compensating, because you’re probably undereating. Or just even if you’re not technically undereating calorie wise, if you’re eating all your food, like later in the day, it can still mess with your stress hormones. That’s why spreading it out is really well received by our bodies.
Amanda Montalvo [00:19:44]:
So if you are someone that is not eating breakfast, probably going to throw off your stress hormones quite a bit and your appetite and those cues and the hunger cues and signals and then that’s going to kind of put you on a blood sugar roller coaster. So if we can have that breakfast sooner, I like to recommend within an hour. If you’re getting up at like seven, like six or seven and you’re eating at eleven or twelve, you don’t have to go for within an hour right away. You could make it maybe instead of waiting four to 5 hours you’re like, I’m going to try having after two to 3 hours and then move closer and closer to that hour mark as you can adjust and get used to it. But ideally you’re having that high protein breakfast within an hour and that’s going to help set your blood sugar and stress hormones up for success the rest of the day. If you are not eating breakfast at all and you’re like, I cannot eat a whole breakfast that early. I don’t have an appetite and I’m not going to feel good. Have something small like do like a mini breakfast.
Amanda Montalvo [00:20:42]:
Or a lot of my clients will start with like a little bit of Greek yogurt and fruit, something like that. Gelatin gummies. I have a recipe on my website is one that’s really easy on the stomach and it’s very light. So that can be something that you start with. Instead I would make the coconut ones that I have on there because they’re going to have more fat to keep that blood sugar stable. But something small is okay. What that’s going to do is start to get your body adjusted to eating in the morning and so it’s going to help support your appetite. And again stress hormones, blood sugar and eventually you’ll be able to eat a full breakfast.
Amanda Montalvo [00:21:17]:
Some ideas for a higher protein breakfast are these all have at least 30 grams of protein, three eggs and a third cup of cottage cheese is like the protein fat source, right? And then the carbohydrate source could be whatever you prefer. It could be fruit, could be like cooked potatoes, oatmeal, whatever it is. Like whatever kind of starchy carb you want to have, winter squash, whatever. And then another example would be two eggs and 2oz of a protein source. Say you’re like, I don’t do dairy or I don’t like cotton cheese. And you need something higher protein. The two eggs and 2oz of leftovers from dinner or something like that could be a really good option. If you don’t do eggs you’re like, I don’t want to have eggs that early or whatever it might be.
Amanda Montalvo [00:22:02]:
4oz of some sort of protein source is a great option. Like my daughter can eat eggs sadly, tragically, hopefully she will be able to soon. So we do a lot of breakfast hash and stuff for her and it’s usually some sort of leftover protein from dinner or like a sausage or something. So 4oz would be the ideal amount because it’s going to give you more protein. So high protein in the morning and really at like all meals is going to help support stable blood sugar so that whatever carbohydrate you’re eating with that meal isn’t going to spike it. And same thing with stress hormones. So starting your day within an hour of eating breakfast is going to be a crucial way to support healthy hormones and can be a great way to start getting that consistent and predictable routine in. The third aspect of creating safety through food is enjoying your food.
Amanda Montalvo [00:22:54]:
I think this is an often forgotten aspect of nutrition for hormones, but one that I think it’s one of the most important. If you aren’t enjoying your food, you probably have some stress around meals and just around food choices in general. And if you’re only eating foods because you think they’re good for you and you have a lot of fear around certain foods you enjoy, then this is a sign that you may want to work on your relationship and balance with food, because we should be able to sit down, enjoy a meal, enjoy the foods that we are eating. And especially if you have certain foods that are from your culture, like traditional foods that you really enjoy, if you’re not eating those because you don’t necessarily think they’re healthy or good for you. It’s just one of those things where it’s like, is there a way we can shift that food or include that food by mixing having a balance of other nutrients in that meal? It just shouldn’t be like some all or nothing thing, right? Like, I think of some examples with clients that avoid traditional foods from their culture because they have Histamine issues, which very understandable, right? You don’t want to eat a food and torture yourself if it’s going to cause a big Histamine reaction, but if you really miss those foods, maybe you’ve eliminated them for a while. One, ideally you get to the root of the Histamine problem, but while you’re doing that and working on that, it’s like, can you modify that food a little bit? If it’s like a lot of times we’ve dealt with broth based foods and fermented foods and those not being great for clients with histamine intolerance, how could we modify that food a little bit or have it in a smaller quantity or less frequent so that you can still enjoy it. But you’re not creating a bunch of symptoms that are obviously going to affect your quality of life. I think there’s ways you can find a balance in a mix.
