In this episode, I welcome back Kristin Johnson and Maria Claps from Wise and Well, their women’s health and hormone education practice, to dive deep into the complexities of menopause, hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and the modern health challenges women face.
Kristin Johnson, JD, BCHN FNTP is Board Certified in Holistic Nutrition through the National Association of Nutrition Professionals, is a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner through the Nutritional Therapy Association, and is a “recovering corporate attorney.” Maria Claps, FDN-P is a certified health coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and is a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner.
Together, Kristin and Maria have developed a deep specialty in perimenopause and menopause health through their clinical mentorships with multiple medical doctors and naturopaths specializing in hormone replacement therapy. In addition, they have both completed advanced training in various functional testing modalities which they actively use in their robust clinical practice educating and helping midlife women. Kristin and Maria are also the co-creators of a professional training program for other midlife women’s health practitioners.
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Amanda Montalvo [00:00:01]:
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 Montalvo, 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. You can go to patreon.com, hormonehealingrdez or check out the link in the show notes. Welcome, Maria and Kristen to the re minstrel podcast again. We did an episode in my first season ever that the podcast came out a few years ago, before I was a mom, pre that whole era of my life. I’m excited to have you guys back and more excited that you guys have a book coming out.
Amanda Montalvo [00:00:49]:
By the time this comes out, it’ll be out. So I just cannot wait to dig into all that stuff. But thank you both being here.
Maria [00:00:57]:
It’s been a while.
Amanda Montalvo [00:00:59]:
I know like three years.
Maria [00:01:00]:
Things have changed, changed quite a bit.
Amanda Montalvo [00:01:04]:
You guys have been like, help is probably like thousands of women by this point, I’m guessing.
Kristen [00:01:10]:
Yeah, it’s. Yeah, we’re in. We’re over the thousand mark, that’s for sure.
Amanda Montalvo [00:01:14]:
That’s really cool. And you have your practitioner program. We have to talk about that mentorship. We’ll have to chat, like everything that you guys have because I know, I know I’ll get questions. I have a lot of practitioners that listen to the podcast, so I’m going to do like the whole intro and everything previously. So everyone get like your kind of background, but just tell me, like, why are you guys so passionate about this work and what makes wise and well, so unique?
Maria [00:01:39]:
It’s. We’re passionate about this work because we have. We live it, really. We both had to find a way to thrive. And, you know, that entailed a lot of education and a lot, you know, it just when we hit our mid forties, like more like early to mid forties, the both of us, we actually have very different kind of experiences, but they were both not good. It was about 43 that, you know, we both saw like really significant changes in our health and we just sought out more education. We sought medical help. We had different experiences there and we both kind of collectively decided independent of each other.
Maria [00:02:18]:
We didn’t even know each other at that point, but it’s amazing how we got brought together that there had to be a better way than what the kind of what medicine was offering us.
Kristen [00:02:30]:
Yeah, I think, you know, Marie and I, why we’re so passionate about it is because we did have those two different experiences. I was completely, you know, gaslit is, like, a really common term right now, but I truly was. I was told, this is not your hormones. There’s nothing wrong with you. And then I was actually denied care. They refused to give me testing, whereas Maria had the, oh, yes, this is your hormones. And we’ve got a pill for this, and we’ve got another thing for this. And so she was over tested and over treated.
Kristen [00:02:58]:
I was under tested and denied treatment. And that I think we represent kind of the whole spectrum between the two of us, which is why we’re like, look, it doesn’t matter how it happens to you or what happens to you. It’s just every woman needs to know the same information that we’re not getting through this life without going through the menopausal transition. And there are really important imperatives we all need to pay attention to, regardless of what our provider or someone else might be telling us.
Amanda Montalvo [00:03:24]:
Do you want to share a little bit about each of your personal experiences? And, like, how did you guys. I don’t think I know how the story of how you guys got together.
Kristen [00:03:35]:
Yeah. Okay.
Maria [00:03:36]:
So my personal experience was, like, Kristin alluded to it. So I went to, like, a holistic practitioner in Manhattan, and I was given Klonopin for my sleep issues, which I got, I would say, minimally addicted to. I’m very, very thankful I was able to unwind that before it became, like, larger and larger amounts of that. I was given a lot of supplements, not necessarily against that, but it felt like overkill, even to this day. And interesting, again, I said I was 43 years old. I was given hormone replacement therapy. Now, not necessarily a bad thing. We can get into that later.
Maria [00:04:11]:
In fact, like, in retrospect, looking back now that I’m in my mid fifties, instead of starting HRT at around age 48 or so, I wish I had started at, say, age 45, but I was given HRT by this doctor at age 43. Why did I not do well with it? Because I was given zero education on the HRT. I was given zero education on why this might be helpful for you, how your body is changing, what is fundamentally happening, and how we’re not just addressing symptoms. So I gave it up, and then I had a pretty rocky ride through perimenopause, not just because of the absence of the HRT that I gave up at, you know, 43 and a half or so, just because I didn’t know what the hell was going on, really. That was when I decided to seek more schooling.
Kristen [00:05:01]:
Yeah. And I, you know, I didn’t make. I should say Maria didn’t make the mistakes I did with respect to birth control. So she still had a cycle, which for a lot of women is kind of that first sign of things changing and being amok. For me, I was given an IUD at age 32 after my third child was born, because I literally was so low hormones postpartum that I was psychotic, to be perfectly frank. My husband used to call it hide the knives phase. Whenever I cycle, you know, I was offered antidepressants or an IUD, and, you know, I’ll be frank and say the IUD saved my life in retrospect, because I think I would have become very dependent upon the antidepressants and never really addressed any hormone issues. But anyway, that had been going on for so long, and my mom had surgical menopause at 32, so I didn’t have any benchmark for what this looks like.
Kristen [00:05:50]:
What is this thing? And, you know, looking back, you’ll see in the dedication of the book, I dedicate it to my mom. She had a very, very, very rough second half of her life. It ruined our relationship in my childhood. And so I feel really strongly that women pay attention, that it’s not just you who suffers through menopause, but all the people around you as well. And that’s not to say we’re some insufferable bitches. We change and we’re different. And it’s really difficult to kind of maintain that mojo in life when you lose your hormones. For me, it was, like, around 43, and I was just.
Kristen [00:06:23]:
Nothing was working. I had always been a super high achiever. I couldn’t get through my day without brain fog and constant list. Now. I mean, like, I was, you know, kind of ditzy. I literally did not know what I was doing each day, and I’d find myself just sitting at my desk, staring in empty space. So that wasn’t typical for me. But then it was the lack of sleep again, I had no idea that lack of sleep, you know, was tied to hormones at the time.
