112 //Does your cycle dictate how you feel throughout the month with Christa Elza

In August of 2020, Christa launched her virtual health practice, Elive Health, and is now able to provide help to women around the country via webcam. As a functional-medicine expert, she specializes in clinically investigating underlying factors of fatigue, hormone balance, thyroid issues, digestive issues, and more. Christa uses breakthrough diagnostic testing that’s rarely done in conventional settings to uncover the hidden causes of why women feel the way they feel.

 

www.instagram.com/christaelza

 

We talk about: 

  • How does our cycle dictate how we feel throughout the month?

  • How can you improve hormone balance naturally?

  • How can I improve my energy?

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AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION

(00:01):

All right. Welcome back to another episode. You guys, I have the privilege of interviewing Christa. So in August of 2020, Christa launched her virtual health practice, a live help, and now is able to provide help to women around the country via webcam as a functional medicine PR expert. She special specializes in clinically investigating underlying health factors for fatigue, hormonal imbalance, thyroid issues, digestive issues, and more Christa uses a breakthrough diagnostic testing that is rarely done in conventional settings to uncover the hidden cause of why women feel the way they do. So please help me welcome Christa to the call.

(00:47):

Welcome back to the thriving thyroid podcast, where we choose to become empowered patients and take our health into our own hands. Hi, I'm Shannon Hansen, a Christian entrepreneur, a mom of three. And after dealing with my own health mysteries, I made it my mission to learn everything I could about the thyroid. I soon became certified as a holistic wellness practitioner, a functional nutrition practitioner and a functional diagnostic practitioner. And so much more. After that, I founded the revolutionary thyroid program, the Hanson method as a health professional and a mom, I fully understand the importance of having a fun, simple, and sustainable plan for achieving a responsive thyroid. So I share actionable and practical strategies for developing a responsive th so that the ambitious moms and women can gain freedom from fatigue and lose the thyroid weight once. And for all each week, I will be here for you along with my guest experts, we will be sharing simple and tangible tips that work for not only your thyroid, your hormones, your family, and your mindset, so that you can get back to living the life that you envision for yourself. Welcome to the thriving thyroid podcast.

(02:08):

All right, you guys welcome back to another episode of the thriving thyroid podcast. I'm excited to have Krista on with me today. So Krista, welcome to the show.

(02:18):

Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

(02:20):

Yeah. So give us a little bit of background as to who you are and what you do and all of the things that we need to know.

(02:28):

Yeah. my name is Krista Elza. I am a family family practice trained nurse practitioner. But I am now a online virtual functional practice practitioner mainly focused on women and helping them with gut health and hormone balance, thyroid issues energy levels. And I got here because my my past job was in an office. It was in a brick and mortar, and we primarily focused on weight loss and hormone replacement. And I just found that people were coming to me for issues that we weren't really able to resolve, or if we were fixing the issue, it was very short term. So, you know, maybe with hormone replacement, they felt better for three months, but then they were coming back feeling, you know, low energy again with, you know, maybe testosterone replacement and, you know, for women in their mid thirties and weight loss, you know, they would lose a little bit and then they would come back or they just couldn't keep it off.

(03:29):

And so that's what kind of got me interested in root cause medicine got trained at school of applied functional medicine to really start to study root cause why are people not able to lose weight? Or why did they not have energy? Or why do we have a hormone imbalance in our thirties? Yeah. Long before menopause should be happening. And, you know, once I got that information, I decided I wanted to take this virtually where I could work with women outside of my physical space and really be able to spend more time with women and also do different testing to get more information to help us get targeted solutions to what's going on.

(04:06):

I see. And, and I find this so interesting that a lot of people started off in this space with traditional medicine. At least for me, the way that I grew up, right. My, my dad, my uncle is a doctor. My dad was an occupational therapist. I, and very, we have nurses. We have all of these people who are traditionally medically trained. And then at some point it's like, mm, something isn't clicking here. Mm-Hmm, <affirmative> like, I'm giving this medication and people are still coming back. Like you said, a little bit later with other issues or

(04:44):

Mm-Hmm,

(04:45):

<Affirmative>, it's not really addressing these things. So I just find that that's super interesting.

