Reclaim Your Mojo! Dr Tanya Beaubrun on Healing, Functional Medicine, and Finding Joy in Wellness!

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Okay. Well, Dr. Tanya, welcome to Wellness and Growth Journeys, the podcast that caters to women 35 and over. I am your host, Mia Lisa Garnes and today we are going to speak to, what do you call yourself? The Mojo.

Dr. Mojo MD.

The Mojo MD. And I absolutely love that. So we can get into what that means. Exactly. We're going to talk a little bit about functional medicine and western medicine, how the difference between the two. And I know you also, you're also big into like hormones and gut health and weight management. So there's a lot of things, but the main thing is that you help.

Women to thrive, to get their mojo back and feel like themselves again.

Oh, you know, mojo is definitely one of those words that we used a couple of years back. But to you, for you, what does Mojo mean?

So Mojo is a short for Mojo. When I started on my journey, so a lot of what I do now was birthed from my journey, my own personal health journey. And I realized that the ultimate goal for health and well being and to thrive and just feel good was joy. I wanted to feel joyful and joy filled, right? Physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. It was all about joy, right. So I started initially talking about body joy, body joy. And I'm like, I just want feeling good in your body and feeling connected to your body and actually being in tuned with your body.

Right.

My personal thing was that we needed to have a holistic approach which was not just physical but emotional and spiritual as well, so then we went to mindjoy. And mindjoy was about stress management and sleep optimization and self. Self worth, which is something that we do not talk about enough with our patients.

Right? That's true.

And the last pillar was the spiritual aspect, which I call soul joy, which was talking about connections, connections with something greater than ourselves, connections with our family, friends, loved ones, co workers, and, you know, those across the board who interact with us on a daily basis. And also talking. The most important part of that pillar was connection with self righteous self love, self acceptance and self forgiveness.

Okay, okay.

So we had all of this and I was looking and I said, okay. So everybody said, you're the body joy doctor. But I felt that every time I said body joy, everybody went straight to the physical.

Yes. Exercising. Like when you say that how you look on the outside.

One day while I was exercising, sizing, it just came to me and I said, well, you really want more joy in their life. So it's the more joy method. And when I looked at more joy and I shortened it, the mo from more and the jo from joy became mojo. And I said, well, that's what we used to want. We used to want our mojo back.

Yes.

So for me, mojo is a shortened form of M.O. of more joy.

Is that what it means? Or it's. Or it.

Was that you.

How you coined it?

How I coined it? Because mojo was. Everybody has their own thing mojo. But you know, you know, we got, we got our groove back, we get this back. We want your mojo back. But for me, when I say your mojo, it's a shortened form of more joy in your life, in every aspect of your life.

Well, thank you for that explanation. And I know holistic now is the buzzword, but it's really important to kind of look at all the aspects of us and not just one. Because when we had our discussion initially, I believe we were talking about how when you go to the doctor, it's just like the medication to fix like, you know, the body problem, but then like, there are these other aspects of your life that could be causing pain or, you know, distress on the body.

That's why I actually got into this because my journey started out as a conventionally western medicine trained doctor. And I did that for many years. But when I look back at, there was always a part of me that would ask a little more questions or look and say this patient doesn't look right and use a little bit of intuition. And in an attempt to try and help my patients more, I did a course in health coaching with iin. And I was first introduced to this integrative, totally integrative approach which combines Western medicine with functional medicine with complementary therapies. And it just blew my mind. And the first patient was, life was changed, was mine.

Oh, that's amazing. That's amazing.

Just by going through that course, everything opened up for me. It was like, this is what I've been trying to say to my patients. I didn't know how transformative it would be for me as a woman, as a physician, as a wife and a mother. Everything changed. My whole outlook on not just health and well being, but on life changed. And I was then led on a journey even deeper. When function medicine found me at the other end of a stethoscope, which was my greatest blessing. I had ended up in hospital and looking up at my colleagues, I thought, oh, they nobody seen me and I'm sick and I'm trying to explain to them and I'm trying to be doctor and patient at the same time, which you should never try and do.

Right.

And I looked up and I thought, you know, they're not seeing me and I don't know how it came to be. And I thought, but nobody trained us to see the patient. They was, we were, they were all doing it by the book, how we'd all been trained. It was what I did in my practice as well. This is what. If I had been on the other end of the stethosis scope, this is what I would have been doing too.

Yeah.

Trying to find what symptoms and signs fitted a disease process and then get the latest pharmaceutical drug to treat the patient's disease.

Yes.

But nobody saw beyond the disease, the patient beyond the disease. And I thought to myself, we're all doing ourselves a disservice. We're doing our patients a disservice, but we're doing ourselves as physicians a disservice as well.

Right.

Because we're not truly healing our patients.

Right.

And it was a huge aha moment for me because I said, well, there was also an element of shame because I know that I had looked at patients that way and had I been on the other end, I would have been doing exactly the same thing. And I said, something has to change because being on that other side of the stethoscope and seeing that, I realized, I wonder how many patients in my practice have felt the way I'm feeling now.

Right, right.

Unseen and unheard now. They were the most fantastic physicians I had. Right. So I'm not knocking Western medicine or the practice. What I Am saying is that we need to start to look at how we deliver healthcare in a different way. And that is what I went in search of. And that's how I found functional medicine, which is what we call precision medicine or root cause medicine, where you're looking at each patient as an individual and finding out why this patient is now in front of you with this imbalance and this dis ease process. So it's not a disease. I call it dis ease. Something is imbalanced. Something physically, emotionally, spiritually, Something has caused an imbalance that has brought this patient with telling me what they feel is wrong. Sitting in the chair across from me and it was like, wow, I can now look at the patient. I'm still using science, I'm still using western medicine, but I'm using it in a new way, which I believe is better for the management of the patient and the true healing of that patient as opposed to just writing a prescription and sending them out on their way, which I think is curing up to a point. But we're not giving them true, lasting, deep healing.

