Are Your Hormones Out of Balance?

Question for you. How many times have you heard my hormones are out of balance or wondered yourself if your hormones are out of balance or what that even means? Well, we're gonna answer it today in this episode, and it's potentially not the hormones that you first think about. So first of all though, welcome back to the show and welcome to the show for the first time. For those of you who are newcomers, welcome, and I'm actually very glad you're joining this for the first time, if you are, and very glad you're rejoining me for this returning guest. If this is you and you're an OG who's been around the block with us for a minute, first of all, thanks for coming back. We so appreciate it. So this episode, I bring back a community favorite, and you'll recognize the name Robin Nielsen. She does a reset program, but we're really diving into something that is basic, a basic statement you see, you hear, read it, you know, out of balance, out of balance hormones, hormone imbalance. So if you'd have a hard time struggling to put into words for somebody else the definition of that, this is for you. So we're going to literally talk not just about the sex hormones, the estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, the related to muscle hormones like growth hormone and melatonin for sleep. You will touch on many of those, but what we're really going to talk about is the critical mass that you want to focus on most and yet talked about least, except maybe in circles with a little more education. And I might be preaching to the choir. So let's dive right into it and I'll let you be the decision maker on that one. My guest today is Robin Nielsen. She's a board-certified integrative nutritionist specializing in women's health and hormone balance. She's been empowering women to become the CEO of their own health so she can feel vibrant, confident, and sexy at any age. And I know that's what we all want. What I want you to hear is this last line. She is a proud mother and grandmother recently, so I'm like in her club. Now. And so when I had a new grandbaby on the way and when I had one arrive, she was one of the first people I had to tell because I knew she got it, right? I knew she knew how that felt. And she is also a competitive tennis player, surfer, gardener, musician, passionate cook, and married to her hot, sexy lover for over 42 years. She's living proof that age is just a number, and I cannot wait you to hear the beginning of our conversation. So just a little insider tip, we record— I record this intro almost always at the end of a podcast after we've done the interview. And Robin and I had a really great talk in the green room, and I said, okay, I'm gonna go ahead and, and ask you some of those things while I'm on. Are you okay with that? And she's like, of course. So we start kind of giggling, and I think you'll have a great time with it, but she's Got a point. And just so that you know, I have trained Alexa. When I say, what's my name? She said, I'm talking to Gorgeous. So just so that you know, there's some value in that. Here we go. Oh, welcome back, Robin Nielsen.

Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.

Should we let them in on the little secret and why we're just full of laughter right now.

Absolutely, are you kidding?

So this is two women talking over the back fence, letting you listen, literally. And we were just teasing. So you, of course, have just heard Robin's bio, and there's a little fun in the end of that, you know, married to her hot, sexy lover for over 42 years. I mean, number one, don't you just love that? And I said Is that— do you use that all the time? And then I said, did he write that? Does he know you say it? Does he write that? Did he write that for you? But talk to me about that. So yeah, there are a lot of women who, number one, I could put my hand up, are not married for 42 years, didn't make it that far. So I applaud you, first of all. So I love that and celebrate women who are doing that, couples who are doing it. It takes two to make it. So talk about that a little bit and then we'll get into what you do. But this is the juicy stuff.

I know, we just want to talk about the juicy stuff because it's way more fun. And, you know, anyone who's been married for 42 years has been through it. I'm just saying, right? Those who, you know, those couples who both really want it end up making it longer, you know, but both of you have to really want it. And so anyway, yeah, we've been through it and I made relationships a real study for quite a while because we were really struggling. And so I was listening to— it was like one of the first online conferences. I don't know if you remember back that far, but it was like 2010, something like that. And it was amazing. It was beautifully done. And there were great speakers, and it was called the Love on Purpose Revolution. And there was someone who was talking about, like, making it more fun. And so you just, like, make up a name for, you know, your partner that really lights you up when they call or text you.

So literally on your phone Sexy lover.

So, so yeah, so if Eric calls me or texts me, I'm getting a communication from my hot, sexy lover. Like, who doesn't want that?