(04:51):

Yeah, it is interesting, you know, my core value is in being able to fix the problem, right. Like I, I wanna really be able to make a difference and where I started out as a registered nurse I, I worked in ER, trauma centers and ICUs. And so I felt like I was making a difference because I was using you know, Western medicine in that sense where you really are fixing something you're fixing the problem. Yeah. When I ex you know, got more educated and became a nurse practitioner, went into the family practice setting. And that's where I really started to see that chronic issues aren't really being addressed with the Western medicine model. Just giving somebody a pill for blood pressure. Isn't really getting to the root cause as to why they are. And I think the frustrating part too, is that you recognize that people are also wanting that quick fix that bandaid. And so educating them that it's not just a matter of, oh, your blood pressure's high now. So now you need this pill. It's how did you get here and educating them on ways that their lifestyle or their stress management, or, you know, their what's going on in their life is actually causing the problem. So part of it's educating people.

(06:02):

Yeah.

(06:03):

And, and so, yeah, if I really wanted to fix the problems in the space that I was at, I knew I had to go beyond what we were currently doing. <Laugh>.

(06:12):

And so I had a conversation with a friend recently and she eats super healthy, right? Fruits, veggies, lean meats. Like they, they have a pretty good diet. However, she was going through a lot of emotional <laugh> stuff. Like her, her life was kind of on fire in terms of just stress and overwhelm and all of those different types of things. And that was causing her hormones to go outta balance. It was causing blood pressure issues. And her doctor was like, this is weird. Like you guys, I can tell by these labs that we have run, that you eat pretty good. You exercise, you take care of your body. So it wasn't a matter of, I'm gonna say, like diet, which I think mm-hmm, <affirmative>, at least for me, that's usually the first place I go, okay, what are you eating? You know, mm-hmm <affirmative>, is there some quick fixes here, but it was, it was a matter of stress. So I think that's also important for people to keep in mind is there can be other components besides just

(07:25):

Mm-Hmm, <affirmative>

(07:26):

Eating nutrition.

(07:27):

Yeah. We, we want to blame something, you know, you know, something, something sexy, something like there's gotta be some big reason why I can't get out of bed in the morning or why I'm so tired or why I have hormone balance. And there must be some fancy pill to fix it. And it is interesting. And it's fascinating how our body is still wired for the fight or flight for the survival. And when we are under chronic stress, when we're drinking too much alcohol to cope, like it's not anything wild, it's your lifestyle, it's your way of thinking. It's, it's a situation you're in, it's the relationship you're in. And we don't, you know, we don't go to that often, but you know, when I see women with a pretty significant hormone imbalance in their late thirties and yeah, they eat well, they work out, we have to address other things because high cortisol, which comes from high stress really can start to displace the priority in the brain as to what hormones to be producing. Am I producing cortisol or am I gonna be producing, you know, the progesterone and the, and the estrogen. So it oftentimes is taking a look at the whole picture because we are mind, body spirit connected. You can't treat one without treating the other. It just doesn't work. Even though we, we wanna ignore it and say this doesn't, you know, but it, it does. It makes an impact.

(08:45):

Yes, yes, absolutely. So let's, I think this is a good segue into really today's topic where we're talking a lot about hormones for women which I'm super excited about just because I was pregnant for so long and I'm kind of my hor I can feel my hormones balancing back out. Right. I was telling my husband the other day, I'm like, I'm hot and I shouldn't be hot. Like I'm sweaty and I'm sticky. And I feel weird, but I know that that is a normal transition after having a baby <laugh> mm-hmm <affirmative>. And it wasn't, it hasn't been nearly as bad with some of my other pregnancies before I started, you know, working on my hormones. But I remember I would wake up just drenched and sweat this time. It's more like, and okay, in Arizona, it is in the high nineties, we're getting into the hundreds this week. So I'm like, maybe that also has something to do with it, but <laugh>, but when you're in a house that's set at 76, which I know for the rest of the world is like hot. <Laugh> but in Arizona it feels great. It, it's just kind of an interesting thing. So let's dive into hormones. I think we wrote down, let me, let me make sure about sinking your cycle with your diet. And I started doing this before getting pregnant, and then

(10:19):

Yes. And

(10:20):

I'll turn out the window. <Laugh>

(10:22):

Yeah, it is hard. You gotta get back on track, but the cycle syncing is really, really a cool awareness, because then we, as women can start to acknowledge where we're at instead of fighting against where we're at, because that's where we, you know, we get into self beat up and we, we start to fight. What's just naturally occurring in our body. And so I can just kind of briefly go over each week. Yes, please. Yeah, the, the weekly the week by week can be really helpful. So week one is considered what I'll be talking about week one is the week that you start your period, and this applies to women who are cycling on their own. So if you're on a birth control pill, that's not a normal cycle. And so this won't necessarily you know, you won't be as in tune because the brain and the ovaries aren't talking anymore with the birth control pill, however, you are a woman and you can still, you know, follow the moon cycle.