Kristen [00:06:47]:
People listening might go, well, duh, that’s because you’ve got social media telling you now years ago, you know, so you know that. And then definitely, like, the libido change, which started to impair my marriage, to be perfectly frank. And it was, bless my husband, the one who fought for me, saying, something’s wrong. I know it’s not us, something’s wrong. So I was kind of having this out of body experience where, like, I couldn’t really change who I was feeling like I was, but at the same time, I was observing myself thinking, yeah, something is definitely wrong. And I went to my provider. I lived in Boston at the time, mass general, some of the best medicine in the world, and said, you know, something’s wrong with me. And she said, no, nothing’s wrong with you.
Kristen [00:07:26]:
You’re fine. And I was like, no, no. Can we just run some blood tests? No, I’m not going to run blood tests. You’re too young. There’s nothing to look at. And I went back to her. I think it was four times over six months. I’m like, is it Lyme? Could I have an autoimmune disease? Maybe I have mold.
Kristen [00:07:40]:
You know, I was struggling to come up with something because in my mind I was doing all the right things. I had good nutrition, I had good movement, I had all these things, and yet my life just completely got pulled out from underneath me. So it was my changing my approach and getting more education was born out of being very angry, to be perfectly frank, and desperate to not lose the life I thought I had built. So I went back to school. Maria had gone back to school. We were both practicing separately. And then I was seeking more training because all the clients I kept getting, now, I say you attract people who resemble you, sort of thing. And all the clients I kept getting were women in this midlife transition.
Kristen [00:08:20]:
And it was me who was like, oh, they know they’re hormonal. I don’t. Because of this stupid IUD. Let’s figure out how we start assessing the body. And I looked for a training course on that, and Maria had written one and was training other practitioners to kind of look at hormone status. And that’s how the two of us connected. And then she had a little program that was sort of a time limited thing, and she was like, hey, would you help me with this? And so I started working with her, and then all of a sudden, we were like, I don’t really want this to end. So I was like, wow, it’s so much better to have someone to talk to and run through client protocols with and just, you know, really be a partner with.
Kristen [00:08:58]:
And so we decided to go official and got married at work.
Amanda Montalvo [00:09:01]:
And probably way better to write a book with, too, than by yourself.
Kristen [00:09:05]:
Way better. Yeah.
Amanda Montalvo [00:09:08]:
Oh, thank you guys for sharing. I just think it’s helpful for women to hear, especially women that are. Maybe they’re at that stage, like early forties. Mid or it doesn’t matter the age, you know, if you are feeling that way, because now I see it earlier and earlier. I don’t know about you guys, but perimenopause, it is pretty. I mean, like, like, even my age, I’m like 34 and I’m like, this is like, like what? You know, then you go back to wanted your mom, go through it all those sorts of things, and I’m like, there’s just definitely. I think there’s a lot of reasons for it, but it’s something that we all need to know much sooner. I feel like nowadays, which I’m so grateful for, social media and podcasts and, like, having that information out there.
Amanda Montalvo [00:09:49]:
But like you said, it wasn’t there. Same thing. I came off the pill. My whole health got turned upside down. That was like 14 years ago. There was no information online about any of that. I’m like trying to find books. It was scary, honestly.
Amanda Montalvo [00:10:03]:
And it changed my whole trajectory of my career as a dietitian, which I’m grateful for, but at the time I wasn’t. So it’s kind of cool to hear you guys have that similar experience, too. And then there’s no other option. It’s like you either figure it out yourself or you live with it. But now there is for women, which is really important, kind of what brought us here today. So we’re going to get into all things menopause. I had so many women in my community post questions for this that we’ll get to at the end. And I kind of formulated a lot of my questions based around that.
Amanda Montalvo [00:10:33]:
But mostly I’m like, I’m hijacking this interview. I love to ask questions that my community has, but a lot of the questions are geared around, like, how do I get rid of XYZ symptom? And I’m like, symptoms are important. Obviously, that’s what brought you guys here. But ultimately, there’s a way bigger picture happening in the body, and that will affect the rest of your life when you’re going through this transition. And that is your health. Every system in your body is impacted by your hormones. And so I promise we’re going to get there and it’s all going to help your symptoms. But I just really want the focus to be how our hormones are impacting not just, like, how we sleep, but also, like, you know, what’s your gut health like? Thyroid health, adrenal function? I mean, everything is impacted by this.
Amanda Montalvo [00:11:21]:
It’s so skin, you know, like, it’s like literally everything is going to be impacted by it, and then what your life’s going to look like, you know, my mom has been going through this whole big health transition. It’s so exciting to see. Cause she’s got, like, four grandchildren now, and she’s like, we call her Mima. And she’s like, I gotta be like, the best mima, you know? She’s like, I want to be around as long as I can. And she, too. It was like, mental health stuff. She was like, I just don’t feel like myself, you know? And she’s not. She’s one of, like, nine children.
Amanda Montalvo [00:11:50]:
They don’t talk about their feelings, you know, it took her a long time to, like, open up about that and share, and I’m like, I don’t think it’s just you, mom. I don’t think it’s just your age or that you’re retired. I’m like, I think it’s probably something deeper. I’m like, you’ve been. She went through menopause at 53, so it’s like, ten years later. So I’m like, there’s support you can get. But again, like, it’s not talked about a ton. Especially, I feel like for her generation, it’s just, like, harder for her to find that information.
Amanda Montalvo [00:12:18]:
So even with her doctor and stuff, it’s just tricky. So I’m very, just excited that we have this opportunity to educate and make sure anyone that’s listening to share this with someone that needs it. If this is not your season of life, it probably is for someone in your life. And you never know, like, how this information can impact them. So let’s just start with, like, what happens in the body? What is going on when we go through menopause? What are the changes that are happening? And even just, like, how do those start to impact systems?
Maria [00:12:51]:
Sure. So your ovaries are starting to wind down their production. And, you know, a lot of us, Amanda, relate that to, like, period changes and symptoms. But as Kristen always likes to remind us all, you know, we don’t all have a period. There are women with inflation, there are women with hysterectomy, women with pcos who don’t have regular periods. Like, they can’t rely on, oh, you know, I’ve gone two months without a period. That means, you know, I’m now in perimenopause. So we can’t always relate it to that.
Maria [00:13:20]:
But regardless, regardless of that, the ovaries are winding down production. And you did say earlier, well, there are women who approach you on what can I do for these symptoms. It’s really important to note that there are women who go through this transition with no symptoms or just minimal symptoms. That is irrelevant. And that is because despite the symptoms and symptoms are palpable. Right. We can usually see, feel, perceive them. There are changes happening that you don’t see, you don’t feel, at least not right away.