Now I get it. You said that earlier and I was not quite connecting the dots, and now I totally get it. I love that. And I don't want to skip over something that you just said that if you've made it that long, you've, you've had speed bumps. It's not just all been lovey-dovey, easy peasy. Yeah.

Oh no. Hell no.

And yet, don't you also think that most of the couples that get to the end do? And then it gets sweeter because you had that. You had to like break down almost before you could build it up.

Yeah. And, you know, and, and, you know, today, today's topic is hormones, right? And, and it has so much to do with our hormones at different phases of our lives, especially for women, especially for us, because that, you know, lovely hormone estrogen keeps us a little bit, um, trapped for a while. We don't actually really know who we truly are. So, um, you know, we We're kind of suckered into doing things that we don't want to do. So anyway, that is like a whole other conversation. But the bottom line is, because of the way we kind of roll throughout our lives, we have like 4 different very clear phases, different phases of, of sort of hormone levels. I think that it really impacts our relationships in a big way. And I got married young. So I was like 21 when I got married. And I'm a completely different person now. Completely different. Right? I mean, I still have some very innate tendencies. Right? I still am a go-go girl. I still like to say yes. But I can feel in every cell of my body now if it's a hell yes or hell no. Mm-hmm. Whereas before I couldn't, right? I was just yes to everything, to everybody. And that, that kind of is hard on a relationship.

Hmm. What, from the flip side, can you share this? And this is totally okay if the answer to this is no, because maybe you feel it's not your story to tell. But on the flip side, looking at the other partner in your relationship, was there also a change in, in him from early in your relationship to now. And so you both had to figure out, are you growing together, growing apart?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And that's where, you know, when things aren't working, you know, you hopefully come together and get the help you need. And then you figure out if you're on the same page. You know, and if you still have the same hopes and dreams and values and you still really love each other. You know, those, Basic things because it does get a little fuzzy and blurry and, you know, maybe we do want different things now. Maybe we are different people. You know, our kids are grown up. They're out of the, out of the home. You know, they're doing their own thing. They don't need us anymore. What do you want to do? What do I want to do? Like, you know, what is that? So yeah, it was a thing. And what was so funny is I never imagined that it was going to be a thing for me when the, when our boys left. But it, but we, it was, it was complicated because we had a business together too, as, as well. And so, you know, we saw each other, we commuted with each other every day, we saw each other at work every day, we had to work together every day. And then we didn't. We sold the company and then we didn't. And that was, uh, very life-changing for both of us as well. So I was prepared, he wasn't. Like, it just you know, you get thrown a lot of curveballs, and it's really how you navigate them. And communication was not a strong suit of mine, and it had to become one. And, you know, as women, we have to start asking for what we want. We have to start knowing what we want. And, you know, that, that really comes with getting way more balanced. I hear a lot of women say You know, as I started to heal and feel better, my relationships improved.

Mm-hmm.

That's what happens.

I'm so glad you said that because that was my next question when you said we have to ask for what we want. As, as a life coach— and I don't ever use that title, it was life coaching school, but that just feels like God to me, so I don't ever use that title.

Yeah.

But that was the biggest challenge for most people. It wasn't asking for what they want, it was knowing what it is.

Well, for women especially.

Yeah.

I mean, I can think way back to when I was a teenager and my best friend at the time asked me what I wanted. If I could have anything, what did I want? And I couldn't really come up with anything significant. So that sort of haunts me. We've got to know what we want for it to come our way. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so good. Okay, so let's come into this. When women feel more in sync with themselves, and hormones are such a big part of that, it's easier to define and find what it is you do want and answer that question. So if you're listening right now and you don't know the answer to that question, you're, you're reflecting and wondering, what would I say to that? This is for you. So Robin, you do this all the time. You have this infamous reset program, I know. So we're gonna dig some tidbits and nuggets out of that. But what are some sneaky, surprising signs that a woman's hormones are out of sync and she's got quote-unquote hormone imbalance? I think there are a lot of women probably walking around this way, but they don't necessarily label that or know this is why.