Amanda Montalvo [00:24:44]:
Another example would be if you say you love homemade pasta, it’s something you grew up eating, but you have a terrible digestive reaction to gluten. Obviously you’re not, probably not going to include that food because you’re going to avoid it because it makes you feel absolutely terrible. You could completely avoid it. Maybe you modify it slightly so that it’s gluten free and you can tolerate it. It’s up to you. But I think if you’re really missing a food you enjoy and you’re afraid to eat it and then maybe you don’t have a good appetite or you’re not really excited about food, I hear this a lot from people, like, I’m just in a rut with my food. I’m like, well, do you like what you’re eating? Is there anything that you have been craving or food that sounds really good to you? And how can you include that? What does that look like? Why are you not including it now? This doesn’t mean that I don’t want people to eat like, nourishing healthy balanced meals, but I think that there is a give and take and I think we can get a lot of peace and joy and immediate kind of comfort from certain foods and then that shouldn’t be. We can’t put only healthy the healthiest foods ever on a pedestal and think that the less nourishing foods we should never have, like, there’s no place for them.
Amanda Montalvo [00:25:57]:
I think we can have both. I think it’s just balancing it in a way that works for you and your specific health concerns and using that to work on your relationship with food and again, reducing stress around food choices. I think that’s huge. So if you’re avoiding foods even though they don’t cause adverse reactions that affect your quality of life where you’re not loving it, I would really consider, like, how can I start to get more foods in that I really enjoy. Our monthly cycle is like a report card. Understanding how to track your cycle and know what is and is not normal as far as symptoms go, can help you identify possible hormone imbalances and whether or not a nutrition or lifestyle change you made is working for you. This is huge. So many of us are looking to experts and outside ourselves to figure out what’s going on with our bodies.
Amanda Montalvo [00:26:46]:
But tracking your cycle and understanding it can help you do that on your own. And this is why I created my free Healthy Period Starter guide. It walks you through the different phases of your cycle, goes through how to track, teaches you what’s at the root cause of hormone imbalances, and even has a section on nutrition tips for healthy hormones. I think every woman should have this knowledge easily accessible to them. So if you want to grab the guide, you can get it via the link in the show notes or on my website, Hormonehealingrd.com. Other than that, those are like the three main things for creating safety through nutrition. So we want to eat enough. We want to create a consistent and predictable routine with food, and we want to enjoy.
Amanda Montalvo [00:27:27]:
Our food. The other major aspect of supporting your hormones through your food is eating in a way that supports blood sugar. Blood sugar is huge for our hormone health. I feel like it’s something now that’s become very popular. Everyone is trying continuous glucose monitor and doing all that stuff. And I get why. Because when we support healthy and stable blood sugar levels, it’s a great way to reduce stress on the body because we’re not getting those swings right, which means we’re going to have less swings in our stress hormone levels and ultimately that’s going to support our sex hormones, right? So I’m going to go through six strategies that I like to use with clients to support their blood sugar. Before I do, I just want to go through two really common assumptions that people often have when I talk about blood sugar and how to support it.
Amanda Montalvo [00:28:19]:
It’s almost like sometimes I’m like, but did you hear what I said? Because that’s not at all what I said. So, number one, I think a common assumption is to support blood sugar, I just need to balance my meals and with like, protein, fat and carb and absolutely, yes, I would love for people to do that. I think that is one aspect of supporting healthy blood sugar levels, but the amount of protein you eat really does matter. And that’s probably the number one thing that we see when we have new clients that come in and we look at their food journals. I’m like, not enough protein. Like, not even close. And that has a huge impact on your blood sugar levels, especially if you’re eating more carbohydrates in relation to protein. Depending on your health history, that really may not work for you and that could be exacerbating things.
Amanda Montalvo [00:29:04]:
I’m going to go through a few scenarios at the end, but that’s a common assumption, and I would say misconception, that eating protein, fat and carb is enough. Sometimes it’s not enough for people. So getting plenty of protein is really important for minimizing this huge blood sugar swing that you could potentially get. Number two is that eating to support blood sugar means that you eat low carb. So there’s this really common thought that only carbs affect our blood sugar, but that’s 100% not true, and that cutting carbs will definitely improve your blood sugar. Also not true. I cannot tell you how many clients we’ve worked with, especially those with PCOS, that they cut down their carbs and maybe we’re monitoring their blood sugar. Usually it’s like we’ll have them track it for a few days, assess it, make changes, let those changes ride out for a little bit and then check it again and see if there’s been any improvements.