Maria [00:13:55]:
And we do find that it is the women who get to about their 62nd or 63rd year, the ones that go through that, they fly through menopause sometimes. Kristen and I hear about these 55 year olds, and they’re doing great things. No doubt. They’re working out, they’re eating, they are minerally replete, and they feel great, and we’re happy for them. No one should have, you know, should feel poorly if they don’t want to. But they are under a great misconception if they don’t understand that fundamentally their body is changing and the things that we cannot see and feel are absolutely happening behind the scenes. And it is almost entirely, not fully, but almost entirely related to loss of our sex hormones.
Kristen [00:14:45]:
You know, I’m a questioner, if you’ve ever done, like, the four personality types, and I’m a questioner. So I’m listening to Maria, and, like, all of this makes sense, and I know it intuitively, but I know that for most women, they’re like, but why?
Amanda Montalvo [00:14:59]:
Right?
Kristen [00:14:59]:
Like, why are my hormones affecting everything? And this is something that Maria and I kind of set out in the book to change, because most women have zero clue what a menstrual cycle looks like. And I shouldn’t say a menstrual cycle, really what an ovarian cycle looks like. Because, again, whether you have a bleed every month or not is irrelevant. If you have ovaries, it is important to understand that they have a very distinct rhythm in terms of how they produce hormones. They pulse them out at different rates on different days across the 28 day cycle. They sort of hand off to one another. It’s a beautiful dance between the hormones that is not all about our menstrual cycle and our fertility. And this is something that I think a lot of women miss because they think, well, if I don’t have a menstrual cycle and I don’t want to get pregnant again, like, how can menopause be bad? Right? And this is where we say, okay, but look at that beautiful dance.
Kristen [00:15:53]:
Look at the rhythm. Anyone can google it and get a beautiful little graph. What women don’t understand is that that ramp up of estrogen up to day twelve, where it peaks and then it starts to fall. The ramp is relevant, the peak is relevant, and the taper is relevant. Same with progesterone. How are they relevant? They’re signaling your bones to remodel. They’re signaling your blood vessels to repair themselves and stay flexible and not become rigid. They’re signaling the brain to be emptied of tau proteins that we might be accumulating.
Kristen [00:16:25]:
They’re signaling your collagen turnover in your skin. They’re signaling synovial fluid in the joint to stay there and be cushioned. It’s now kind of the thing du jour for everyone to realize, like, oh, my gosh, my joint pain at age 50 was my hormones, not osteoarthritis. Right? So things like that. We want women to understand that this entire beautiful dance was what was keeping us healthy and vital and virile and strong and powerful and vibrant and superhuman in terms of our female multitasking capabilities. All of those things were literally driven by that 28 day ovarian cycle. And that’s what we want women to understand. So when they hear someone on social media say, oh, it’s your hormones.
Kristen [00:17:10]:
Some women are like, are you sure? Like, how do you know? And this is where we want to say, because. Because these ovary production really is relevant to, like, it’s like 4000 processes in the body. And once women understand that, they can go, uh oh, wait a minute. So as I lose that ovarian production and I lose the ramp and I lose the peak and I lose the volume. Volume, that means I might lose all those 4000 processes? Yes, that’s the point, right? And sure, aesthetics matter and symptoms matter. We don’t want to take that away from women. But I’m pretty sure that when you’re 75, you’re going to be more concerned about getting up off the toilet without a crutch than you are about whether or not you’ve got shredded abs. And that’s the thing that we really kind of want women to focus on.
Amanda Montalvo [00:17:57]:
And that’s definitely my community. They’re like, they’re nerdy. They want, like, a lot of them are like, probably around like my age, like early mid thirties. A lot of them are moms or want to be moms. And they’re very motivated. Like, they want to learn about this. They want to know how they can, what they can do to prepare for it, because their health is very important to them. So I know that this will, all this information, they’re going to, like, gobble it up and just love it.
Amanda Montalvo [00:18:25]:
And I’m happy that you guys, like, went through, like, those little examples of, like, these are the things that your hormones are doing because I think it makes it a lot more real of, oh, okay, so it’s, it’s okay. What does every system of my body look like? You know, it’s like, that’s what it looks like. And then as far as, like, what happens? Typically, it’s like a year without a cycle if you’re regularly menstruating beforehand is like the technical, like, definition of menopause. But even it’s, it’s really interesting, actually, as I’ve gone really deep into the fertility hole because we started a whole program. Basically, all our clients are fertility cases in the last three years. A lot of women are having a hard time getting pregnant and maintaining a pregnancy, and a lot of them happen to be mid to late thirties. And that has had me going down all these perimenopausal holes. It’s very interesting learning so much about that and menopause and also fertility and my brain can’t compute.
Amanda Montalvo [00:19:22]:
A one interesting thing that I was learning about from a mentor is that she’s like, yeah, a lot of women have regular, regular ish periods for like five years before they go through menopause, but they’re not actually ovulating for most of those, like, you can, you can just have, like, still, like, regular length, like 30 day ish cycle every month and not be ovulating. And even if you’re tracking your cycle, you won’t always, it’s not going to always be incredibly obvious to, and I think that a lot of women don’t realize that. They’re just kind of like, you know, waiting until the very end and they’re like, oh, my cycle’s getting weird. And then it’s like a couple years or a year later, then they’re like, officially going through menopause. And it’s like, there’s so much that happens leading up to that time that, you know, it’s still going to affect your health.
Kristen [00:20:08]:
Well, and I want to talk really quick to your 30 something young 30 something crowd, even those trying to conceive, because this, first of all, none of you all getting through life as a woman with ovaries without going through this. So even though you might feel far away from it, you’re not, or it’s still relevant to you. But more importantly, you know, if a girl in her thirties doesn’t have her cycle, we all raise a red flag and go, oh, my God, something’s wrong. Right. And even if a doctor comes to you and says, amanda, this, you know, lack of cycle is really a problem, you go, it’s okay. We’re done having kids. I’m good. They’re still going to give you hormone therapy at 30 years old in order to protect your bone, in order to protect your heart, in order to protect these things.
Kristen [00:20:45]:
But why I wanted to address the 30 somethings is because if you read the book and you understand how the processes in the body are controlled by hormones, you need to unknow then that the stress that a lot of 30 somethings are feeling that is changing their cycle is actually causing the same harms as you will eventually have from hormonal production decline in your forties and fifties. Right. That these are the same problem, different causes. So whether it’s what they call hypothalamic amenorrhea and the, you know, disordered eating or under eating or over exercising or extreme stress, whether it’s is endocrine disruptors, right. And something else that’s doing it, the body’s super wise, and it’s going to prevent us from conceiving when it feels the situation. And stress is not safe and. Right, but that starts because it stops and slowers hormone production. And so we see these girls feeling perimenopausal, even at 33.
Kristen [00:21:44]:
It’s not that you’re perimenopausal, but you’re low hormones. And so it’s the same stinking environment. And that’s why we really want everyone to be reading this book. If you were born with ovaries, you need to understand kind of what the ramifications are of low hormones, regardless of what time of life it is.
