#123 Escape the Blood Sugar Roller Coaster with Dr. Mariza Snyder!

The information provided in this podcast is educational and not intended to diagnose or treat medical conditions. Dr. Donnie Wilson struggled for decades to solve her numerous health issues and heal her body. But with focused determination, she healed herself and in doing so, she discovered the Dr. Donnie stress recovery Protocol. On this show, you're going to hear from doctors, nutritionists and Experts along with Dr. Donnie who will give practical advice and wisdom to help heal your body. This is how humans heal.

Hi, I'm Dr. Donni Wilson. Welcome to How Humans Heal. And I'm so excited to introduce you to my friend, Dr. Marita Snyder today. She is amazing best selling author, including the book you see there with her, the Menopause Solution. And today we want to talk about, well, especially fatigue, a lot. What causes us to feel fatigued and burned out and some of the cool things that Marita has discovered to help her manage her energy levels because she's a super busy mom as well. Thank you so much for joining me today, Marita.

Yes, yes, yes. I'm so happy to be here. I've been looking forward to this all day. Girl. I put some earrings on and everything.

I love it.

Oh my gosh, I'm looking forward to it too. And you know, fatigue is such a common symptom. I think so many of us sort of try to power through the day with enough energy to get the things done that we're wanting to get done, but often reaching for caffeine or reaching for something else to stimulate us. And like, what else can we do with that? I mean, so talk us through. Like, what are some of the things that you think about when it comes to fatigue and helping people to understand what else we can do to keep our energy levels up?

Oh, yeah. Well, I think that energy, Dr. Donnie, it's the ultimate currency. What woman, what person do you know or you know, who doesn't want more? Give, give me all of it and hook me up with some bon. What I'm saying, like, I will take all of it because who doesn't need or want more energy, right? And most of us aren't even operating at a place where they feel like they've got energy to spare. Like, oh, girl, I can give you some. No, no one's feeling like that. And there was a time where I had, I literally had an energy rock bottom. I had severe chronic fatigue, the kind of fatigue where I didn't even know if I was going to get out of bed in the morning to go and function in the world. And yet, like so many other people, you Some will your way, fight your way to the bathroom to brush your teeth, to like, kind of not look at yourself because, you know, you're like, don't. I don't even know who that person is anymore. To just muscle your way out the door, you know? And obviously caffeine and sugar helped back then to get me out the door. But I remember just thinking to myself, this is when I was 30 years old. And I thought, this is young. This is young. Maybe not when I was like a 30 year old, when I was 15 seemed a little bit older, but when I was 30, I was like, there are many more years left in my life and there is no way that I am going to make it through, gosh, my 50s at this way. At this way of operating. And so I had to really dig deep and figure out, how did I get here? How did I blast through my 20s and land with severe chronic fatigue at 30 years old? And I spent the next three years really parceling out, what is it? What is it? And initially I remember getting a diagnosis of, well, girl, initially, someone just gave me birth control pills and Xanax. And they were like, that'll fix it. And I was like, that doesn't know. That's not going to fix my energy issue. I need a real solution. I need someone to give me more. Is there a mitochondrial injection we can all just get. I could just get a couple million more of those delivered to themselves.

What you're describing is, I think, what a lot of people do, right? Where I go to the medical doctor or the gynecologist, and then they're like, oh, here's some medications you can take, or even like a stimulant, like Adderall or something. And then you're like, well, let me go to the IV clinic and see what they can inject me with, Right? Like we're trying to, like we're searching for. How are we supposed to navigate life when we're feeling so exhausted and it's. And we're supposed to. We think we're supposed to be able to do it all.

Well, what I really discovered a couple things were my big aha moments, Donni, which were one, initially, I really thought that it was stress, that it was me running as a Tasmanian devil with lip gloss on. For as long as I can remember, even high school, I was racing against the clock and I was in just this ultimate survival mode. And that was. I would say that was the underpinning driver of how I ended up on the floor, you know, Mack trucked in chronic fatigue mode at 30 years old. But then I was doing some just kind of reflection within the last year or so because as I'm turning 43 in just a couple of weeks, less than a couple of weeks.

Happy birthday.

