Nutrition for Pregnancy with Brigid Titgemeier PH291

It's astonishing to me. This is where, like, the lack of nutrition education in conventional medicine is just so detrimental to the outcomes of so many people. Where it's like, why not? When a person is coming for, you know, talking about how they've been trying for the last six months and can't get pregnant, why, instead of having them wait six more months to then have them pay a ton of money for infertility treatments, would you not provide specific and targeted nutrition and lifestyle recommendations? Of course, obviously, you know that most doctors aren't trained in nutrition, but these are. These are things that should be outsourced to dietitians and other practitioners that can help to support people along their journey. And it's, like, astonishing to me that this is not just a part of the mainstream care that's being provided.

Hello, and welcome to pursuing health. I'm Dr. Julie Fouche, family physician and former CrossFit Games athlete. Here I bring you information and inspiration to help bridge the gap between fitness and medicine and support your journey toward your healthiest self. Thank you so much for joining me. Now let's get started with this week's episode. Welcome back to Pursuing Health. I could not be more excited because I get to be joined by one of my very best friends again today, Brigid Tickenmeier. And if you have not been listening to the podcast for very long or if you remember it, I looked back and it has been seven years since we've done this. This is so crazy. Bridget.

I can't believe how long you've been podcasting. It's so inspiring.

It's wild. It's wild. So, yeah, we actually. We did two episodes together in 2016. Some of my favorite episodes, I think the audience's favorite episodes. And I'm excited to have you back because a lot has happened then, but just to start with a little bit of your background, and then we can get into kind of what's been going on for you the last seven years. But for those who don't know, Brigid is a functional medicine registered dietitian nutritionist. She has lots of training and education. So she got her bachelor's in dietetics from Miami University. She did a Master's of Science and Public health nutrition from Case Western University, which is where we first met, because we were in a master's class together there while I was in med school. She is. Were we in the same class together? Actually, I might be in the same.

Class, but we didn't know each other. It wasn't until then I was Working at the Cleveland Clinic.

That's right.

We were in. You were in the end of med school that we actually became friends.

That's right. And then looking back, we realized we were in the same class. We just. Exactly. That's right. She also is board certified by the Integrative and Functional Nutrition Academy and she's an institute for functional medicine practitioner. She where we first met, she was one of the or she was the founding dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic center for functional medicine under Dr. Mark Hyman, which is where we first met when I was in med school and that center was first opening. And also, you know, she has co authored and teaches a graduate course now in that same program where we both went through as students. She now teaches a course in integrative and functional nutrition nutrition at Case Western, educating future healthcare practitioners in functional nutrition, which is a class that I think we both wish we would have had when we were in school as well and didn't exist. And you made it exist. So 100%, so much great work and we, you know, so much has happened in the last seven years. So last time you were on the podcast, we were both still at the Cleveland Clinic. You know, you spent a lot of time there building the center and your practice and since then our on your own doing some really big things. So catch us up on what you're doing first professionally and then we'll go from there.

It's crazy that it's been so long.

It really is. When I looked back, I couldn't believe it was seven years and that we've.

Been friends for so long.

Yeah, totally.

So I'm excited to be back. Since we recorded the last episode, I think we recorded in my office at the Cleveland Clinic. And since then I left the Cleveland Clinic and started my own nutrition business a few years later and have been focusing on my nutrition business is called Being Functional Nutrition. And my team of dietitians and I focus on one on one nutrition counseling. We have group nutrition coaching programs and then we have virtual nutrition programs like our Blood Sugar Reset or the Being Collective, which, which is our newest program that are geared towards helping people use nutrition as the baseline of their their health care and doing it in a way that is very approachable and not intimidating and helps to get to the root cause. So we're primarily focused on supporting blood sugar optimization, decreasing inflammation and in mitochondrial health, which also ties into hormonal health, which we'll talk about today, and supporting the gut microbiome. So there's so much that nutrition is involved in from a not only disease standpoint, but also just in the way that it can optimize how you feel on a daily basis in your labs. And sometimes working with a dietitian, you can really get to so much of the root cause from a nutrition and lifestyle standpoint that helps to supplement the work that you're doing with your primary care doctor or the other physicians. Even many of our clients have functional medicine doctors that they're also working with that just aren't as dialed in on the, on the nutrition realm specifically. So that's what, that's what I've been up to personally since then. I got married to.

My other best friends from college who I met through.

CrossFit, exactly who I met through Julie. And so we're now married. And I met him from Julie just inviting me to dinner one night that he was in town and it kind of just took off from there. So now we have a seven month old baby and we are pregnant again. I got pregnant three months postpartum and so we are due with our second baby the same week as McKinley's first birthday.

So wild. So you are on a wild, wild ride. But so happy for you. And I just love seeing you thrive when in every aspect in, you know, being a mom, but also in your business and hearing just what an impact you're having on so many of the people you work with and how, you know, you mentioned a lot of the, the science and the approach that you use, but you also take, like you said, such a approachable approach, such a friendly approach and where you're realizing or you're helping people understand more than just what to do, but how to, how to heal their relationship with food, how to support each other with the community programs that you do, which I think is so powerful. So how did you come to understand the importance of that aspect and emphasize it so much in your work?

It's a good question. I mean that is something that we, I started even just, you know, working with people on when I was at the Cleveland Clinic. Just naturally as part of like from a nutrition coaching standpoint is understanding like why we make the choices that we make, what are the emotional barriers when it comes to food since food is such an emotional experience and so often people know the specifics or have a general idea of the specifics of, you know, what would be the most optimal nutrition choices, but that doesn't necessarily translate into action. So I was super focused on, on trying to better understand that component. I think probably like my yoga training, I did train as A yoga practitioner because I loved yoga and how connected and aligned it made me feel and realized how much, you know, our thoughts as you have been diving into so much in the last several years. But like, our thoughts and our emotions and our limiting beliefs and all of those sorts of things, how much that can carry over into the habits and the choices that we make on a daily basis, whether it comes to stress eating or feeling like you're too busy to prioritize yourself and continuing to put yourself on the bottom of the list instead of, you know, really acknowledging the fact that you are worth being at the top of the list in order to not only serve yourself, but in order to serve the other people around you and decreasing like the shame and guilt that so often is tied into food and the food experience. I'd also say probably just my upbringing. My parents, you know, they. They took me to a functional medicine doctor very early on, which we talked about in episode seven years ago. But I've realized in the last several years and now, even as a mom, how much my mom's relationship with food impacted my own relationship with food. And I think that that happens for so many women in either a positive or maybe not the most positive way. But, you know, I grew up in a household where we never owned a scale. I never knew anything about calorie counting. I never saw my parents diet outside of, you know, specific things that they are maybe working on towards their own health goals. And as a family, we made a lot of changes in the way that we were e eating for my. My health journey and all the neurological issues and diagnoses that I had. And so it was more of like, using food as medicine as the approach and still having family dinners every night. Like, my mom went out of her way to go to a ton of different grocery stores and, you know, make things that were within the dietary needs that I had. But it was never like, these foods are off limits outside of obviously, like, gluten specifically for me ended up being something that I. I realized that I was not able to. To tolerate because it was creating so many symptoms for me. But it was something where, you know, food was like a connected family experience. And we had dinner together every night, and my mom would make, you know, like, these delicious desserts that everyone would eat and no one would feel bad about, but it was, you know, like, not something that then we were overeating for several days after. So I think that probably my upbringing also impacted the relationship with food that I have that has allowed me to identify when other People are struggling with their relationship with food.

