Speaker 1: Maybe that's Lisa and We're just two girls that want
Speaker 1: to have a conversation with you. Dear sixteen year old Andrea,
Speaker 1: Hey gorgeous, Dear younger Lauren. Each episode is stories from people.
Speaker 1: I would deprive myself by myself obsessively because I was
Speaker 1: eating healthy. I couldn't understand that I had a problem
Speaker 1: with food. Losing my period scared me the most. My
Speaker 1: story starts when I was around seven. That's when I
Speaker 1: started to hate my body. Body image is like our
Speaker 1: inner picture of our outer self. Healthy behaviors play a
Speaker 1: much bigger role at all health than the actual number
Speaker 1: on the scales. Internal dialogue could be so powerful and
Speaker 1: often it's super negative and critical in a way that
Speaker 1: we wouldn't talk to other people that we care about.
Speaker 1: When you start to share your story, that gives other
Speaker 1: people the courage to share theirs. I know you would
Speaker 1: be proud now of how far you have come in
Speaker 1: your relationship to food, exercise, and to yourself. I felt freedom,
Speaker 1: I've gained relationships. I've found my true sense of self worth.
Speaker 1: There's one thing I need you to take away. You're
Speaker 1: going to be okay, okay, Lisa and I are excited
Speaker 1: to have Victoria Myers back on. If you missed our
Speaker 1: episode with her, she was on previously talking about intuitive
Speaker 1: eating and ibs. We had an amazing conversation, so we're
Speaker 1: pumped to have her back on to talk about how
Speaker 1: to get your period back, which I personally have never
Speaker 1: dealt with, but I know others listening may or it
Speaker 1: might be something that they have a loved one has
Speaker 1: gone through, So this could be a perfect episode to
Speaker 1: share with someone. I know we have a lot of
Speaker 1: moms that have daughters and this is a real thing.
Speaker 1: It's a real concern, and I'll go ahead and say
Speaker 1: Victoria's Instagram handle here, but we'll have it in the
Speaker 1: show notes at Victoria Myers Underscore. And Victoria's definitely qualified
Speaker 1: for what she is talking about. She is a podcast
Speaker 1: host of her own nutrition Minds. You can check that out.
Speaker 1: She is a registered dietitian, and she is the founder
Speaker 1: of Nourishing Minds Nutrition. So Victoria, welcome back. Thank you
Speaker 1: for having me. I'm so excited to be back again.
Speaker 1: Before we jump in and go through all about how
Speaker 1: this happens, why it happens, what the cause is something
Speaker 1: that I've noticed with my friends I'm thirty two years old,
Speaker 1: so I have a lot of friends a few years
Speaker 1: younger than me, a few years older than me, and
Speaker 1: some who have lost their period because of dieting, and
Speaker 1: there was no concern while they were dieting and staying
Speaker 1: in control of their weight and bodies. But when it
Speaker 1: came time to think about having a baby, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, they were terrified and we're scrambling to get
Speaker 1: their periods back and to learn about their bodies. So
Speaker 1: I just thought it was super interesting to kind of
Speaker 1: think if I was twenty and I lost my period
Speaker 1: because of disordered eating habits, I might sweep that under
Speaker 1: the rug. But when you're a few years older or
Speaker 1: in your family planning years, all of a sudden, it
Speaker 1: kind of bites you in the butt and you wish
Speaker 1: you didn't do the things that you did. So, just
Speaker 1: for anybody who's maybe not there yet, I want you
Speaker 1: to be thinking about what that means for your body.
