#167: Syncing Your Cycle with the Hormone PUZZLE with Dr. Kela Smith

Hey beautiful, it's Dr. Tabatha. I want to share something with you that I believe God is doing right now in women's health. We're in the middle of a massive movement and most people don't even know it. Every single day, 6,000 women in the U.S. enter menopause. That's over 2 million women a year, and by 2030, that's more than 1.2 billion women worldwide. So here's the thing, most of these women feel exhausted, bloated, anxious, disconnected from themselves, and the medical system is Doctors are handing out prescriptions and quick fixes, and no one is helping women heal from the root cause of their issues. That's where Fast to Faith coaches come in. As a certified coach, you'll be equipped to help midlife women balance their hormones, heal their gut, regain their energy, and reconnect their faith, the foundation that so many of us have been missing. And from a business standpoint, woo, this is one of the most lucrative untapped opportunities in the entire health coaching world.

That's right.

The global health coaching industry is expected to reach over $33 billion by 2023, and midlife women are the fastest-growing, highest-spending demographic in that space. Most importantly, these women stay with their coaches. They invest deeply because they are desperate for lasting transformation— body, mind, and spirit. So if you've been feeling that pull and that whisper that you're meant to do more, This is it. Now is the time to rise, to serve, and build a purpose-driven business that not only changes other women's lives but transforms your own in the process. Because when you help one woman heal, you help her family, her marriage, her faith, and her future. That's the ripple effect that we're creating with Fast to Faith. So join me, click the link to come watch this webinar. It might be the one thing that really moves the needle for you in this next— Season. I can't wait to see you in there. Hi, I'm Dr. Tabatha, the Gutsy Gynecologist. I'm a triple board-certified OB-GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey, and I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. After caring for thousands of women, I've come to realize that your gut health determines your gyn health and your overall health. And it's a super gutsy thing for me to go against conventional gynecology practice to bring you the truth. No more Band-Aid medicine, ladies. We're talking root cause resolution on this show. So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, insomnia, you name it, then you've come to the right place. And I want to be your gutsy gynecologist. So welcome.

Welcome back.

I'm really I'm really excited about this episode. A lot of you have asked me about syncing your cycle and syncing it with the moon, syncing it with activity, exercise, food. We're going to cover all of that today. I'm really excited for you to just understand how your body works and how to optimize it. It's like being a woman is your superpower. The fact that you have these hormones that ebb and flow, they can be Used against you or for you. So we need to come into an age of embracing this fact and using it to our advantage. The more that you understand what your body's doing each day of the month and what it requires and how to help it thrive, like, you can really do some amazing things once you figure all this out. So I'm really excited. We're going to dive into all of this today, and you're going to want to share this with all of your friends. And go over to Instagram and see the graphics that we've made, because the more that you understand this, I promise you, the easier life is going to be. If you are in harmony with your hormones, life is better. So I'm going to just sing my praises for Dr. Kayla Smith. She's my guest today. She's a holistic integrative fertility and hormone doctor. She holds a PhD in natural and holistic medicine, as well as a double board certification Certification as a Doctor of Natural Medicine and a Doctor of Humanitarian Medicine. She's a board-certified functional nutritionist and a 5-time board-certified health coach. She founded the Hormone Puzzle Society and the Fertility Coach University. That's pretty awesome. So she's going to talk about her personal battle with fertility and how she came to create this Hormone Puzzle Method, which really helps you optimize your cells' cycles. And we're going to get into the details so that you can start putting this into practice in your own life today. We're also going to talk in more detail about how minerals affect how our body is functioning. And that is one of the really uncovered reasons that isn't evaluated very much, definitely not in conventional medicine, but even in functional medicine, not so much. So we're going to talk about All of that. So she has over 25 years of experience as a professional fitness trainer and wellness educator. She's created 7 courses and published multiple books on fertility, hormones, pregnancy, and total body wellness. Her recent book, The Hormone Puzzle Method: Optimizing Pregnancy, has all of her tips for a healthy, happy pregnancy. So it's pretty awesome. I have been on her podcast, The Hormone Puzzle Podcast, so check that out. And she's going to talk about, you know, if you want to work one-on-one with her, we're going to talk about that. It's in the show notes. But let's dive into how to understand your cycle, what's happening, how to optimize your workouts, your diet, your fertility, or life after menopause. Really good episode. So here we go. Well, welcome, Coach Kayla, to the Gutsy Gynecologist Show.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Happy to be here.