I love that. And it's so true. And even just bringing awareness to it, right? Whether you had that amazing experience like you did, you know, with your parents, or whether it wasn't something that was emphasized. And it sounds like for you, a lot of that came from the fact that you, you know, it became something that was so important for you from a symptom and medical perspective. And a lot more time and effort went into food and your family as a result of that. And so even just bringing awareness to it and realizing I want to do things a little bit differently, you know, for my kids, or just based on what we know now versus what we knew back then, you know, it's very empowering. So I love the ways that you emphasize that, and I think that it has such a huge impact because, you know, we can know all the science and we can know all the things that we need to do, but if it's not something that we can put in practice every day, it's not really helping us. And I think you do a really good job of bridging that because you are definitely the most. My most trusted resource when it comes to anything nutrition related. And, you know the science really well. You obviously, you know, wrote a course on this, you dig into the research, but you're also able to translate it into ways that, you know, people can really access it and use it in their lives. And so I would love for this time, because this is a time that you're deep in yourself to really focus on the. The timeline of pregnancy, really preconception pregnancy and postpartum, because I'm sure you knew a lot about it beforehand. But there's nothing like going through it and having that firsthand experience and, you know, having it be your body and your daughter that are impacted. And so I would love to just dive into your kind of your personal experience, what you've emphasized and what you've learned.

All right. I would love to. I think that it comes down to really, especially when you're going through the preconception period, pregnancy, postpartum, that this theme that is really encouraged in functional medicine as a whole is needing to be comfortable stepping into being your own health advocate. And it's an experience that I've had over the last 15 years of my parents and I having to advocate for my own health in ways that the doctors wouldn't, and having to seek out other answers from functional medicine doctors who are willing to spend more time and dive deep, deeper into the root cause instead of just writing on the prescription pad whatever the, the prescription was.

And for those who haven't listened to the previous episode, can you give us just the one minute version of, of what that, you know, your experience there?

Yeah. I was diagnosed with a neurological autoimmune disease called narcolepsy with cataplexy. So I was having about 20 to 30 mini seizures a day that would last for about five seconds. And then I couldn't control when I fell asleep or stayed awake. So I was sleeping for a few years liter every second of those few years for the most part. And I wasn't able to control when I would stay awake or fall asleep. So then we went to a functional medicine doctor after the neurologist was basically just like, here's the prescriptions that you'll be on for the rest of your life. It'll get worse as you age and you'll continue to need more. And you know, I was separately seeing a doctor for, for hormonal symptoms that I was having who put me on birth control and you know, a dermatologist for acne. No one was conn. Connecting all the dots with all the things. And I think that's, you know, very common for, for teenagers, especially when you're dealing with period pains and acne and those sorts of things to just be given the pill. And then separately, you know, I'm seeing this neurologist who's just telling us that nutrition has nothing to do with my condition. So my parents found a functional medicine doctor that we ended up going to and that really set me on the course of learning how to eat to fuel my health. And I reversed all of the seizures that I was, the cataplexes that I used to have and have really improved my narcolepsy over the years from the focus that I've had on my nutrition and lifestyle.

Yes. Speaking from firsthand experience though, we've both known to fall asleep maybe at dinner, right after dinner. I don't have narcolepsy, so I don't know what that says about me.

There's a lot of jokes around how easily Julie can fall asleep, especially when we're together. And like falling asleep on the couch together at like 9:30 at night.

Yeah, maybe I, who knows, maybe I have an undiagnosed. But anyway, so that experience, just like your upbringing in general, but that experience really helps you to understand the importance of advocating for yourself and not take everything, taking everything you hear at face value, but doing some of your own research and talking to more people and so How I would love to hear how that served you in your journey. But even, you know, starting at the very beginning, because I know you've been, you know, really open about your experience with miscarriage, which I so appreciate, because I think the more women talk about it, the more helpful it is to be able to move through that experience and not feel alone, but maybe even going back to like, you know, that time and how you were looking at your body, your nutrition, your health, and then how you kind of moved through that.