Speaker 1: And while it might not be critical to fix it
Speaker 1: in the moment, you don't want to get to the
Speaker 1: point where you two are scrambling. Yeah, because your period
Speaker 1: is your monthly report card, and you definitely want to
Speaker 1: think of it that way, like it's telling you that
Speaker 1: your body is safe and seen and heard and taken
Speaker 1: care of. Truly, I will say that there are ramifications
Speaker 1: for not having a period, even if you aren't trying
Speaker 1: to have a baby. There's uh, you know, impasted your
Speaker 1: bow density, it can affect your heart health. Estrogen is
Speaker 1: very protective to our hearts. And I know like people
Speaker 1: often see periods as like this annoying, a monthly thing
Speaker 1: they have to deal with. But hopefully we can also
Speaker 1: change that conversation to be an empowering message of like,
Speaker 1: this is your body taking care of you, and also
Speaker 1: appear it can be a wonderful, restorative time. I know
Speaker 1: that sounds a little hippie of me, but it's true
Speaker 1: it can be. So hopefully that helps shift someone's perspective
Speaker 1: about their period too. Hey, can y'all quickly since I
Speaker 1: know Victoria, you and Lisa both know the official term
Speaker 1: for what we're talking about, but I want y'all to
Speaker 1: say it out loud for everybody else because I, for
Speaker 1: the life of me, cannot say it. I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm going to invest saying it now that we're like
Speaker 1: laughing about saying it round, so we're gonna talk today
Speaker 1: about h A. So hypothalamic and nerrea. Boom. Now you
Speaker 1: can like use that whenever you're talking about it and
Speaker 1: sound super smart. Let's call it h A for the
Speaker 1: purpose of today. I feel like, you know, so anytime
Speaker 1: we say h A, we're talking about what victoria hypothalic
Speaker 1: nerrea or a missing period. Okay, but it's missing period
Speaker 1: due to h A. So hypotholgic and norrea is means
Speaker 1: that you have once had a period and now it's
Speaker 1: missing because there's technically a version called priory and norria,
Speaker 1: which means you've never had your period before. But hypothogic
Speaker 1: and norria means that you had a period and now
Speaker 1: it's an it's missing in action. So h A is
Speaker 1: you know a really interesting thing that there's this, you know,
Speaker 1: I think we understand a lot of times with like
Speaker 1: eating disorders, that there are gonna often be like a
Speaker 1: missing pure There's also the female athlete triad where we
Speaker 1: often like this kind of a known thing that a
Speaker 1: lot of times athletes can lose their periods. But there's
Speaker 1: this huge group of women that also superior is just
Speaker 1: from disordered or de dieting behaviors alone can also And
Speaker 1: the way you basically want to think of h A
Speaker 1: is your body has stopped getting the fuel or the
Speaker 1: necessary inputs it needs to create a cycle. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of different mechanisms within the body, and I wouldn't
Speaker 1: want to necessarily get super scientific in today's so because
Speaker 1: that can get really boring really quickly. But basically think
Speaker 1: of it like this, if your body is in a
Speaker 1: famine mode of feast for famine, it thinks that it's
Speaker 1: unsafe to produce a cycle right now. And there's a
Speaker 1: lot of things that happen with your hypothelic put to
Speaker 1: a terry internal access or your hp a access where
Speaker 1: your body starts to shut down the pathway. So again
Speaker 1: you can just think of as like your body isn't
Speaker 1: getting what it needs, so it starts to shut down
Speaker 1: these pathways. There's these like amazing reproductive neurals that tell
Speaker 1: your body that it's just time to stimulate and mature
Speaker 1: an egg, which leads to ovulation, which leads to your period.
Speaker 1: Other things that can happen in addition to like your
Speaker 1: your neurons not firing correctly anymore and your body going
Speaker 1: into that Sandon mode is your hormones should just start
Speaker 1: to decrease as Mentioning estrogen earlier is a really important
Speaker 1: reason why you also want your period because it's very
Speaker 1: protective to your bones into your heart help. But estrogen
Speaker 1: is involved with your unine binding, is also involved with
Speaker 1: the first half of your period, your filick, your phase,
Speaker 1: and it helps tell your body it's time to ovulate,
Speaker 1: which then tells your body to search your progesterone. And
Speaker 1: often when we have h A, you have really really
Speaker 1: low levels of estrogen and progestion. I've seen women with
Speaker 1: postman and pousial ranges of estrogen and progesterone. And that's
Speaker 1: another thing that happens is so not only are these
Speaker 1: like HV access stops faunctioning correctly. It tells your neurons
Speaker 1: and different components and chemicals in your body to stop
Speaker 1: firing the things that needs to stem like the egg,
Speaker 1: but also you just stop producing enough literal hormones to
Speaker 1: have a cycle. And the main things that cause it,
Speaker 1: we call them the big four practices food, exercise, sleep,
Speaker 1: and stress. I will say above all the food is
Speaker 1: the primary culprit of why period you can go missing.