(11:18):

So if you're menopausal, if you're not having a period, for whatever reason, you know, you've had hysterectomy maybe you are still ovulating, but you don't have a period for ablation or, you know, partial hysterectomy. So week one of a regular 28 to 30 day cycle is when we start a period. And that's when most of our, our sex hormones are very low at this point. And so you wanna look at all of this is kind of a rollercoaster <laugh> it literally feels like a rollercoaster sometimes. And it also looks graphically like a rollercoaster. So at the bottom of the rollercoaster is where you start and it's normal to feel antisocial. It's normal to be a bit more tired, all of those things. And you may not be sleeping as well either because these hormones help us sleep. So you might feel tired and you're not sleeping that great. So, you know, for some people it's just not a fabulous three or four days. And

(12:09):

Okay, hold on. I'm gonna pause you right there for just a second. So yeah, I have women that I work with where their cycle is like eight days, 10 days long. I know that's not normal, but they're like, what do you mean? That's not normal? Like I've always had that. So what is a normal duration? That's a good for a cycle.

(12:29):

Yeah. Five to seven days should be the max. You know, and most, most people have heavier flow the first two days. And then really it should be tapering off. So the, you know, day five is almost nonexistent. So if you're having 10 day periods that is out of the range of normal and you know, that would be something like maybe estrogen is dominating the show. I like to impersonate my hormones because it makes it more relatable. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> Esther is who I named estrogen and she's the wild sister. She's we need her, we love her. But if left to her own devices, she gets a little crazy, right. We have heavy periods, we have breast cancer, we have migraines. We have, you know, she gets wild and she's gotta be balanced out by her sister, Peggy progesterone. And if Peggy doesn't have a say in what's going on, then Esther's just on the loose.

(13:17):

And so if you starting to notice, you know, the migraines, the weight gain, the the heavy periods, the sweating, sometimes that's, you know, estrogen gone wild up and down, she's all over. Yeah. So ideally your first week, you should be wrapping things up around day five and around day four to five is when you should also, you know, you're starting to incline on the roller coaster. So now foods, we, we can actually go longer periods of time of intermittent fasting this week because our body is currently letting go and shedding, it's not building anything up. Yes. We need to replace, you know, maybe iron and things like that. With Greenleaf, vegetables, warm soups, you know, things like that can be helpful this week, but we can go longer with intermittent fasting and we can also go lower in carbohydrates. So if you're following a keto diet, I would say definitely cycle it.

(14:05):

And this would be the week that you would go full on keto. So you can do lower carbs, more intermittent fasting the week of your period. Okay. Now going into week two, those hormones are on the rise and they're starting to, they have a purpose. They're already planning the next ovulation, you know, preparing your uterus again. And so we need to be eating, you know, more complex carbs, probably can't intermittent fast as long. So you may wanna back it up to 14 hour, you know, fasting period this week, but you can also, you feel better. And so you feel a bit more social and you can work out harder in week two. So this is a week that you could take advantage of rising hormones by mid, you know, the end of week two is ideally when we should ovulate. Right. That's the, that's the, actually the star of the show right there is yay. You know, that's that

(14:53):

Whole healthy ovulation. Yeah. Yeah.

(14:56):

And so once ovulation happens, this is when progesterone Peggy comes on the scene. So if we don't ovulate well, and there's a variety of reasons that maybe we don't but in a perfect, you know, cycle, we should ovulate. And that's the only way that we produce progesterone. And that's really what we want to happen because we need her to kind of suppress and kick estrogen out for a bit. She needs to go on a walk because she's, you know, she's filled up

(15:23):

The calm down.