Yeah. So I would say that when it comes to, like, fertility and miscarriage, that this is where, even though I had the experience of being a health advocate for myself, that it's like even more important because traditionally in conventional medicine, the recommendations are most often birth control. When you're having symptoms and then you typically are, you know, they'll say, just stay on birth control until you want to get pregnant. And then all of a sudden you go off birth control and you can't get pregnant. I only was on birth control a year because it just felt very unnatural for me. But so many women that I've worked with go to try to get pregnant and they can't because they know nothing about their cycle. They. They know nothing, nothing about their ovulation because they've been, you know, getting these synthetic hormones for the last however many years with really an unawareness overall and how it affects hormonal health as a whole when you go throughout your lifespan. So thinking about just the importance of, of that in addition to then fertility, you go to a fertility specialist and then they're putting you on. You know, if you've been trying, you have to wait up to a year. And then if you've been trying for a year, then they put you on fertility treatments that are so expensive without anyone really addressing the nutrition and lifestyle component. Like, I have been shocked through the miscarriage experience, through pregnancy, through postpartum, that even though nutrition and lifestyle are central to having an enormous impact on hormonal health and the capability of the body to get pregnant, that it's really on address outside of, like, make sure you're taking a prenatal. And even with that, there's not much information about how to choose an optimal prenatal that is going to support you in the best way. So the frustrations that I experienced were really around the time they started, around the time that I had miscarried. And that was. I was at the CrossFit Games with you probably like a month after we had experienced the miscarriage. And it was the first pregnancy was when I miscarried and I felt so bad the entire time that I was pregnant and that was eight weeks. And then we went into the doctor for my eight week ultrasound and had had. It was a missed miscarriage, so I hadn't, I thought I was still pregnant. We thought we were going in to check on the, on the baby. The nurse practitioner is talking to us about, you know, what to expect for the next 40 weeks or not 40 weeks, but the rest of the pregnancy and then, you know, couldn't find a heartbeat. And for anyone that has had that experience of, you know, going into a doctor's appointment expecting to, to check on your baby who's no longer there, it's a very traumatic experience and something that I personally had to continue working through from a mental health standpoint. Once I got pregnant again because I was in, it was hard for me to believe that my body was capable of carrying a child to term after that being the experience that we had. So even after pregnancy, if you've experienced infertility or miscarriage, I think that it's so important to continue to try to support your mental health to the best of your ability. Looking back, I probably should have seen a therapist because even when we found out that we were pregnant, it took me until we got to the third trimester of McKinley's pregnancy to be like, oh, maybe this is actually happening. Because it was just, you know, I had so many limiting beliefs around the idea of me being able to carry a child to term. So once we miscarried, it was one of those. I had asked to get hormone testing. I had asked to just try to better understand potential root causes knowing, you know, that ask for thyroid testing. Since thyroid imbalances are a leading cause of not being able to carry a baby to term. Low progesterone levels are a common reason for not being able to carry a child the term. So I was like, let's dig further and better understand this. And the OB GYN was extremely dismissive and said, absolutely not. There's no reason to test your hormones. Hormone testing isn't even accurate. Just wait until you get your period back and then you can start trying again. And I just was very unsettled with that. So I didn't see her again and, and ended up doing hormone testing on my own nutrient deficiency testing. All of these things that we run on people that were, that we're working with because I wanted to better understand how I could support my body. And I took actually like a year of supporting my body before I was even ready to start, to start trying again. So in that time, I really focused. You know, I've always been very, very aware of what I'm putting into my body based on the profession that I'm in and, you know, the, the passion that I have and the belief that I have in nutrition being the foundation for, for health. But I really stepped it up and focused a lot on blood sugar optimization. Johnny and I both did nutrient deficiency testing. We both were taking a prenatal. So I think it's important. You know, one in eight couples struggles with infertility, and it's not often recognized that 50% of that is driven by males and low sperm quality, issues with morphology and a number of other sperm markers. So we actually also had Johnny do a sperm test to be able to look at before he started the prenatal. And then three months after we did a post sperm analysis that we just ordered a kit at home before we started trying again to just make sure that his sperm was in the healthiest state possible. And Johnny is someone that also is a very healthy eater. He eats more vegetables than I do. He works out, he's dialed in on his sleep, he does fly a lot. So radiation is maybe like one of his limiting factors. But it was astonishing how low some of his counts were not for total sperm, but for the morphology and a few other sperm markers that looked at like, quality. And after three months of just taking the prenatal, all of his markers were off the charts. They went from being like very low to off the charts. And it was astonishing for someone as healthy. And I mean, if you look at him, he's, you know, like in very good shape. You would never think, oh, that's a person that, you know, is probably like, has some kind of oxidative stress or something that's impacting sperm health. But it really changed so much after even just implementing the prenatals.

So that's amazing. And do you want to share about those? Because I know you formulated that prenatal. You want to share for people who are interested in checking it out?

Yeah. So wenatal is the company that I'm a medical advisor for and I, I helped with the formulation alongside a brilliant team of doctors and dietit, including Dr. Mark Hyman and Kelly Levesque, who is a nutritionist that is a good friend of mine. And we looked at the how to get therapeutic doses and the most bioavailable forms into the fewest capsules possible that don't have any excipients, which are Basically like extra ingredients outside of the nutrients that are in the actual capsule. So if you look at the other ingredients that are in a lot of prenatals or any supplements, there's a list of ingredients and we were able to not use extra excipients, which is amazing. In addition to focusing on getting those therapeutic doses and in the most bioavailable form for both men and women. So the 90 day window is considered the preconception window, which is before you try to conceive. And that is when it's a critical time where your egg health is developing and your sperm health and that impacts the DNA health of the baby. So it's so important. I recommend starting to focus on more like of hormonal health and fertility health even six months before trying to conceive, because we know that it improves the long term health of the baby and also the health of the pregnancy. So thinking about the fact that there are certain nutrients that are required for males in order to improve their sperm quality and their morphology, which is the size and shape, their motility, these are going to be things like CoQ10 is maybe one that your audience is more familiar with. But also also like zinc therapeutic doses of vitamin D, acetyl L, carnitine has a lot of research on it. B vitamins like methylfolates and a few other B vitamins that are really important. So we focused on those for the wenatal for him, which is the formulation for men because men should be taking a prenatal at least three months before conceiving. And then for the female prenatal we focus on getting those therapeutic levels of nutrients that I didn't feel comfortable taking. Other prenatals that are on the market, I have taken others in the past and then had to take several other supplements that I was ordering to try to make sure that I was at the doses that I felt comfortable with. So this is the first prenatal that I feel 100% confident is like meeting all the needs that I have for myself. And we focused on like for instance, therapeutic levels of vitamin D at 4,000 IUs. Old research had, you know, previously estimated that even 600 IUs was adequate. And I think people drastically underestimate sometimes the need that they have for vitamin D, especially when thinking about, you know, how far you live from the equator, thinking about your skin tone. Darker skin tone decreases absorption of vitamin D. VDR gene mutations that if you have a gene mutation to the VDR gene, it actually decreases your absorption. Even if you're someone that's out in the sunshine for hours every single day, you still could be suboptimal in your vitamin D levels. So we looked at therapeutic levels of vitamin D. We looked at methylated folate. You know, most doctors, all ob gyns will say that folic acid is the most important nutrient not only for DNA health of the baby and preventing neural tube defect, but also for supporting ovulation. And we know that approximately 40 to 60% of the population has at least one MTHFR mutation. And MTHFR is the methyl tetrahydrofolate reductase gene that is critical for absorption or activation of folate and vitamin D and also vitamin B6. So if you have a mutation, you're not going to be able to activate folic acid itself if you're taking a prenatal that has folic acid in it. So we focus on methylated folate in an optimal dose. And iron was another one. Wenatal has 18 milligrams of iron, which is really important not only for preconception health, but also prenatal health when you're actually pregnant. Because your the RDA for pregnant women increases to 27 milligrams during pregnancy. And that's the marker, you know, that's regular. It's one of the only markers that's routinely tested when you go in for, for checks during pregnancy. I have to get labs done on the side because I'm like, why are you my labs. Iron is one that is routinely tested. Fortunately, maybe not all the iron markers that I typically love to see, but they're at least screening for iron deficiency because of iron deficiency anemia being such a prevalent factor in increased risk of poor health outcomes for the baby and for the mom. And with iron needs really increasing so much during pregnancy. And then we also included choline. So most prenatals on the market don't have adequate levels of choline. We needle has 400, 400 milligrams and the needs for pregnant women are estimated to be about 450, with some research showing that even more than that is actually required. So a lot of prenatals have very low levels of choline and that is an extremely important nutrient for the cognitive development of the baby. Between that and Omega 3s, those are probably two of the most important nutrients for supporting brain development for the developing fetus and then also for, for the baby and looking at even just brain development for the first few years of life. So the nice thing about having 400 of choline in the prenatal is that you can also get it from food sources. Like this is why I encourage eating a whole, a whole egg and having even like two to three eggs per day. Maybe not every day, but at least several times per week. Because the egg yolk specifically is so rich in choline. You can also get it from wild salmon and other food sources that help to supplement that 400 that's in the prenatal specifically.