Amanda Montalvo [00:22:00]:
Exactly. It is. And I think that also, too, makes it even more relatable, because I think we’ve all been there with going through periods of stress, no matter where it’s coming from. Let’s talk about how, so we know how the hormones are going to impact different systems of the body. I don’t know if there’s any that you particularly want to highlight of, like, okay, so a woman goes through menopause, she’s no longer having that ovarian production of her hormones. Her hormones are much lower. What are you looking at as far as, like, the health changes that you’re expecting to happen?
Maria [00:22:35]:
Well, gosh, where do we start?
Kristen [00:22:39]:
We can start with the four horsemen, right, Maria? Yeah.
Maria [00:22:41]:
So the four horsemen. You might have to help me with this one, Kristen. So we’ve got cardio, metabolic, we have a neurological.
Kristen [00:22:50]:
We have our bones.
Maria [00:22:51]:
Bones, right.
Kristen [00:22:54]:
And then you have inflammation, too. So we’ve got look at metabolic syndrome and understand the elements of that.
Maria [00:23:00]:
When we first started reading, really looking deep into the menopausal literature, I would say about ten years ago, we kind of came up with a statement, and that is that menopause is a default state of inflammation. So, essentially, if you’re a menopausal woman, you are default. You have a certain level of inflammation. Why is that? That’s because estrogen coordinates the whole body and the immune system. So when we lose that fine tuned coordination, we become inflamed. Now, obviously, it’s not the only thing that determines inflammation. You can make that better or worse. Right.
Maria [00:23:45]:
And that’s whether or not you’re taking hormones. If you are taking appropriate, bio identical hormones, you will be far, far less inflamed. In fact, you can really control it. And again, not the only thing. You still have to do all of the other supportive things. But if you’re a menopausal woman and you are not using bio identical hormones, you will have a certain level of inflammation.
Kristen [00:24:09]:
Yeah. And I think if we look at what scares women the most, right, it’s probably cancer, primarily breasts, but really, any cancers, I would say most women, that’s like, I really fear that we look at heart disease. We know that we catch up to men by about age 55, and we overtake them in terms of our cardiovascular disease risk. And then, you know, whether we call it metabolic syndrome or aesthetics or whatever, we do care about our appearance and different things. And then dementia, obviously, is a huge one. But if we look at those things, you know, the gut is a huge driver of a few of these. And what women do not appreciate or just don’t know because no one wants to talk about it, is that I. We have this beautiful microbiome that we need to be supporting.
Kristen [00:24:51]:
It needs to be robust and diverse in its profile, and it’s highly dependent upon estrogen. As we lose our estrogen, we lose that diversity, we lose that robustness. As we lose our microbiome status, we start to have all sorts of altered systems across the body for women. They might think, oh, well, I’m pooping, I’m just fine. But a lot of women aren’t pooping normally, or they aren’t the right poops or whatever. So they don’t realize that these bloated bellies and poor digestion is not just getting older. It’s actually a sign of this disrupted gut microbiome, which, if anything, is going to increase your cancer risk, both colon and breast. Right.
Kristen [00:25:31]:
We also know that so many women start getting diagnosed with autoimmune diseases in their forties, like out of the blue. How does this happen? Well, guys, the entire immune system is regulated by the presence of estrogen and progesterone in this beautiful dance.
Amanda Montalvo [00:25:44]:
Thyroid health is essential for our hormones, having healthy digestion, energy, skin, fertility, and so much more, really. Our thyroid sets the metabolic pace of our body, so it’s going to affect all the different systems in the body. Whether you think you may have some thyroid dysfunction going on or you have a confirmed diagnosis, chances are you probably haven’t been given the best tools to address your thyroid health. That was me when I first started my healing journey. My thyroid health is really what kicked off a lot of my concerns and research into women’s health. And it was so hard for me to find good information, which is why I’m so passionate about sharing about it. I am so passionate, I made a free mini course. It’s called the functional thyroid series, and it has all the information that I wish I knew when I was first beginning my healing journey.
Amanda Montalvo [00:26:32]:
And honestly, even, like, well into that, like halfway through that decade, the first video goes through the different root causes of thyroid dysfunction. It’s not just like your thyroid’s not making enough thyroid hormone. There are five different ways that you can have dysfunction that is affecting either your thyroid gland or how you’re using that. So I go through that in the first video. Then I talk about how stress impacts our thyroid function and hormone availability. I talk about lighten your thyroid in the next lesson and how our thyroid hormone is released throughout the day. Then I get into nutrition, minerals, specifics for thyroid health and how to support that. And finally, I talk about utilizing labs to assess your thyroid health and optimize it.
Amanda Montalvo [00:27:11]:
So there’s so much great information, I cannot recommend it enough. If I you are struggling with thyroid health or you think it could be a part of your thyroid concerns. I’ve had a lot of people reach out and say, I can’t believe this is free, so please take advantage of it. You can find the link in the show notes.
Kristen [00:27:29]:
So we’ll see women who will either get a new diagnosis in their forties, or they’ll have managed an autoimmune disease for many years successfully. And then suddenly, boom, it’s flaring and they can’t manage it any longer, so they’re going to need dosing changes. Right. You know, there’s a big push right now about perimenopause the transitional period before we hit that one irrelevant day of being without a period for twelve months is this neurological transition. And now this has kind of been the new talking point within the new menopause experts on social media. And Maria and I are like, oh.
Amanda Montalvo [00:28:03]:
My gosh, I haven’t heard that term. And I love it.
Maria [00:28:05]:
Oh, yeah. Thank you for sharing.
Kristen [00:28:08]:
It’s pejorative as far as we’re concerned. If any of them are listening, we’re.
Amanda Montalvo [00:28:11]:
Going to hold it. I’ve never heard someone use them. It’s hilarious to me.
Kristen [00:28:15]:
You know, they’re all new experts. None of them were here five years ago talking about any of this. In fact, half of them were following their talking points from their medical societies and giving women birth control till age 55.
Amanda Montalvo [00:28:25]:
Yes.
Kristen [00:28:25]:
Only because they have social media platforms and books coming out have they suddenly changed their tune. So Rae and I are very quick to dismiss them and we kind of feel like we’ve earned. And so these things are out there that, you know, we as women were worried about these things as though they’re like decades away. But what we really want women to understand is the processes of decline are starting now. They’re starting in these periods of low hormones, which can even mean at 38, 40, 43 years old. And so it’s not about waiting or wishing it away or exercising yourself to oblivion because you’re going to stay healthy. It’s about recognizing that, sure, low hanging fruit exists, nutrition, movement, stress, lifestyle, but at a certain degree, none of that, even done optimally, is going to preserve your health for those later years. And so it’s really important to recognize that role of hormones because guess what, ladies? You can do something about that now.