(15:25):

Yeah. The uterine lining is fluffy. We're ready to go. And now progesterone needs to kind of take, you know, maintain it, but not, you know, keep the growth down. But after we ovulate, we generally feel more calm. We should have less anxiety. We feel more sparkly. We can get on stage. We can do big projects. We feel like, you know, we can lift heavier in the gym. This is really that, that two week two and week three is really where we feel most of the time, most energetic. So don't compare yourself there to where you feel at the end of your cycle. That's just not fair to your body, right? That's not fair to us mentally because hormonally, we are different. Yes. So week two and three. So week three is where we, once again, can, you know, do a longer, fast, go back to more of a ketogenic lower card.

(16:13):

Our body does pretty well with that. As we enter into week four, this is the whole week before our period energy can be up or down because the hormones are slowly declining. And so some days you might feel like, oh, I can do a great workout. Other days, you might not feel it. And look at your calendar. Oh, I'm in week four. This makes sense. I might eat, sleep a little more. I might feel a little bit more irritable. And I'm also craving all the carbs. <Laugh> this is where you are hormonally. It's totally normal. So knowing that you want to, you know, kind of prep your diet, I'm going to eat more sweet potatoes. I'm going eat more complex carbs that are nutritious to my body so that I'm not as tempted to go for all the junk food this week. Yep. And then workouts, we wanna kind of taper them down.

(16:57):

This is where you wanna do longer walks. Maybe this is the week that you do the yoga class. If you're lifting weights, you wanna go lighter on the weights because hormonally, we just don't have a lot of hormones anyway, to support a good amount of muscle growth. So it's kind of wasted energy, right? Like we're not, we don't have that good boost that we did a week and a half ago. And that's okay. That's who we are cycling. Naturally. When we can be aware of this, we give ourselves a lot more grace in workouts, in our mental capacity, in how much we wanna sleep and how much energy we have and how social we feel. Right?

(17:29):

Yes. Yes. And I, the, like I said, this was something that I was really working on prior to, to having a baby yeah. Was getting these things balanced out because it does make a huge difference. And I, I, when I started learning about cycling your cycle <laugh> or like syncing things up, that's the word that I was looking for. You start to be like, why did nobody tell me about this earlier? Why was why? When I learned about my hormones, did nobody talk to me about all of these different phases? Because I remember knowing that I had an ovulation, obviously, knowing that <laugh>, I was menstruating mm-hmm <affirmative>, but I didn't realize that the ebbs and flows of my hormones

(18:27):

Mm-Hmm <affirmative>

(18:27):

And kind of my personality, right. Being more reclusive, being more outgoing, all of those things throughout the month was a sign of what was happening internally inside my body. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. And I think it's just a confusing time as women. And it's frustrating for me as a practitioner to see that, like, these things are not being taught, you know,

(18:51):

They're not being taught. And, and you're right, when we know about it, you can just, oh, I'm feeling frustrated and you look at the calendar and you're like, okay, this is where I'm at. And this is how I'm going to flow with my body. And when we do that, we tend to have easier periods because we're not forcing the issue. We're not taxing our adrenal glands, stressing out, you know, doing a workout. That's more intense than we physically feel like we're capable of, but we're pushing through it anyway. And when you look at it hormonally, you're like, okay, this is, this is why I read an article just yesterday on the, and this was an article that was done in the eighties. But you know, when things are small studies and they're just not well known, they don't go very far, but this was on concussions in women. And how generally we have like more symptoms than men when it comes to concussions. And interesting.

(19:42):

Also they did a study on women who had a concussion experience during different phases of their period and the women who had a concussion between in weeks three and four. So after ovulation in their progesterone was high, actually had worse symptoms. And that's because the signal in the brain to the ovaries were, were kind of shut down. And there was a rapid drop in progesterone and progesterone is very brain protective, it's calming. And so when there was that rapid drop, you had more headache, more nausea, vomiting, more confusion. So really interesting how even our hormonal cycle can, can, you know, make or break an injury. And along those lines, estrogen makes our, you know, when you're pregnant, you have more stretchy limbs, right? It serves a purpose. Like we, we, we need to be more flexible for eventual birth. Well, when your estrogen is really rising, let's say week two, where the rollercoaster is really on the rise and estrogen is, is peaking right before ovulation. It's actually a fairly dangerous time to be doing, hit doing, you know, high intensity exercises, like box jumps and things like that. You're more susceptible to strains and pulls in the ligaments and the tendons because they are a bit more flexible because of that estrogen effect. And so it's fascinating when you start to understand your body, you can pinpoint when it, when it's the correct time to do exercises and, and yeah. All of the above