Yes, yes. You're not attacking it, quote unquote at the core of what. What might be because say, for instance, you know, you stressed out at work or whatever or you know, just I guess life, life in. And it starts to take a toll on your body. So you probably got some back pain, you probably got headaches, you know, and however that manifests and you know, so you go to your doctor and doctor just gives you like pain meds to. To deal with it be headaches but do real true root of the problem isn't solved. So you can keep taking these pills.

You will get relief, right? For a time. But you haven't addressed the reason why you get it. So in another two, three weeks you will be back again with either headache. But this time it might be headache with neck pain or shoulder pain or back pain. And then another time it will be something else. So what I found out for me was that I had actually burnt out, which landed me in hospital with a physical issue. But I didn't know I had burnt out. It wasn't until I took the time and I said, I need to listen to my body because we're just treating the disease and I am not getting the relief. So what is behind this? And all of a sudden I recall that I had a kit that I had got at one at a conference. I cannot tell you why I happen to have had that particular kit. Okay. Testing kit for a hormonal profile.

Okay.

I Happen to have one. And I thought, wow, it's. I'm gonna do this right. So I did it and I sent it off and I got the results back about a few weeks later. And I thought, oh, my goodness, I'm burnt out.

Wow.

My body will not work, my hormones will not work. Nothing will work because I'm so badly burnt out. But seeing it and seeing how all my cortisol levels were tanked, my hormone levels were not balanced, everything was off. It was almost like relief because you go through this thing where you think, there, I'm a doctor, I should be able to diagnose myself, I should be able to feel better, I should know what to do. And yet everything I try is not getting me back to feeling like as well as I know I have felt in the past.

Right.

And you start to wonder, is it in your head? You know, is it, are you faking? Are you just, you know, is it just stress? You know, they can tell it's just stress.

Yeah.

But there was a physical issue that had, that was as a result of chronic stress. Being overworked, overwhelmed, not eating properly and just not nurturing myself.

Yeah.

And putting everybody and everything ahead of my own personal well being. So I was, I have never been so relieved to see a debt like, oh, okay, this is what it is. I'm burnt out. Then my next question is, what do I do now?

Yes, I was going to say, what happened?

Nobody taught us in conventional medicine what to do. Yeah, ordinarily you'd be given a prescription for anxiety medication or antidepressants, but that's not the cause. So I found the functional medicine doctor and I remember going in and sitting on her, sitting in her chair and just busting into tears. And she looked at me and she says, darling, you burnt out. Don't worry, it happened to me. And it was. I looked up and I thought, oh, so I'm not being weak or, you know, not, not good enough or, you know, not enough. And I'm not alone, I'm not alone. She said it happened to her and it took her three years to get herself back. And I looked at this woman and I thought, I'm so happy you burnt out because it gives me hope. And in discussing it with her, she was. I had started doing the integrative approach because of the coaching course I had done, but to dig deeper into the root cause and actually use lab tests and science and all the latest research, I didn't know, I had never heard about it in depth. And she opened my eyes and she just led me down a path that in healing myself I realized that there was no way I couldn't learn this to help other people because I started to think of all the other patients that I probably missed. The diagnosis of burnout I had missed because I had been taught to treat symptoms. And I thought I have to do this. And it almost as if once I said that everything literally fell into my lap. The program I was doing happened to have been across from a hotel that I had booked to stay during the visit where I planned to meet the people doing the course. So she gave me an address and I'm like that address sounds so familiar. And I go to the address and my husband says but this is the hotel we're going to be staying at. That's where we're checking into tonight. I'm like, oh. And then by a series of events I actually left my practice and went away to do it because I wanted the time and space to really immerse myself into this. And I ended up doing an advanced fellowship in functional metabolic and regenerative medicine, or it used to be called anti aging medicine. And in doing that I started to. It was almost as if it sprouted roots all over. I ended up doing a degree in alternative medicine because I wanted to learn more about the ancient therapies. Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine had predated western medicine for thousands of years and had saved lives. Naturopathy was the medicine until western medicine came in relatively recently. If you naturopathy which is, it is. It's an approach that isn't the body can. Using the body to heal itself. Right. But it, you. They're naturopaths all over and people went to naturopaths way before western medicine came and it worked. It's really based on lifestyle and other complementary therapies and they do use supplements and other things and how you eat.

I suppose and what you. Everything.

It's, it's the pillars would be diet, stress, sleep and, and all of these are now coming into the forefront. Everybody's talking about it, but the naturopaths were advocating that for years and treating patients until western medicine opened the first medical school.

Right.

And then there was also homeopathy which is where the. It's the premise of like treats like. So instead of giving you something as an antidote to something, they give you something similar but in smaller doses. So your body builds up the tolerance and it heals itself. The royal family use homeopathy and still does for the majority of their things I, I think up until Queen Elizabeth, her go to was homeopathy, her parents go to was copiopathy. Homeopathy was the treatment of choice for the royal family in Europe.

Interesting.

And learning all of that, I'm like, but why aren't we incorporating all of that into this unique recipe for each patient? So I'm not saying that there are patients who will not need a prescription for pharmaceuticals. I write prescriptions almost every day in my office for something, but I do it based on what the patient needs and for a short time, possible. If you are diabetic, I will have no choice. After you've tried lifestyle and diet and exercise, and if your blood sugars are way high, I have to give you medication to bring it down.

Right? Right.

In the hope that you will also incorporate lifestyle. And the combination will allow me to reduce the dose of medication. So you would be on the least amount of medication. And in some cases we've been able to get people off medication. It's rare, but it happens. But when I look at the way we all the expectations of patients that I want it quick. And this thing that has this quick fix is what has us in the realm of these GLP agonists are nose and pick on them. I want to lose weight, so I want the injection.

Yes.

But nobody looks at and says to the patient, why have you gained weight?

Right.

What is the reason for your weight gain? Is it a hormonal imbalance? Is it stress? Are you sleeping okay? Are you eating the right foods for your, your stage of life?

Right.

And many times they don't even want to discuss that. They just want the prescription.