Oh, I'm really excited about this conversation because no matter how much I talk about hormones, I keep getting asked more questions. Like, it is such a complex system to try and understand, and it affects everything for us as women, right? So I love that you've kind of created this puzzle and you've put it all together. I want us to unpack all of it today. So I would love for you to share with my listeners what got you into this, because sharing our story is what connects us, right? And I feel like everybody can always learn from each other and take something from that and change going forward, right?

For sure.

For sure.

So this all started out of my own personal struggle with infertility. I met my husband. We thought it'd be super easy to get pregnant. And we hear our whole lives, you have sex, you get pregnant. I thought that's what happened. That was not the case for us. And so we went to— we tried for about 3 to 6 months, went to our doctor. She ran a bunch of tests, gave me the diagnosis of unexplained infertility, said, we don't know what's going on with you, but because you're 36, you have advanced maternal age, and we recommend you do IUI. And if that doesn't work, you need to do IVF. And I was like, wait a minute, you just said there's nothing medically wrong with me. I don't understand why age is my only factor, why I shouldn't be able to do this naturally. And so I left that office thinking, no, I love that we have IVF. I'm glad we have that technology, but I didn't want to start there. I wanted to end there if that was my only choice. And so I told my husband, I said, we're going to take a year. We're going to see what we can do to get as fertile as possible. And in a year, if it doesn't work, we'll go back to IUI or IVF. And so that's what we did. I dove into research and I was like, what foods do I need to eat? And granted, this is 10 years ago. This is before the Instagrams and all this stuff.

Yes.

So I'm diving into research. I'm like, all right, what foods do I need? What supplements? How is my exercise playing a role? And so I finally figured out— I think I figured out what was wrong because it worked and I ended up getting pregnant naturally. I did it not once but twice, had my second at 40. Natural births for both children. Now those boys are 10 and 7. So at 40 years old with a newborn and a 2-year-old, I said, I've got to teach this stuff. I've got to make sure that no other woman suffers the way that I did. And so I went back to school and became a health coach, and I didn't stop there. A couple of years later, I became a nutritionist, and now I just got my PhD in natural medicine. So I'm now Dr. Kayla instead of Coach Kayla.

Oh, my gosh, that's so awesome. Good for you. Hearing pain-to-purpose stories. Like, you just take it and you flip the switch, right? And you make life work for you instead of against you. And that's so beautiful. And you hit on so many important things. I think that we have this cookie-cutter mentality in conventional medicine, and you come in with your complaints and here's your options, right? And unfortunately, what you described is exactly how it plays out for the majority of women. Except the end part, they don't question and say, "Hold up, let's try something else." They they trust the doctor, and rightfully so. We tell people that you can trust your doctor; they know what they're doing. They're the experts. And unfortunately, I came to realize that is not the case. And so, bravo to you, and thank you for sharing everything you've learned because it's so important for women. To realize they have the ultimate say in what's happening in their body. They actually know best. We know best, ladies. Like, you need to listen to your gut. Dr. Kayla heard her gut say, this isn't right. Something doesn't make sense. And lo and behold, you didn't need all those procedures. You didn't need IVF and spending all those gazillions of dollars. Like, That was not necessary. So share with us, because now everybody's like, well, what the heck did you do? Help us unpack all that and figure that out. What was your hormone puzzle?

Yeah. So I created the hormone puzzle around not only my frustration with what to do and feeling very out of control, like a lot of things were happening to me, and then I was like, I'm taking back my control. I wanted something that was easy and simple. I love acronyms, so I was like, I'm going to create this acronym. Well, actually, the acronym came second. The protocol came first. Just an easy way for me to remember what I can do each day that's going to prioritize my fertility, optimize my fertility and my hormones so that I can put these pieces together and get this beautiful picture of health and of fertility. And so I can go through. And so once I created that for myself, I thought this is such an easy way for others to remember what to do. They can just remember this acronym and every day kind of go through these pieces and know that they're being proactive in their fertility and in their health. So the acronym stands for P is proper whole food nutrition. U is understanding supplements. Z is zapping stress. Z or Z's, which is sleep. L is love and encouragement. E is exercise and environment. So all of those pieces I would focus on each day, which would allow my hormones to come back into balance. And that's what happened. And that's how I was able to get pregnant.

Oh, my gosh. Did you hear that? Like, she literally reclaimed her fertility just with diet and lifestyle shifts. They are really that powerful. And I think because people talk about that kind of stuff so much, it's just we overlook it. how powerful it really is. Right?