So any chronic thing going on for you is an imbalance in hormones. And, you know, I suffered from—

Well, that sucks.

Okay, well, kind of, except that when you know that and you know the steps to balancing your hormones, you can fix all of it. Like, how empowering is that? And I had no idea. You know, I had the big things that, you know, many of us have that was, that, you know, were embarrassing and I felt really uncomfortable with, you know, like gaining 5 pounds in a day for no good reason. And, you know, acne on my face, my chest, and my back that didn't last just through my teens, but also for 30 years, for 3 decades. Oh, goodness. I had acne. And I could gain 5 pounds in a day for no good reason. But then I had weird symptoms that I didn't pay attention to because, number 1, who knew that you could heal them? And number 2, it wasn't like my forward-facing, you know, I gotta fix this because people see it sort of thing. You know, like receding gums and receding enamel on my teeth, so I couldn't eat hot and cold food. Or varicose veins. Right, in my 20s, or arthritic symptoms in my hands. Like, those things, ladies, are hormonal issues.

Mm.

But who tells you that?

That's right.

Like, no one tells you that. So as I, you know, started to— well, I chose— as I chose to fix everything, you know, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. The, the, you know, I was provided with all the next steps, right? The teacher appears when you're ready, and I just said yes to all of them, and I healed Everything, including healing my gums, healing the enamel on my teeth. Varicose veins completely went away. Have you ever experienced rough elbows?

Mm-hmm.

You know, who's experienced rough elbows? I thought it was a lotion problem. I must have tried 50 different lotions. Turns out it's not a lotion problem. It's a something's going on inside problem. And, and, you know, I have the softest elbows now. So for, you know, for I've been doing this over 20 years. So for a lot of years, you know, all— I've not had any of those sort of old person symptoms, right? In my 20s, 30s, I was old when I was young. So I'm gonna give you a couple of symptoms. I've given you a few already. Yeah, some more that you would never like relate to hormones, and you're gonna have an opportunity to do a complete hormone assessment so you can see all these different things that are related. One is running from one task to the next.

Oh, good. Somebody out there, please make me not alone. Please have your hand up right now.

You're absolutely not alone.

If you're an OG here, you know I love sleep and sleep is the ticket to you both feeling like working out in the morning and getting all the rewards from exercise that you deserve. So loving your sleep environment is so important. My bedding of choice when I moved and refreshed is Cozy Earth. I love the luxury feeling right here at home. There's more though, a 100-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty. Funny how it used to be shoes and jewelry and now it's PJs and sheets. If you treasure a good night like I do, you'll want to head over to CozyEarth.com and use Flipping 50 for up to 20% off. If you get a post-purchase survey, by the way, tell them Flipping 50 sent you. This year, what do you say we stop trying to reinvent ourselves and start over and realize we deserve to fully care for who we already are? If your goals like mine are becoming a little bit more about feeling great now, and longevity? Let me tell you about the powerful compound scientists have discovered that redefines what's possible for your longevity. You may have heard me talk about Mitopure and host experts from their team, but there's a new way to get the clinically proven urolithin A that helps renew your cells' powerhouses so you can show up for every workout as your best self. Mitopure gummies make longevity easier— wait for it— without another pill. I know you hear me on that one. There are so many benefits, it's hard to choose where to start describing it to you, but steady, stable energy. Yeah, please. Better muscle strength. And it targets key hallmark of aging. Which is mitochondrial decline. That thing that makes you more tired, gets you more breathless just doing small things that you used to take for granted. Don't let another year go by feeling less than your best. Grab 30% off your first month of Mitopure gummies at timeline.com/flipping2026. That's timeline.com/flipping2026. /Flipping2026 while the offer lasts.

So, you know, if you're doing that, that you're just a little bit out of balance, right? Um, leaky or overactive bladder, right? So we don't have to have that. I'm just saying, I think this is something that we need to shout from the rooftops. We don't have to have a leaky bladder, right? It's something that's common. It's not normal. Thinning hair. Right? It's a hormonal issue. Mm-hmm. Sluggish reflexes, diminished reaction time. So I play tennis, right? Mm-hmm. If I'm, you know, if my, my racket's not where it needs to be when I need it to be there, I've gotta look at how I'm balancing my hormones.