Amanda Montalvo [00:30:01]:
Very often the instinct for people, especially if you have a history of PCOS or blood sugar problems, is, I’m going to cut back my carbs and that’s going to fix my blood sugar. And unfortunately, that often does not solve the problem, because most of those people already have really high stress hormones. So instead of just thinking cutting carbs is going to fix it, we have to address stress. Stress around food and food choices cannot tell you how many women have a ton of stress around their meals, especially if they have blood sugar concerns or just like a long history with dieting and health problems, it’s like, is this the right meal for me? How is this going to affect my blood sugar? Stressing about that in and of itself can raise your blood sugar, but having that rise in stress hormones raises our glucose, right? So even if we cut carbs, if we’re stressing at every meal, if we’re eating in a really rushed way, if we’re constantly on the go, maybe we had a really big stressful event that day. If we’re just living in a way of high stress, you’re still not going to see that blood sugar improve. And so then people end up cutting carbs more and more and more, and they’re like, Well, I can’t tolerate carbohydrates. But the question is, what else is affecting your blood sugar? So yes, lowering carbs can help for many people. When I talk about examples, I’m going to talk about that because for some people, it can be helpful, but we can’t ignore how much stress impacts our blood sugar.
Amanda Montalvo [00:31:25]:
So that’s just something I wanted to reiterate before we get into all these different blood sugar strategies. So number one, the one that we have people do the most, what I think is the easiest, is eating your protein rich foods first. When we combine all three protein, fat and carb at our meals, this does help to slow down how quickly that glucose that we’re eating gets into our bloodstream. That’s great. You can take it a step further by eating most of your protein rich food first, and then that’s going to help reduce the blood sugar spike even more after a meal. And when I say, like, reduce the blood sugar spike, it doesn’t mean we never want to have an increase in our blood sugar. We want to be able to tolerate an increase in our blood sugar and have a healthy insulin response to then bring that back down. What I find really helpful when we help clients with these blood sugar strategies is that in the meantime, especially when they’re working on managing their stress and working on their daily habits, they’re still going to have stress, right? And they may not have the best response, the best blood sugar response to different foods, certain amounts of carbohydrates, maybe they are still dealing with a lot of current stress, so they have higher cortisol levels, all those things that are going to affect your blood sugar.
Amanda Montalvo [00:32:43]:
When we focus in on these while they’re healing, it’s just especially helpful as we’re working on improving all those things. So not something you necessarily have to do forever, but something that can be really helpful if you’re in this season of healing and you’re like, I just feel like my energy is all over the place. I’m stressed, I feel anxious. You think there could be a blood sugar thing? Eating protein rich foods first before you eat the carbohydrate rich food is a great way to reduce that. It’s also very helpful if someone has morning sickness and they are struggling with that because that’s often related to blood sugar and many other things. And because of that, they keep themselves on this blood sugar roller coaster all day. But if they just ate those protein rich foods first, it’s a great way to keep everything more stable. So that’s tip number one.
Amanda Montalvo [00:33:33]:
The second one is experimenting with the amount of carbs that you’re eating. So each person is going to be unique with this, right? There’s no perfect amount for everyone, but just understanding for you personally, like, what amount really works for you and what amount maybe makes you feel sleepy after the meal or impacts your hunger, energy, digestion, whatever it is. If we can take a little bit of time to reflect on that after we eat a meal, like an hour later in the day, that can work wonders for figuring out how much you need to eat. As far as like, protein and carbs, often people ask me where to start. I’m like, it really depends on what you’re currently doing, your health history, all those things. But the best way is if you can keep a food journal and make note of those things and reflect before and after your meal and then go and look back at those things later. I wouldn’t do this for a really long time. I’d maybe do it for like a week tops.
Amanda Montalvo [00:34:29]:
That’s going to help you understand, oh, you know what, when I eat this type of meal and this amount, I feel really good. But when I eat this meal and maybe it’s a little bit more or maybe I didn’t eat breakfast that day, it’s just going to let you see more of the nuance versus it is very easy to just listen to outside advice constantly and take in a ton of information and then not take any action. The bonus episode for my Patreon members this week is a food journal and it’s a food and mood journal, and I walk you through how to track your food and then make changes based on what you’re learning. So you don’t need to download it to do that. You can definitely do that on your own, but if you want more help, definitely check out Patreon. But that experimenting with carbs is going to let you know what works best for you. Another one. The third one that I like to have people do is experiment with protein sources.