Amazing. So you both are taking this prenatal. Was there anything else? And this, I think the other really eye opening thing for people to hear is how healthy you both were before. Like just at baseline, you were probably in the top 1% of the population or less in terms of, I don't.

Know, about 1%, basically.

But then that when you actually looked even deeper that you were still able to uncover other things that could improve your health even more. And I think that just like you said, that philosophy is not one that is common in conventional medicine. It's very much like a wait and see. Or like if there's a problem that recurs multiple times, then we'll look into it versus this idea of why don't I do everything in my power to maximize my health just in general in life, but certainly when thinking about conception and pregnancy, 100%.

I mean, I don't know if we're in the one, the top 1%. That's very generous of you. But I like, we are definitely paying attention to our health and what's going into our bodies more so than most people. And it's astonishing to me, this is where like the lack of nutrition education in conventional medicine is just so detrimental to the outcomes of so many people, where it's like, why not When a person is coming for, you know, talking about how they've been trying for the last six months and can't get pregnant, why instead of having them wait six more months to then have them pay a ton of money for infertility treatments, would you not provide specific and targeted nutrition and lifestyle recommendations? Of course, obviously you know that most doctors aren't trained in nutrition, but these are, these are things that should be outsourced to dietitians and other practitioners that can help to support people along their journey. And it's like astonishing to me that this is not just a part of, of the mainstream care that's being provided.

It is, it is. And I mean, I know you're doing a lot to change that, but it's a big, it's a big problem. So it's a big problem. Yeah. Anything else aside from the prenatal and you said just dialing in more things like blood sugar, anything else that you and or Johnny did, lifestyle wise preconception that you felt like was important or impactful or that you would recommend other people to try. Try.

Yeah, the Nutri, the nutrient dense diet that was, you know, just like trying to be targeted in optimizing the nutrient density of what we were eating by whether it's just like adding some chopped up garlic on top of a salad to, to get the nutrients from the garlic or you know, turmeric, more turmeric teas throughout the day, those sorts of things to just boost more of those antioxidants and polyphenols. There was a 2021 study that showed that a nutrient dense whole foods diet diet not only during pregnancy but also before pregnancy was associated with lower risk of gestational diabetes and hypertension and preterm delivery, in addition to obviously supporting fertility. So between that and then testing for nutrient deficiencies, that helped both of us to be able. We both did nutrient deficiency testing through the, the company that we use in my nutrition business and that helped us to dial in those. I would also say stress. Stress was a huge thing. So I don't think a lot of people realize that having high cortisol levels and being chronically stressed is a large contributor to low progesterone levels. And when I got my hormones tested, my progesterone levels were, were very low, like in the post menopausal range. And there's, you know, stress is probably one of the largest drivers of, of low progesterone levels that can impact fertility. And most people that we work with, they explain they aren't stressed. But I think people don't realize the toll of, you know, being such a. Like, I love, I love work. I love like going from thing to thing, like my calendar. Super. Yeah. And trying to, to do so juggle so many things. And Johnny's also very like that. And so being able to try to like, take a step back and really support my central nervous system to be able to not only improve progesterone levels but also decrease insulin resistance. Because, because, you know, a lot of people that we work with are aware that added sugar and, you know, eating too many starchy carbohydrates can impact insulin resistance. But a lot of people don't realize that chronically high cortisol levels can also lead to breakdown of your muscles, which then leads to a decreased ability for your muscles to actually store glucose, which leads to increases in body fat and then, you know, increases in insulin resistance and inflammation as a result. So, so trying to not overstress my body by like doing the basics, eating enough calories, not skipping meals, getting enough carbohydrates in my diet, limiting stimulants like alcohol, caffeine and sugar, I became super attentive to and then trying to also incorporate more like stress reducing practices on a regular basis. So I got a PEMF mat and was doing PEMF and trying to just be more present and, you know, like stopping my day earlier, maybe not starting my day so early to be more present and do things with Johnny and those sorts of things. Deep breathing exercises throughout the day, unwinding before bed, taking magnesium before bed to help increase my sleep because we know sleep impacts hormonal health so much. All of those things I would bucket under supporting my stress response as a really key part of not only preconception, but it's been a theme throughout pregnancy and also postpartum, hugely emphasizing it postpartum as well.

Because.

Because when you think of your hormonal health, you know, there's like the triangle that a lot of functional medicine doctors will talk about that you have, you know, insulin and cortisol at the base, so your adrenal hormone like in or like cortisol and then insulin, that really set the foundation for your hormonal health. And then thyroid hormones would be the second base and then sex hormones are the top. So before even trying to think about like estrogen and progesterone and testosterone, really get into the basis of saying like, do I have high cortisol or do I have insulin resistance? Because we know that these two things can create a cascade in thyroid imbalances, which is an enormous driver of infertility not carrying a child to term. Also postpartum, you know, thyroid, your thyroid takes such a toll during pregnancy that getting your thyroid tested even six months postpartum is so important. And so trying to make sure that your using that hierarchy to think about your sex hormones as the top and trying to make sure that you're covering the bases with optimizing glucose control for decreasing insulin and then decreasing your stress response, for supporting your cortisol levels as that foundation to really supporting that top level of your, your balance of estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and those sex hormones, I love that.

And I think you're so right. I think that just in general, as a world, we normalize stress so much that we don't think we're stressed. But oftentimes I would say the majority of people that I work with at least are having an overactive stress response. And a lot of times that goes way back, you know, to even like things that happen in childhood that we just carry with us and we don't realize that our system is still on high alert. And so I love, you know, thinking about that and the, the, the pyramid, like you said, of starting there, because so often we get fixated on the sex hormones or the thyroid when there's other problems that haven't been addressed first.

No one wants to address the stress response part. It's like the step that everyone wants to skip over and just be like, give me the most restrictive diet possible or do the most extensive testing possible. Because it's the stress part that's really the hardest.

It's hard, it's hard to sit still. Right. It's hard to do less, which is so counterintuitive. But and also I think the part that you mentioned earlier about your mental health, I think that, that, you know, so much of that stress response too does come from our thoughts and from our limiting beliefs and like feeling, you know, when we're constantly in a state of fear or panic that are, or, or like you mentioned earlier, things like shame or judgment that is sending off a stress signal to our brain every time we have thoughts like that because it's a, it's a threat. And so those things are really important too. It's not, it's not something you can just check the box, like, oh, I sat down that and I mean you can like sitting and meditating for 20 minutes, that's great. Or doing an app, that's great. But how do you take that into the rest of your day too? And so I'm curious for you. You said it was something you had to work on through, you know, your whole second pregnancy. Was there any, were there any tools that were helpful for you when you caught yourself in those, those kinds of limiting beliefs?