Speaker 1: So that means that you're not eating enough. That's like
Speaker 1: the primary thing that you can think of is when
Speaker 1: I say food intake, I mean you are not eating enough.
Speaker 1: And it's really interesting. You can actually lose your period
Speaker 1: from not eating enough with or without a low body
Speaker 1: fat because that's a really big common misconception. People often
Speaker 1: think you have to have a really really low body
Speaker 1: fat and that's simply not true. You can just lose
Speaker 1: it from calorie restriction alone. I'll also say calories are
Speaker 1: probably most important when it comes to food intake, and
Speaker 1: second after that is carbohydrates because we have glucose sensing
Speaker 1: neurons in our ovaries and another reason why we can
Speaker 1: really quickly lose loser period if we're not eating the carbohydrates.
Speaker 1: So as an example, I've seen people maybe collorqually eat
Speaker 1: enough from something like a keto diet, but then they
Speaker 1: still lose their period because they're not eating any carbohydrates,
Speaker 1: and they're really really important for your period. So that's
Speaker 1: the food piece. With exercises, typically just someone is over
Speaker 1: exercising exers I seem too much and that can cause
Speaker 1: a lot of stress to the body and also cause
Speaker 1: in an adequate food intake to exercise ratio, and that's
Speaker 1: also part of why they lose their periods. And then
Speaker 1: not quite as important but definitely important is stress levels.
Speaker 1: Do someone's had like a big change of alife, they've moved,
Speaker 1: they've gone across thease, they've had maybe a new job.
Speaker 1: Stress levels can definitely cause a missing period. I would
Speaker 1: say that's a little bit more common with just like
Speaker 1: missing your period here and there, though u h A
Speaker 1: is probably gonna be a little bit more specifically related
Speaker 1: to food into exercise. And then I will say sleep
Speaker 1: is really important too. Sometimes we see people have a
Speaker 1: regular cycles if they're not getting adequate quality of sleep too.
Speaker 1: So the big four is what I've had to your
Speaker 1: body and again all these different pathways. Basically saying your
Speaker 1: body starts to shut down and not produce a cycle
Speaker 1: because it thinks it's in a famine or it's not
Speaker 1: in a safety mode is the way I always describe it. So,
Speaker 1: how many months of a missing period does it take
Speaker 1: to diagnose or warrant and call it h A. I
Speaker 1: believe it's three or more months. Yeah, okay, so I
Speaker 1: assume at that point will need to seek medical attention
Speaker 1: and get some help there. But what are some ways
Speaker 1: or some steps people can take to help restore what's
Speaker 1: been done. Yeah, so I agree. I think sing a
Speaker 1: medical doctor is always something I'm going to advise as
Speaker 1: you go see your O, B G. Y in and
Speaker 1: talk to them about this. Occasionally PCUS can be part
Speaker 1: of the conversation or not occasionally, but I will say
Speaker 1: PCs can cause a missing period. We're talking specifically to
Speaker 1: ahe A today though. I just mentioned that because sometimes
Speaker 1: when people go to a doctor, they immediately get splashed
Speaker 1: with the diagnosis of PCOS, and a missing period is
Speaker 1: not only caused from PCs. Just wanted to mention that.