Right. I mean, those are the foundations of health. And I've even taken it a step further, and we can talk about this in a little bit. But now I dive into functional lab testing where I can look and say, okay, this is exactly what's wrong. And then we work to fix that holistically through those pieces I just mentioned. And then that's where the magic happens because we're targeted. We're not just throwing blanketed drugs or procedures. We're targeting what that person needs.

Yeah, exactly. So did you do any testing when you were going through this initially, or is this all after going on to study and get your PhD and everything?

Yeah. So initially, no, I didn't. I did basic blood work at my doctor who told me that everything was normal.

Right.

That blood work is a snapshot in time and it doesn't actually show what's going on in there. It doesn't show how hormones are being detoxed. It doesn't show— I didn't do any gut testing. I didn't know if anything was wrong in my gut. And it was because I've had stomach issues my entire life. Nobody mentioned that that was an issue. Even minerals, diving into looking at minerals and how they affect your vitamins and your hormones and all of those pieces. So 10 years ago, I didn't know any of this, but now with my PhD, I do know. So that's how I'm able to help my clients even more than I helped myself.

Wow. What do you think is the most common thing that you're seeing in functional lab testing that's really driving The dysfunction women are suffering from?

Yeah. So a lot of it has to do with hormones, obviously. But a step behind that, I feel, are the minerals. If your minerals are off, then your hormones are going to be off. But then that also ties into your gut health. So if your gut health is off and it's almost like what came first, the chicken or the egg? Is the gut health dysfunction causing the hormone imbalance, or is the hormone imbalance causing your gut to be out of balance? So it's kind of like I like to do all of those tests so we can See a full picture. Okay, what's going on in there? And then, like I said earlier, we can course correct and say, okay, these minerals are off, let's fix that. You've got dysbiosis, let's fix that. You've got a parasite, a fungus, let's fix that. The other piece too with hormones is if you do blood work for hormones, you're not looking at your detox pathways. And that's a big thing that I see. People are detoxing down the wrong pathway, especially their phase 1 metabolites. And then that's causing their estrogen to be all off, which affects their progesterone, which throws the whole hormone picture off. So definitely testing and figuring out what's wrong specifically for you and your body is key.

Yeah, without a doubt. I see that all the time in my patients. Our livers are burdened. They're overrun with so many environmental toxins. We're drinking too much alcohol, taking too many medications, all those things, right? And it all affects our hormone metabolism. So I love that you're looking at all of that and you're speaking my language. By looking at stool testing and looking at the gut. I think everything starts there. And if you're not treating that, the results are always going to be temporary. I see that a lot with people who try to get hormone replacement therapy. If you have other things going on driving that hormone dysfunction, those results aren't going to be long-term, right?

Exactly.

Oh, my gosh. So I would love to talk about how to sync with your cycle, because I remember way back in the day exercising, and some days I felt amazing, and some days it was a struggle. And I thought, it's got to be related to my period. And there was nothing about it. Now we're all talking about it, thankfully. I think women are still trying to figure out, how do I embrace my menstrual cycle, optimize my life around it, as opposed to fighting against it? Because that's what, you know, women our age were taught to just, like, ignore it, try to get rid of it, you know, whatever it takes. And that's just not the approach, is it?

No, definitely not. And I always tell my clients, my listeners to my podcast, that If you're having a painful cycle, if you have a lot of issues with your period, that's your body saying it's sounding an alarm. It's saying something is wrong. You need to listen to me. Your period should come and go with minimal pain or no pain, even pretty light to medium, 3 to 5 days, really easy. And a lot of people listening to this are probably thinking, what? No way. That's not a period. But that's what a normal period should be. And so the concept that you were talking about is cycle optimizing, which I love. Some people might have heard it called syncing with your cycle, but it's basically a functional medicine concept, and it's basically eating certain foods and doing certain activities based around your hormones. So you're either giving your body the food and nutrients it needs to make certain hormones or giving your body those foods to detox the hormones when you're ready. The same goes with the exercise piece. You're using your energy from your hormones to either work out, you know, do a little bit of a harder workout, heavier weights, harder cardio, or you're pulling back from that and working with your hormones when it's time to do more slow, gentle, restorative movements. And so that's why, like you were saying, some days are hard and some days are easier. It's because of your hormones. If they're high, it's going to be easier. You have the energy, you have the strength, your muscles are more flexible and pliable. You have that energy to work out hard. When your hormones are low, you shouldn't work out hard because you're pushing against something. It's almost like putting a square into a round hole. You're doing more damage than good. So once you learn this, you'll see bigger gains in the gym and with your exercise routine. You'll be healthier and happier. So it's a really, really cool concept. It's one I've adopted in my own life as well.