Amanda Montalvo [00:35:17]:
Certain proteins are more dense, so they fill you up more and they contain more calories. Typically than other ones. They can also vary in the amount of fat that they contain. So, for example, I often see clients that will have, like, milk and fruit for a snack, and they can do super well and feel great and have stable mood and energy and everything, while others have that same snack and they notice that they’re, like, hungry and irritated later. They have no energy. They notice, like, the blood sugar roller coaster, or they’re hungry very soon after. So they may do better with a snack that’s, like, a little heavier. Like, instead of milk, they do Greek yogurt, which is higher in protein.
Amanda Montalvo [00:35:57]:
It’s a larger volume per serving, and it’s just going to fill them up a bit more. So that’s like, one example. Similarly with bone broth. So sometimes people I’ll see people consuming things like bone broth as their protein source at, like, a main meal, and I’m like, oh, that might not be enough. Even if there’s like, ten to 15 grams of protein in it. Probably not enough for a main meal, right? Maybe not even for a snack, depending on the person. But having that, it’s a much lighter protein versus having, like, muscle meat, right? So even I would say, like, yogurt, compared to a muscle meat at a main meal, that muscle meat is going to keep you much fuller, probably going to keep your blood sugar more stable. So looking at the density of protein sources, this doesn’t mean that you’re always going to do better with the denser ones.
Amanda Montalvo [00:36:46]:
Some people do totally fine with lighter ones, like milk, like bone broth. I just find that a lot of women that we work with, when they start to choose the denser proteins, they’re like, wow, I feel way better, more full, more satisfied, and I don’t need as many snacks and things like that. So experimenting with protein sources is big. The fourth one is experimenting with types of carbs. And again, you would start with one of these and then work on that. You don’t have to do all of these, but if you start to chip away and you’re finding, like, I feel good, but I want to keep experimenting a little bit more, they can be helpful. So experimenting with the types of carbs, similar to the types of proteins, carbs can affect people very differently. Some people respond amazing to fruit and they have consistent blood sugar.
Amanda Montalvo [00:37:31]:
They feel really good eating it minimal spikes, while others get a ton of blood sugar spikes from fruit and they just don’t tolerate it as well, meaning their blood sugar stays higher for longer. They have a harder time bringing it down, but maybe they do really well with, like, potatoes or like, sourdough. I see two very distinct people, and it’s been really interesting, especially since a lot of people have been doing CGMs. And then we’ll get to see that data. It’s really interesting to see it. It’s pretty stark and I’m like, wow, there’s like two groups of people that are in our client base. It’s like ones that do really well with fruit and ones that do really well with starches. Or just like they have to do less fruit and more starch.
Amanda Montalvo [00:38:15]:
Again, we’re not going to extremes here, but just kind of staying with how they responded, blood sugar wise. I thought that was really interesting. If you’ve ever tested your blood sugar, you can see like, oh, I had a meal with this carbohydrate and this much protein and then I had this one and I did better with this one. And I was really surprised because it had more carbs. It’s going to be different for each person. It’s more just understanding, like paying attention to your energy, your mood, your sleep. I think those can give you really good indications for blood sugar. But experimenting is going to be key.
Amanda Montalvo [00:38:47]:
You might notice when you eat fruit, you feel great. Some people might notice, I’m like hungry kind of soon after. I’m really sleepy after. That could mean that you want to try less fruit and maybe a little bit more of another type of carbohydrate or just a smaller amount of carbohydrates in general. The experimentation is going to be up to you, but hopefully these give you some ideas of things you can try. Number five, and probably one of the most important minus the first one for protein, is eating dense meals. Like I talked about, some people can have the lighter breakfast. Like they could have like Greek yogurt and fruit and feel really good.
Amanda Montalvo [00:39:23]:
I think most people do the best when they have heartier main meals. Like maybe you have eggs, cottage cheese, potatoes, and that’s like your breakfast. It’s a bigger breakfast, it’s denser. The eggs and cottage cheese are going to keep you fuller, longer, versus like Greek yogurt and fruit is a lighter meal. It’s a smaller volume. It’s not going to keep you full quite as long. It’s probably less calories and it’s going to mean that you need to eat again sooner. So if we can have those denser main meals, that often means that you can require less snacking in between because your blood sugar is more stable.