Right?

A prescription. This is a really good one. A prescription for the latest antidepressant, but you're still not feeling like yourself.

Hmm.

I have 2 more, 'cause there are many, many, many. Low or high blood pressure. Like, high blood pressure we know is not good. We know that that's a death sentence if we don't, you know, if we leave it untreated.

Right.

Low blood pressure is very common, but instead of the doctor saying, You know, we've got a problem here. They say you must be an athlete, right? So you feel really good about your very low blood pressure when in reality you can barely function.

Yeah. And, and you tend to, if you're listening, dangerously combine that with low blood sugar. And then we have a situation during exercise that is just not good, and you're wondering why you feel dizzy or nauseous or, or have to sit down.

Yeah, I love that. Yeah, it all goes together, right? Your blood sugar is really low if your blood pressure is really low. Like, I— and my labs looked great, but I was a mess. And there's one more. Decreased sense of taste or smell.

Oh my goodness, that would be hard in today's world with so many suffering post-COVID with some of that.

Oh, that's true. So, so if you had an issue, if you had COVID and that was an outcome of COVID that's a— that's different.

Yeah, right.

Different. But this is a— this is a result of hormone imbalance.

Yeah.

So these are things that you'll discover when you take the complete hormone assessment. Things that you never thought were hormone-related. But the reason that it's so great to know is because you can heal all of it.

I love it. You know, I think of this— this, this is such a great word, actually. And if I used profanity, I would use it here, but it's like a cluster, right? You've just given us a cluster, and it's very much like Um, Dr. Vonda writes to 2024. In July, she came out with the Musculoskeletal Syndrome of Menopause, and she did the same thing really, that any one of these is really hard to distinguish by itself. And so physicians really struggled with helping their patients in menopause till she and a team finally gave it a label and said this muscle loss, these aches and pains that don't seem to have any structural symptomology or reason why, the loss of bone, the, um, the issues with frequent injuries, chronic and repetitive. I mean, she kind of put them all together and said, you know, when you see these, any one of them could be, but certainly when they're all together, it becomes easier to distinguish. And you've kind of like put a box around it and said, you know, so start looking differently. And we We so need that, given what I just said about COVID for instance. It's easy to attribute it to, oh, that's this, versus, now wait a minute, I actually have control over it, which you've pointed out so very well. Amazing.

Yeah, we have control over so many things. And, you know, your demographic is very similar to mine. You know, it's, you know, women perimenopause, going into menopause, post-menopause. And, um, it comes down to a concept that, um, that we don't talk about. I think that you talk about it because, you know, you're helping us to build up, right? You're helping us to build muscle, which is so important for a gazillion things, especially as we age. But what, what ends up happening is that we're using too much of our bodies, right? Our bodies are breaking down faster than they're building up. So if you find that you're losing bone, you're losing muscle, that you're not thinking as clearly as you used to, you don't have the stamina that you used to have, your body's just breaking down too fast. And so we have to replace what's missing faster. So, so for me, you know, at 63, I have to be really pay attention to what I eat so that when I go work out, I can actually build muscle and keep it. So we have to look at things, right, all the things that are essential for hormone balance, like what we're eating and when we're eating, like how we compose our meals and then how we eat for hormone balance. Because there are two major hormones that we never think about that are controlling everything. And we do think about them, but in a kind of hateful way.

Right.

So we need to switch that language, that thought process. Because we hear the word stress and then we kind of get mad about it. We're like, well, and that's helpful. Yeah, yeah, I live in that place, so what about it? Or I don't know. And, and, and so our two major hormones are cortisol and insulin. Mm-hmm. And cortisol is to be loved. She is our fight-or-flight hormone, but she's also our daytime hormone, and she is there to keep— not only keep you alive, but she She's there to give you your daytime energy. She's your energy hormone. And if you abuse her, that's when your body starts breaking down too fast. Right? That's when you lose bone, you lose muscle, you can't digest your food well, your immune system goes south, like everything goes— you can't remember.