Yeah. And I think it's easy to remember if you just think about the fact that when women go into menopause and their hormone levels go down, they tend to struggle in the gym. They can no longer do things they used to do. It's because their hormones are low. So think about the fact that right before your period, your hormones are low. After you ovulate, they haven't come back up yet. They're low. So do you have certain days of the month that you tell women to do different things? I do.

Do you want me to go through the foods as well or just start with exercise?

Let's start with exercise. And for the listeners, in case you didn't know this or you've forgotten, day 1 is the first day you start bleeding, and typical period is around 28 days, right? So that's what we're going to talk about with ovulation being around 14.

Exactly. Exactly. So when you start your period, day 1 of your bleed, this is when your hormones are pretty low. So you want to focus on, like I said earlier, more low, gentle, restorative exercise. And once you start doing This, it's almost like your intuition tells you this is what you want to do. So things like yoga, walking, swimming, light weights, that's good for your period. And even taking a break, ladies, it's okay to take a break of your period. You don't have to kill yourself in the gym every day of the month. So take a break, listen to your body, and do what your body is telling you that it wants. And then as you go into follicular phase and those form— so your period, day 1 through 5 is normal for a normal period. Then follicular is usually day 6 through about 13, right before you ovulate. So this is when the hormones are starting to rise. You're starting to get ready. That follicle is getting ready. It's— you're heading into ovulation. So this is when you can turn up the intensity a little bit. You can do the spin classes, the harder exercise classes. You can do heavier weights. You'll feel stronger. So it's a lot easier to lift heavy. Also, your nervous system is more likely to not be jarred. So a spin class with loud music is not going to be as annoying to you. as it would be on your period when your nervous system is like, no, give me some yoga, music. So that's follicular. Then once we get to ovulation, this is at the peak. This is when the hormones are going to be at their highest. The hormones are about to— estrogen is telling that egg to release from the follicle. The follicle releases the egg. That's when we get progesterone coming out. And this is when we are at our peak. We're the most charismatic. This is when I say go on a date with your husband, or if you're single, go on a date, ask for a promotion. You can do the hard workouts. This is when you're running the marathons, you're doing that hard stuff. And so that's usually about day 14 through 17, depending on when you ovulate. Then as you ovulate, your hormones start to come back down, and this is when you head into the luteal phase. And so the luteal phase really has 2 weeks. To it before you start your period again or you confirm a pregnancy. So the first week as you're coming off of ovulation, you're still pretty— you can handle more, your nervous system can handle more. You can still do a little bit of a harder workout, but it's listening to your body because every woman's different. Some people, their hormones come down quicker than others. So it's really listening. If you feel like you have the energy to do a harder workout, then go ahead and do it. If not, then pull back and maybe do something a little bit less intense. Then as you get to the week before your period, If you've done well all month, this week should be fairly easy. If you have things you still need to correct and balance out, then you'll have a lot of symptoms. You'll have the PMS, the PMDD, the cramping will start, all of that, the mood swings, those type of headaches and the breast tenderness. Yes. So this is when you want to pull back again and do more slow, gentle, restorative movements. The yoga, the walking, the swimming, the light weights.

We have to bear in mind that if you are on synthetic birth control, like birth control pills, a Mirena IUD, Nexplanon rod, things like that, Depo shot, this is all going to be a little bit harder, right? Because your cycle is not actually your own hormone production. Your hormones are not being produced. So I just want to throw that caveat in there. I would love for everybody to not be on synthetic hormones and be able to hear their cycle and make their own hormones. But everybody has different needs. I mean, obviously, I got through medical school without having another baby because of birth control, so I'm not knocking it, right? But let's just throw that caveat that we're talking about your hormone production because you're not taking something to suppress your own production. I think it's worth trying to do even if you are on a birth control pill. Don't you think so? Just, I think there's so many other benefits to the structure and the consistency and the optimization of it as well.

Yes. And it might be a little bit harder for you to pinpoint exactly where you're at in your cycle because the bleed you get when you're on hormonal birth control is not an actual period bleed. But you can kind of, you know, if you're getting that bleed, then you can kind of go off the cycle phases that way. Just knowing it might not be exact.

Yeah, exactly. Okay, cool. So let's talk about food and what, when, how do we eat? Yes.