Thank you. And you know when we hit these numbers, you know, the 40s, I am just like making sure everything is working right. I am optimized. I am a toddler mom right now. Like I am doing the biggest things for my health and we are going to talk a little bit about what I found to be the biggest needle movers. But as I was looking back in those 20s and thinking to myself, man, that, that my operating in the stress response system, my being addicted to stress, I don't the only reason why I hit rock bottom. The other thing I looked at more profoundly because I grew up in the 80s, I ain't gonna lie. Do the, do the math. 43. You know, I grew up with pop tarts. I grew up with cornflakes and sugar. Like in Viscous, like we had a huge sugar bowl on the table. We must have been, we must have kept, you know, I forget like what is the big sugar company? Cnh. We must have kept them in business personally in my family, you know what I'm saying? We made Kool Aid every single weekend. It was gross. Like how much sugar were consum. But then in high school again I was racing. Like name any role that one could have in high school.

I had it as everything on the list.

Huh? Soccer player. I mean in drama, honor society, mock trial, debate girl. I was in school in high school from 6:30am to 6pm every single day. Like I was doing the most. And I remember ending every single day at high school with a York Peppermint Patty and a Diet Coke. This was my going before soccer game snack. You know what I'm saying? Oh my gosh.

So you're basically running on sugar.

And I was literally on the perpetual blood sugar roller coaster. Easy, easy. My entire 20s, there was not a day that I was not on the roller coaster. Up and down, up and down, up and down. I was literally chasing blood sugar spikes and crashes. And I had no idea it was no wonder my cycle was off. No wonder I was so hangry. I was ready to hurt somebody if I didn't get a snack at 2:30 in the afternoon. No wonder I was lagging in the morning every single day. Eventually you could only ride the blood sugar roller coaster for so long before your blood sugar just crashes. And I think that was the culmination Of I had been riding this stress train and then feeding the stress monster with York peppermint patties and diet soda.

Oh my gosh. Now you can look back at it and laugh, right? But you're like, what? Of course I felt bad.

Of course I was going to fall apart at 30. Of course my hormones didn't work anymore. Of course my menstrual cycle was all over the place and I had the worst PMS symptoms. Of course I was struggling. And I see some, I'm not sure how often you see this too, but I. So many women, so many lab reports really speak to the same thing. We are trying to self medicate with whatever energy substrate we can get our hands on to just get through the day. And you know, and often not realizing that we're constantly triggering up our stress response system.

Yeah. Even with the blood sugar roller coaster, it's just like, then you're just like, then the cortisol is following right behind the cortisol roller coaster. And it's just. And it feels good at for a little bit, you know, first.

At first it feels good like superwoman. At first you're like, look at all these lists I'm checking off. Look at all the to dos I'm handling at first. But you, but there's something in you that says, you know what, this is not sustainable.

And I really hope that people are listening to this today who may be experiencing what I experienced for well over a decade and are thinking to themselves, huh, Yeah, I don't know if this is going to be sustainable if not. And I just don't want you to get to the breaking point that I got to 35 pounds overweight, severe mood swings, PMS symptoms, couldn't function, couldn't wake up, really couldn't even serve my patients because I was too tired. I remember taking naps multiple times during the day in between patients because I was just so tired. Right.

Yeah. That's the thing. And it can cause not just energy fluctuations, but mood fluctuations. I see it so much like a person might be diagnosed with bipolar, for example, but it's so much of it comes down to blood sugar fluctuations. And so sometimes if you're listening and there might be a diagnosis, but we're going to look at it as what's really creating those symptoms and how much of it could be from blood sugar imbalances, whether it's from what you're eating or drinking, that might be high in sugar or other. Like even cortisol levels can disrupt blood sugar levels. So it becomes this Complex web of that ends up creating this, like you're saying, mood, hormonal and weight gain.

How did you break the pattern, Rachel? I mean, I know. I'm excited because I know you've been using these wearable devices to help you. There she goes.

A continuous glucose monitor. Well, the first thing I will tell you, Dr. Donni Wilson, I started. I did all the things. I am a straight A student. I'm a great student. Obviously, I am just in survival mode. I check all of my. I'm like, give me the. Give me the. Give me the protocol. I will follow it to a T. But what I didn't realize is that a great underpinning of what was happening to me was a lot of my adapted responses as a child. I have a lot of severe childhood traumas, childhood abuse. And my little Marisa learned a lot of adapted strategies and a lot of survival strategies. Little did I know that I was just operating automatically in those strategies and that they were ruling the roost, like they were controlling my actions. And society really well rewarded me for my driving myself into the ground. So I kept getting all these accolades, and I was honestly, whatever Marisa learned at 5 years old or 10 years old, man, it's working for me. So let's just keep doing it until it didn't. The first thing was identifying that I was being driven by a lot of. A lot of adapted trauma triggers or drafted trauma behaviors, and I had to start cleaning those up.