Speaker 1: But the main thing, can you can you define PCOS? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so polycystic over eat syndrome. It's when we have I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of different criteria. You have elevated androgens,
Speaker 1: you also have a missing or a regular period, and
Speaker 1: you have polycystic ovaries. Usually we're looking at twenty five
Speaker 1: or more follicles on each ovary. Is what you need
Speaker 1: to get diagnosed with it, and that can cause a
Speaker 1: missing or a regular period. I know that's again it's
Speaker 1: not the purpose of this converse ation, but h A
Speaker 1: is a little bit different of what causes in the
Speaker 1: same period in comparison. So you did say that body
Speaker 1: fat does not necessarily have a correlation to h A. However,
Speaker 1: what about weight changes, So do you need to go
Speaker 1: through weight loss for hypothalmic a manorrhea to occur? Yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: Like weight loss can definitely contribute to h A. And
Speaker 1: that makes sense to just from the energy and take perspective, right,
Speaker 1: Like usually weight loss is happening because there's a calorie
Speaker 1: restriction of some kind happening. But weight loss or like
Speaker 1: especially like sudden weight loss can definitely also indicate to
Speaker 1: your body that is again not in a safety time
Speaker 1: and not a healthy time to produce the cycle. So
Speaker 1: that's a good question. I mentioned this in the very beginning,
Speaker 1: but I mentioned it doesn't have to be a low
Speaker 1: body weight because there is this perception that you have
Speaker 1: to be in a thin or small sized body to
Speaker 1: have h A, and that's not always true, and you
Speaker 1: can be in a variety of body sizes and experience.
Speaker 1: Just to drive that point home and correct me if
Speaker 1: I'm wrong, you can have a b M. I your
Speaker 1: doctor says your your body mass index is overweight or
Speaker 1: even obese, and you can still have hypothalmic amenorrhea likely
Speaker 1: if you are restricting calories exactly. Yes, okay, and then
Speaker 1: can we continue on with the possibly seeing O B
Speaker 1: G y N or a medical professional, but being careful
Speaker 1: of them immediately diagnosing you with something else because they
Speaker 1: may not. I'm I'm wondering if my O B G
Speaker 1: I N has ever really asked me about my food
Speaker 1: intake or caloric intake. I mean, they definitely just want
Speaker 1: to weigh me and make sure that I check whatever
Speaker 1: box that is. But I'm just wondering if someone goes
Speaker 1: and yes, you're right, they go to that appointment, will
Speaker 1: they get the proper guidance? But let's say that they
Speaker 1: know it's h A, are there other steps you could
Speaker 1: share that they could take to help restore their period? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that was a really good point to make any
Speaker 1: because sometimes, yeah, it's not so cut and dry off,
Speaker 1: like someone's going to sit and ask you what is
Speaker 1: your relationship with food like and what are you doing
Speaker 1: with your exercise habits? And let's be real, a lot
Speaker 1: of times these habits are praised. Orthorexy is definitely something
Speaker 1: in any disordered eating where like women eating less and
Speaker 1: exercising too much is often a praise think in our
Speaker 1: in our society specifically, so really good point to make.
Speaker 1: I mean, this does sound so simple, why I understand
Speaker 1: it's not at all. It's why like we've worked one
Speaker 1: and one with people on this, but you need to
Speaker 1: eat more and exercise less. That's the basics behind fixing
Speaker 1: h A. But eating more. I don't know if we
Speaker 1: talk about calorie ranges here, I can share some of that,
Speaker 1: but it's usually eating an appropriate amount of calories to
Speaker 1: restore h A. And then with exercising, typically what we're
Speaker 1: looking at. Not everyone can take an exercise break all that.
Speaker 1: That's my gold standard. I usually prefer a small time
Speaker 1: frame of an actual exercise break, but sometimes that's not
Speaker 1: possible for all people all the time. Exercise addiction is
Speaker 1: a real thing. So then we just focus on reducing
Speaker 1: overall exercise or let's say taking out high intensity interval
Speaker 1: training and just focusing on walks or yoga or something
Speaker 1: like that to get their period back. I think it's
Speaker 1: so interesting about as it sounds really easy, but the
Speaker 1: reality is is like those are really hard things to
Speaker 1: work through, and I think that's where like working one
Speaker 1: one can be so helpless because I swear more of
Speaker 1: my job at least, I wonder if you feel to say, like,
Speaker 1: I feel like my job is more talking about the
Speaker 1: mental assets of life so challenging than it is like
Speaker 1: just giving someone like a cali arrange and telling them
Speaker 1: not to exercise, Like it's never that simple. It's always
Speaker 1: like talking through why we're so stress or worried or
Speaker 1: anxious about things, or why we have the fear of waking.