So I love, love doing cycle optimizing for my food. And it makes a lot of sense if you think about it, because your body is going to have different nutritional needs during the different phases of your cycle based on where your hormones are at. So during the menstruation phase— and I want to preface this too with saying The basis, the foundation is all balanced whole food nutrition. So that's where you should really be. So you're getting lots of fruits and vegetables, lots of colorful fruits and vegetables, lots of antioxidants. You're getting good amounts of protein, all your macronutrients, fats and carbs and all of that. So that's the basis. So with cycle optimizing, you're sprinkling in a few of these foods during these phases of your cycle to give your body these nutrients during the time that they need it the most. So menstruation phase, this is more about you want to eat higher protein. You are bleeding, so you're losing a lot of your iron. So you want to eat meats and different things if you're not a vegetarian or a vegan. If you are, you want to make sure you're getting a lot of protein through lentils and beans and different things like that. You want to eat warmer foods during this time, and this means temperature warm. So it's helping the blood not to be stagnant. It's helping it to be flowing and a good consistency. So that can be soups and stews, or that can be warming foods that are actually warming, like cinnamon, like a spicy food, like ginger or something like that. Then as you move into follicular, this is when you can do more colder foods. You can do the salads and the fresh fruits and vegetables, really amping up those colorful fruits and vegetables. I always tell people, try to do like 5 to 7 a day, if possible, of different colors. Fill that plate every Every meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner should have multiple colors of vegetables on it. So that's for follicular. You really want to give the body what it needs so the follicle can grow appropriately and the hormones can be balanced where they need to be for the follicular phase. Then during ovulation, once we're about to ovulate, you want to eat high antioxidant-rich foods. So this is going to be your dark leafy greens, your berries, your colorful fruits and vegetables again. You want to protect the egg as much as possible because remember, eggs are cells and we want to protect ourselves from free radicals that are going to damage those cells. So the antioxidants are going to help with that. And then when we go into luteal, it's more about detox. You want to help your body to naturally detox these hormones, especially your estrogens. So eating phytoestrogens where the legumes and polyphenols, so lettuce and capers, Detox-friendly things like high fiber foods. I'm a big gluten-free girl, so getting your fiber through things that aren't gluten rich and then things like onions, garlic, fennel, ginger, that kind of thing will help you to naturally detox. High fiber as well. So, yeah, so that's kind of the foods. And I also sprinkle in a little bit of seed cycling into that too. But that's a whole nother topic. If we want to go into that, we can.

Yeah, we can touch on that. I think we get a lot of questions. People are always wondering if it works, and I say it can only help you, right? Why wouldn't you add it to your regimen and do everything you can to optimize your cycle?

For sure. And I've seen great results out of seed cycling. I mean, just cervical mucus production is up and people feel better. And I find the reason why it works, well, one, it's whole foods, so you're adding in more whole foods. But 2, a lot of people are deficient in the micronutrients that the seeds are rich in. So things like magnesium and zinc and selenium, fatty acids, all of these seeds are rich in this, in these nutrients, and a lot of people are deficient. So, yeah, so seed cycling is similar to cycle optimizing, but you break your cycle in half. So the first half of your cycle, the day you bleed to the day before ovulation, that's going to be the first half. You're going to do flax. Flax and pumpkin seeds, 1 to 2 tablespoons each. You want to grind the seeds. I like to grind them together to make a powder because I feel like it's easier to throw that into something. But you're grinding the seed because what we really want is the oil, not just the seeds, but the oil. Yes, you can eat them, that's fine, but you're going to get the biggest benefit if you grind them and get the oil. That's the first half. And the second half of the cycle would be the day you ovulate to the day before you start your next period. And this is going to be black sesame seeds and sunflower Again, grind them together, get the oil. We do black because black is going to be the highest in magnesium, which is what we're trying to do in this phase. So, yeah, so that's seed cycling. And there's some companies out there that do the seeds for you if you're just like, that sounds like way too much work. So, yeah, seed cycling, and you'll find the brands that do that.

I think that you hit on a really important point. The minerals, they're like the little spark plugs of our bodies. Everything needs to come into the cell or go out of the cell. And literally, those processes can't happen without the minerals helping them move, right?

Exactly. Yes. And the minerals, if you're low in your minerals, if your minerals are not balanced, then your hormones are going to be out of balance, especially your thyroid and your adrenal glands. Minerals play a huge role in those 2, especially.

Yeah, I tend to see a recurring pattern of too much calcium, not enough magnesium, no potassium, and oftentimes too much copper. Like, totally off. Are you seeing that same pattern a lot of the times?