Amanda Montalvo [00:39:59]:
If you find yourself kind of needing to eat every one or 2 hours, I would say look at the density of your meals. One, are you eating enough protein? And then two, I would say you want to get at least 30 grams of protein at your main meals. That would be number one. And then number two would be what’s the type of protein? Or what’s the type of carbohydrate? Is the food more whole, food based? Is it more processed? All those things are going to impact how full you feel the satisfaction in your blood sugar. And again, you may be someone that can do really well with the lighter meals. Maybe that’s all you can even tolerate. Sometimes people just don’t have a good appetite when they’re just starting to pay attention to their nutrition. That’s okay, you can build on that.
Amanda Montalvo [00:40:38]:
But I would say most people, especially if they’re worried about their blood sugar, could do really well with trying to focus on denser meals like think like a muscle meat, like chicken, beef, pork, fish, whatever, with some sort of like cooked veggie and a starch, whatever that might look like for you. And the amounts are going to vary, but that’s a much heartier denser meal. It’s going to keep you full longer. The last one, number six, is being consistent. It is very difficult to assess how you’re responding to a change, especially blood sugar wise, if you aren’t eating consistently. Obviously, I already talked about this in the section where I discussed how to create safety through food. And that was making sure that you have a routine or rhythm with food every day where you are eating consistently and not skipping meals. That’s really important for blood sugar as well.
Amanda Montalvo [00:41:26]:
And so if you can try to be consistent with the change that you’re making so that you can give your body enough time to respond and see if it is working for you, I think that pays off. And yes, you do things and make changes slower, but you’re only going to make the necessary changes and you’re going to find out what works for you a lot more clearly. So those are the blood sugar supportive strategies. Again, you don’t have to implement all of them. I would just think about start with the eating protein rich foods first if you have blood sugar concerns, and then you could definitely experiment further. And then the last kind of big area as far as how can we eat to support hormones is consuming nutrient dense foods. And what I mean when I say nutrient dense foods is foods that contain an abundance of vitamins, minerals and energy. So to keep it super simple, I think that people should eat a mix of animal and plant foods.
Amanda Montalvo [00:42:21]:
It’s a great way to make sure that you’re getting a mix of the micronutrients your body needs, right? So like, certain vitamins that you can only get from animal foods, certain minerals that you can only get from animal foods, and then nutrients that are in their most bioavailable form, which means that we can absorb them the easiest. And I think when we mix plant and animal foods together, that’s what we get. We get a beautiful mix of nutrients, micronutrients, fibers, all those things. I often think people really overcomplicate this, but I think if you can eat a mix of animal foods, eat regularly, don’t skip meals, enjoy your food. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that. I think that’s a great place to start for everyone. And then you can tailor it, you can adjust it based on how you’re responding and maybe your health history as well, because I’m going to go through some different scenarios with examples. But some of my top nutrient dense foods are things all meat is going to be very nutrient dense, lots of vitamins and minerals, and that’s our main source of protein.
Amanda Montalvo [00:43:27]:
So very important. Organ meats, also incredibly nutrient dense. It would take about four pounds of fruits and veggies to get the same micronutrient value as 1oz of beef liver. Four pounds of fruits and veggies. So this doesn’t mean that we don’t eat fruits and veggies, right? I know there are some people that take the eating animal foods only to an extreme. I don’t think we need to do that. I honestly think when we go to extremes, that’s where this metabolic chaos and hormonal chaos can happen in the body. I do not want people to go to extremes.
Amanda Montalvo [00:44:03]:
I think that having a mix of the both is really important. But I just like to highlight how nutrient dense organ meats are and just meat in general and that it is really important because I think fruits and veggies get a lot of the, like, oh, you got to eat your fruits and veggies. You got to get your nutrients in. But animal foods definitely have more per serving, but it doesn’t mean veggies aren’t important. So meats and organ meats. Eggs. Eggs are the perfect protein. We absorb 100% of the protein from eggs, which we do not absorb from any other type of animal protein.
Amanda Montalvo [00:44:35]:
They have so many antioxidants in the yolks. It’s really cool. Eggs are great. They also have choline, very important B vitamin. Seafood, it’s going to give us not only protein, it’s going to give us an abundance of minerals, especially ones that we’re not often getting from other types of meat or animal foods. Like we can get zinc from red meat, but there’s a lot of zinc and seafood. There’s lots of selenium iodine things that are more difficult to get from other foods. Dairy, another great one.