Speaker 1: Like that's I feel like such a huge part of
Speaker 1: my job. Yeah, and when it comes to a period,
Speaker 1: it can further the stress and anxiety when that report
Speaker 1: card comes and you're doing all the things that your
Speaker 1: dietitian tells you, you're eating more, you're exercising less, and
Speaker 1: then your period still isn't coming back, and that can
Speaker 1: kind of put you into a cycle of feeling like
Speaker 1: a failure, having more stress, furthering the loss of period
Speaker 1: by way of that stress part of the equation, especially
Speaker 1: if you are in family planning mode and that is
Speaker 1: on a timer. Yeah, I think that's a good point.
Speaker 1: And my thing with the fertility too, is like if
Speaker 1: you're doing this work in addition with fertility treatment, like
Speaker 1: I'm going to support you with whatever decision you make,
Speaker 1: because some people have the time to wait for h
Speaker 1: because it can take six plus months to heal from right,
Speaker 1: and then some people don't have that time at always
Speaker 1: really want to honor and respect that, but I still
Speaker 1: always encourage doing this work. In addition, if you are
Speaker 1: doing something like fertility treatment, because it is so important
Speaker 1: to heal just because again it's your body knowing that
Speaker 1: it's safe and taking care of my personal experience, I
Speaker 1: lost my period when I went off of birth control.
Speaker 1: Same here is that h I don't think of it
Speaker 1: as h I think if it more like post birth
Speaker 1: control signings, That's the way I would personally describe it.
Speaker 1: But I do think if it's an extended period of time,
Speaker 1: it is probably more likely that it is h A
Speaker 1: and you may have always had h A, but the
Speaker 1: birth control pill disguised that, which is like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I could made another episode in itself, right, like how
Speaker 1: the birth control pill like just gives us withdrawal blieds.
Speaker 1: It's not the same thing as a natural monthly cycle,
Speaker 1: and it can be really confusing because it makes you
Speaker 1: think that you know you're good and you're having a period,
Speaker 1: but it's not the same thing. So so if you're
Speaker 1: having a regular period on birth control, it's not that
Speaker 1: it's a false good report card in theory, not necessarily,
Speaker 1: but you can't say this is my report card, I'm
Speaker 1: doing everything great because it's synthetically happening. Would ud be
Speaker 1: the right word. Yeah, So you're on typically some amounts
Speaker 1: is different for every birth control people. You're on a
Speaker 1: synthetic amount of ashagen and progester and it's not the
Speaker 1: same as the like the beautiful epps and flows of
Speaker 1: your natural monthly period, and that causes whenever we saw
Speaker 1: taking it, when we start taking the sugar pills, a
Speaker 1: withdrawal bleed, and that's not the same thing. Now I'm
Speaker 1: going to say, like just to be real clear, like
Speaker 1: I have no qualms with birth control, Thank goodness we
Speaker 1: have it, that say, you know, but so important for
Speaker 1: so many years of my life because I didn't have
Speaker 1: an unwanted pregnancy. So I'm not hating on it at all,
Speaker 1: but it's important to understand, like it's not the same thing,
Speaker 1: So it's not hating on it as also like understanding
Speaker 1: its purpose and that's not giving you the same thing
Speaker 1: as a pill. I will also say, just real quick,
Speaker 1: sometimes with eating disorder recovery, uh, this is different than
Speaker 1: what we've been talking about disorder eating with Sometimes you
Speaker 1: actually want someone to take something like synthetic estrogen or
Speaker 1: birth control as they are to underweight so much so
Speaker 1: where it's going to take a long time to get
Speaker 1: their period back, and that can be protected to their
Speaker 1: bones into their heart health until we know they're safe
Speaker 1: to get their period back. So there's always caveats, of course,
Speaker 1: but most of the time we want to work to
Speaker 1: get back that natural monthly period. Such an important distinction. Yes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in the beginning you said something about how we really
Speaker 1: want to change the conversation around periods, and I think
Speaker 1: this will open the conversation up to all listeners, even
Speaker 1: if you're not going through loss of period. And for me,
Speaker 1: this has been such a wonderful way to take my
Speaker 1: health back because when I lost my period because of
Speaker 1: birth control all of a sudden, I didn't have that
Speaker 1: report card coming in and it came back within about
Speaker 1: six months, and I did some things that I'm not
Speaker 1: going to mention here because it might not be applicable
Speaker 1: to everybody. And I don't want to confuse everybody, but
Speaker 1: when I started getting it back, it really changed my
Speaker 1: mind about periods and my own health. And even with
Speaker 1: my now husband boyfriend then, you know, we were high
Speaker 1: fiving each other when I was getting my period, which
Speaker 1: is a complete opposite framework of you know how I
Speaker 1: was in my early twenties of my period. You know,
Speaker 1: a boyfriend you know wasn't celebrating it either. So you know,
Speaker 1: it's just so amazing to think about how wonderful the
Speaker 1: body is and really double think or check in with
Speaker 1: ourselves when we're quick to complain about something that it's
Speaker 1: doing just because we're conditioned to complain about what it's doing.