Yes. Calcium shell. I mean, that's like the number one thing. The adrenal, it affects your adrenals. And then the copper toxicity, it's I mean, and talk about birth control and vaccinations. I know we don't want to get into that, and they're high in copper, so be careful with that.

Yeah. One morning I was working out in my basement. I was laying on the floor and I looked up and I realized I had copper piping and I had no idea. My house is 10, 15 years old. It's not that old. And I started having heavy periods after I moved into this house and it all just clicked in that moment, laying on my floor going, oh my gosh, I have copper piping. That is my problem. And you don't think about that stuff, right? Like, if my ceiling would have been finished in that section of the basement, I would have never known.

Exactly.

Just assumed.

Yep. And you would have gone to your doctor probably, and they would have said, oh, you're normal. It's in your head. There's nothing wrong with this. Blood work looks fine. You're like, wait a minute. No, There's something going on here.

Yes. And I will just say, conventional doctors, we don't understand minerals to the depth that we should. Even though I worked with them as an obstetrician, I would give IV magnesium in very high doses for preeclampsia and preterm labor, 2 grams an hour. Like, we're giving high dose magnesium. But I truly didn't understand all the complex interaction going on with zinc and calcium and copper and all those other micronutrients. And so your doctor is not going to get any of this, is my point. If you say, I think my copper is too high and it's causing estrogen dominance, they're going to look at you sideways and tell you that's crazy talk, right?

And here's the thing, too. Minerals don't show in blood. Blood is homeostatic and it's always balancing itself. So the minute you test it, it's changed. 2 seconds later. So you need to test minerals through tissue like hair because they're stuck in the hair. And so blood, if you test and your doctor's like, yeah, your minerals are fine, but you have symptoms, you might need to test further.

Yeah. I like to tell women blood is just a transport mechanism. It's trying to get things to places. That's not where the action is happening. The action is happening in the cells. So, yes, I agree. We got to be checking the hair for your mineral ratios, heavy metal burden. I love that you're doing all of that. Are there any obvious pictures that you see pretty commonly with mineral imbalances that someone could just go, oh, I have those symptoms, maybe I should try this to see if I can balance it? Or do you always recommend testing? Yeah.

So if you're having any symptoms that are unpleasant that you're like, something's going on here, but I don't know what, maybe you've done blood work, maybe you haven't. Something's going on here. I see a lot with the adrenal dysfunction. I see a lot with the thyroid issues, usually, and especially if you've had— well, a lot of doctors don't believe in adrenal fatigue or chronic fatigue syndrome. So if you've gone to the doctor and like, I'm super tired, and this isn't just I'm tired, I had a couple of bad nights of sleep. This is I am exhausted all the time. I can sleep 9, 10 hours and I wake up exhausted. That's adrenal dysfunction or chronic fatigue syndrome. Chronic fatigue syndrome. So that's one I see a lot. Also the thyroid. I see a lot of people with issues with thyroid. They go to their doctor, they test their blood, everything's normal, but they feel like shit. So that's another one I see. So I would say if you're having any symptoms, low energy, inability to lose weight, even if you're eating right, period issues, skin issues, if you're having acne, psoriasis, rashes, any of those things, I would say let's do some testing to see what's going on in there. Yeah, if you can afford it, do all 3, mineral, gut, and hormone. If you can't, sometimes I'll just start with the mineral test because it's the least invasive and it's the least expensive. And then we can kind of get the minerals working, then we focus on gut, then we do the hormones, or vice versa, depending on symptoms.

Yeah, I love that. That's so good. And I think it's also important people feel better when they start seed cycling because we're not getting those basic minerals out of our food. In this day and age, all of the vegetables are depleted. The soil is depleted of those minerals. And so even if you're eating those brightly colored vegetables, you might not be getting all the minerals that you need. You might be just barely getting the vitamins, and then that's assuming your gut is absorbing them efficiently, right?

Right.

So I find that essentially everybody needs supplementation in this day and age. Unfortunately, that's just how it has to be if you want to actually be optimized. So I love all of this. This is so helpful. Oh, my goodness. What else do we need to talk about?

Stress.

Everything.

Everybody's stressed. Either physical stress. There's a lot of illness and sickness and injuries going around, but then also mental and emotional stress just from the world we live in. So definitely touching on stress is important.

So what do you say to women when they say, oh, I know my life is stressful, but I can handle it?