(21:12):

And certain kinds of exercises. So obviously me just getting over, being pregnant, is there a better kind of exercise while pregnant, cuz I know a lot of people say, oh yeah, you can continue doing hit and you can continue lifting weights and, and things like that. For me personally, I just, I walked, I didn't, yeah, I might have rode my bike until I got to a certain bigness and then I was like, all right, I'm done cycling <laugh> yeah,

(21:43):

Yeah, no, I did the same thing. I mean, when I was pregnant, I just continued my normal workouts. And for the most part you can, but you need to be mindful of, yeah. Maybe not that, you know, the strenuous hit or doing higher reps, lower weight. So, you know, maybe doing 15 reps and a little bit lower weight so that you're not putting that much pressure because if, if you've ever had that round ligament pain, when you get up out of bed and you have that pain, you know, I mean your ligaments are shifting and pulling and and that ity going on there is not happening just in those ligaments, it's happening all over your body. And so being mindful about that and workouts is important.

(22:20):

Yeah. Okay. Let's switch gears here and talk about nutrition during the cycle. Are there certain things, I guess you kind of hit on that. But is there anything else that we should be mindful of as we are eating foods during the month?

(22:42):

Yeah. I mean, like I said, week one, you can do more keto ketogenic and I, I, you know, subscribe to the healthy keto, not the, you know, grab a cheeseburger and just eat the burger. You know, you gotta, we're talking about ha healthy fats here, avocado you know, grass fed, butter oils, nuts and seeds, all of that. You can really cut down on carbs that week. But you do wanna focus on more iron rich foods because we are bleeding, you know, and we do wanna have mineral rich foods because that endometrium has been storing all sorts of nutrients there. Right. So so nutrient rich, but you can do more keto and you can do more intermittent fasting there. So if you are doing, you know, if you're one that is doing intermittent fasting, it's important to recognize the, you know, keto and intermittent fasting have all been kind of studied on men.

(23:32):

And so it's not that it's not healthy and beneficial for women, but we do need to keep our hormones in mind because we can't do it straight through the month. Long term like men can, you won't have as good, you know, it can put a bit more stress on your adrenal glands and put you in more hormonal imbalance or cause you to actually hold on to weight because of the stress of the body. Yeah. So, but that, that week is a good week to do longer fast. If you're playing around with the idea of doing 24 hour fast, you know, that's the week to do it. Week two, you wanna add more of the carbohydrates in complex carbs and vitamin E is important to follicles. Vitamin E is important. If you're struggling with infertility, you wanna make sure that you are taking a vitamin E supplement.

(24:17):

It really nourishes the follicles and that's the goal of week two. And so foods high in vitamin E would be you know, sweet potatoes eggs, that kind of thing. So you wanna, you wanna be more focused on that. You don't wanna have long intermittent fasting, so maybe 14 to 16 hour max on week two and you know, more carbs. So your macros wouldn't be quite as ketogenic this week. So you may not be in ketosis week two and that's okay. Week three, you can go back to cycling. So kind of mimics week one longer intermittent fasting, more more of a carb high macro situation there. And then and then week three, I mean, I'm sorry. Week four is where we go back to adding carbs, your body craves the carbs there. And one thing I have found in week four is resistant starches can be helpful.

(25:11):

An example of a resistant starch would be potatoes that have been cooked and then cooled, okay. Or more commonly would be rice. That's been cooked and cooled as in sushi. And there is a chemical change in that starch. So the body doesn't quite absorb it until the large intestine and that can not only curb carb cravings, but it also helps the gut lining. So that is where we wanna really start to use resistant starches. There's something called green banana flour. You can get it on Amazon. You can add that to your smoothie week for, and just a teaspoon. You don't wanna go overboard with it, but it does feed healthy bacteria in our gut that can help curve some of those cravings, because if you're gonna fall off the wagon of whatever diet you're following week four is generally where it happens. And so we don't wanna push our body to long fasting week four. You know, you might only be able to make it 10, 12 hours of a fasting window before. You're just like, I'm gonna pull my hair out if I don't eat something and listen to your body that week your body does not want to fast one periods of time there. So that's kind of in a, you know, as a summary, how you should sort of cycle. So week one and week three are very similar and week two and week four.