Speaker 1: So I personally love my period. I'm also not one
Speaker 1: of those people that gets crazy cramps, so I know
Speaker 1: that that it could be very uncomfortable experience for a
Speaker 1: lot of people, But for me, I feel so womanly
Speaker 1: and good and in charge of my health when I
Speaker 1: get that as a read on my body. Okay, I
Speaker 1: love that so much and I'm going to echo that completely.
Speaker 1: I love my period. I'm actually on my period right now,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, hell, yeah, girl, I'll get your your
Speaker 1: body is doing good, like I genuinely like get excited
Speaker 1: when it happens. I also, I don't know how much
Speaker 1: you guys talk about the period, so maybe people aren't
Speaker 1: familiar with this. There's this whole idea of like cyclic living,
Speaker 1: and we talk about that with our clients because intuitive
Speaker 1: eating is really about going with the seasons of life
Speaker 1: and going with the epp and flow of life. And
Speaker 1: I love this idea of being very introspective and like
Speaker 1: really not having a lot on my calendar when I'm
Speaker 1: on a period, and that changes as I go towards opulations.
Speaker 1: So I just have always looked at it as this
Speaker 1: really fun way to connect deeper, more profoundly with my body.
Speaker 1: And yeah, of course sometimes I'm more moody on certain
Speaker 1: parts of my cycle and I get annoyed, but overall
Speaker 1: it's just allowed for a greater appreciation for like being
Speaker 1: a woman, because our period is actually like our like powerhouse.
Speaker 1: It's not like the negative thing that we have to
Speaker 1: deal with every month, something you also said earlier, and
Speaker 1: I love that. By the way, I think I might
Speaker 1: start implementing a little to that into my life of
Speaker 1: when I am in my period, what is my schedule
Speaker 1: look like? And how can I give myself that permission
Speaker 1: to just step away from certain activities or things. But
Speaker 1: I also want to say to you said something earlier
Speaker 1: about with your clients and when they have h a
Speaker 1: and really getting to the root of why they got there.
Speaker 1: I'm paraphrasing kind of what you said to get to
Speaker 1: what I want to ask you is like, Okay, let's
Speaker 1: get to the root of why you feel like you
Speaker 1: need to look that way anyways. So for some of us, yes,
Speaker 1: like Lisa, there was a time in her twenties where
Speaker 1: she could sweep no period under the rug because the
Speaker 1: root of the problem was society has told us we
Speaker 1: need to look like this. So as women, one of
Speaker 1: the many sacrifices that ends up on the table is
Speaker 1: the loss of our period. So just for anybody that
Speaker 1: maybe hasn't lost their period, but they're listening to this,
Speaker 1: and hopefully they can walk away with an appreciation of
Speaker 1: just how complex our bodies are and how everything is
Speaker 1: working together at this crazy level that we can't I
Speaker 1: can barely even comprehend every organ and depends on this
Speaker 1: and that in the breakdown of whatever, and when we're
Speaker 1: destroying our bodies for this gain or what by society
Speaker 1: standards a short term gain, but like the long term
Speaker 1: effects are not worth it. They're not worth it at all.
Speaker 1: And I think it's just comes back to understanding that,
Speaker 1: like not eating enough calories or not eating enough overall,
Speaker 1: is it worth it to lose your health over And
Speaker 1: we're being told this guy's of it's for your health.