Well, I would say if you're having any symptoms, then you might not be handling it like you think you are. And I feel like a lot of women, especially Type A's, we're just like, we'll handle it. We push it down. We take care of everybody else but ourselves. And so I would say if you're having any symptoms, let's take a deeper look and really give, give your life a hard look and say, is there anything in my life that's not serving me that can go on the back burner or that can go away? Like, obviously, I always make this joke that you can't get rid of your mother-in-law or quit your job, but you can put up a boundary on how you let those things affect you. So let's take a real hard look at our lives. And then are you doing things to nourish yourself, to nourish your central nervous system and your mind? Are you meditating? People roll their eyes when I say that, but if you look at the thousands of studies around meditation, it works. You have to do something to calm your nervous system and to calm your mind. So meditation, journaling, deep breathing, taking a walk in nature. Are you doing those things on a consistent basis? And if you're not, let's add some of that in.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. So important. You have to get control of your nervous system because it really is driving your gut health, which is affecting everything, your adrenals, which is affecting everything in your hormones. So, oh my gosh.

Transmitters, all of it. It's all connected.

Exactly. So when women sign up to work with you and they start seeing their own puzzle with all of the testing that you're doing, How long does it usually take for them to feel some major shifts going on?

Yeah, so normally most people will see a shift within a month. Like, you're starting to feel better, you're starting to get some positive results. I mean, sometimes it's as simple as adding in the nutrients that you're missing, adding in some of these key minerals. It's as simple as that. Getting your adrenal glands to kind of calm down and not be as overactive. Sometimes it's 30 days, but then it doesn't stop there. I always tell my clients, this isn't a quick fix. This isn't a diet you're on, and then after you're working with me, you're back to your old life. It's not that. This is a lifestyle shift. And so you will see results within about 30 days, but then we're going to keep going so your results get better and better.

Did you hear that? Like, that's super important. It's a lifestyle shift. You're changing who you're becoming. You can no longer keep living the way that you were if you expect to have better health and to function differently. And that is really important when it comes to fertility. I do case reviews for a fertility group, and I see that quite often, this mindset of like, let me get through the program to get pregnant, and then I'm going back to my old ways. And you just, you can't do that, right?

Nope, you can't. And a lot of times I find people, once they start to live healthier and they learn some of these habits, they don't want to go back to their old ways. They feel so amazing. They're just like, this is my new life. But it is a mindset shift and you have to be ready for it and you have to be ready to kind of put in the work in the beginning. So once those habits are more ingrained, it becomes easier.

Yeah. I mean, when I gave up gluten, it It was shocking how much better I felt. And then when I tried to eat it, it was so much more obvious because I had cleaned up my system. I was no longer in chronic pain. And so reintroducing that pain through the gluten was so much more obvious. And then it was easy. I was like, oh, no, I choose not to do that anymore. I choose not to be in pain and eat gluten. So I think give it enough time to clean up your system. Give it a chance. Like you said, 4 to 6 weeks, you'll really start to feel that shift and you won't want to go back, right?

No, not at all. And that's the thing, too. Now more than ever, it's easy to eat gluten-free. It's easy to eat healthy. I can show you a recipe for any food that is a bad food and how to make it healthy. You can do that. There's so many resources online. You just have to dive in. And if you're like, I'm never giving up mac and cheese, well, find a recipe that's healthy, that's gluten-free, that you can make. can still enjoy your food that you love. So it's easy now more than ever.

Oh my gosh. So important. The last thing I want to talk about, I keep getting asked, is how do we sync our cycles with the moon? And I think this is a really cool concept that used to be commonplace, right? I mean, if you look back through history, we would refer to the moon and to everything going on in nature to keep us in balance. It hasn't been until recently with this advanced society in these past couple generations that we've really lost all of that connection. And I want women to get back in tune. I want them to listen to their body and to reconnect with nature and with their higher power. And I think—

Yeah.

Syncing with the moon cycles is like the coolest, easiest way to do that, is it not? Yes.

So this is for anybody that's not having a cycle, whether it's you're not having a cycle and you're supposed to have a cycle and you're trying to get it back on track, or you're in menopause or you're pre-cycle, you haven't had a cycle yet, you're a young girl. This is a really easy way to kind of align yourself with the Earth's natural energy. So that your body starts to become in homeostasis. And even though you're not going to bleed, you have a cycle and you're still flowing. Those hormones are still fluctuating. So the way that it works is a new moon is your cycle. So this is when you would be on your period, is when the Earth is in its new moon. And what's really cool too is the moon phases run at about a 28-day cycle phase, and the phases of the moon are about the length of our cycle phases.