I'm so glad you're mentioning that because it's true. Sometimes it's those points in our life where we go, why am I doing this to myself? Why am I pushing myself so hard? Why am I so driven to do more and be being willing to take in substances to try to do, to get there to do what?

Yeah.

And we start to realize, oh, this is how our nervous system was trained from a young age. And how do I. What do I do about that now?

Yeah, exactly. And this is. As you know and I know you talk a lot about this. This is a whole different conversation. I want to do focus. I really want to do focus on blood sugar hacks today. But I also wanted to just be real of what there was a deeper driver. The reason why I ended up on the blood sugar roller coaster. Were trying to operate. And it had everything to do with self worth or a lack thereof or everything to do with a lack of self love as well. And I had learned from an early age that my productivity and my success and my next dragon slain, whatever that was, was what allowed me to feel worthy. And so again, same as following the protocol to a T. It was still the same behavior. And so what I found in those three years is I kept landing back on the ground, even though I was doing the yoga and I was eating the foods and I was doing the things, I was checking the boxes, but I was doing them the same way I had always done everything. So I used to have a phrase that I said that I am retiring. It is how you do one thing is how you do everything, and it is a success phrase. And it was really how I operated. Like, how I show up here is how I show up everywhere. And the other one that I'm retiring is the standard is the standard and the standard, you know. And so that's caused me a lot of disruption in my relationships, you know, because my standard necessarily be my partner standard. And that standard wasn't good enough, you know.

And so, yeah, had to kind of like. And that's the thing. Sometimes we have to relook at some of our. Either our beliefs or kind of like these defining phrases that sometimes is in the back of your mind. And sometimes you don't even realize, like, until you kind of stop and say, and someone says even to you, why are. What is really motivating you? And then you realize, oh, there's this phrase in my head that I chose way back when. And I just keep going for that. And then you start to reevaluate and go, is that even true now? Is that actually serving me?

No. Well, definitely. That's the real question. Is it really serving me? Is what worked for me then, even working for me now? Or is it actually a massive disservice? And it was. It's 1, 100%. Gosh, no one wants to live by that standard, not even me anymore. You know what I'm saying? Like, I just. And one, my body can't even do it anymore, let alone, you know, operate. And so, yeah, it's really looking at those belief systems, looking at those things that are driving you to feel worthy. And can't we just feel worthy just being who we are, just being present on this earth, that you're just a gift as you are. And I know that that feels so easy, and it's such an easy thing to say, but, like, to really embrace it? I just. It's one thing I think we all deserve to embrace.

And I think you're making a really good point. That likely behind a lot of addictions, whether it's an addiction to sugar, addiction to stress, addiction Whatever we might want to come up with, it comes back to how do we be more accepting and compassionate of ourselves and self loving, as you're mentioning. And in that way, we're less likely to turn to some external substance or activity to try to give us that sense of accomplishment or worthiness. So I think that's really important because if sometimes the fatigue is literally our body saying, I can't keep up with this standard or this belief anymore, I need a break.

Exactly. I need a break. Listen to your body. Your body is telling you a lot that it needs a break. I promise you I want to do. I am going to shift a little bit of the conversation because what I do know to be true is two facts. Number one, 133 million of us as adults are insulin resistant, which means a lot of people in the US alone. Number two, over 90% of us have glucose spikes to the diabetic range, type 2 diabetic range, at least once a week, if not multiple times a week. And we have no idea that it's happening because it's not meant to even be on our radar. Doctors, the medical system, we're not looking at blood sugar issues until you are pretty much type 2 diabetic. That's when we start to care. And that is not good enough, especially for women, because it affects insulin resistance. It doesn't have to be prediabetes, it doesn't have to be type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance before it even gets to those levels causes disruption in our metabolic function, our energy, our menstrual cycle, across the board. How we show up and feel every single day has everything to do with what's going on with our blood sugar levels. I wanted to share some five simple hacks on what we can do to just love up on our body, to upgrade our energy and to support our metabolic health on a cellular level.

If that sounds good to you, I love it.

I love it.

And I love that you're bringing awareness to this because you're right. It's often like we're not aware of our blood sugar because we're normally we're not testing it. Or maybe you go to the doctor's office and get blood work once a year. And if some doctors will check a hemoglobin A1C but not all of them. And what I often see is even if a practitioner checks checks hemoglobin A1C, they're not going to say anything until it's over 5.7. But really we need to be looking at it way before it gets to 5.7. So I love that you're pointing this out and going to share with us like, okay, how can we be better health advocates for ourselves and actually get this information? Because you're probably not going to get it from the regular doctor's appointment. You're not.