Yes. Because we don't want to do too much. We don't want change anything, but we want the results.

And then, and listen, the GLP agonists are just another line of drugs that have come in all my practice, there's always been some new miracle drug. The issue is that until we start to look at our mindset, until we start to address our lifestyle and the root cause of what is behind what drives us with our daily habits. And so we're going to just in another 10 years, it would be something else.

Yes. Yes.

These same patients would be coming to me for the other thing.

I remember 20, maybe 20 years ago, I was using this weight loss drug. I don't want calling me answers, but. And this thing used to accelerate my heart rate so fast. And it was kind of concerning, but then it was still like, well, maybe that's what it's supposed to do. Right.

Maybe that's one of the ways. That's one of the side effects of the. Of it. Yes.

And it just became a little too much for me. It was working and I was losing weight. Um, but I didn't like how it was making me feel when I took it. So it. Because it's not normal that your heart is being so fast and you could, you could feel it kind of feel it pumping out of your chest kind of thing. And this, this, it was popular. This is a popular weight loss drug. And I was like every. Nobody else in, like, is it only me? And then slowly but surely I started to hear people saying that is affecting their heart and that kind of thing. And, and I believe some people will still try it.

Well, if, if you are motivated to lose weight, especially if you want it for a milestone, people want to lose the weight and fit into something for a wedding or birthday or something, they will take whatever the side effects if they are getting the results.

Yeah.

But as soon as the event is over, they'll stop the drug because they don't like how they're feeling. And then you get rebound weight gain.

True.

And you may have detrimental effects on other organs in your body. Your heart, your kidneys, your liver. We don't know. So what I tell people is I am not going to tell you what to do. I am just here as a conduit. I will give you the information. I will examine you in depth, I will have you do labs and I will do an in depth analysis of the labs and find a pattern. It's like a puzzle. We're going to find out where your imbalance lies. And everybody has a particular pattern of imbalance. Once we find that and we can rebalance you, then things start to shift. It happened with me personally. People says, oh, you. What did you do? Did you do surgery? I'm like, no, I just changed. I learned about this. I started biohacking my body. I started listening to my body. I started doing the labs and looking at the labs in a new way. Instead of just looking at the labs and saying, well, it's, it's on it. You know, people look at labs and say, there's nothing red. So I'm good. And I say, well, no, I need to look at it in depth. Because if you're too close to the lower limit or upper limit and there's a pattern of a few things like that, I can tell you that based on these numbers, in two years, you will be continued like this. You'll be diabetic. This will be red. But if we can reverse it, it's like preventative. It is truly preventative medicine. But it takes commitment on the part of the patient to make those lifestyle changes. It wasn't easy. It's not easy all the time for me, but I know that once I stray from my habits and my routine, I feel so drained. Literally, I feel lethargic when I eat all the junk food. You know, during COVID I was a Doritos queen. Something I don't normally eat, but let me tell you, they were the best thing ever. And it was always at 11 o' clock because nobody. Yeah. We were off work, so we would start watching. You know, we were part of the Netflix.

Yes, yes, yes. Netflix.

Yeah. So, yeah, you know, you snack.

Yes.

Within two weeks, I started to feel not quite right. But the Doritos were really good. So I continued eating them and eventually had to say, okay, you can only use. You can either stop it or you can have just a few. You cannot just keep putting your hand in the box. I started to do portion control.

Right.

So I would do it. And after I thought, okay, maybe I don't really like it after all. Maybe what I really wanted was just a crunch and the salt.

Right, Right.

You know, so that might be something missing. That was what I needed. Salt and I needed to crunch.

Right.

So I had to find healthy alternatives like popcorn and, you know, fresh pop. Not the bag pop. You know, the original popcorn where you pop it in the pot.

In the pot yourself. Yeah. So you could.

So I had to do that.

Right.

You know, things like that. Because I realized, oh, you just want salt and crunch.

Yeah.

But let me tell you, those. Those weeks of Doritos were right. Really tasted really good. And I enjoyed every minute of every. Every bite of Doritos.

I can't tell a lie, but it's sustainable.

But then I felt the change in my body.

Yes, yes.

Now, sometimes I don't. I don't feel like exercising and I don't for a week. And then by the end of that week, I'm like, nah, I'll get up. And all of a sudden my body would say, I need you to move.

Right?

I need you to move. I don't care what you do, I need you to move.

Right.

You know, or it. Sometimes I would be craving a vegetable particular. And I'm like, oh, I must be low in some mineral, because my body's literally craving this. So I have learned to listen to my body, right. And I urge anybody out there who's listening, just get quiet whenever Some. When you feel something's not right with your body, just get quiet and ask, what, what do you need?

Right.

Just ask your body, what do you need? Sometimes you think it's, it's. It's a snack. But after you're thirsty and if you have a glass of water and I tell people, especially now in the Caribbean, it's really hot in summer.

Yeah.

What A pinch of salt and please, it's a pinch of salt in your water first thing in the morning is the best thing you can do for your body and your adrenal glands, especially if you're going to be out there working.

Okay.

It rehydrates you better than just the water alone. Because your body, when you sweat, you use what you lose, water as well as electrolytes, Right. So you are replenishing the electrolytes and the water in the morning.

So I add any salt, just a.

Pinch of salt, pink salt, or you can get electrolytes. I carry a bag of electrolytes and I make sure that once a day, usually in the middle of the day, I'm going to put it in a bottle of cold water and drink it. And it's like, it's so refreshing. And I realized that my body is needing this because I'm outdoors. I'm in. Even if you're in ac, it's drying you out. You are getting dehydrated.

Yeah.

I never go on a flight without that.

Right.

So I have learned over time to start to the cues that my body sends. Sometimes I don't want to hear and I will ignore it. And then it will shout louder, at which point it gives me no choice and I have to do what I have to do.

It's true.