You can't comply with exercise.

You cannot comply with exercise. And whenever cortisol, your major hormone, is elevated, insulin, your other major hormone, is elevated because you have to be able to get sugar from your bloodstream into your cells to burn for fuel so you can find your car keys, deal with sitting in traffic, so you can, like, get through being late for an appointment. It's not running from the tiger anymore. Mm-hmm. It's these silly things, you know, maybe it's a death in the family, which is a bigger thing. Sure, right, for sure. But we still have to live our lives for hormone balance if we don't want to be taken out. Because if we're, if we're running from the tiger, so to speak, you know, if our cortisol gets imbalanced, then, then we're, then we're not making our sex hormones. So yes, we most often always test for sex hormones— progesterone, estrogen, maybe testosterone, maybe DHEA— and they are so downstream from cortisol and insulin. So if you're always running from one task to the next, or you're always busy, busy, busy, or that you're— you live in crisis mode, or you have a to-do list You're not making progesterone, estrogen, or testosterone. You cannot make babies and, you know, try to save your life. You know, you can do one or the other. And cortisol's job is to save your life if you get her out of balance. So the job is to know how she works and to keep her in balance, because she's your ally for aging well, for sleeping at night, right? For all those things. If you have a busy day you're gonna have a busy night. If you don't sleep, you get wrinkles and you get inflamed and your pants don't fit the next day. And you can't remember things and you age really quickly, you know, you get a lot of wrinkles. And so it's a thing, ladies.

And that was so brilliantly said, and I love coming back to that because I think there are a lot of women who might be listening who are postmenopausal and then sometimes say, well, I'm through all that. But cortisol and insulin are like till death do you part, girls. So I mean, we still have to pay attention. And as we age, we have to pay attention almost more because estrogen left the building and she was kind of helping to protect everybody. If you're an OG here, you know I love sleep, and sleep is the ticket to you both feeling like working out in the morning and getting all the rewards from exercise that you deserve. So loving your sleep environment is so important. My bedding of choice when I moved and refreshed is Cozy Earth. I love the luxury feeling right here at home. There's more though— a 100-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty. Funny how it used to be shoes and jewelry and now it's PJs and sheets. If you treasure a good night like I do, you'll want to head over to CozyEarth.com and use Flipping 50 for up to 20% off. If you get a post-purchase survey, by the way, tell them Flipping 50 sent you. This year, what do you say we stop trying to reinvent ourselves and start over and realize we deserve to fully care for who we already are? If your goals, like mine, are becoming a little bit more about feeling great now and longevity? Let me tell you about the powerful compound scientists have discovered that redefines what's possible for your longevity. You may have heard me talk about Mitopure and host experts from their team, but there's a new way to get the clinically proven urolithin A that helps renew your cells' powerhouses so you can show up for every workout as your best self. Mitopure gummies make longevity easier— wait for it— without another pill. I know you hear me on that one. There are so many benefits, it's hard to choose where to start describing it to you, but steady, stable energy— yeah, please— better muscle strength, and it targets key hallmark of aging which is mitochondrial decline, that thing that makes you more tired, gets you more breathless just doing small things that you used to take for granted. Don't let another year go by feeling less than your best. Grab 30% off your first month of Mitopure gummies at timeline.com/flipping2026. That's timeline.com/flipping2026. Flipping 2026 while the offer lasts.

Well, there's a lot to say about that because, yeah, post-menopause, we need these hormones even more.

Right.

But what happens is that we become insulin resistant because we've been playing this, you know, yes game, busy, busy, busy game for a long time. And that just makes us insulin resistant. So there are a lot of things that make us insulin resistant, but that's a main one. You know, if your— if your insulin is constantly elevated, you become more insulin resistant. And guess what? It has all the same hormonal symptoms as perimenopause and menopause. So insulin resistance, it could be that you're just insulin resistant. It's not a post-menopause thing or a perimenopause thing. It's that you're insulin resistant. The problem is, is that unless you're unless you're really in the know and you ask for it or do your own testing, you're not getting the tests that you need to determine that.