Kristen [00:29:21]:
You don’t have to wait until you’re menopausal, and you sure as heck don’t have to wait until you’re riddled with disease.
Amanda Montalvo [00:29:26]:
Yeah. And I think that’s the bigger picture, especially when I think about, you know, it’s like now I have two little girls and I’m like, my mom’s super involved, mima. I mean, she’s like everyone’s savior, right? Like they’re obsessed with her, my nephews are obsessed with her. And I’m like, I cannot wait to be there taking care of my grandchildren. That’s like my main health goal now is I’m like, I just have to because now I have to be strong because I have giant, like, huge babies and toddlers. Like they’re, you know, they both want to be held the same time. You’re like, this is why I work out. And then eventually it’s going to be so that I can, like, do the same thing with their kids.
Amanda Montalvo [00:30:01]:
And it totally is possible, but I feel like now there’s just, there’s so much, like, stress in the day to day, you know, devices not having a great circadian rhythm with, like, our light exposure. People are always on the go, always consuming. Like, there’s just, I think our health is declining at a much earlier age, especially as women raising families with, like, no help, you know, and, like, spouse, like, you’re working, your spouse is working. It’s, like, really hard. And I think a lot of that’s, like, really affecting our health, like, much earlier and earlier. And it’s like we have to get a handle on this and try to take control as much as we can now because I always hear people, like, wanting to put off menopause. I’m like, what does that mean? It means that you want to not lose all your hormones, which in my brain makes me think, well, we don’t necessarily, like, have to. There’s ways to support yourself after as well.
Amanda Montalvo [00:30:53]:
But a lot of people think of that as not an option.
Kristen [00:30:56]:
Yeah, I mean, Maria and I pushed back on that because, well, one, I think we’ve unfortunately tagged menopause as this symptom, massive symptom, burden and aesthetic change. Right. Which is just really not doing women justice. But also, then we see this as like, oh, I’m shriveled up and irrelevant. And Maria and I are like, really, like, no offense, but I’m a grandmother twice over. I don’t feel irrelevant whatsoever. In fact, I feel I’m in the best chapter of my life, and I never want to go back to my thirties and forties. Sorry, listeners, there’s so much better stuff coming.
Kristen [00:31:28]:
You know, I mean, Rena have seven boys. They’re off into this world. They’re productive members of society. You know, we’re proud of them and we’ve worked really hard. And now it’s kind of our chapter and our season to soak up 35 year long marriages and travel the world and do great things. And so for this kind of, I want to delay menopause. Half of them are. What are they saying is I don’t want to get old.
Amanda Montalvo [00:31:50]:
Yeah, right.
Kristen [00:31:51]:
And that’s really sad because aging can be very much kind of within our control. It doesn’t have to be a degenerative process. There are degenerative things happening, but we have so much more control over them than we realize. And that’s where the hormone piece is so important for women to kind of understand and be prepared for.
Amanda Montalvo [00:32:11]:
And I do have questions on HRT. First, I just want to talk about, like, so what are the ways? And I would love to, like, obviously, you guys work with a ton of women. You have a practitioner program where you mentor practitioners to work with women in midlife. What are some of those, like, low hanging fruits, nutrition, lifestyle, stress. I loved how you guys talked about that in the book. So, like, can we talk about that a bit before we get into the HRT of, like, what does it even mean? Because the questions I often get is, like, what about menopause? Like, if I’m sharing something about women’s health, I’m like, good question. Because it usually is slightly different.
Maria [00:32:49]:
Build muscle, eat protein, lift weights, sprinkle in some fruits and vegetables. For me, it’s a little bit more, Kristin, a little bit less. Work on your stress. Stress is not going anywhere. But, like, find ways to kind of cope, process, move it on through. Those things are incredibly powerful. They really are. Whether or not a woman uses HRT, like, those things are pretty critical for healthy.
Kristen [00:33:15]:
I’m glad you kind of took a pause on that topic, Amanda, because Marie and I always say hormone therapy is magic, but it’s not a magic pillow. So we say that because we want women to understand that they have to be intentional with their daily habits. Whether or not they’re going to use HRT, they have to be intentional about their daily habits. They have so much more control. I’m, like, allergic to victimhood. And so when I see women kind of talking about menopause as though it’s something that’s going to happen to them, I’m like, girls, you need to pull your pants up and, like, deal with this. This is not, it’s something that’s happening to you. It’s just, this is just season of life, and we have more control over it.
Kristen [00:33:54]:
But in addition to that, we want to talk about if you are well, I should say whether you’re making your hormones or whether you’re taking your hormones. And that’s to read all of us. Hormones need a healthy host. They really, truly do need a healthy body. People are wondering why is, let’s say, breast cancer happening at such many young ages, or why is this happening? Why is that happening? We know there’s massive gut derangement that goes on with birth control pills. We know that there’s massive nutrient deficiencies that are happening in our society, whether it’s birth control, pill use, or endocrine disruption or whatever. So why should we not then be intentional when we get into menopause, right? Is we have to be a really healthy host for the hormones that we are considering replacing, just as we focused on being a healthy host when we were making hormones and maybe wanted to make babies or whatever. So those things, I think, are really important for women to realize.
Kristen [00:34:46]:
And we’ll always say hormones put into a not so healthy body. We know how that turns out. We know how it turns out because we have this landmark study that was done in the late nineties, being kind of summarily stopped early in the early two thousands, that it’s called the Women’s Health Initiative, the WHI. It’s why most doctors think hormones cause cancer. It’s why most women are scared of hormones, et cetera, et cetera. Unfortunately, it’s a really bad study. We can’t seem to shake, even though its own authors have walked back all of their conclusions. But what we knew from that study was the type of hormones matter that we’re going to use and the bodies that we put them into matter, because the women in that study were very, very ill.
Kristen [00:35:30]:
They had type two diabetes. They were well past the age of menopause. Why does that matter? Because we talked about that transition. It’s not like all of a sudden the derangement happens. The day you hit menopause, all that stuff started happening probably in your early forties with peri. So we have these women who were already unhealthy due to low hormones. We know that they were smokers, they were diabetic, they had asthma, they had massive circadian rhythm disruption. Many of them were nurses, all of these things.
Kristen [00:35:59]:
And then we went and put bad hormones inside their bodies, and we expected a good result. Like, really?
Amanda Montalvo [00:36:05]:
Yeah.
Kristen [00:36:06]:
So if we want to take away anything of value from the WhI, it’s that a healthy body matters with it comes to hormones. We know that when, during conception. It’s no different during menopause, but strategies have to be a little different.