But sometimes I don't want to exercise. I really don't. And the body will say, but I need you to move. I'm like, I swear I don't want to move. And I go, see, but I need you to move. And after a while, after this battle, I'm like, you know that you're going to be at me until I get movement. So I'm going to give you 15 minutes, right? And inevitably, 15 goes to 30, because once you start, you feel better now. Okay, I'll just do another 15.

It's true, it's true. Once you get going, once you get.

Going, you will start. But it's become for me, a lifestyle.

Right. So it has to be something that you kind of practice and so that you ingrain it into your.

You start to practice. Like, I've fallen off on my morning practice recently, and I'm still trying to tune in and say, why, why don't you want to meditate on the morning? Why don't you get up? Why aren't you getting up? And I realized, Listen, I'm watching TV late, right, night, so the blue light is preventing the release of melatonin. So my body is falling asleep later, right? Which means that I can't get up early enough to do the morning practice. So I'm very aware of what it is.

And your phone does that as well, right?

Yes. So, you know, you're scrolling and you're doing things and sometimes it's just mindless scrolling. And you, you know, you're hearing the jokes and you, you laughing at certain things. I'm watching the news and I'm like, you know what? You really need to start to shut down by it. And you know, my phone and my watch send me this message at 9:15. So bedtime is in half an hour. Start getting ready. I look at it, I just explained. Just, just leave me alone. What it is telling me, yeah, this.

Is telling me how to live my life.

You know, start to shut down, turn off the TV or put the timer on and stuff like that. And. And it beeps. You know, it gets this beep. I'm like, there's my bedtime cue. And when I pay attention to it and I do that, I feel so much better. I get up early enough naturally to do my morning practice to be able to exercise. And now I'm like, okay, are you that tired? And maybe your body just needs the extra rest. So I'm giving myself grace.

Yes, I think that's important.

I've given myself grace. And I said, you know what, Give yourself a few more. Maybe another week of, you know, just doing that because you. It's not sustainable. And lack of proper restorative sleep will affect my heart, my brain, my muscles, my hormones. You know, so many things. So I am banking health for the future. And I tell people from your 20s, you need to start to bank health.

Right. I was gonna ask you because. Are you saying then that the body changes as you age? Right. And then do you have to do more? Because I do feel like when I.

Was younger, you could get away with.

Could get away with certain things. And because you were young, you and you look good and you could lose weight easily and all that kind of stuff. We don't really pay much attention to anything healthy really, until it was time to lose the weight. And then once you lose weight for the event. Then you go back doing, doing whatever. But then as you get older, older, I find it is, it's more difficult now to get the weight off and perhaps even keep the way off.

Well, it is as you do. The issue is as you get older, you lose muscle. And it is said you lose about, I think it's about 1, 1% after the age of 30, you could lose 1% of your muscle each year. So you lose from 30, you start to lose muscle. So what I tell people from their 20s, bank your muscle. So start to do weight lifting and body weight bearing exercises and use your body as weight as well so that you will have enough muscle to keep you going. Now that doesn't mean that you work out hard in your 20s and 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, you stop hopefully that if it becomes a habit for you in your 20s, you will carry on in your 30s, your 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond.

And you have that foundation there already.

I have the foundation. You've been exercising, you know what to do, you know what exercises work for you. But as you get older, maybe the type of exercises. So in my 40s, I would run and I told somebody one day, you know, I would do three 5k runs a week, no problem. Up until Covid, I was, you know, because I was stressed out and there was nothing. I would just head out, do a 5k around and come back. And because of the endorphins I felt good. So almost every day I wanted to go out and I thought, no, you, you, you can't be running too much. But I literally wanted, well, you shouldn't really, you don't want to over overwork your body. I mean, you can. But I was 40 something or 50 something by then, so it was like, you know, you need to kind of chill out a little on the running. And then my back would hurt and you know, but I felt so good just after the run. I would get back and I like, yeah, and I would run with music and it was just me, the road, the wind, the music, and no thoughts of COVID or what was happening. It was just freedom. But then, you know, I said the back started and then I would, you know, I would come home and say, oh, maybe that was too long a run or too hard a run. So I said, okay, I started to walk and then I walk around and I do other things, but I've had to just change how I exercise to suit the stage I'm at. But I'm still exercising. So instead of running three times a week, I do A walk, run, and.

Then you integrate weights in there at some point.

3, 3 to 3 times minimum a week weight training. And I tell women, please lift heavy, lift 10, 12, 15, 20 pound weights, lift heavy. We can do it.

I think the misconception might be that when we lift heavy weights, we get a lot bulky and not feminine and.

Well, we can't. Unless you are a woman trained for a bodybuilding competition or training to become a bodybuilder, you cannot look like that. Our bodies are not designed like men's bodies to build muscle. That way you will be toned. Yes, but you will not look muscular. And you know the skin. I know, I know, yes, but that.

Is the misconception, right? Oh, I don't want to lift weights because I don't to want, want my body to look less feminine.

You also want your body to be, to have muscle because when you have enough muscle, muscle and fat cannot play a game with each other. So the more muscle you have, hopefully the less fat you have. And you want less fat. So you, you want to build a muscle. The muscle is what is like we. Somebody calls it your Spanx for your skeleton. It actually supports your, your skeleton. And as you get older, you could lose bone mass. We are losing bone mass. So this Spanx is kind of holding the bones together.

Right.

Muscle also burns calories, more calories than fat and cardio. Right, Than even cardio. So you, you want them at rest. If you have muscle, you, you're constantly burning, your metabolic rate is higher the more muscle you have. So there is a push now for perimenopausal and menopausal women to lift more and lift heavy. You will not get muscular, but you will be fit and toned. Hopefully you will lose some of the fat because that's where the fat, the belly fat is deposited. And everybody's talking about my belly is getting bigger.

Yeah.

Cortisol and stress will deposit fat around the midsection.

Right.

If you're lifting weights and you're eating properly and when, I mean, eating proper means prioritizing your protein intake. Many women, many people, but primarily women are not getting adequate amounts of protein. So I, I know I was one of those. So I would be working out and not seeing any change in my body.