Yeah.

So insulin resistance can look like perimenopause, it can look like menopausal symptoms, and in reality, your cortisol and insulin are out of balance.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, so true. And almost never is there a fasting insulin test unless you push or ask for it specifically. It's fasting glucose. And everybody comes back and says, my glucose is great. But yeah, there's the other part of the story.

Um, is, is worthless. It's a worthless number.

And there you have it, folks.

There you have it. Yeah, I, I apologize. I wish it had some meaning. But you know, you can go into a doctor's office and if, you know, if you're all stressed out because a needle is going to be poked into your arm, your glucose can, can go up. And so is that really like where you are? Like, it, you know, it's kind of like cortisol in a sense. You know, you need kind of the rhythm of your glucose, you know, fasting, uh, right after you eat, a few hours, you know. And, uh, and the best way to test for that is hemoglobin A1C because that gives you a nice window, 3-month window, of where your glucose has been hanging out. But insulin is really the the problem. And so that's why it's so fun to do the complete hormone assessment, because you'll get to check your major hormones and check your minor hormones, and then you can start rebuilding.

Mm-hmm.

You know, once you have that information, you can start rebuilding with the steps to just balance your hormones. Because progesterone, you know, which is like our sort of be-in-your-body hormone, grow-gorgeous-hair hormone, have-pretty-skin hormone, can go to make cortisol. It also makes the hormone, hormone called aldosterone, which regulates your electrolytes. So it has a lot to do with blood pressure. So guess what? If you're, if you're busy making cortisol, you're not making progesterone.

Yeah, and that happens. We talk a lot about that with late-day high-intensity exercise. Yeah, your body will do what it needs to to get you that energy hormone, and it convert. And so a lot of women will say, well, I don't have any problem doing late-day exercise, I got through that just fine. But the problem is then you've written checks on progesterone, which should be helping you relax and chill out, get a good night's sleep, and we don't get that. So then you don't get the rewards from that workout, and we've got a problem with what happens overnight in sleep or doesn't. So it's a vicious cycle.

Yes, it's a vicious cycle, and you're So, and you're either healing or digesting, you know? So if you work out at night, and then when are you eating dinner? And, you know, cortisol has to come down for you to get a good night's sleep, and you've totally messed with your circadian rhythm because when cortisol's supposed to be at its lowest, you're jacking it up.

Right.

Right, so, you know, it starts, you know, at its lowest point in the morning, and then within 2 to 3 hours, it peaks, and then it comes down in the afternoon. So that in the evening melatonin can come up. Well, if you go work out later in the day, now your nice little graph like this starts to, goes up again, and now you've totally disrupted that really pretty rhythm, and now melatonin can't do its thing like it does. And so now you just don't get a good night's sleep. And like Debra said, all those benefits that you were hoping to gain just don't happen. You don't build muscle. Instead, you're wasting your muscle You know, you're using muscle to feed yourself because you've overdone it, and now you have to get through the night. You know, cortisol is gonna spike overnight because you spiked it earlier in the day when it wasn't supposed to be spiked. So it's, it's a little bit of a nightmare.

Mm-hmm, truly. Yeah. And so literally and virtually, talk about maybe some of your— you've got these 10 hormone deal-breakers. What are those? Have we already mentioned some?

Yeah, we've mentioned a few. So, you know, the sort of the basics are, you know, a lot of women say, oh, I already know what to eat.

I hear that too. And I just think, tell me about that. Tell me about that.