And I'm just going to break down really quickly hemoglobin A1C and what those numbers are just to kind of give people a great sense. So hemoglobin A1C measures how much sugar is in the blood at a three month interval. So it can give us that three months of data. And now anything below a 5.7 is considered normal range. Now, ideally, I would love it even below 5.4. That would be an ideal range, somewhere between 4.7 and 5.4. That's a good place to be. 5.7 is technically the cutoff for prediabetes. And 5.7 to 6.2, 6.2 is the cutoff for type 2 diabetes. So if you have a hemoglobin A1C of 6.2 or higher, then you are going to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetic. So just a heads up on what that means. And I have noticed that doctors won't say anything until you're close to 6.0. They won't even flag you as a 5.7 or a 5.9. And so you really got to one request, demand a hemoglobin A1C every single year. It's a more accurate number than a fasting blood glucose. And if you really can demand a fasting insulin test as well, because it can predict insulin resistance and Prediabetes up to 10 years in advance. So we can get. So it's one thing a hemoglobin A1C will show you three months. But I'd love a bigger, more clear picture. And a fasting insulin test is actually pretty inexpensive. But you do as you know, you got to plead a case for it.

And it can be done at a regular lab and insurance should cover it. They just have to order it. So, yeah, it's like make sure that it gets included.

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Then, and then talk us through the continuous glucose monitor.

Oh yes. So what's really, really wonderful is that there are companies out there right now who are offering continuous glucose monitors, which is a cgm. You wear it literally on your arm just like this and in real time it is measuring the glucose in your interstitial fluid. It's not even in the bloodstream, but actually in the interstitial fluid. And it happens. It literally updates all the time. And what's really fascinating about wearing a CGM even for a month, you get such a great sense of what is going on. Obviously sleep has an impact on blood sugar. Stress. Oh girl, I see it. If I'm having a stressful day, it fires up. I don't have to have any carbs, any starches, any sugar. And I will see it as a recovery. Recovering stressaholic. My body knows what's up, so it'll shoot right up. Exercise, obviously what you eat is going to have a major impact on that. And so I look at mine probably five to six times a day, especially after movement, when I wake up in the morning after my meals, I just want to get a great sense of what is going on and what we've learned in studying continuous glucose monitors in people who are non diabetic, people who are not even maybe insulin resistant. We've learned a lot about metabolic health. So based on those findings that are actually being continuing to be updated because it wasn't until recently that people outside of having type 1 or type 2 diabetes were able to get their hands on a continuous glucose monitor.

Say they're usually by prescription, but is this one by prescription that you're using?

It technically is, but it's through a company called Nutrisense. So there are a couple different companies out there. I've worn levels, levels cgm. I love levels interface but I Nutrisense reached out to me and they wanted to have me give it a go how their interface worked. I love both of them. I think they're both great. Nutrisense was only Available and not in beta levels, was only in beta up until a couple months ago. So now they're both available and as long as you just you sign up, they will get you prescribed and you can start tracking what's going on with you. And they're super easy to apply. I help people over zoom apply them all the time. So really easy to do. Doesn't hurt, in case you're wondering. Doesn't hurt at all. And like my mom wears one, my husband wears one, I have all kinds of family members wearing them because it's such an insight on what is going on with your body. Now note that it's bio individual because it is on your body. But there are some general trends that we have taken from tens of thousands of people who've been wearing them now for quite some time. So based on those trends, I would love to share the five hacks that not only have moved the needle for me, but for so many women that I've been taking care of.

Absolutely. Yeah, we want to hear them.

All right, so number one, the first hack that I love, this is an easy hack. Again, just start with one of them, see which one, and then start. And guess what, you don't need to wear a CGM to apply these hacks. You don't need to know. And if you want to know if you're on the blood sugar roller coaster, there are three major symptoms. One, you are hangry earlier than you think you should be. So if you had breakfast and then at 11 o' clock you are about ready to chop somebody's arm off, then that means most likely there is a good blood sugar situation going on. A blood sugar spike and crash. Number two, you have crazy cravings and I am talking about not at breakfast, lunch and dinner, like in between breakfast, lunch and dinner. So before lunch, that 2:33pm crash or that late night snack you got to get in before bed, that's a good chance that blood sugar is also deregulated. And then the third one is lagging energy. Now remember, there could be a deeper root cause there, but you may be on the blood sugar roller coaster because of that deeper root cause like I was. And so a good sense if you're lagging at 2 o' clock in the afternoon or you're lagging when you get up in the morning, you're most likely probably on a blood sugar roller coaster as well. So those are the three major signs and symptoms. Check yourself and then here are the things that you can start doing. Number one is start every breakfast every day. With a savory breakfast. Throw away your oatmeal. I know you're thinking, everyone's told me it's heart healthy, it's diabetic healthy. It is not. It is not. Throw away the vanilla latte, the mochas, whatever. I mean, liquid sugar. It's going to raise your blood sugar real fast. Like real fast. Muffins, bagels, croissants, basically anything that's starchy, a fruit smoothie or a fruit yogurt, all of this standalone is going to just spike your blood sugar. And here's the thing about spiking your blood sugar in the morning. It sets the tone for the rest of your day. You've been fasting for 12 hours, right? And the first thing you put in the system is sugar. Ooh, girl. I'll tell you what, and this is.