Amanda Montalvo [00:36:22]:
I can hear that will be the clip that my editor chooses for healthy bodies matter, for healthy hormones. So I think that’s a, that’s a helpful takeaway, too, because I think it’s viewed very like one or the other. Like, if I don’t take hormones, then I’m not going to be healthy. And I can’t improve, like, I can’t improve digestion or I can’t improve, like, mental health or even like, physical health. Like, maybe they’re trying to get into, like, strength training or get more active in their day to day. And it’s like, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. It’s just that I would never recommend a client that they should go see a doctor about HRT if they had not, like, done everything else first. Because again, and you’re probably.
Amanda Montalvo [00:37:05]:
And the women that I come to me that have tried it, and they’re discouraged by it, I’m like, your gut’s a mess. We have to work on gut health. It’s always the gut. It’s. And that’s why I love that you guys talk about that in the book because that is probably the most common thing. It’s thyroid health, which you call thyropause, which I was like, genius. And then the gut health. And that obviously those two go together.
Amanda Montalvo [00:37:28]:
But, yeah, it’s like, of course you’re not going to notice a significant difference from taking hormones because you haven’t, like, your digestion is still not functioning optimally. You’re not having a bowel movement every day, which a lot of women, like, maybe, like, my generation that grew up with social media know is, like, not normal, but it’s like, you’d be shocked.
Kristen [00:37:49]:
How many women still don’t know, oh, my gosh.
Amanda Montalvo [00:37:51]:
It’s like, you know, even, like, talking to my aunts sometimes, it drives me crazy. I’m like, guys, we don’t know this yet. So it’s, it does, like, all those things matter and they’re going to play a huge role, I think. I think it’s kind of one of those things where you can only get so far without them. And then again, like, some women may do fine, and I think it’s like, it’s about informed consent. Just like, if you’re going to take the pill or not or any type of medication or anything like that, you should know the potential risks of, like, not doing it, how it could affect your body and all those things. So I love that you guys are such big proponents of, like, eating enough protein. And I will say that for every woman, literally every woman, I’m like, you probably need more protein.
Amanda Montalvo [00:38:34]:
Everyone probably needs more protein. It doesn’t matter if you are not even close to perimenopause, like, you have to eat if you want to build muscle. Like, although I have a hard time retaining any muscle or building any muscle, I’m like, well, you’re eating like a bird. Like, we can’t build muscle if we’re under eating. And I think that’s a very common thing is, like, with my mom never did diets, thank God. But, like, all of my friends, moms are always on a diet. Like, they’ve always restricted their food intake. And I do think that that has had a very negative impact around their mental capacity to be able to be like, I’m going to eat more protein, you know, well, and eat more calories.
Kristen [00:39:15]:
I mean, they’re so focused on the aesthetic. And, you know, Marie and I can take all of this back to the gut. It’s like when you lose your estrogen, you lose your microbial diversity. You also lose the mucosal barrier of the gut. And so now you’re going to have food intolerances, autoimmune issues, etcetera. You also lose, newsflash, your capacity to metabolize carbs as well as you used to. So people, you know, want to push back against the low carb craze and call it something kind of like, it’s bad for us, for menopausal women, it’s just a reality. It is simply a reality.
Kristen [00:39:46]:
We don’t have the same capacity. We lose our insulin sensitivity. We start to see metabolic issues creep up. You know, we start to see, you know, poor detoxification. Right? We’re not pooping. We’re not excreting. The hormones that we made or took, it doesn’t matter which they are, right? We need to get rid of the hormones through our excretion. So there’s so much going back to the gut that then traces back into whole body health.
Kristen [00:40:10]:
And so, you know, we kind of feel adamant about that. But you were saying women don’t eat enough protein. Marina are like, I don’t need enough, period.
Amanda Montalvo [00:40:18]:
Oh, yeah, for sure.
Kristen [00:40:19]:
I mean, we. Not to scare anyone off, and being our client, but we talk extensively as a team. We’re all looking at all the intake paperwork of all of our women. And the discussion in our slack channel is like, guys, I would be dying. And then there’ll be a screenshot of a food journal, and we’re like, how is this happening? And the women are like, well, I have all this belly fat. I’m like, yeah, at this point, you have a cortisol problem because you have completely shut down your body’s ability to be nourished. You know, so it’s protein. It’s eating enough.
Kristen [00:40:51]:
It’s, you know, all of the things.
Amanda Montalvo [00:40:53]:
And I’m curious because I. I recently read the book fast like a girl, because I kept getting questions about it. Have you guys read it?
Maria [00:41:00]:
No, I’ve listened to several podcasts.
Amanda Montalvo [00:41:03]:
Okay.
Maria [00:41:04]:
Where it is being talked about.
Amanda Montalvo [00:41:07]:
Yeah. And I do, I get a lot of questions on like, but isn’t fasting good for menopause? And I’m like, like one, there’s a million different types of fasting, right. So it’s like, and also just because you’re doing fasting doesn’t mean you’re waiting to eat till 01:00 p.m. like I know some women that they just stop eating at like 05:00 p.m. and they have, they end up fasting naturally for like 13 hours.
Kristen [00:41:31]:
And that’s like, well, if you sleep, you’re fasting. Like, let’s give ourselves credit that we all have a fast.
Amanda Montalvo [00:41:36]:
I’m like, well, we’re all fasting. But I’ve had a lot of women in that peri post menopausal season of life ask about, they feel like they have to fast and I’m like so scared for them because most of them are under eating, like you said. Do you want to talk about your feelings on fasting? And this midlife woman?
Maria [00:41:54]:
It’s really overhyped. And a lot of women think that they need to do it to lose weight when, you know, body fat instead of like being in this severe state where you’re catabolic. Because most will kind of extend that not eating after they wake up until say eleven or twelve or 01:00 p.m. and then maybe Amanda, some of them will go and exercise during that period and then, so they’re putting catabolism upon catabolism, which is just this breakdown state. Right. So that’s really not beneficial to just healthy aging. And then again, you know, it’s pretty rare that we get a client who nourishing herself and just eating enough protein and like Kristin said, just eating enough calories and you know, they’re just, let’s just say they’re there. Those are women that are maybe eating in like a twelve or a 14 hours window, which is great.
Maria [00:42:50]:
But now they think, oh, I need to fast because autophagy, we’re like, you’re not going to get enough protein. Autophagy, just exercise.
Kristen [00:43:00]:
I know, exactly same depth.
Maria [00:43:02]:
So we think it’s for the great majority of women, they don’t need to fast again. Stop eating after dinner. That’s such a great step in the right direction. Put 3 hours between your dinner and your bedtime, sleep for 8 hours, maybe you put an hour in the morning, you can fast. Twelve to 14 hours, maybe max. I don’t really think it’s necessary more than that. And then on top of that, it’s, again, if you are already eating within twelve to 14 hours window and you’re not getting enough protein, how do you think that that’s going to work when you restrict yourself to 8 hours or 6 hours or one meal a day or what have you? So it’s really a misguided intervention for the most part.