Speaker 1: You're taking these boots out of your diet, or you're
Speaker 1: not eating a particular way, or maybe you're just overall
Speaker 1: like not you know, you're doing a caloristriction diet. But
Speaker 1: my question back to people's like, is that really about
Speaker 1: your health? Is that truly value based and aligning for
Speaker 1: you to do, because this doesn't seem to be giving
Speaker 1: you your health if you're developing digestive issues or more
Speaker 1: of those, or you're losing your period, like you might
Speaker 1: be doing it because you think certain foods are in
Speaker 1: play metorier they shouldn't eat X, Y and Z foods,
Speaker 1: or you should be on a caloristriction diet because that's
Speaker 1: just what we think health is right now. But is
Speaker 1: that really health? Like? Is that really And again, having
Speaker 1: your peer to me is like one of the main
Speaker 1: vital signs that stuff from Lisa Henderson. Jo actually calls
Speaker 1: it the fifth botal sign, and I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 1: I think that's such a great way to think of
Speaker 1: it as like one of your signs of health. And
Speaker 1: you know, thank goodness for somebodies that show up and
Speaker 1: not everybody gets that warning sign. Maybe if you've got
Speaker 1: gastro intentional issues that show up because of your eating disorder,
Speaker 1: or you have h A show up because of your
Speaker 1: eating patterns, thank your body. Maybe in the moment, it's
Speaker 1: frustrating because you're so desperate too. I'm just categorizing, but
Speaker 1: let's say it's because you want to be thin. You're
Speaker 1: so desperate to weigh a certain amount or something. But
Speaker 1: thank goodness, your body is functioning at a level that
Speaker 1: it can give you the warning. Because other people, their
Speaker 1: body may not give them the h A warning, but
Speaker 1: there's still serious problems going on, like it may show
Speaker 1: up just down the line. I'm just kind of thinking
Speaker 1: of trying to have gratitude. It's unfortunate if you have
Speaker 1: h A, but how amazing that your body sent you
Speaker 1: a signal that you need help. Yeah. I really like
Speaker 1: that perspective, and similar to a digestive issues right, like
Speaker 1: when I was experiencing really bad digestive issues, that was
Speaker 1: a sign that something was off with my body, and
Speaker 1: saying when I lost my peered after getting off the
Speaker 1: bark until pill and I would even say to this day,
Speaker 1: I haven't had a missing period since I got my
Speaker 1: peered back all those years ago. But I will get
Speaker 1: digestive issues out how flare ups whenever I'm in a
Speaker 1: lot of stress in my life, and it's always a
Speaker 1: reflective time for me be like, Okay, you're obviously stressed
Speaker 1: out about something, because IBS obviously isn't just cost and
Speaker 1: just sort of eating it can we cost from you know,
Speaker 1: stress and anxiety we know so linked to that too.
Speaker 1: So I just always use my symptences like Okay, obviously
Speaker 1: something's going on, like check in time victoria, like how
Speaker 1: is your life going? Is there something where you are
Speaker 1: too stressed out about something? And you can always like
Speaker 1: if you are still strongly disordered eating, I aviously check
Speaker 1: in with your food, your exercise habits as always, if
Speaker 1: you're experiencing more sentence or if your peer goes think
Speaker 1: those are the first things you always want to ask yourself,
Speaker 1: but it is it's a great way to reflect and
Speaker 1: ask yourself where you were at your journey. I lost
Speaker 1: my period for a month during COVID, and I thought
Speaker 1: I had to be pregnant because I haven't had a
Speaker 1: missing period in a long time. And I mean I
Speaker 1: must have spent four hundred dollars on pregnancy tests. And
Speaker 1: I went to the doctor and without I I wrote
Speaker 1: a blog about this, but without even uh knowing anything
Speaker 1: about my baseline weight or anything. She told me that
Speaker 1: I should just lose weight, just blanket statement. Told me that, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I had gained like to myself. I think
Speaker 1: I don't weigh myself, but I think I went on
Speaker 1: a scale there. I forget the story exactly I wrote
Speaker 1: it in the blog, but yeah, that I mean Amy's jobs,
Speaker 1: both of your jaws dropped, and that so did my
Speaker 1: you know, Instagram audiences. Um when I told that story.