The thing is this is what in America we think of as breakfast is all of these sugary carb filled things. So you're going to need to go outside of what a normal breakfast is.

No more cereal. You know, the number one cereal is Honey Nut Cheerios because it's heart healthy, cholesterol healthy and it's. I forget the three promises. Oh my gosh. I know.

It's like craziness.

It will spike your blood sugar. There is nothing heart healthy about Honey Nut Cheerios. Let me tell you. Do not do it. Do not do it. It's like half a can of soda in a serving. I know you're going to think of.

Marita and I saying this to you. As soon as you go to eat your Honey Nut Cheerios, you're going to be like, here's Dr. Donnie and Marita saying don't eat.

What do you do? You're like, great, all my breakfast foods are gone. You're right. If it says breakfast food on it, toss it. Ok, so it's going to be what we do. It's leftovers. We just make, we make enough food the night before or two nights before for leftovers. So today my leftover, I had a lamb burger with a Greek salad. And so yeah, you're thinking, do you have veggies for breakfast? You're darn right I'm talking about veggies for breakfast. So healthy fats, clean protein sources, lots and lots of fiber. Fiber is literally 50% of the obesity epidemic. That's how we fix it, is a lot of fiber. So again, leftovers or thinking about, think omelets, think a protein shake with, with, with some greens and some healthy avocado and some healthy Fat. Those are the types of things. These aren't going to. They're going to keep your blood sugar stable. It's going to set you up for the rest of the day. I promise you, you will not regret this if this is the one thing that you do. And when we spike our blood sugar in the morning, it can take up to 48 hours to rec. Spike that one spike. It's crazy how much it has an impact. And none of us, this number two, always start every meal with a veggie starter or a protein starter. So research shows that if we start with fiber or protein, that we will blunt a blood sugar response. So let's say you're going to have a meal and you're going to have a sweet potato with it. And I know you're thinking, well, sweet potatoes are so good for you. For a lot of us, it's going to spike our blood sugar. But if you have a veggie starter, like a salad with a little. With a vinaigrette on top, or a protein starter and then, then have the sweet potato on the back end, you are not going to spike. You won't spike that blood sugar like you would have if you started.

Yeah, I love that trick. I like what I do with that is I always, like, say I have. Every time I eat, I think to myself, where's the protein? Like, have a little check point, you know? And like in what you're saying, like, where's the fiber? At least where's the fiber? And. But where's the protein? Because if the protein's there. Yeah, it's like instead of a blood sugar roller coaster like this, now you're on the kiddie roller coaster. I love it.

Yes. So those Mexican restaurants where they give you the chips and salsa, when the Italian restaurants where they give you that basket of bread, say, no, it's when we set ourselves up for highly processed carbs like chips and bread out the gate. There's nothing to blend it. There's nothing to stop that from going straight into the small intestine and spiking your blood sugar. It will. Every single time. Which leads me to number three. And I'm not saying cut, cut the carbs out by any means. It's just being strategic about them. Especially as we get older, we're just more insulin resistant. Next. I want to just, I want to talk a little bit about dessert. So we just, we just threw dessert out for breakfast, right? Because all the things that I talked about was dessert for breakfast, packaged as breakfast food and honey nut Cheerios. So we do not want to start off our day with dessert and we don't want to have a dessert for snacks. So kind bars, protein bars, I've tried all of them, they spike my BL sugar every single time and I have not found a protein bar that will not do that. It is because it is processed. It is a processed product. Right. It is going to spike your blood sugar. So if you are going to have dessert, have it after you have had the full on protein, the healthy fats, the fiber, then have the dessert. And my favorite dessert is we make our own coconut whip with a little bit of cinnamon, no sugar added to just cinnamon. And then we will top it on top of some really yummy berries. So cherries have been my favorite this summer. And again if I do it after this really protein rich meal, some salmon, a big salad, healthy yummy fats like olive oil and then I have my cherries with my whip. A little baby, little baby hump, A little baby, you know, a little hill. Not a spike, you know, Incredible. So that's the thing. So if you're going to have dessert after lunch or after dinner, the best time is really after lunch because still in metabolic burning mode, your thermogenic mode in dinner. I don't know about you guys but for me at night I am way more insulin resistant and I will, I will spike. So I eat dinner earlier and I try to be really mindful of what really focusing on those, the fiber, the protein, the fats.