Kristen [00:43:48]:
Yeah. Women think it’s magic and it’s like all it is is restricting your calories, which for some, if there’s appetite dysregulation, that may be a useful intervention, but it’s also meant to be just that, an intervention, meaning a certain period of time and women have made it this way of life. And what they don’t understand, and Maureen, I always want to say is, what’s your Oph ramp like legitimately? What is your off ramp from this constant fasting? Because at some point you’re probably going to develop leptin resistance. There’s going to be dysregulation of your hunger hormones. You’re going to have adrenal kind of dysregulation because you’re not nourishing yourself and because you’re constantly creating this stressful environment for the body. So we do step back and we’re always like, okay, it worked for a period of time, you know, I don’t know, maybe you over consumed at your kid’s wedding and now you want to come home for the week and tighten up. Great. But this is not a way of life for women, particularly menopausal women.
Kristen [00:44:44]:
And that gets us really kind of keyed up because we know we need our muscle. We need it for power, we need it for, you know, strength, we need it for locomotion. We also need it to monitor or to regulate our immune system. We need it to support our inflammation system. There’s so many things that muscle does beyond the aesthetic and beyond the functional. And if we’re fasting all the time, guess where our body is stealing nutrients from our muscle tissue. So, you know, if any woman, let’s say 50 and up, I dare you, sit sedentary for a while. I’ve just had to do it again.
Kristen [00:45:18]:
I just had another major surgery. You watch your body kind of wither. You get a little muscle wasting, you get a little soft and fluffy. Now get back to where you are. It’s so hard. It’s so hard. And that’s just, that’s just, you know, our biochemistry of this age, that’s just a reality of this age. So protect your body fasting is a state of stress of the body.
Kristen [00:45:42]:
And newsflash, 90% of this fasting studies were done on Mendez. Same thing with cold plunging. Like, my son, he jokes at me all the time because he knows I used to listen to all those biohackers and now I can’t stand them. And he lives out in California in the desert, just like 125 degrees, and he’s like, up. Just another day of autophagy, mom. I just sat out in the sun walking to my car from Costco. I got miracle autophagy. So we joke about these things that, like, I think we as women kind of forget there are much more health supportive interventions that we can undertake that are not going to put at risk the very thing that we’re losing constantly.
Amanda Montalvo [00:46:21]:
I also, I look at fasting as advanced as well. Like, I know some people will do, like, longer fasts for, like, gut specific, like, gut issues that they’re having. And I think that there, there can be merit to, like, certain longer fasts. Like, and there’s, like a time and a place. But I’m like, you have to earn that ability to fast. Like, you. You have to basically, you have to be healthy to even tolerate a fast without creating a lot more chaos in your body than there was to begin with. So that is definitely, I also feel like it ignores circadian rhythm completely because most people that talk about fasting do not address that piece that, like, how much, you know, when you eat is also informing your body of what time of day it is, you know? So I feel like I’m like, okay.
Amanda Montalvo [00:47:03]:
And this, and then I think hormone production. And I’m like, that’s how we make our hormones. So if someone doesn’t mention that, I’m like, okay, probably not the best source for women’s health information, especially when you think post menopause, when it’s like, that’s even, in my opinion, more important. During that time, you really want to be on top of your circadian rhythm because estrogen impacts leptin. And then all of a sudden, we have way less estrogen. You wonder why we have such a hard time with appetite, with losing body fat, things like that. So, like, the light is so important, and when we’re eating and all those things. Do you.
Amanda Montalvo [00:47:42]:
Let’s finish with HRT. So you talked about why there’s controversy around it. The women’s initiative, which I think is great. It’s not. So it’s really much more that the health of the person matters, right? If obviously you’re not recommending it. For women that have not taken those steps or have, like, a specific, like, health history happening, do you think it’s essential for women that are postmenopausal?
Maria [00:48:07]:
That’s a really, really good question. And that’s sort of like ground zero. Bottom line, this is how I like to answer this. And I. And, okay, so we’re going to start with this. I recently did a trip in Italy, and I did a postcard piece of Tuscany and went to this pasta making class with, on this farm. It was organic. And every farm, almost every farm, she said surrounding her was organic as well.
Maria [00:48:33]:
And the woman was this vibrant, probably early to mid seventies woman. Loved what she did. Loved every. She said she left Germany about 2030 years ago, moved to Italy. Her sons are part of the farm as well. Her husband, they kind of husband their own animals. They grow everything. They grow the wheat on the farm, the vegetables, all that, the olive oil, like, everything is just really pretty pristine.
Maria [00:49:01]:
As pristine as it could possibly be. Right? And she just was so full of life. And I said to myself, she probably, if I had to take a guess, I don’t really know. She probably doesn’t use hormone replacement therapy. She could, but I really don’t know. If I had to guess, I would say no. And I was like, man, if women could age like that, like, really, really pristine food and having a passion, you, you know, and having a supportive family and, you know, your meat is non industrial, all that, like, maybe we wouldn’t need it, right? But the fact of the matter is, Amanda, that’s not our life. And as, you know, sometimes as virtuous or as good a life as I think I’m living.
Maria [00:49:45]:
Like, I get out, I get my steps, and I do my best to buy super quality food. I live in a subdivision with a golf course, pesticide exposure and things like that. Is that why I need hrt? No, I just think it’s the best choice for me. So do we need it? Need it? Need it? It’s debatable. I’m going to say for the majority of women, yes, because of the kind of modern lives that we lead.
Kristen [00:50:15]:
So I’m going to even disagree with Mary and say yes, period, dot we need it. And if we look back in history, even before we were 20th century, 18 hundreds, early 19 hundreds, we recognized, and I say we, meaning every major medical society in the world, recognized menopause as a disease risk state for women. And they embraced hormone therapies as preventative for diseases. So I don’t, you know, I get it. We all probably have a bigger disadvantage because of their 21st century living that we do. But nothing is going to take the place of hormones. Not grounding yourself every day, it’s not going to lubricate your vagina. Ladies, guess what? Not going to happen.
Kristen [00:51:00]:
You know, not eating all organic and growing your own food and living off the grid, not going to protect your bones. It’s not. It might delay some of the degeneration that others see who don’t live that life. But it’s coming for you, period, Dot. So whether or not you want to take hormone therapy, I’m just at least going to posit we can’t live without our hormones. That’s why we’re in this mess. And we recognize that when girls are twenties and thirties, when they have a cessation of hormones, you could have a girl who has surgical menopause because she has her ovaries removed. They immediately shouldn’t come out of the or without hormone therapy being applied to her, whether probably with a patch.