Speaker 1: But and and go ahead and read the blog. It's
Speaker 1: on my side or a link it I guess below.
Speaker 1: But I will say I actually didn't plan on telling
Speaker 1: the story. I forgot about it until we were kind
Speaker 1: of talking about it. But it's so important to not
Speaker 1: go with and get statements from your healthcare providers and
Speaker 1: really know your own body because it was just stress
Speaker 1: and it made you know, that was the first time
Speaker 1: in my life a healthcare provider had said that to me,
Speaker 1: and I actually appreciated being in the shoes of many
Speaker 1: of the people that I work with because it just
Speaker 1: totally invalidates everything else and it makes you feel to
Speaker 1: blame and you know it first of all, was unrelated
Speaker 1: to that, and second of all, just was such an
Speaker 1: unhelpful suggestion. And you know, I think why my jaw dropped.
Speaker 1: I'm sure why so many people listening is because you know, Lisa,
Speaker 1: you know you benefit from thin privilege unless something I
Speaker 1: love that you talked so much about. So it's so
Speaker 1: concerning to me because if someone says that to you,
Speaker 1: imagine who else they're saying it to you and into
Speaker 1: why didn't they stop and ask you? How is your stress?
Speaker 1: What's going on in your life? Is there any like
Speaker 1: have you had any major transitions or challenges? Have you
Speaker 1: had any changes you're eating an exercise habits. I understand
Speaker 1: like there's so much medical complications that like they're not
Speaker 1: given enough time or education kind of stuff. That's just
Speaker 1: super a super saddening to hear that honestly, because like
Speaker 1: that was such an opportunity to ask questions rather than
Speaker 1: how you to lose weight, especially how to lose weight,
Speaker 1: And it came from like a much more gentle place
Speaker 1: than where it kind of sounds like it's coming from.
Speaker 1: You know. It was like, sometimes our bodies are very
Speaker 1: sensitive to small weight changes. Therefore a few pounds could
Speaker 1: get you back to you know, your period, So it
Speaker 1: was more gentle than you know, no, just go home
Speaker 1: and lose weight. There was a little bit more basis,
Speaker 1: but nonetheless, you know, I just think it's so important
Speaker 1: for everybody to bring their own power to every appointment,
Speaker 1: whether that's with a registered dietitian or a doctor and
Speaker 1: recognize that blanket advice like that is just so unhelpful.
Speaker 1: And the real reason I brought this up was because
Speaker 1: stress has a profound impact on our bodies period and
Speaker 1: we do not talk about that enough. We go so
Speaker 1: quick to the weight and you know, by focusing on
Speaker 1: my stress management techniques, my next period returned. So there
Speaker 1: we were. Yes, I appreciate sharing it because agains stressed.
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree more. I just such a big advocate,
Speaker 1: like what's your shows? I was like what's your anxiety
Speaker 1: levels like, because that makes such a difference in our
Speaker 1: health in so many ways. We just don't give enough credit.
Speaker 1: And it's so funny because I think we've wrapped up
Speaker 1: the first episode talking about that, but it's just true.
Speaker 1: It really is so important that we understand and we
Speaker 1: make peace with that. And I understand stress and anxiety
Speaker 1: is harder to deal with, and you know, eliminating a
Speaker 1: food or doing a protocol or trying to do when
Speaker 1: it comes to hormones, so often people are elimiting foods.
Speaker 1: That's why I mentioned that they think I have a
Speaker 1: missing period, that must mean I'm eating something inflammatory, but oftentimes,
Speaker 1: especially with h A, not oftentimes, almost always with a specifically,
Speaker 1: that is not at all why you have a missing period.
Speaker 1: It's not because you're eating specific foods. Is because you're
Speaker 1: not eating enough and you're probably exercising too much. Well,
Speaker 1: that was incredibly helpful, and as a reminder, we'll put
Speaker 1: all of Victoria and her nutrition practices information in the
Speaker 1: show notes below. Victoria, thank you for being such a
Speaker 1: wealth of knowledge and sharing your beautiful energy with us.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you so much for having me. I
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. M HM