Yeah. And we don't realize a lot of times in the United States especially our dinner is a bigger meal with more carbs.

Right.

When our insulin is least effective it's like, like what are we doing to ourselves? Yes. Like, but the thing, I love the word strategic because once we understand how this works we can actually set ourselves up for success by just making these, these changes.

Yeah, it's not, it's. I mean what we eat is so important but how we eat it is so important especially for women as we get older. I know I'm insulin resistant and I have seen it on the CGM so many times. I know what's up. And so I just move my eating when my dinner time window, we try to eat before 6pm and it makes a world of difference. So especially if you ever get a chance to wear a CGM you can get a sense of things. Like if I eat past seven, man, it's a whole different ball game. Ok number I'm on number four, walking after meals, especially lunch and dinner. So I Talked about that lunch, that little dessert. Take a 30 minute walk or even a 15 minute walk and you will watch that curve flatten all the way out because your muscles are going to suck up all of that glucose. They don't need insulin to do that job. And so one of the things I always recommend that if there is any time to walk it is after dinner, always after dinner. So we take a walk to the beach every single night after dinner. We aim to be done by 6:30. Kingston goes down at 7:15. So we do our little walk between 6:30 and 7:15. We fit it in, it's usually 25 minutes, give or take. And my husband and I, we've been wearing our cgs, our continuous glucose monitors for a long time now. And we just watch that little curve will start to go up just a little bit and then it will just come right back down. Walking is probably one of the most powerful things that you can do. Also one of the most easiest and relaxing. It is a stress reducer. It is great for digestive motility. There are so many side benefits to just walking, connecting with nature and with your partner, your family. It is one of my favorite things to do every single day is taking a beach walk with my family. Then last one, number five is going to be consider a circadian fast. So dinner is the last thing that you eat. You get your three hours before bedtime so that you really get that restorative sleep and then within that. So let's say you finish dinner at 6 o', clock, then that 12 hour fast comes up, that circadian fast at 6am Now I'm not even up at 6am I'm not going to lie to kick it, I'm up at 7 so we don't even, we don't start doing breakfast until 7 o'. Clock. Usually my fasts are about 13 hours, but I find a circadian fast for most of us who do not have major adrenal issues or stress issues. We can tolerate it, but figure out what works best for you. Really we just want our body and our mitochondria to just get a break so that it can repair and restore and we can stabilize that blood sugar throughout the night. So that's my last recommendation, my last hack.

I love it and it is, I love how you're emphasizing that it really needs to fit for each individual and to be listening to your body and know your, how your body's responding. If you're first trying out some of these things, try them one by one. Observe how it feels to you, you know, make tweaks for yourself. But to just realize, hey, these are some of the things that I completely agree with you, Marita. Those same things have helped me with my blood sugar balancing over the years. So I completely agree. And I love those five tips. Tips for just saying, hey, let's. And you've even measured it with your glucose monitor. But you also tell us about this other device that you've been using that you like for helping manage your energy levels.

Yes. So I also have a whoop strap on. My husband got it for me for Christmas last year. He had been wearing one. And we know we have a toddler. Sleep hasn't been great. We've been co sleeping. I'm breastfeeding still as well. That's why I keep my fasting at a very smaller window because I am still breastfeeding. I always want to be mindful of that. But he finally got me one. But I was like, I don't want to my sleep score, I don't. I do. No one wants to see that. And I said, I want to see my recovery score because it was, it was, I was hurting a little bit in those, in those, those years or that first year. So finally relinquished. Put it on. And what's so cool about the whoop strap is it measures three really critical things, at least I feel like one. It measures your recovery. So it gives you a recovery score every single morning from 0% to 100%. And that really tells you what you've got resilience for that day. What is what your body battery is your body. I call it my energy tank. And so yeah, depending on my recovery, let's say I was planning to do a big peloton ride with Robin or with Cody Rigsby, whoever it was. And if I have a 25% recovery because I was up a lot that night with the baby, I'm doing that.

Not a good day for that.