And that may be, that may be so true, but it's how you combine your meals and it's when you eat them because food is energy. And as women, we've learned to under-eat and over-exercise. That's just how we learned to do it. I mean, you know, if I gained my 5 pounds in a day, I, I fasted and then I went running. Well, that creates what's called the hibernating bear, you know, where your metabolism just slows down because it has nothing, has no resources, no food, no vitamins, no minerals, no anything. And then you just, you know, pack on the weight. So it's really like learning how to eat for hormone balance. It's making sure that you have an abundance of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals, right? So your, your food, that's your— those are your macros, right? Your protein that builds, your fat that, you know, runs your nervous system, it builds hormones, your carbohydrates that give you energy and help get serotonin across the blood-brain barrier. And then you've got nutrients, some nutrients in those beautiful colorful vegetables that you've eaten and few in meats and things like that, but you need way more. Like, if you are a busy gal like Debra and I, you need more nutrients. You need— I need so many nutrients because I like to roll, I like to roll big, you know. I like to play tennis and I, you know, go to the gym and work out, and I, you know, like to surf, and I like to do a lot of very of things, but you have to take a lot of nutrients for that, you know, even if you want to think clearly. And, you know, and we know our, you know, genetic predispositions, so, so nourish those, right? Because all the things that we do from the outside, those epigenetics, are turning on or off our genes. So we want to turn on the genes that give us a good metabolism, good energy, you know, a healthy brain for longevity, good sleep, all those things. So that's why those— these things that take our hormones out, we call their root causes, you know, I call them hormone deal breakers, have to be remedied or you won't be able to build your body up as much as you need to to feel great, you know, because you can feel great. I say fabulous no matter what your age.

Amazing.

So we've got food, we've got nutrients, we've got, um, sleep. So sleep is really the magic elixir for hormone balance. It really is. Like, it can remove wrinkles, you know, you can, you can wake up feeling so much better, you know, than, than the day before if you got a good night's sleep. I can't even tell you all the miracles of sleep. It reduces inflammation, you know, you lose weight, you digest better, your immune system perks up, you know, everything is better. But you have to eat right, and you have to have nutrients, and you have to live your day in a flowing way so that you can sleep at night. And it just gets harder and harder as we age if we stop paying attention. Mm-hmm.

It's totally—

it can become very elusive for women. And when that happens, you're short, you know, one of the first things to go is your short-term memory. It's brutal. And, uh, and then toxins, you know, toxins, you know, Dr. Joseph Pisorno wrote that, um, that book on toxins, and it was a real eye-opener for me because insulin resistance, which is kind of the bane of our existence as we age, can actually come from BPA. Like, it can come from toxins and plastic. You know, we, we blame ourselves for a lot of these things going on in our bodies, but it's really just lack of knowing. You know, I agree. So that's a, that's a crazy thing. So we just have to know. So toxins in our environment, toxic thoughts, right? Toxic thoughts. I saw a bumper sticker once that said, don't believe everything you think. Yeah, I loved it. You know, it was, it was the best, right? And we don't have control over what comes in, but we have control over how long it stays there. And toxic relationships. You know, they can totally take us out. So we have to be— you know, it's kind of like the Blue Zones across the world. We have to be around like-minded people, people who get us, who support us, not the naysayers who are constantly challenging our, our very essence. And we have to be around those who love you unconditionally. And, um, you know, what other toxins can you think of? You know, there are lots and lots of toxins, and they come in different forms. So toxins in our food and toxins in the environment, toxic thoughts and toxic relationships. So just do a toxin, you know, assess toxins in your, you know, mattress, for heaven's sakes. And then you want to look at underlying infections. So that's a really big one, and that's something that the medical community doesn't really look at. So, you know, where your white blood cells are chronically low, you know, like what's, what's going on there? Is your immune system sort of keeping your body stressed out, you know? And what is it that your metabolism, metabolism is missing? You know, we do a really comprehensive blood panel so we can look at all those things that are taking us out. Minerals, a big one for women, it's huge, you know. And my two favorites are zinc and magnesium. You know, you have to have— so you can, you can look at that on blood work, and you can definitely do a symptom assessment to see. So, um, And, you know, digestion— you have to have healthy digestion. That can take you out. Sometimes the chronic infections are hiding there, a lot of times. So, so the list, you know, our eyes are starting to glaze over, but the list is, is, is a long one there, you know. But it's really uncovering those things that are keeping your hormones stuck. Yeah, they're keeping cortisol from, you know, being this nice beautiful rhythm. It could even be the alerts on your cell phone, you know, that are constantly kind of nagging at your dopamine and, and sparking cortisol all the time. So, you know, just give your body a break.