Amanda Montalvo [00:45:05]:
It’s going to give us lots of fat soluble vitamins that we are not getting from other foods and protein and fats and carbs and lots of minerals like calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium. So dairy is another great one. Fruit, love, fruit, great potassium source. I would say most fruits at least have some level of potassium. Many of them have very high levels. And if you listen to the potassium episode, I think it’s one of the most important minerals for women’s health. It helps support blood sugar, helps shuttle glucose inside the cell. It helps to support optimal thyroid function.
Amanda Montalvo [00:45:38]:
It supports healthy bowel movements. Like, potassium is huge. And it’s one of those where when women start to focus on it and increase potassium rich foods, they start to notice many benefits in like, energy, blood sugar, balance, digestion, so many things. So eat more potassium. And potassium you can get from animals and plants. Like, there’s a ton of potassium in seafood beef. There’s also some in poultry and dairy, but there’s also a ton of potassium in like potatoes and squash and fruit. So really, truly, we need a mix.
Amanda Montalvo [00:46:14]:
But fruit is great. Cooked veggies are another great source of minerals and vitamins and beneficial fibers. I say cooked because it’s much easier to absorb those minerals. When the vegetable is cooked, it breaks down a lot of the different phytic acid that can bind to in oxalates. People always ask me about oxalates. I’m like, if you cook the food, it’s reducing a lot of those and so there’s less concern, but it’s also going to make the minerals a lot easier for you to absorb. So if you can’t do dairy, I’m always like cooked Swiss. Charred collard greens have a ton of calcium.
Amanda Montalvo [00:46:47]:
So cooked greens are great. Winter squash is a great source of potassium as well. But veggies in general, very beneficial. I also love beans for people that can digest them well, those another great source of calcium and potassium, and they can have beneficial fibers in there. If you have challenged digestion, I would not go for beans right away. Or if you eat them and you’re like, I just feel like I don’t tolerate them very well. Maybe you get constipated, maybe you get bloating, distension, anything like that. Don’t feel like you have to include beans because you’re like, oh mandices, are healthy.
Amanda Montalvo [00:47:23]:
Listen to your body. Only you are going to know what’s best for you. And if you can tolerate beans, they are very nutrient dense and have good fibers and stuff. Great for estrogen and great for bile, which is important for removing toxins and excess estrogen. But again, you may not be able tolerate them right now. That’s okay. But I do think those are nutrient dense food as well. But those are my top ones.
Amanda Montalvo [00:47:46]:
And what is it? A mix of plants and animals. So don’t overcomplicate it. I think as long as you’re not going to an extreme and you’re prioritizing plenty of protein at your meals, you’re experimenting with how many carbs works for you and just paying attention to how you specifically feel. So often we want a prescription of what’s exactly perfect for us. But unless you’re working one on one with someone, even if you’re working one on one with someone, it’s impossible to give someone a perfect prescription without them experimenting, right? So ultimately, it is up to you to figure this out. It just requires a little intention. And this is where I want to wrap it up, where it’s so important to meet your body, where it’s at right now, you are probably starting in a different place than the next person on their healing journey. We’re all coming from a different place and different health history, different main health concerns, different nutrition history, right? We’re all eating different things.
Amanda Montalvo [00:48:43]:
We grow up eating different things. We may have different diets that we’ve tried. Some of us may have a very stressful history with food, some of us may not. And a lot of that’s going to dictate where you’re going to begin when it comes to food. So I’m just going to give a few different scenarios of examples of a woman entering her healing journey. Here’s, her health history, like, what are some things she could really, really focus in on. So the first scenario is someone entering their healing journey overweight that continues to gain weight. I hear this a lot of, like, I need to heal my hormones, but I’m already overweight and I don’t want to gain more weight.
Amanda Montalvo [00:49:20]:
Like I can’t gain more weight. And not just someone that doesn’t want to, like someone that’s like already maybe they’re clinically considered obese, right? Or they know, like, I have a significant amount of body fat. Like, I really, truly do not need to gain more weight then the major things that I would focus on, of course, eating enough. I’m going to guess if you did your total daily energy expenditure for this person, they probably are undereating typically, and it’s usually by a lot. Like they’re the person that’s eating like 1200 calories a day when they’re told the energy expenditure is like 2600. And they’re like, but I can’t eat more because I gain weight. And so the things I would think about are, number one, focusing on safety and routines. Because if your body does not feel safe, if you have a very restrictive eating path, if you’ve been undereating for a long time, it’s going to want to store, it is going to want to store those nutrients, that energy, because it knows that it’s not going to get more.