Yeah, I'll see that. You want to see a spike on a cgm you over exercise, it's going to. And you have no recovery. You're going to feel that. And so it's a walk down day. It's a yoga day. It's a dance party day. It's a much different kind of day. It's a really like be gentle with myself day. Also it gives me a sleep score, as I mentioned. And it's really nice to know, like 85%, 95%, 55%, you know, and so it really gives you a good sense of like what you've Got capacity for. And then it looks at your heart rate variability, which is so, so important when it comes to stress resilience. And there are definitely days. It's amazing how much sleep really impacts these numbers. And depending on how good of sleep you had or how well you treated the day before, your heart rate variability, number is going to be great or it's going to be pretty crappy. And so it just again, this information that I love about it, it's real time every day. It gives me real time and it really tells me it'll even say it also measures strain, like how hard you can push yourself that day. And if everything else is in the crapper, it's going to be like you can do a strain of like 7 or less or less. Like that's what you've got in the tank for yourself. So but days where you're really rocking it out, you got a great sleep score, your recovery score is in the 90 percentile. It's going to say, you know what, you can hit it hard, like get the weights, do big things today. Like you can do big things. And so it really kind of tailors you to see what you have the capacity for that day. And it really gives you permission to like take it easy. Because without that information, Donnie, I'm not going to lie. As a recovering stressaholic, like I'm still known to push, you know. And now that I've got this information.

It'S major feedback and I really, I really, really listen to it because I want to be my best self. I want to be my best mama self, my best wife self. And I know that if I listen to these, this, these amazing wearable devices, I can really feel and optimize my best self.

And this is the thing is sometimes we do, it helps us to have an external measure as much as we also want to. You can even use that to help you become more aware of the internal signals. Right? Because you could look at this and you could say, hey, is what this device is telling me, can I feel that on the inside? And you start to, even helps you set your own calibration of yourself. I find. Do you see that too?

100%. When I look at the scores, I do a full on awareness check in and I'm like, oh yeah, no, I feel like a 25% recovery.

You can tell. So then you can be more honest with yourself, you know, because otherwise we, we do we kind of lie to ourselves and think, okay, I'm going to put some external expectation on myself instead of listening to myself and saying, hey, you know what, today's the kind of day where I need to take it easy or I need to do my more of my self recovery time. And I love that you're mentioning the heart rate variability because I talk about that in the master, your stress book too because it's, it's a way that we can, can again get to understand our stress response better. And how well are we giving ourselves recovery time? I mean that's the essentials of the heart rate variability is we're supposed to be able to go into a stress response and recover from a stress response in a nice flexible fashion. But if we're constantly in stress mode and not getting enough and not giving our body that recovery time, our heart rate variability is going to drop. And so we can, can see it there. Like sometimes we need that number and it's not going to show on the regular blood work. The doctor might be like, oh, you seem stressed but they're not going to, can't see it there. You have to, we have to use these other measures to really help us get a reality check of like, wow, stress is affecting me. Because I can't you see this too. So many people say to me, well, I don't think stress is affecting me right until we actually have a measure that shows us how stress is affecting us.

It's insidious. I always say that stress is the silent, we all know it's a silent killer, but it's, but it's insidious in that it's not. Stress itself is not disruptive. It's not the disruptive symptom. The weight gain that won't come off, that's a disruptive symptom. The feeling like crap when you wake up in the morning, that's disruptive. The not being able to think clearly in a presentation at 3 o' clock in the afternoon, that's disruptive. And those are all indicators of stress. Those are the symptoms of stress stress. And so yeah, it's hard for us to like pinpoint what that is. But so yeah, I mean we live in a time where we really can measure what's going on in our bodies in real time. And a lot of these devices are not that expensive or you know, and if cost is a concern, wear a CGM for two weeks to see what's going on.

You get a lot of information in two weeks.

You can, yeah, wear a whoop strap for a month. There's ways in which we can get data and information about ourselves at a bio individual level. That we can learn and then really take that awareness. I don't wear a CGM all the time. I wear one probably four months out of the year. I wear one every quarter. And so I just have it on. And that's what's nice too. I have a subscription that's quarterly, and so I wear it for a month. I recalibrate where I'm at because we all are human. Things are going to slip in and slip out, you know what I'm saying? And so I just really love to kind of do a quarterly check in with my metabolism, my blood sugar, my energy.

And then I recalibrate, I get myself back on track, and then the next quarter comes.

So tell us about your summit because now everybody get a sense of Marita and how much information you have to share.

Where can we learn more? And I know you have a summit coming up.