Yeah, exactly. And I think one of the maybe best things that we've done in this conversation is pointed out that it does come back to really two simple hormones that potentially are running the show, and yet there are many things that could go wrong. And I wanna— so I want to point people in the right direction where they can just answer questions and maybe get some output from you on— give me a sense of direction on where I would start first. And I know you have a quiz. Would you share that with us? Let us put it in the link for the show notes so that we can get everybody to go Yes, so, so Debra has her own special link, and we'll put it in the show notes.

And it's naturalhormonesolution.com/flipping50.

Perfect.

And that's your, your own page to go to. And, and we actually give you 2 hormones a day. Because there are a lot of questions. You're going to be really surprised at what is associated with each of the 6 hormones. So we actually look at 6 hormones, and they're all super important. And I mentioned the 2 major ones, right, cortisol and insulin. And those, we just— I don't know, we just don't love those hormones for some reason. We really love our sex hormones. So you also do one on progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone. So there's an assessment for each of those. So you get to see what symptoms are associated. And then we also do the thyroid hormones.

Perfect.

Because so many women are hypothyroid, right? Yeah, it's a really big deal.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

So I hate to ask you this at the end because I think this is a big topic all by itself. But your feeling on thyroid, is that a downstream problem? That—

yes. So, yes, so thyroid is kind of considered a mid-hormone. The really special thing about thyroid is we always look at her first because we always think, oh, it's my metabolism, and it most definitely is, but she's a compensatory gland. So she's going to downregulate if there's any trouble anywhere with any of the systems in your body, because you can't go faster than your weakest place or part. So it comes back to the hibernating bear analogy, where the hibernating bear has no resources. There's no food, there's no water, there's no sunlight. And so as a result, the bear goes into a cave and she hibernates and her metabolism goes down to the lowest place where her heart is still beating and she's breathing. So she's not burning hardly any calories, right? Because she can't afford to. She has to last for months. And that's what happens to us when we imbalance cortisol and insulin and then we don't eat and and we don't sleep and we don't drink enough water and we don't do all those things, you know, we don't get enough vitamins and minerals, we're like the hibernating bear, right?

Yeah.

We stopped feeding ourselves, and that's when we're, we're using much more than we're building because our body still needs those nutrients to function. So that's why we break down bone, we break down muscle tissue, because your body needs those resources, and you have— but you haven't given it to your body, if that makes sense. So it's, it's all what we learned, you know. So we want to kind of— yeah, um, kind of what we learned from those who raised us is what takes us out in the end. So we have to not do that and really start eating again and taking really good care of ourselves.

Yeah, totally agree. And this has been so enlightening Love it. And, and I think the biggest part, and of course the part that you, you help with, is okay, knowing these are from what we learned, and then knowing it potentially is not enough, but you need, you need help in making the change because it's between the ears. We first have to change, and then the default we have of gravity from our old habits will pull us back at the moment of decision-making. We have to have somebody who's willing to nudge us and say just one decision, just one choice in this right direction. So, so very helpful.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Where can everybody find you? So we're gonna of course put the link, everyone, in the show notes to the quiz, naturalhormonesolution.com/flipping50. If you have a mind like a steel trap, if you don't, we've got you. It is in the show notes. But Robin, where can they follow you? What is there, a platform platform you hang out on?

So we have a, um, a group, a private group on Facebook. It's Natural, um, I think it's Natural Hormone Solution. Um, yeah, it's just Natural Hormone Solution.

And can you tell she's the talent and the team behind the scenes takes care of all that rest? That's the way it should be, guys.

Facebook will come up, and you have to, you know, ask, ask to join. We are a private Facebook group. We do monitor it so that everybody feels very safe, and it's a really lovely place just to stay up to date on what we're up to.

So awesome. All right, we'll get those in the show notes too so you can get to those links. Robin, thanks so much. It's always great to see you.

Thank you so much.