(26:20):

Okay. I know for me coming out of being pregnant and stuff, I am increasing my dark leafy greens to help with liver function and stuff. So is there a better time during your cycle to be eating those or should you just be eating them throughout the month?

(26:39):

Well, we really should be eating them throughout the month, but I will say that weeks three and week four we are really needing to detox the estrogen that we've made week one and two, right. Where that, that roller coaster was going up. And now we kind of utilize the amount of estrogen that need, but our body has to do something with it. And that primarily happens in the liver. So focusing on detoxification, focusing on you know, less alcohol, the second half of our cycle, because the liver will prioritize medications and alcohol through the liver. And it's got a big job. I mean, you know, Esther reads hav she did her thing. And so we've gotta do something about that. And so eating foods that are more supportive to the liver eating less processed foods can always, you know, that's supportive to the body. So green leaf fees all the time, but when we're talking about liver support, we really need more support week three and week four.

(27:36):

Okay, good to know. <Laugh> because yes. Yeah. It's just,

(27:43):

Yes. Yeah. It it's, we don't think about what's happening behind the scenes. I mean, most of the time we're thinking about just our period and that's really not the, you know, there's three weeks behind the scenes of what's going on in our body. So when we become aware of that, we're like, oh, we can support our body better when we know.

(27:59):

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Alright. So as we kind of come to wrap this up, what are some ways that we can improve our energy? Because I, I find at least for myself in the past, I would have these high highs and then these crashes. So I think that would be really important to, to talk about.

(28:23):

Yeah. I'll, you know, there's many different ways, many different factors as to why we're having energy crashes. And it all comes down to foundations first. And so that's kind of where we'll, you know, we'll start, I'll share like four primary foundational aspects to focus on. So, you know, again, these aren't like necessarily really sexy interventions. They're, <laugh> being aware of. What's what we really need to be focused on. So number one, hydration, a lot of women don't drink enough water, you get up, you have your coffee, you have, you know, you have Cokes, you have tea all day, but not many of us are really drinking the amount of purified, clean, plain water that we should. So most women need, you know, at least 90 ounces of filtered water a day. So I would start there when our bodies are dehydrated, our brain is made mostly of water.

(29:17):

And so when we are dehydrated, that can be kind of a signal of stress to the brain. So fatigue, anxiety, all the things can actually be from chronic dehydration. So I'd start there. And then breathing, we don't think about breathing, but yet we are, you know, we're walking around with a lot of dysfunctional breathing and taking time to take deep breaths more often throughout the, the day being aware of our breathing, what is that it's called some kind of like cyber apnea or whatever, you know, where we're looking at our email or we're looking at social media and we're actually holding our breath. So becoming more aware of, of breathing and and taking those slow, deep breaths more often can be really helpful to our overall energy and then cutting out crap foods. So we don't recognize that the food that comes from a box or a bag really causes a lot of stress on our body and our body has to do something with that.

(30:13):

And it impedes our ability to detox our normal bodily functions. Well, and when we have a lot of toxic buildup in our body, it's fatiguing. And so starting with nutrition, starting with organic, where you can, because, you know, it's less pesticides, less toxins to our body. So definitely looking up the dirty dozen and at least buying those foods organically can make a huge difference. And, and then I would say the last foundation that I'll touch on right now is sleep. We can't often change the morning routine. It is what it is, especially, you know, during the school year. And we have to be up with kids or our job, but we can often have more control over the evening. And so I know it's tempting, especially when kids are little to save late, cuz they're finally in bed, but prioritizing sleep can make such a difference. And we actually get more deep sleep, which is the most restorative sleep. The, you know, before midnight mm-hmm <affirmative>. So the bulk of, if you have something, a tracking device, I wear an aura ring. If you have a whoop band or an aura ring and you start to track that, you'll notice your bulk of your deep sleep is before midnight. And so going to bed, prioritizing seven hours of quality sleep, those foundations that I just mentioned can make a huge difference and you have control over each one of those aspects.