I do. So one of the things that I have come across in the thousands of women that I've been supporting over the years is that we often are, we're often lied to. Let's just be honest. We're lied to, we're lied to about our hormones, we're lied to about perimenopause, we're lied to about menopause, we're lied to about our energy. There's a lot of misinformation about what's going on. And we really have to advocate hard to really get the trust truth to find practitioners like yourself, right? And so there's a lot of that information that is just not readily available. And so what I did is I, you know, of all the years I've had a podcast and all the years I've known so many incredible practitioners, I brought all of them together and I really, you know, I've been interviewing people for many, many years now, and I know how to extract the information, the tips, the recommendations, the protocols that women can begin to implement. So it's an, it's a women's event, it's the hormone Relief summit. But from these talks, from these expert practitioners, some of the biggest practitioners in the world, like world renowned doctors, give their best, and you walk away from this event with actionable steps that you can take immediately. Because what matters to me is that first step. What matters to me is what do I do first? How do I know first what's going on with me and then what can I do about it? And so we're covering metabolic health, perimenopause, menopause, we're covering stress, recovering trauma, I mean, gamut, insulin resistance, all of it. So you get to cherry pick like, oh, I am dealing with this right now. I am dealing with that right now. What does this doctor have to offer me that is going to change my world? And that is exactly how the summit is curated. And it is done a theme every single day. So you can get super zeroed in on exactly what you want to address and get the solutions that you need. Literally everything that you want is in this event and that you can walk away, take to the bank and start implementing.

Mindy, I love it. It's so helpful and it's so great. This when it's like these online interviews so people can sign up and then they're each day have a theme related to hormone and really optimizing health and wellness and energy levels. Right?

Yeah. Just be able to the things we want.

Of course. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for creating it and I'm so also excited to be part of it.

Obviously we needed experts for mastering our stress. You had to be a part of it because, I mean, it' absolutely one of the biggest underpinnings for so many of us. Like, we need to, we need to get clarity on this. Why is it that I'm always like a, like a Tasmanian devil or a chicken with my head cut off? You know, why is this happening to me? And we want to get to the root cause of why. That's the real question is like, why, why is this happening? Like, we deserve answers.

I agree with you. And it's, it's. I love that, you know, we have this shared passion about just wanting people to have information that they're not going to get readily at the in standard medical system and you in believing that you deserve to have that information. So we're going to do whatever we can to help make it available to you so that you can make these adjustments, make these decisions in your life. They could really change your life now and into the future. It's amazing.

And there's going to be awesome bonuses and giveaways and like, just, just I want to create epic wins throughout the whole process so that you're like, okay, I can do this. I got this.

Oh, wow.

I can do that. Like, I want it to feel like, ok, I am stepping my way into the best health of my life. And it is done with such ease and grace. So everything that I did and we curated for this event was really how to step stone into your best life ever, your best energy ever. And so you are going to, you are going to experience a lot of Those wins throughout the whole event. And then you get to start picking and choosing. I love that there are so many great books out there. We have got great books out there. But I am like, how do we condense those right, so we don't have to read so many books? I love reading. I read a book week, so I love reading. But I wanted to take the best of the best and so that you can imagine Dr. Perlmutter's best book, Dr. Donnie Wilson's best content in her book, you know, Dr. Anna Kabeca's best content in her book. Like, that's what we're doing is we're just. I'm like, give me your best stuff. Give it to me.

I love it. I love it.

That's what it is. And we all. You have. I know you have your link, so we'll share it and get you all set up.

Definitely. And of course, if anyone who would like to follow more amazing content from you, they can go to drmita.com right? D r m a r I z a dot com and I know also I'm always following you on Instagram, but is there anywhere else that. That people should be watching out for you to learn more?

I would say the podcast. The podcast is one of the biggest women's health podcasts out there. It really gets into the nitty gritty. If you feel like you've been disillusioned or you. The truth of things are not happening. Like, I have a whole episode recently where I break down every type of birth control control and all the side effects. What, what, what's in them, how they impact your hormones, what it's doing, like, what to be looking out for so that you can make an educated decision. Like, I wish someone sat me down and was like, here's the deal. These are what these do. This is how it may impact you. Now you have an educated decision to make, you know, so that's the kind of content I love creating is like the nitty gritty. Like the conversations we're not having. I'm having. We're having. I'm having on the show.

The essentially you podcast.

Yes.

And I'll definitely put the link down below. Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much. It's so fun to get to talk this through with you. I really appreciate all of your insights and you make it fun, Maritza. You make talking about health fun and real. So thank you.

Thank you, honey.

Thanks for listening to how humans are heal.

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