Right. But you have to have that protein.

Are, you have protein. The protein is what's feeding the muscle fibers.

Right, right. That makes sense.

If you're not eating enough protein, there's, it's like, it's, it's there, but it's like you ain't Feeding me. So why am I, I can't grow. And you want the muscle fibers to grow.

Exactly.

So you want to feed it properly. And the way to feed muscle is with protein and not excessive amounts. But about, I tell people about, about 0.7 to 0.8 grams of protein per pound, not per kilogram per pound. Prior to that, years ago we were saying 0.7 to 0.8grams of protein per kilogram, but now we've doubled it to put it per pound. So now you actually need more protein. So we need more meat. Well, chicken breast, protein, sources of protein, healthy sources of protein. And people prepare it. Well now for me to do that, I have realized that for my, because of how I work, I can't sit and eat a three egg omelette with vegetables or with chicken. Like, you know, I will tell people you want to start your, start your day. I know, I just don't have the time. Okay, I'm going to work and I have to sit and sit and eat.

Right.

Like, okay, I'm watching the clock and I'm trying to. It wasn't pleasant. And then you want your food.

Yeah, right.

But if I went to bed earlier and woke up and did everything, I'd have time to eat things. The other thing that I think women need to look at is time restricted feeding or intermittent fasting where you do between 12 to 14 hours of fasting overnight.

Overnight.

Women, women who do it longer are actually put in. Some women are actually putting their bodies under more stress.

For if you do it longer than.

If you do it longer than the 12 to 14, you could put your body under stress. So if you stop eating at 8 o', clock, your first meal, which should be protein rich, could be around 9:00'. Clock. Okay, that's doable. That's entirely doable. Yeah, that's doable because you're sleeping, you're getting ready for work and stuff. You can have a water, you can have coffee without sugars or tea without sugar. And then you sit and you eat a protein rich meal. You know, an omelette with. You have chicken from dinner, chop it up, put it in the omelette with vegetables and you have a loaded omelette, smoothies. So for me, a smoothie is a lifesaver.

It definitely is.

I can drink it, I can prep them in advance, I can get it on on my way to work, I can start drinking it, I can drink it in between patients, you know, because. And there's no smell of food in the office per se. So up for Me, the smoothie is how I get a substantial amount of my protein. And I track, I know in each smoothie how many grams of protein I have.

Right, okay. So, and then you need like a protein powder to help.

You need, yeah, you, you, yeah, you need a protein powder within it. So you could do, you know, different nuts and hemp seeds and collagen and you can, you could find ways of adding protein. So I add quite a lot of things to mine, Right. I have a loaded protein smoothie to ensure that I get the grams that I need by a certain time.

Right.

So I've hit my, my quota by 3 o' clock in an afternoon, I've hit that and I say, okay, my next meal, make sure that I have, you know, whatever it is I'm having for dinner where it's fish or chicken, that I have a substantial amount because I know how you know approximately how many grams. And you track it. Yeah. So by the end of the day, if I realize, well, you have, you've hardly made 100 and something grams, I will go and I will have a light shake or something with protein powder or even Greek yogurt that is high in protein. So I always try and track. There's days where I feel horribly and the smoothie has been my only lifeline for the day, which, you know, if I finish it. But most days where I try to go through what I have had for the day and say, okay, you kind of, okay, you're making it, you're close enough.

Right, right.

And then the next, you give yourself grace, you can't do it. I can't tell you that I will do it every day, but most days it will get done. And that's exactly what I think we all need to do. 80% of the time we try to do these things. The other 20%, it's a free for all it's life, life thing. It's giving ourselves the grace to say, today it's cheesecake, you know, today it's Doritos. Today I just need that, that milkshake or something, you know, you do it.

I do, I do like that, that philosophy because I have spoken to people who are very strict about, you know, what they eat and don't give any room whatsoever for you to have, you know, something that you like, you know, like a fast food, I want to say fast food or a cheap meal, you know, but something that you've had and you, you enjoy and that you like. Like. They're so strict.

Listen, there's no way I would come to Barbados and not have a chefette drumstick. There's no way.

Not the roti, the drumstick.

It used to be the roti, but roti has become a little spicy for the, you know, the gut is not as.

I was just gonna, I was gonna say I found recently, in most recent times, I want to say maybe this year alone when it comes to anything rotis or anything with a sauce with a kick it. I guess heartburn might be the best way for me to explain it.

Now. My. Yeah, it's, it's a gut health. It's our gut health. So stress, toxins, food additives, if you've been on antibiotics, all these things will affect our gut health. And remember, once you open your mouth, your, your gut is open to all these external toxins.

Interesting. You put.

Once you open your mouth, the gut is open to all of that and that's the, the, the majority of the gut is only one cell sick. It's just one cell layer. So if it is damaged, anything you eat is just absorbed. And the body says, what's going on here? I don't recognize this. I'm not supposed to be getting this. Because Right under the one cell is our immune system.

Right.

70 to 80% of our immune system is in the gut to protect us because it is so important. So you have what we call leaky gut where the cells are broken down and they're not, they're supposed to be like this and they kind of apart now. And then everything is being absorbed. And once it goes past that, the immune system says, no, I need to, I need to protect you, I need to do the work. So it starts to act up and you get a hyper immune state.

Right.

And it is probably what they're saying now. This is the basis for even some autoimmune disorders that we've seen in resurgence on where it's all related to what's happening in our gut. So the importance of gut health cannot be stressed enough. Maintaining our microbiome, maintaining the gut bacteria, a good balance between good and bad bacteria with more good and different types, making sure that there are certain foods that for instance, for you, it might not necessarily necessarily be the roti. It might be the, the wrap the gluten in the roti shell already curry.

It might, I feel it might be.

Yeah, you just don't know. So each person is different. It might be that you're very stressed and all of a sudden the gut says, listen, these, when you stress, you produce these stress hormones which then set up for inflammation and Inflammatory cytokines. And the body just says, listen, you know, I need a break, and I'm gonna shut down a little bit. I'm gonna protect you, and I don't want you to have certain things. So every time you eat it, it says, I told you I didn't want it. You're not listening.