Amanda Montalvo [00:50:21]:
So that’s a big part of it. And it may not mean that you’re eating more food right away, but I would say work on eating consistently, eating breakfast, high protein breakfast, not being afraid to include even a small amount of carbs at all your meals. To keep that blood sugar consistent and to start rebuilding that liver glucose, because you probably have used up a lot of the stored glucose in your liver, which I’m guessing you probably have sleep issues. So this is like a very common scenario I see in practice. So focusing on safety and routines, eating consistently, blood sugar, definitely a scenario where I would say eat protein rich foods first and then experimenting with how do you feel best? Most of the time they don’t have a good appetite because their metabolism has slowed down and their body has adjusted for their reduced intake. And so just starting to slowly add things in. You never want to go fast. If you’re this person, you calculate your total daily energy expenditure and you’re like, well, I’m only eating like 1400 calories a day, but I need to be eating 1000 more.
Amanda Montalvo [00:51:23]:
Do not jump to the 1000 addition because you will gain weight because your body has not adjusted for that so making changes really slowly is going to be really important and helpful. And then I would just focus on blood sugar. So much blood sugar. Focus of eating enough protein for total protein. I would say since this person typically tends to be more overweight, they could instead of doing a gram of protein per pound of body weight, which may be something that’s just like unachievable for them, they’re like, I cannot eat that much protein, that’s not realistic. Then I would say try to aim for 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight. So I think that’s much more reasonable and realistic. And then probably moderate carbs.
Amanda Montalvo [00:52:08]:
See what you tolerate best. But if you can slowly start to show your body that you are feeding it, you’re eating breakfast, you’re eating consistently, you’re really prioritizing those protein rich foods. I think that’s important. And then if the person does not have energy in a good place, I wouldn’t stress a ton about exercise right now. I think going for walks, moving around and not being super sedentary is important. But if the energy isn’t there, just try to wait until your metabolism can catch up and your body can get used to slowly eating more. And then eventually you could consider focusing on that strength training piece, building muscle. That muscle is going to be so important for improving insulin sensitivity and reducing your overall body fat levels.
Amanda Montalvo [00:52:51]:
But again, if you don’t have the energy and you’re not eating enough now, you wouldn’t necessarily want to add in like a strength training or exercise routine. Doesn’t mean you can’t move around, but again, that just uses up more calories, right? So that just extends your total daily energy expenditure and that much that you’re just not getting in. So that’s just an example of one common scenario. Another scenario menopause. Probably one of the other most common questions I get about is what does nutrition look like in menopause? I think this truly depends on how someone’s health is when they’re entering menopause. So for example, if someone has pretty optimal metabolic health going into menopause, you don’t have to lower your carbs, right? You may not have to lower them that much. But if you say you don’t have the best health and you’re kind of just starting this whole healing journey as you are in menopause, maybe you have a long history with dieting and undereating over exercising and just stress in general, typically you’re going to be more depleted. And so you may not have the best blood sugar balance, you may have high stress hormones, you may not tolerate carbohydrates as well.
Amanda Montalvo [00:54:05]:
So I would focus the most on protein, and I would say definitely a gram of protein per pound of body weight. For sure you need more protein. You want to make sure you can hold on to as much muscle mass as possible. And then I would say strength training is huge. I did an episode. On this. I think it was season two with Adina Rubin, who is one of my favorite strength people to follow. She focuses on those major lifts, right? Her training is super simple, and it can work at any level.
Amanda Montalvo [00:54:39]:
And that’s really what you want to focus on, is like, how can I get the most bang for my buck with my training and not overdo it? It’s by focusing on those major lifts. So definitely check out that episode if you haven’t already. But the main focus of menopause is really maintaining and building muscle. If you do not already have that going for you, getting plenty of protein, I would say a gram per pound of body weight. Some women might need more Depends and then paying attention to how you respond to carbohydrates. Do you feel sleepy after meals? Are you on a blood sugar roller coaster? Are you moody? What does that look like for you? How’s your sleep at night? Are you maintaining your weight? Are you gaining weight? And then the blood sugar principles would definitely apply as well, because a lot of the shifts and issues that are happening, it’s not that they’re that different from pre menopause, right? It’s like we’re still concerned about eating enough stress hormones, all those things. But now we’re also concerned that we have lower hormone levels and less estrogen means that we do not tolerate carbohydrates quite as well. We’re less insulin sensitive.