Yeah, I mean, I would say one was just like walking in nature. I tried to walk at that time we were living in Florida, so it was easier to do it year round. Walking in nature was definitely one. And you know, even just nature's ability to, to calm the central nervous system. Another tool that I love, that I recommend for many of my clients that really supported me was Byron. Katie's. Yeah, the work, but specifically her four questions where it starts with is this true? And then are you certain that it's true? Is the second question. And like, who would you, who would you be without that belief? I think is the fourth Question. So going through that when I was catching myself in a negative thought loop was super helpful. And then just taking time to be more present, to unplug from the to do list and all of the items that I typically will prioritize and trying to really be intentional about making more time for Johnny and I and doing things that just brought us joy instead of, you know, like getting through the to do list every day and then just going to bed at night.

Totally. Right. And then you're like, for what purpose? Right. If you're not enjoying. But so many of us are. Are conditioned to just go, go, go all the time. And it's hard to. To take that time for yourself. So that's amazing. I'm a huge fan of the work too. I use it all the time and I think it's really powerful because it just brings attention to those thoughts and then how they make you feel when you have those thoughts. And most of the time they're not. True. True. I've yet to come across a thought that was 100. Absolutely true.

It's. Yeah, agreed.

All right, so preconception, we've got, you know, nutrient dense diet, taking the right prenatal, addressing the, you know, blood sugar stress response through various different ways. Then you find out I'm pregnant again. So anyway, and you don't took, you know, plenty of time in between, you find out you're pregnant again. How did you approach anything differently based on what you were already doing from preconception, anything that you did differently than through pregnancy?

Yeah, I there. I mean, some of the things carried over, right. That were important in preconception that carried over into pregnancy. Like, for instance, blood sugar optimization is not only going to impact fertility negatively by altering your hormones, damaging egg habits, health negatively impacting sperm quality, but it also in, you know, like decreasing ovulation because of the insulin receptors in the ovarian cells that, you know, can create more of those androgen hormones. But I also really focused on my blood sugar levels during pregnancy, and that was something that in the beginning of pregnancy, I actually wore a continuous glucose monitor. And then I opted out of the gestational diabetes oral glucose tolerance test and spoke with my doctor about instead doing a glucometer. So I used a glucometer to test my blood sugar. And, you know, I think that obviously you have to do what works best for you. And if you have a history of gestational diabetes or a number of things that would make it important to do or consider the oral glucose tolerance test and maybe even Using a brand like Thrash Test that has at least none of the food dyes or preservatives in it, that's a, a, a cleaner version of that that some doctors will let you do then, then maybe that would be a good idea. But I, you know, always when I am talking to them and try to remind them that nothing in pregnancy is required for you to do, that you're able to opt out of anything. Because a number of my friends were like, oh, I didn't know you could opt out of the gestational diabetes test and, and do a glucometer. And so I think, you know, it requires you to again, be your own health advocate and go in with the knowledge and the research and be able to advocate for yourself while also listening to the doctor if there is a reason that it would be unsafe for you to not do the glucose tolerance test. For me, I didn't want to ingest that much sugar because I was not ingesting that much sugar at any other point in my pregnancy. So it seemed irrelevant. And I also didn't like the idea of the low quality ingredients that they used in the primary product for the glucose tolerance test. So focusing on, on blood sugar control was definitely a big part of it. Protein needs. We know that as you go through pregnancy that estimated protein needs continue to increase. And more research, more recent research is showing that your protein needs are actually higher than what the RDA even estimates them to be for pregnant women. So around 1.2 grams per per kilogram of body weight in early pregnancy and then up to 1.5 grams per kilogram in late pregnancy. So really like the foundation of your meals being more of those protein rich foods and knowing that the bioavailability of your amino acids is going to be highest in animal sources of protein. So I think it's definitely possible to achieve optimal health with being a vegetarian if you're being extremely mindful about how you're getting those protein sources at every meal. But just looking at the bioavailability of protein, protein, you're going to get the highest amount from animal sources. So just focusing, I focus a lot on quality animal proteins like wild salmon and grass fed beef and even bison and you know, organic chicken eggs, trying to get pasture raised organic eggs several times per week, not only for the protein but also for the Omega 3s that are found in the egg yolk, plus the choline that's found in the egg yolk. So that was a big focus, making sure that I was getting enough hydration because your hydration needs increase drastically when you're pregnant and your blood volume is increasing in addition to your electrolytes. So I actually really upped my, my sodium and my magnesium and potassium to make sure that I was accounting for those increased electrolyte needs and doing that to, you know, when you don't have enough electrolytes, you're not able to actually take the water and bring it intracellularly. So you might be drinking a lot of water, which, you know, you need at least 100 fluid ounces when you're pregnant, probably more for a lot of women. And so thinking about one, getting high quality sources of water like reverse osmosis water because tap water is contaminated with so many heavy metals and other, you know, environmental pollutants that I found to be important for trying to minimize as much as possible to, to support the developing fetus. But then also think getting those electrolytes to be able to bring that water intracellularly so that your cells are actually very hydrated and you're not just peeing out all the water. So that iron, as I said, your iron needs double during pregnancy to an estimated RDA of, of 27mg omega threes. I've always incorporated into my diet, but I was very specific about trying to get at least 12 ounces of seafood per week and focusing on the, the smaller body fish that don't have a lot of mercury. Trying to limit mercury as much as possible since we do know that it's a neurotoxin. But thinking about the ones that have the most omega threes and the fewest, the lowest mercury, like wild salmon sardines. I did even like canned salmon and canned sardines that I mashed up made into kind of like what you would a tuna salad with avocado mayonnaise and celery and pickles and not cucumber onion. And that's one of my favorite things to do.

Yeah, it's grapes in there too.

Oh, I love it. Like a chicken salad, but a salmon salad. But I mean, that'll give you vitamin D. You know, the canned fish actually has some of the bones that also will give you some calcium. That's super important during pregnancy. I was worried about not getting enough calcium, so I was also drinking the almond milk that we used to buy was not fortified with calcium. And I know some people try to drink almond milk that has just almond milk in the ingredients. But know that if you're choosing a brand that only has almond milk in the ingredients and it's not fortified with Calcium and you have to make up for those calcium needs in other sources. So I was doing like Khalifa Farms unsweetened almond milk, trying to do a cup of that per day day to. To make sure that I was. That gives you 40% of your daily calcium needs. In addition to that. You know, I try to eat organic most of the time, but I was hyper focused on getting like 90% of my diet organic. Not in a way that is like super obsessive. I think that's very important because trying to check every box during pregnancy can feel super overwhelming. When you're like the source of nutrients and potentially pollutants to this growing fetus or it's like a lot of pressure and it's impossible to be perfect about it. So that's why I strive for like 90% organic. And when you're out to eat or other things, not obsessing over, you know, whether the chicken was organic or those sorts of things, but trying to do that to limit the pesticide exposure. Since there's so many research studies that have shown increased levels of pesticides and umbilical cords when testing for pregnant women and the way that it's transferred into. Through the umbilical cord and then then fermented foods. Thinking about, I was trying to get fermented foods every single day to try to support my gut microbiome. And so that's something that I try to do on, on a regular basis, but again was just more dialed in on it, knowing that my microbiome is in many ways going to be transferred to the baby's microbiome and that it also helps with impacting taste preferences, where some research has shown that not only for pregnancy, but also breastfeeding that, you know, the, the foods that you're eating impact the. The taste preferences of the baby. And eating something like fermented foods that has, you know, a very different sort of taste can help with creating that diversity. At least is how I thought about it. Is creating that diversity that will hopefully set McKinley and now our current baby that I'm pregnant with. I've been speaking in past tense, but I should say I'm also currently doing these things.