Yeah.

And then you get the bloating and the burping and the heartburn.

Yeah.

And then you say, well, maybe. Maybe something was wrong with that particular food.

Yeah, let me get it. Let me get it. But something from somebody else.

You go somewhere else, and then you get the reaction. And you said, oh, well, maybe it was just today because we don't want to accept the fact that the foods we love sometimes are the foods that are damaging the gut. And it's not forever. Once you rebuild your gut, you remove the offending things, you rebuild, place the gut bacteria and you restore the. The layer, the mucosa layer of the gut. Then sometimes you could go back and have your roti and you may not feel anything.

Right.

You know, you may have to take like a digestive enzyme to help you digest.

Yeah.

You don't know. But it's trial and error, and it is truly listening to your body and saying, this didn't work last time. And then I had this reaction to this, this time. And, you know, you can attract things.

Right.

And that's how you learn what your body wants and what your body doesn't want. And it changes.

Right, Right.

Can change with each year. It can change. It certainly changes with each decade as you get older.

Right.

So things that you could eat with abandoned in your 20s, come 40s, it's in. No, it's not really my thing right now.

Yeah.

Up level a little and have a little more organic something or.

Right.

Can you give me a salad instead of a sandwich?

If I was to tell my younger self that I enjoy. We actually enjoy Greek salads. I'll be like, what, you like salad? Those are the things you push off your plate.

It feels so good when you nourish your body with all these nutrients and vitamins and, you know, your cells are taking it in and saying, thank you, thank you, thank you.

And I think your gut kind of, because I have this thing with my husband, we feel eating is like my stomach and telling me anything particular. Right. You do have that kind of like, you know, what I will go for. And your stomach would tell you about, you know, the things that you would go for, and it would tell you the things that. That you wouldn't go for.

That's tuning into what it needs.

Yes. Because you probably would have gone for like, you say, maybe some fried chicken or whatever, but like, your stomach is telling you you really want that grease. You really want. Remember the last time.

I know I am, I'm so happy I don't live in Barbados anymore because let me tell you, whenever my daughter is traveling, I stop at the airport, go early, get that snack box, tell them, put two, two drumsticks in. And at the airport, I'm literally waiting and I'm like, please come out, please come out, please come out. Please, Please tell me you got the. Please tell me you got it. The last time she forgot, she, she went late. I'm like, so you mean there's no chef? Like, there's no drumstick?

No drumstick. You like the drumstick specifically?

I just want one. That's all I want. I will literally, for your, for your craving, I leave the airport, drive straight to Rockley, and I'm like, may I please just have two of these?

Listen, I ain't gonna share this podcast with your set and get them to work out something with you, you know, so that when you're.

I just, I will. I know I don't want them to. I just. It's a craving that I satisfy. Okay.

Or when you're here, then we going to make sure that you get it.

You get it. Trust me. I make sure. I make sure.

Okay. Okay.

On the way from the airport. And I don't need to have it every day. Once I. No, I get you, I get you on the way. And then on the way out, I'll probably. We have it again and I'm good.

And then you're good. Until you come back again.

Until I come back again. But. And I acknowledge it, right. I know that, I know that it has about 12 grams of protein, so I'm justifying it, you know.

Right.

So if you have two of those, you just made about 20 something grams of protein. So you're pretty good.

Right.

If you have it now, forget the grease and whatever else, but you got a little protein in. So have a salad. So I might order. I might go to the other side and have a salad. So last time I went, I got a small salad and I had my two drumsticks and I figured I was.

Good, I had a good balance. Yeah. Especially since it's just one day.

But the drumstick, it was a non negotiable. It was a non negotiable. I don't want anything else. I just want that, so I'm aware of, I am aware of the things and I'm aware of the macros in it and I know the nutrient value and I eat it and I give myself grace and I say thank you for great tasting food.

Yes. Okay, so we've spoken about food, right? Spoken about body. Now let's talk a little bit about the mind. Like getting your mojo back when it comes to the mental aspect. Because okay, we got the, we can sleep, we got, we gotta get our sleep in. We got segment, yes, we gotta segment our, our day in a way where we try to get, you know, the food in, the nutrients in that we need and time to, to get more moving at least. Then where does the, the mental side come in? Where does the mind come in during your day?

The mind can go anywhere during any particular day if I'm going on a personal experience, but it is being mindful of where my mind is going. So for instance, yesterday I had one of those days where every time I tried to do something, I was just being torn. And at one point I remember just standing up and taking a deep breath and say, okay, okay, today is one of those days you are going to be stressed, right? Just try and take deep breaths. As soon as, like in between patients, you take a deep breath and you just settle. What I also did was that I carry aroma. I carry a lavender based essential oil and I was sniffing it, you know, like, okay, just whatever little pocket of joy you can get, you got. So I have a signature scent for the clinic. I lit my candle. The other thing was I have a, the lavender scent. I use a red light therapy mat. So I made sure at the end of the day when I got home, I went on my mat. I was aware during my day that I would have, by six o' clock I would have been wiped out. Very aware of that. So I made sure that I drank enough, as much water as I could to make sure that my cells were hydrated, made sure that I completed my smoothie so I had my nutrients. I acknowledged that there were times when I was on the verge of frustration and tears because I just, it was like too much. And I just said, okay, maybe when you get home you'll have a good cry if you still feel like that. But this is not the time you need to do the work you need to do. Let's get on with it. But I was honest with myself and I was mindful of each moment, of what I could do to mitigate the effects of stress. So I wear this ring. The Oura ring and it's linked to my Apple watch. So now I feel like I'm talking like I'm a robot, right? Like I have all these gadgets.

Listen, no, I love technology.

It was telling me.

Yeah.