Kristen [00:51:39]:
So why do we sit there and even debate? This is like, I get the question. I get women because they’re so worried about being medicalized and dependent upon a system and having to age with this. One more thing. Well, newsflash. Have you ever looked at the, like, medicine cabinet of the average 70 year old? I mean, choose your hormones, or choose your bone builders and your anti anxiety meds and your sleep meds and your statins and your metformin and everything else. There’s a choice here. Yeah, I’d much rather choose my HRT and give myself natural hormone therapy than choose the pharmaceutical solution. That seems to be all we have to offer because we’re all going to age and have degeneration.
Amanda Montalvo [00:52:19]:
So I’m really happy, Maria, that you give that example because I know that that’s what. And this is not to like, convince anyone to use HRT. I’m much more concerned about women just understanding what happens to their bodies.
Maria [00:52:33]:
We are too, what they can do.
Amanda Montalvo [00:52:34]:
Nutrition, lifestyle, like, to know, like, oh, you know, instead of like trying to like, follow this, like all these different diets, I’m just going to try to eat more protein at each meal. Like, that is so much more productive for them. Oh, I didn’t know that light exposure was so important. And I’m like inside working on a computer all day. Maybe I’ll try to get outside in the morning and make, and like at night before, you know, like when I’m wrapped up my day, maybe. Maybe I’ll eat lunch outside because I know it’s important, you know, like little things like that. I think that is, like, the most important. And then again, getting your health to a good place so that you could even be a good candidate for HRD, I think is also important to mention.
Amanda Montalvo [00:53:13]:
Is there ever an instance when you’re like, it would not be recommended for someone?
Kristen [00:53:19]:
Well, there are medical contraindications to be sure. So if you have ongoing severe liver disease, if you have certain clotting history, and that’s not to say women with factor five Leiden, actually, we know that transdermal estrogen as a hormone therapy will stabilize, or at least not even increase the risk of factor five Leiden clotting disorder beyond the basic risk that you have just from genetics. So that, you know, most women who are actively being treated for breast cancer simply because some of them are on medications that will essentially negate the hormone therapy. So why would you use it? Others can be on things like serms that actually will just reduce its efficacy, but you can still benefit from it. So it’s a very nuanced thing other than the very, very, very small percentage of people who truly have a medical contraindication. And we say that because I think so many people will self opt out. Oh, I have a family history of cancer. Oh, I had cancer ten years ago.
Kristen [00:54:15]:
News flash, none of those are disqualifying for HRT. We get into that in the book. But other than that small, small percentage, HRT is very, very safe. And if you don’t want to use it, that. That’s fine. But the interventions available to you will probably be focused on symptom suppression. They aren’t going to, you know, all the soy and curcumin in the world is not going to protect your bones. It’s going to stop a hot flash.
Kristen [00:54:42]:
And for a lot of women, hot flashes are debilitating. Maria and I did not have them. But for many women, they truly can be kind of ruining their lives. Absolutely. Lean into some herbal supports if that’s what you want to focus on right now. We just want women to have that informed consent about what’s coming and that there really is only sort of one choice, pharmaceuticals or hormone therapy.
Amanda Montalvo [00:55:05]:
That’s very interesting. And we’ll save this other stuff for the Q and a portion. Do you guys want to share what your daily non negotiables are to support your lives now that you are both postmenopausal?
Maria [00:55:17]:
So for me, it’s going to be walking. I love walking. And, like, a lot of walking. I just love it, love it, love it. It’s not so much to, like, create a caloric deficit, although, you know, that can be done right movement, but for me, it’s just stress and mental health, really. That’s my main focus with that. And for me, it’s like just getting a minimum of 30 grams of protein at a meal. I try for 40 to 45 at most meals.
Maria [00:55:46]:
And if I’m going to snack, I try to have some protein with my snack as well so that it’s, believe it or not, a lot of it is kind of saying no and just honoring, like, what I want to do at this point in life. But it’s like my husband, he loves to bike ride at night, and I will go with him sometimes. And sometimes I feel, like, compelled to go because I want to be, like, a good kind of partner. But last night I was really tired and I felt like, that pull to say yes, and then I was like, like, no, doggone it, I’m going to do what I want to do, which was I went out for another walk. So I would say those are definitely some non negotiables for me. Yeah.
Kristen [00:56:25]:
Yeah. Mine is the gym. I’ve been an athlete my whole life. I really. I just feel good about following a training regimen that’s kind of individualized towards me, hitting much strength and plenty of cardio, but in a very appropriate way in terms of what my goals are to. So the gym is pretty much how I start my morning almost every morning. You know, my nutrition. Again, like Maria said, it’s non negotiable.
Kristen [00:56:48]:
If I’m going to be putting something in my mouth, it better be worth it. And worth it means that it’s going to be, you know, nutritive and it’s going to have some protein in it. So that is also that. And, you know, I love walking, but I actually love my puppies more. And so I’m usually outside with my dogs a few times a day and, you know, barefoot in the grass and hanging out and getting light and, you know, just winding down in the evenings, I think, is then my next thing. My husband has had a really stressful 35 year career on Wall street, and he comes home and we have these two Adirondack chairs at the back corner of our pool, and we just sit there like old people. And we love it, but it’s, you know, the sun is going down, the dogs are playing, we’re outside. We can kind of just no phones, de stress and chat.
Kristen [00:57:29]:
So that. And then my last is my sleep. I am so protective of my sleep. If my husband, like, interrupts my sleep, it’s usually going to be a slug to the throat. Like, don’t touch me. I want to be asleep. So I love my sleep. We have plenty of intimacy, but I love my sleep.
Kristen [00:57:46]:
So I, you know, even if it’s like coming home at 11:00 at night from an NHL game in the city, I will still read my book and do all my things in order to make sure that I get my sleep in and then there’s no alarm. So.
Amanda Montalvo [00:57:58]:
So I love that. And I also like, and you guys also do something. You both do a job that you really love, you know, and you care. Your relationships are important to you. I just think those things really matter. It’s like, food is important, you know, all those things. HRT is important. But, like, you could do all those things.
Amanda Montalvo [00:58:16]:
And if, but if you don’t like your day to day life and you’re not doing things you actually want to do, you’re still doing other things for, like, other people. Like you were mentioning Maria. Like, that is huge, too. And I feel like, you know, I became a mom and you’re just like, oh, nothing else matters. I know exactly what’s important now. And I imagine as you move through different seasons of your life, it’s probably just more of that, like over and over and over and, you know, becoming a grandparent and stuff too. You’re just like, nope, this is exactly what I want to be doing, where I want to be. And I love that.
Amanda Montalvo [00:58:48]:
So I’m happy you guys both mentioned those things. Okay, so we’re going to go into the Q and a portion. You guys can find that inside patreon.com hormonehealingrd. If you want to hear them, answer the questions that we had from our members. But that is it. And we’ll see you in the next episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Ru Menstrual podcast. If you want to support my work, please leave a review and let me know how you like the episode.
Amanda Montalvo [00:59:14]:
This lets me know, like, 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.