That's right. That's being pregnant again and it's just ongoing. Which I think also brings up a great point that, you know, this. I'm sure for some people listening, this is going to sound extremely overwhelming because there's just so many things to think about. But I think we have to keep in mind that, number one, you were already doing a lot of These things before, just before you were even thinking about pregnancy because you were so focused on nutrient density and your, your overall health. And then, you know, it's dialing in, like making some of these small changes and dialing in. So the importance of, you know, establishing a basel, don't wait until you get pregnant to start making these changes, but years before, you know, let's maximize our health before we even get there. And I think too, what you mentioned about balance is super important because I think that again, thinking about even the mindset around this, it can be something that can induce a lot of fear or pressure. Like you said, I have to get this perfect, otherwise it's going to affect my baby. And we have to be honest. Right. These things do affect, affect the baby. Right. We know that from the research. The old kind of mantra of, oh, I'm pregnant, I can eat whatever I want. We know that doesn't fly in terms of the best outcomes, but we don't want to induce a lot of like guilt and shame if we're not being perfect with everything that we're doing. So how do you, I mean one, how do you approach that yourself? You said like the 90 kind of trying to aim for 90% but knowing as much as, you know, sometimes I think that can almost work against you because you know how much every single thing you put in your mouth is impacting and how it's impacting your child.

Yeah, there were times that I, like, was so stressed. I mean, we also were seeing a maternal fetal medicine Dr. Because McKinley had several markers, several soft markers that showed up on her 20 week ultrasound and that was very stressful. The doctor kept being like, well, you have a choroid plexus cyst, but don't worry, it usually like fixes itself by, you know, like the end of the pregnancy or, or before birth and, or, you know, you have a, an increased nuchal translucency, but, or a nuchal fold, an increased nuchal folds. The translucency is found in the first trimester. It is, we do see it more often in children that have, you know, certain developmental issues, but it also could be completely normal. And so these things where I'm, I'm then like, well, I know how conventional medicine works and sometimes they just don't tell you like everything that you need to know. And so I'm researching and Johnny's like, you are, you like, know too much and you research too much that it's to the detriment of your own health. And it really was true. I had to just stop researching and just accept that we were doing the best that we possibly could and that we were just going to, you know, like, accept any outcome that happens and continue to try our best. And. And that even also happened during. Towards, in the third trimester when my doctor, since we were getting more ultrasounds, McKinley was measuring with a 90 percentile abdominal circumference. And he's like, she's a huge baby. You probably have gestational diabetes. So I want you to, like, go back to checking your glucose on your glucometer and, like, I will go through an identity crisis if I have gestational diabetes. I am fat sending out the blood sugar reset to 2,000 people tomorrow.

Oh, gosh.

But obviously you can have gestational diabetes for factors that are out of your control. I do want to, like, recognize that that does happen because of the way that the placenta can change your. Your insulin response with the hormones that are being produced. But I think giving yourself grace is an ongoing theme through, like, going through miscarriage, marriage, and not blaming yourself. Giving yourself the grace to say, you know, I did the best that I could and that has to be enough. Thinking about going through pregnancy, giving yourself grace to say, like, I'm giving it my best and that has to be the best or that has to be good enough. And then even postpartum, you know, like, making sure that we had hired a doula and I was doing as much as I possibly could to prevent having to get a C section. I ended up getting an infection at nine and a half centimeters, dilated after like, 20 some hours of laboring. And McKinley was tachycardic because my temperature was at 102. They couldn't break my fever. Her heart rate was in the 180s. So they rushed me in for an emergency C section, which I had so much guilt around just knowing that, you know, being vaginal birth helps to increase outcomes, health outcomes for the immune system for. For so much of, like, your entire life. And so giving myself grace that I did the best, that I. To try to improve the outcome, knowing that, like, the most important thing was that she came into the world healthy and. And that's really all that we could ask for. Giving myself grace after stopping breastfeeding three months postpartum because I found out that I was pregnant again and wanting to save my nutrient source for the next baby. That also I had a ton of guilt around for a while just because of, you know, functional medicine. We educate our patients so often on, you know, the three factors that impact Immune health before the age of four are vaginal birth, breastfeeding and not being on excessive amounts of antibiotics. And so I had to just say like, I tried my best and it doesn't always end up like the functional medicine textbook looks like. So it was very eye opening and humbling and even just in this stage of, you know, I never got back to my pre pregnancy weight before I got pregnant again and I'm gaining weight faster than I did in my first pregnancy. And I think that there's this pressure to go back to the body that you had pregnancy. Like I especially as a dietitian where, you know, I see all of my colleagues that are on social media and you know, they bounce back within six weeks. And that has not been the case for me. So trying to also give myself grace, you know, around the extreme hormonal fluctuation that I went through from pregnancy to lactation to now being pregnant again and focusing more like providing McKinley with nutrient dense breast milk instead of bouncing back to my pre pregnancy weight and trying to now give this baby as many new nutrients as I can and also myself as many nutrients as I can because of, you know, postpartum nutrient depletion being so common. So I think it's like this theme of giving yourself grace that's so important that really hits on every single, you know, factor of your pregnancy journey.

Wow, that was beautiful. And so many lessons in there of, of just surrender, right? And when releasing control like the, there's things that are within your control and there's so much that's within without that's outside of your control and being able to let go of those and just know, like you said, you, you did everything that you could and there's, you know, there's lessons in all of it.

So I think, and none of us are perfect, no matter how hard we try. Like it will just never look like the textbook.

That's right. And I think the, the other thing that I, that resonated for me was just how you are always optimizing for multiple things, right? Like if you were only optimizing for trying to give McKinley like the best microbiome, you could feel really bad about, you know, the breastfeeding, whatever, but you're optimizing for your whole family, right? You're optimizing for the best outcome, not just her microbiome health, but like her health overall in that situation. And so zooming out and looking at these things from a wider perspective and how they all interact and, and like what your true goals are which are to, you know, have, you know, the optimal health for your entire family. It might change any one of those specific variables goals.

I couldn't agree more. That was, that was a really good summary.

One last thing on during pregnancy, because I think this is where people can have a lot of guilt too, is how did you navigate things like nausea, food cravings. I think that those times can be really hard and then, you know, making the best of the situation as far as what you're eating but getting through those kind of symptoms.