That I was stressed. It told me your, it says like, your body's under stress, whatever. And I'm like, well, okay, I know I'm under stress. I looked at it. I'm like, okay, yeah, I know I'm under stress. You just tell me what I know. We will reverse that at the end of the day where I can either do sauna therapy or red light therapy or something like that, where I kind of balance the impact that the stress has had on my body. Because stress is highly inflammatory. It affects your brain, your heart, your joints, everything. So as much as I cannot always control the type of day I will have, what I can do is at the end of the day, I journal Sometimes when it's bad, I do color. I have a coloring book and I color mandalas, which takes your brain and use a different side of your brain. If I'm ready, depending on what my body may say, I want exercise, I may go on the treadmill and do something.

Right.

Or it might tell me, listen, all you need is to just go watch Netflix right now.

Go watch some mind numbing something. Yeah.

So I, I do tend to, okay, what are you going? What do you need now? And sometimes it surprises, sometimes I am exhausted and yet it wants to go to a spin class or something. Like, you sure that's what you really want? You know, I'm like, are you really sure that we need to exercise? Like, you know, I have this conversation with the inner wisdom, like, do we really need exercise right now?

Right.

And then it tells you, yeah, just go on the treadmill or something.

Yeah, yeah, okay.

So I go. And then by the time I've done it, I'm like, ah, feel a lot of, of of the pent up stress and so on.

Right, right.

Better. So I ask it what it needs.

Right.

I normally work out three days a week. Yesterday I was exhausted and I had gone to a family funeral on the Monday.

Right.

The day before. And I said, you know, I am emotionally and physically drained. I think I would better be served by skipping my workout on Tuesday morning. So I called the trainer and I said, I will not be working out this morning or tomorrow morning. No explanations, I just will not be working out. And then the next time I saw him, I said, this is why I didn't work out. You know, before you you'd say, well, you know, I did this, and I do that. So I don't think I can work out. It was deep knowing you will be better served spending that extra hour asleep because you've gone to bed late and you've had all of these emotions processing. Allow your body to process it. Let your body rest. Because there's nothing as restorative as deep rest for your mind and your body. So I allowed it to. I allowed it to rest, but there are days when it just doesn't seem. Seem to know what it was. I'm like, you can't give me a clue, like, what do you need today? And then you're like any mini mine anymore. And you just try something, right?

Are you. Yeah. You go to your routine.

The majority of the time, if you ask your body what it needs, it will tell you. You just have to be open to sometimes surprises, you know, like, really, you want this to eat? Or you. You know, so it is what it is. There's deep inner wisdom. And our bodies have an innate ability to heal itself. So let's use it. We know we're born with this innate ability, but we forget as we get older. And we figure we know better than the inner wisdom or the doctor knows the better. And sometimes patients will come and say, I don't know what's wrong. I said, yes, you do know what's wrong. I want you to tell me. What do you think the problem is?

I was just gonna ask you, you know, like, what are some of the most common challenges, right, that you see in women's health?

In women's health. I think right now it's burnout. That's post Covid. I think we're only now in 2024, processing the pandemic. What happened was we had 20, 20, 2021, 2022. We were kind of in and out. By 2023, we were outside, we were traveling, we were partying, we were doing everything. But we never processed this collective trauma that we all went through. Nobody wanted to face it. It was as it never existed anymore. We were doing anything possible to take care of it back to normal. We didn't want to think of the years gone by and now the bodies as the body and the mind starting to say, in 20 this year, I've seen so much burnout. And I realized that it's only because the body is processing the trauma and it's coming out physically and emotionally in so many people. There are women in their 20s who are experiencing symptoms of perimenopause Which I never saw before, but it's directly related to the severe stress. And stress affects how the whole hormone hormonal cascade works in our body. So when we start to explain to them, this is what your body is, this is what has happened. These are what your labs are showing. This is the pattern. This is not in your head. Other people have gone through it, I have gone through it. And I can hold your hand through this. What you call tunnel of dark, tunnel into the light. Because people need support. They need to be educated as to what's happening to their body. They need to be empowered and given permission to heal themselves. And they need to be encouraged and inspired and held as they are healed. And this is what education, empowerment, encouragement, the three things that we have to do to walk these patients through this.

And it's a powerful tool for sure, because you might not know exactly how you're feeling or what you're feeling this way, but then when you get to here, because I did not know about perimenopause, I just knew about menopause, full stop. Because it's something that you. You. You heard about when you were younger and that kind of thing. Yes, very negative. And like, it just happened to older women. And during our time is be the cr. Crabbiest time. Stay away from them because they're. They've transformed into this beast until it's like, like finished.

Right.

So education, like you say, gives that empowerment then for us to act and to do something about it. But what initiatives, what educational initiatives do you want to take to raise awareness about women's health issues?

I think we need to be authentic and talk openly about our experiences as women with each other. So when I first came out and I started talking about my experience, experience with burnout, I had so many people reach out and said, oh, I'm so happy. You said, I didn't realize I was burnt out or I knew that, you know, but I didn't want to acknowledge it because I didn't want people to think something was wrong with me. And I said, well, I burnt out three times or four times. So I have come out and I've spoken openly about it because I want to remove the stigma attached and to try and change. Change how we live our lives so that we don't get burning out over and over. It took me a few times to learn the lessons.

Right, right.

I'm not saying I won't burn out ever again. What I am saying is that I'm more in tune with my body now. So as soon as I start to see the signs and I start to feel that a particular way I'm like, okay, you need to pull back, you need to just take the chain, make practice what you preach and already deeper way and practice exquisite self care so that you don't go down, that you can, you know, you cannot stop the downhill process. So we need to be authentic and open with each other. We need to educate ourselves in the proper way. And it's not always on TikTok or on social media that you will get the correct information. Because what works for one person on TikTok may not work for you. Yeah, so I have patients come in, oh, I saw this supplement on Tik Tok. So I started it and I said, and what have you experienced? But I don't feel any better. Like, well, we haven't tested you to see what your imbalance is. So what works for this person on TikTok may not necessarily work for you.