Amanda Montalvo [00:55:44]:
And so that’s why a lot of women with menopause feel like they do better on low carb, because they don’t have the hormones to back it up. So, again, I think it really depends on activity level, health history, so many things. But this person probably wants to do more of like, a moderate carb. Maybe you eat more carbs before and after you work out, experiment, find what works for you. But I would definitely focus on high protein blood sugar principles and strength training, and that should all help you tolerate carbs. Use them for energy, not store them, and just thrive and feel good. Lower those stress hormones, because sometimes if we’re not eating enough carbs, then that can raise our stress hormones, and that doesn’t help us either. Last scenario, a woman with PCOS that also has insulin resistance.
Amanda Montalvo [00:56:33]:
This person, I would definitely focus on the blood sugar principles, of course, right? She has insulin resistance. She’s not tolerating carbs as well. And I would do probably a more moderate approach to carbs, but I would still say track your food, how much you currently eating. Compare that, because you don’t want to just automatically do low carb, especially if that’s not how you’re eating, because that could seriously impact your stress hormones, your energy, your cognitive function, your sleep, all those things. But I would say, see how much you’re currently eating. Are you eating enough protein? I would say definitely get 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight, for sure. And then I would experiment with carbohydrates. Eat the protein rich foods first.
Amanda Montalvo [00:57:16]:
Experiment with the amount of carbs and the types of carbs. See which ones work better for you, see what allows you to feel your best. Is it having half a cup of carbs at most of your meals? Is it having more than half a cup at most of your meals? Is it that you feel better having more carbs at at night, then in the morning, whatever you might notice, I would really pay attention to that. And then there should be a huge focus on stress management because typically women with PCOS are much less resilient to stress. So they may have higher stress hormone levels in general, which are going to impact their androgens those male hormones that can impact ovulation and it can also impact their estrogen and progesterone levels. So if we can be super diligent about eating consistently, letting your body know that, hey, you’re going to be fed, don’t worry, we’re going to make sure we’re eating enough and then we’re also going to try to put these blood sugar strategies in place. I think that is really helpful for a lot of women. If you want to take it a step further, something that you could do if you feel like you feel better eating more carbs, but maybe you’re testing your blood sugar and you’re kind of worried about the numbers, maybe your doctor is on you about your hemoglobin, a, one C or something.
Amanda Montalvo [00:58:26]:
You could try some apple cider vinegar prior to your meals and that can help reduce blood sugar spikes. You can also have it after a meal and it can help. So that’s something you can consider as well, especially as you’re working on all these habits. Basically, you just want to look at what you’re currently doing. You want to assess it and then adjust an experiment. So ideally, most people are probably going to do better with a bit more protein, moderate carb, kind of depends how active you are. Probably like your lifestyle, your stress levels, all those things where you are in your healing journey, your health history, but plenty of protein. Experiment with your carbon take, eat regularly, eat a mix of plant and animals and try to meet yourself where you’re at.
Amanda Montalvo [00:59:11]:
Try not to take exactly what I’m saying and apply everything because you might not need it. You might just be like, you know what, I start eating my protein first and I feel so much better. Or I increase my protein intake and my digestion is better, I have better energy, I’m sleeping better. That may be all you really need right now. And I really do think when we make changes slower, we do our best. But ultimately these are suggestions, these are based on research and work with lots of clients and everything that I kind of see in a typical day to day practice. But you know your body best, so experiment meet yourself where you are and just be curious. I think that’s one of the most helpful things when we’re healing is just being curious and open to what could be true for us, may be different for someone else, but those are all my tips, so I hope you enjoyed this episode.
Amanda Montalvo [01:00:00]:
If you want to get the food journal and a little bit more guidance there with breaking things down for yourself when you’re tracking your food and it’s not tracking calories or anything, it’s just having you write down like, what are you typically eating, how do you feel before and after? Then you can join Patreon.com Hormonehealingrd and I will see you in the next episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Are You Menstrual? Podcast. If you want to support my work, please leave a review and let me know how you like the episode. This lets me know what you guys want more of less of. I read every single one and I appreciate them more than you know. If you want to keep learning, you can get access to the bonus episode and additional resources on Patreon.com Hormonehealingrd. I’d love to have you in there. Thanks again and I will see you in the next episode.