Yeah, so the nausea was. I had horrible nausea from basically like week six to week 16 with McKinley. I actually have not had a lot of nausea this second pregnancy, which I'm so grateful for because there's nothing more debilitating than being nauseous every single day all day long. So yeah, that was also an experience of giving myself grace. Like I had to switch to a prenatal gummy, which I was so, I was so frustrated by. But sitting there the, the prenatal, even though the Wenatal formulation, you know, so many people report having less nausea with it and it only being three capsules, which makes it so much more tolerable. There was about a six week period of time that I had to switch to a prenatal gummy that had just lower nutrients in it, which was why it didn't increase my nausea as much. And I felt like that was better than nothing. And I had a hard time eating vegetables. So first semester you're so often just in survival mode that, you know, the only vegetables I could really eat were like cauliflower that I would do in various forms that was a little bit more tolerable. And I was doing green juices every day because, you know, I could do that to get some of those phytonutrients that I'm. That I was lacking in my diet. But I, so I tried to get creative since they're, you know, I was just so tired and so nauseous that it was hard to even like care some days. So trying to, to make sure that I had things that helped to at least set me up. But my diet was definitely not anything what it, what it usually is. And that's also where I think, you know, preconception health is so important. Like you said, focusing on nutrition before you get pregnant because that helps to create healthy nutrient stores that you can depend on in your first trimester. Research has shown that you can basically like that you can build up your nutrient source before you get pregnant so that in the first trimester if you are experiencing, experiencing more nausea and you're not able to eat as many nutrients, you're not able to take as high quality of a prenatal that you want, that you're able to still, you know, pull from those nutrient stores that you've already developed.

That's so reassuring for people, I hope. Thank you for sharing that. That's.

Yeah, I mean another big thing that. So cravings I did not struggle with as often and I think that this comes down to blood sugar regulation. I haven't had a lot of cravings in both of my pregnancies and, and eating enough throughout the day. You know, I've gotten a lot of questions even with breastfeeding and like night eating and I was never even hungry at night. And obviously this could just be me and my genetics and other things. But I have to believe that there is a part of the nutrition habits that I have that help to decrease my cravings. And so blood sugar balance not only helps to decrease cravings, but it also helps to regulate your hunger. So eating, eating not only enough throughout the day and not skipping meals, but having enough protein and healthy fats and non starchy vegetables and a form of some kind of starchy carbohydrate in many instances can help a lot with decreasing those cravings that you might experience. So throughout this past year actually I've been creating a program called the Bean Collective, which is a meal planning and coaching program that is designed to help make it as easy as possible to plan blood sugar balancing meals that are also nutritional nutrient dense. Because I know how hard it is to take the time to actually meal plan and, and, and build out what your, your grocery list is going to look like. So we custom built this entire platform with hundreds of blood sugar balancing recipes and then you can use a weekly meal template that basically is either blank or we have pre made ones by my dietitians that you can just modify and then it exports your shopping list for you, you and you can adjust serving sizes based on how many people you're feeding for each meal and then it automatically exports that shopping list and then we have the, the coaching support from my dietitians that's included in the program. But it was, it became like increasingly obvious to me as I was going through that process and then you know, with having McKinley, how much time just continues to, to decrease and I don't have the time to be like prepping as many meals as I used to to. And so I think that this is a way to make it more efficient to not only make blood sugar balancing meals throughout the week, but to save you time and planning for those so that you have them batched in advance. Because that was huge for me, especially in the postpartum stage, is having those meals planned out so that I wasn't just like grabbing whatever is in the fridge. Because postpartum, your nutrients are still extremely important. You have nutrients, nutrient depletion, that's extremely common. And when you're giving your bait, your baby, all of your nutrients through breast milk, and then you're giving your developing fetus all the, the nutrients and then you're left with none. And you're, you know, you have anxiety and hair loss and, you know, so many other factors or, you know, you're just not feeling like yourself in general. But I think it's even exacerbated when you're not prioritizing your own nutrition. So this is a way, way that I think makes it more efficient to, to be able to do that.

Absolutely. And I am so excited about it. You showed it to me before you released it. And it is so comprehensive. Like you can go in and specify which type of diet or if you're following a specific type of diet, you know, with gluten free or vegan or whatever, I don't know if vegan's one option, but dairy free. And then pick out your meals and each meal also has all of the nutrient information. So. So if you want to track specific nutrients or macronutrients, you can, and it just spits out the shopping list for you. So I'm really excited to be implementing it in my life because it's making things easier. But I can only imagine with, you know, one still newborn and one on the way, like, how much more important and that efficiency becomes. So I'm super excited. I have not seen a resource like that out there. And knowing that it comes from you makes me that much more or trusted that much, much more. So.

Thank you, Julie. I know the first time that I used it in the grocery store, I was like on a high. I was like, I cannot believe how much easier this makes my life. And then I ran into the, the man that I used to babysit for his family and I showed it to him. He's like, oh my God, this is a dream. How can I be part of this? And I was like, I'll send you the information. I'm so happy that you like it.

That's amazing efficiency.

I mean, like, when you're feeding more than just yourself, even just feeding yourself, it's like you need efficiency, especially when you're doing a lot. But now it's like, oh, I have to like make these foods for her. And then we're trying to make foods for her that we're making for us. But it's like you have so many more things to juggle and time is just, you know, between like feeding and cleaning bottles and all the other things that now my time is filled with, I don't have as much time to be, you know, like doing these elaborate dinners every single day, single night.

Totally, totally. Keep it simple, but also keep it nutrient dense. I find that when I'm in a more stressed state, I tend to do things that are super simple, repetitive, and certainly less micronutrient dense because I just don't have like the creativity for it. But this way makes it easy to incorporate all those things. So I think that's awesome. For people who may. Just because you shared that you switched to bottle feeding for McKinley after three months, are there formulas, as you did your own research, that you trust the most most?

Yeah, we, we have her on by Heart right now, which is an amazing formula company that was created by moms and it just came out a few years ago. And it's definitely, I mean, of course breastfeeding will always be superior to, to formula, but having a high quality formula that doesn't have maltodextrin and other things that are added, like shockingly added to formula and that has the right nutrients. Nutrients is something that has been really important. So we're using by heart and then we also are doing additional supplements. So the, the main baseline supplements that, that she's doing just in liquid form that we're adding to her bottles are vitamin D and a probiotic to support her microbiome since she was a C section baby and then, and not being breastfed and. And then the third one is Omega 3A DHA, a liquid D DHA and.

Then going back to postpartum. I feel like we covered really well preconception pregnancy in postpartum. Obviously nutrient density is really important, as you mentioned, recovering all the nutrients that you are losing. Are there, are there things that you really emphasize or you think are important to emphasize or specifically recovering from a C section versus a vaginal birth that you emphasized?