And you can't believe everything on, on the Internet. That's the truth. Because there are influencers, micro influencers. People are paid to advertisers and things. So it is best that you check with a trained medical professional about things that you put in your body, anything.

Bothering you, anything you're not sure about. Before you go to Dr. TikTok, please see Dr. Tick Tock. Dr. I told them, I told him you've gone to Dr. TikTok or Dr. Instagram. And I'm not knocking it because they are sources of valuable information. You just have to sift through them and see what works for you.

Yes, yes.

So what works for the other person may not be what is working for you. Because we need to find out what your imbalance is. Yes, yes, you know, and I, I may still tell you to take that. But now I am take. We, we're now acting from a space of proper knowledge. We have analyzed your labs, we've examined you. We know it, you know, we know where you're at. If you don't know where you're at, then we, we can't continue.

Yes, Agreed.

We don't know where to go.

Agreed.

So we must have a starting point. It must be science based. And we must also not knock the power of intuition. So many times the patient will say, I just don't, I feel something is off. I just don't feel right.

Right, right.

Even if the lads look normal, like we look to forward further because the patient has been living in their bodies, the patient knows their body. So if you tell me you're not feeling or Something isn't right. I am certainly going to go look.

Yes, yes. And I think it's important to take note of what you might think is something small or not important. You know, down the ball movement, for crying out loud. Like, I think every single thing would tell guess what's really happening with you. So it's really important to not kind of push aside anything that you think might be small that's happening with your body.

No. And I think many times, especially women, we put everybody and everything ahead of ourselves, and then when we have no choice because that sort of minor issue has become major, right? Then you come in and then they get upset with themselves and they. They are angry that they should have come early. And I said, give yourself grace. We have found it. Or we found that we found an answer and we can help.

Right.

And I think this is what we need as women, these connections with each other, also connections with something higher than ourselves, which you tap in every day. I tap into something. Something greater than myself.

Yes.

And the most important thing is to tap into yourself, your self love and self acceptance. Meet yourself where you are, look at yourself and say, you know, every single thing that has happened has made you the person you are today, good or bad. Whatever happened in the past is in the past, but they were lessons sent from something or something somewhere to make you this wonderful person. Listening to this podcast today. And then you take the changes, you make the changes that you need. But first, give yourself grace, give yourself forgiveness, give yourself love. Because we don't do that. We're so quick to forgive other people, and then we beat up on ourselves. We're so quick to tell others, you know, I love this person, and this is love, love, love. And then you look at yourself in the mirror and says, I hate how I look. I hate my belly, I hate my face. I hate this. I hate that we don't love on ourselves enough. And that's one of the most powerful healing tools that I have seen. The power of meeting ourselves where we are, forgiving ourselves for what we should have done or didn't do or whatever it is, leaving that in the past and saying, okay, I am now ready to make the changes that I need to make. To thrive, to find joy, to find fulfillment and contentment and confidence in my life and meet life on my terms. Because many of us are living life on other people's terms.

That is a word. That is a word, Dr. Tanya. And that is a good, I guess, sign off for this episode. Geez, just. Let's just start loving Ourselves. I, I don't know if there's this, some kind of shame or guilt or something that comes with doing that.

I don't think we've been taught though, we've not been taught to love ourselves.

Right.

So when I tell people I want you to look in the mirror and say, I love you and look into your eyes, look at me like, huh. The first time I heard this, I looked at myself and I'm like, I love you. And then I closed, looked away and I said, I love you. And I said, I don't like how this looked. And you want to put makeup like that Today all of these were going through my head, you know, and is everything negative? Because we're just not taught to say, you are great, you are beautiful.

Right.

You know, I love you. I. Your body has done so much and brought you to this point. We, we just say, oh, okay, I'm just overweight, so I don't like how my arms look or my bottom, you.

Know, so self critical.

Very. And all these negative thoughts then build up and become physical symptoms in time. So I think we need to start living out our dreams. I have this beautiful dream catcher booklet that I will share with, I'll send to you so you could share with your, your team and your audience. I think we must get quiet and pay attention to the dreams that we have as children and start living, living out our dreams. If not now, then when.

Yes. That's a whole other conversation. That's a whole other conversation.

You gotta do that. That's, that's healing on another level.

Oh, yes, yes. Because when I, I probably talk to you the whole day, but when I, when I speak to women around my age and I talk to them about things that I always wanted to do, mainly career wise, most of them, if not all of them, are not doing the things that they want to do. That, that, that, that as they're talking about it, they light up, right? And I can't get them to shut up because it just keep going on about this thing that, and why they want to do it and that kind of thing. And it's. Yeah, we need to tackle these dreams that seem like they were so huge when we were small or maybe they seemed easy when we were small.

And I think we're making them seem like boulders when they really are. You just think one step at a time and you climb this boulder. Simple as that, you know?

Oh, thank you. Thank you, Dr. Tania. It's been such an awesome conversation. So much so that I even put the whole script and we just let everything flow. And I think that we were able to tackle a lot. So getting your mojo back.

Get your mojo back. And I do work with patients virtually. So if anybody's listening, they can can go on my website and fill out the form and we could do virtual. I could, you know, I do virtual. I do see patients virtually because I truly believe in this work. I truly believe that we do not have to suffer through perimenopause and menopause and burnout. I think we're all destined for joy and we just forget. We forget that we're destined for joy and that we're here to be happy and joyful and thrive.

And we think we don't deserve it as well.

Yeah, we don't feel we deserve it.

But your website is.

No, it's tanyabobrun.com okay.

Your website is tanyaboron.com but you're. So your practice.

My practice is called Satya center for Functional and Integrative Medicine. But my website is tanyabogren.com you get to find out and there's an ebook so they can go there and get the Destined for Joy ebook, which gives a lot of what I spoke about in there.

Okay, great. So what I'll do, I'll put that information on the videos as well in the about information on YouTube. So if anyone is interested, they will know how to get in contact contact with you. Thank you so much for your time, Dr. Tanya.

Thank you for having me.

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