That's not a coincidence.

Right. Not a coincidence. So the new moon is our period. Then the waxing moon is going to be our follicular phase. The full moon is going to be ovulation, and the waning moon is going to be our luteal phase. So those 4 phases, you can Google phases of the moon. What phase are we in right now? And just start eating, like I said earlier, and doing your exercise and activities based around those phases. And you'll start to notice your body is going to become in sync. going to be more homeostasis. It's going to be less symptoms. I have people that are in menopause that do this that are like, oh my gosh, I was having all these hot flashes and night sweats and my weight was all over the place and now it's just all balanced out. So it's a really cool thing. And then the other piece of that too is that you're connecting with the Earth's natural energies, which you can look at energy medicine. The energy medicine of the Earth is similar to the energy in our bodies. And so that helps to balance all of that out as well.

Yeah, I think if you can really tap into that and get your energy flowing through you, stop all the blockages in your chakras and everything else, and the energy is moving, it's flowing with the universal energy, life is going to be so much easier. It's not going to feel like an uphill battle all the time. Right. And I know this sounds woo woo to some people, But literally, it is science. It's quantum physics. It is energetic medicine. It's been studied. It's being studied. It's a real thing. And if that's something you're interested in, I just invite you to take a deep dive and start looking into it a little bit more. And you might be surprised at how you just start thriving and really shifting, right? For sure.

And energy medicine has been practiced by every different medicine modality all around the world, from every culture for thousands, millions, since the beginning of time.

Yes.

So some people are like, that's super woo woo. But no, if you start diving into it, like you said, you'll see that it's really based in science.

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Well, you are just a wealth of knowledge. Thank you so much for all of this and helping us understand How to get in sync with our cycles better. Because I say just embrace being a woman. Stop fighting it. Stop acting like you're a little man. Like, use it as your superpower instead of working against you, right? So how can women work with you if they want to do some one-on-one deeper dive and get into all of this? Sure.

So the best place to find me is on my website, and I'm at coachkayla.com. There you can find— I have 3 different free guidebooks. One is around cycle optimizing and our Cycle Optimizing Quick Start Guide. So it goes in deeper into what we talked about here today. Definitely grab that. And then that will prompt you if you want to book a call with me to talk further. I'll hear your story, I'll learn more about you, I'll tell you my recommendations for what I think would help you the best, and then we can kind of go from there. We have packages, we have one-on-one, we have a membership club. We have a podcast called The Hormone Puzzle Podcast. And then I also am on Instagram. That's my favorite playground. And I'm at Kayla_HealthCoach.

Awesome. I'll have all those links in the show notes. People can connect with you because there's literally no reason not to feel good and live an amazing life. There's women like you, women like me. We're going to help you get there. It's totally doable. It's just you have to take that back into your own hands, right? For sure, for sure.

Well, thank you so much, Dr. Tabatha. This has been fun.

Yeah, thanks for coming on. Oh my gosh, that was really good. I hope you got a great understanding just of your menstrual cycle and how you can work to optimize your life using this knowledge. And just working with your cycle as opposed to fighting against it all the time or trying to get rid of it or mask it or whatever. Like, let's embrace the fact that we are women and that we have the amazing ability to create human life. Like, that is so amazing. And there's superpower in all of that. So if we can really optimize our cycle Even after menopause, like we said, syncing with the moon phases. Like, just embrace the fact that you are a cyclical woman and your life is going to thrive. It's going to be so much better. So I thought that was an amazing episode. I hope you got a ton out of that. And make sure that you are following me on Instagram @thegutsygynecologist. You can also follow me on Facebook and TikTok, but Instagram is where I love to hang out. And my social media graphic designer makes amazing graphics that we put up and we share all of this information so that you have it at your fingertips. You can go back and say, oh, that's where in the cycle that I'm supposed to be eating this food and moving my body this way. Like, all of That stuff is up on Instagram for you to refer to. It's like an amazing reference. You can take a screenshot and keep the little graphics that she makes. It's so helpful. So share this with everybody you know. Every woman needs to understand their body and how it's functioning and how to optimize it. So let me know what you thought of this episode. If you feel compelled To just take 30 seconds out of your day, I would appreciate it. You could go give me a five-star review and let me know how you're feeling. That tells iTunes that this is important to you and that you really care about your body and your health. So go out, have an amazing kick-ass week. Bye, ladies.