Yeah. So the first thing I would say is continue taking your prenatal and, and I can't believe how many women stop taking their prenatal after they finish pregnancy. But that is so important for supporting if you are breastfeeding especially. But even for Supporting your own nutrient repletion. So nutrient depletion postpartum is extremely common and I believe extremely under addressed even in the research. When you think about pregnancy and breastfeeding and the nutrient dependent processes of both of those and the nutrients that are prioritized for the developing fetus and then to fuel the baby, that leads to lower nutrient levels. For mom. We test nutrient deficiencies. I've tested them in thousands of clients. People in general have a difficult time meeting their nutrient needs. It's very rare to find a person that has no nutrient deficiencies. Then when you factor in the, the foods that you're eating, not only needing to fuel you, but also another human and then also another human when you're breastfeeding, it's like, holy cow, there it is not possible to get all the nutrients that you need and to expedite the nutrition nutrient repletion process. Continuing your prenatal is so important and also in instances like my own, you never know if you're going to get pregnant again. So. And thankfully Johnny also continued taking his prenatal, which we never really had a conversation around outside of the fact that I said we developed the male prenatal to be like a multivitamin for men. So it does have the nutrients that, that a pre, that a multivitamin would have. It just has higher levels of some of those nutrients that you would need in a, in a prenatal. So he never stopped taking it fortunately because, you know, you just never know if you're going to get pregnant again.

It's a really good prenatal. Works like a char.

So, so that DHA being so important again, my focus was really on like creating the most nutrient dense milk possible for McKinley for as long as I was breastfeeding. DHA being so important in addition to the recovery for the mom. I mean there's not. When you think about the nutrient demands of, you know, transferring your nutrients to the baby and then breastfeeding, but also when you factor in like tissue repair and wound healing. Wound healing. If you're, you know, if you have a C section changes to the gut microbiome from. I was astonished not even like thinking about how many NSAIDs you're on throughout the process, especially when you're C section. The antibiotics that I ended up having to be on because, because of my infection, the antibiotics that people that women have to take when they have strep B through an iv, all these things are going to change your microbiome and your microbiome is so important for increasing Nutrient absorption. So when you also have that working against you, it's like, holy cow, this is so important. And then you also factor in the toll on your adrenals and on your thyroid and how much you, you really need that to optimize nutrient absorption. Absorption. And then, you know, moms that are just eating quickly and not able to actually break down their food and nutrients. It's like literally a nutrient depletion storm that women are going through without even realizing it. And they're like, I wonder why I'm feeling so bad. So thinking about focusing on nutrient density, continuing to take your prenatal, making sure that you're getting enough calories. You know, this is not the time to try to really restrict calories to bounce back to your, to your prior weight. Especially if you're breastfeeding, you have 500 additional calories, approximately that you require a day. So making sure that you're repleting all of those energy sources as well to decrease your stress response. Electrolytes and hydration are extremely important, especially for keeping up your breast milk supply. Especially for people that eat a lower glycemic diet. Like, I'm not adding a ton of like pasta and, and refined carbohydrates to my diet. So if you are eating a lower glycemic diet, typically your ability to retain electrolytes is lower, which can increase your need much higher than you would actually think, since you know, so much of the nutrition information and advice is around like low sodium diets and then also stress reduction like I was. So that was probably my number one focus. Just thinking about the hormonal toll or the hormonal shift that you go through postpartum, I mean, it's the largest that a woman will go through in their lifetime. And so thinking about, you know, your cortisol and stress hormones as the foundation of hormonal health. And I never jumped back to like intense exercise or anything like that. I focused more on getting a lot of walking in, doing, you know, I did like 100 sit ups, 100 push ups, and 100 squats a day to try to just maintain a certain level of strength. But I wasn't like doing, you know, super intense exercise right after because I just understood the stress toll that I had just been through. And of course movement is so important. And I honestly should have prioritized movement more even throughout my pregnancy. And I'm trying to. That's like a big thing that I'm working towards in this pregnancy that I haven't been as diligent about as I wish I have, but it's just not the time to be like doing a lot of fasted exercise and high intensity interval training and those sorts of things that are going to just add that additional stress to your, your body and then limiting stimulants, like even though you're sleep deprived, trying to not rely too much on caffeine since you know it can put you in overdrive and you know, create more of those hormonal imbalances. So I just prioritized like naps anytime that I could to try to improve my energy, magnesium at night to try to improve my sleep. Making sure that Johnny was, you know, anytime that he was in town, like not traveling for work, that we were splitting the, the night wake times. Fortunately, McKinley's, you know, a pretty good sleeper overall, but there are definitely nights that she wakes up in the middle of the night that you know, are feeding her. And obviously in the beginning I was waking up to feed her when I was breastfeeding to keep my milk supply up. But trying to make sure that it's just not all falling on you I think is so important. And if it's not necessarily your partner, you know, considering hiring a night nurse or having a family member sleepover a few nights per week, something to help, help to, to decrease some of that additional stress burden while you're trying to go through this insane healing experience, while you're also providing the, the nutrients and, and the life for this human. If you are breastfeeding, you know, it's so much. And so trying to make sure that you have the support I think is also huge.

So important, so important that you mentioned that. And it's such a wild experience, but it, it is, I think it reflects, reflects all of the work that you've put into it and all the intentionality that you've put into it. From my perspective, it seems like you have moved through the postpartum period with a really incredible energy and vibrance that I think is uncommon. And I think sometimes people just underestimate the power, just in general underestimate the power of nutrition and underestimate the power of some of these things. They seem so small, but together they make such a huge difference on how we feel day to day. And obviously you know that and, and you've put the effort in, but it's just great to see you, you know, move through it with. Even though it's been, there's been so many ups and downs and things that have been unexpected or didn't turn out the way you wanted to, to move through it with such vibrance and energy and grace. So thank you.

I mean, I would say that it's definitely like a struggle. It's not like it's not easy, but, but I would say for me being seven months postpartum and 20 weeks pregnant, that it's, I feel so fortunate to feel as good as I do.

It's incredible. Well, where can people learn more? Where can they learn about your current programs? Join the membership, get some meal planning help. Where can people find you?

So you can find me at being Brigid on Instagram. That's being. And then B R I G I D id. And if you're interested in looking into the being collective, you can find that at thebeingcollective Co.

Awesome. Well, I know I'll be there, so hopefully I'll see some of you guys there too. Thank you again so much for joining me and just sharing with such vulnerability your whole experience. I think that oftentimes too people can look to experts or people who know so much about a certain area and think that, oh, they must be perfect, but, but you are doing so much more than most. But you also do have a lot of grace for yourself and realize the importance of, of trying to or of just not, not having perfection is the goal. Um, so I think that's really, really beautiful.

I, I, I struggled with it a lot. It's so easy to compare yourself to people on social media, especially people that are like nutritionists that, you know, have it figured out or appear to have it figured out. And it's so important to remember that it's a highlight reel when you're looking at people on social media and, and you know, they might not be sharing all the struggles that they're experiencing behind closed doors. And so just, you know, remembering that it's not an easy journey for anyone and everyone's just doing their best I think has really helped me.

Totally, totally. I love it. Well, thank you so much, Bridget.

Thank you for having me. Julie.

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