(31:36):

Well, and I, I love that you brought up the importance of sleep because for me, once I, I was, I was totally guilty. My kids are in bed. I'm gonna stay up and do all of the things that I couldn't get done today. And just have a minute to myself, without people climbing all over me or needing me or mom, mom, mom, you know, and once I was like, you know what, I'm gonna leave the dishes in the sink. I'm gonna leave the unfolded laundry. I'm gonna leave all of these different things left undone, and I'll get to it tomorrow was really when my, my body shifted. Right. Yeah. And it was magical. And I know, I know, I know the struggles of it and

(32:26):

Yeah, it's, it's a decision, right? It's prioritizing, I get it. I, I was the same way and I tend to be more of a night out anyway. So once the kids were in bed, it was like, yay, get my own time. And before, you know, it, it's 11 o'clock and you know, the baby's getting up at, at five 30 or six or your job, you have to get up for work. You know, it, it really is it, it is something you have in control or more control than you think that you do. And so when we start to take over and understand the power of hydration, of sleep, of nutrition, of breathing, get those foundations first before you start looking for pill solutions, like that's where we start.

(33:01):

Yes, yes, absolutely. I wanna touch on this just really briefly, because what about the women who say things like, well, I just have insomnia and I can't fall asleep.

(33:16):

Yeah, yeah. That, you know, that that is a real thing. And when we go back to the cycle, when our estrogen is lower you know, at the beginning of our cycle or at the, the end of week four, the beginning of week one, sometimes we do have more trouble sleeping hormonally, and that can become particularly true when you hit menopause and you know, those are just they're low. And so our body acclimate a little bit, or even if, you know, just having the lower estrogen can be really can affect our sleep. And so sleep hygiene is big, you know, shutting off the electronics, using blue blocker glasses, if you need to be on electronics you know, turning down, Dimmi using dimmers in your room in your house gives that circadian rhythm. You know, that signal that it's it's bedtime. So the, the brain is very stuck on that cyclical, you know, light and food equate being awake and not, you know, low food after we've eaten and darkness equate to rising our melatonin.

(34:13):

And so not eating really close to bedtime, having di lights triggers the brain to increase melatonin. The other thing though that competes with melatonin is cortisol. So if you have racing thoughts, if you have a lot of stress, it's a, it's a decision. And I know it's not always easy. And sometimes it's a skill that we really have to develop, but not, you know, not indulging in the thoughts that upset us or the tasks that are due the next day can really do a lot of good for calming that down and keeping that cortisol down. And so sleep hygiene with our thoughts. I like to do box breathing. Yeah, I, if your listeners don't know about it, it's really simple and it's breathing in for count of four, hold that for count of four, breathe out for count of four and hold it at the bottom for count of four and you can insert different numbers, but I, I like to keep it simple at four and that not only physiologically calms us down, but it gives us something to meditate on and focus the numbers.

(35:09):

You're not at like, think about only the numbers, not anything else and keep repeating that until you find yourself a bit drowsy, more calm, that can be really helpful, you know, making sure you've got a cool room, a dark room, a fan animals out of the room. I mean, if, if there's a living being that doesn't need to be in your bed, get 'em out. Like <laugh>, they need to have their own sleeping space. Yeah. And then supplements have their space too. Melatonin supplements can be helpful. Start at the lowest dose, you know, one to three milligrams and see how you feel. And then magnesium. So a lot of us are low in magnesium. Magnesium is a calming mineral, and I would start with magnesium Bly eight, that form, and that can be helpful at night you know, 300 milligrams.

(35:56):

That's what I take at night. It can really help you calm down. So take it about an hour before bed. So, and people do that sometimes in teas. So magnesium and melatonin can be where to start as far as some supplementation, there's many others that we could get into later, but, but that's where I would start with, you know, the sleep hygiene, the thought processes, the breathing, and maybe some supplements to help you really get that good quality sleep and keep in mind that if you're waking up between two and four, that's generally where cortisol starts to kind of peak a little bit. And if we don't have a good, strong amount of melatonin sometimes you'll find like, I don't know, I wake up every morning at 3:00 AM and that's, that's that cortisol, you know, and that's a signal that you know, maybe throughout the day, doing deep breathing exercises and addressing stress throughout the day could be where to start.

(36:49):

Yeah. I love all of that. That is all so good. And I think I I'm, I feel like I hammer this in to all of the listeners, but a lot of times it's the small, simple things. It's the sleep, it's the hydration. It's, you know, if you've mastered or gotten at least pretty good at some of those things, you're gonna notice that the body will start to balance out by itself. Practitioners, obviously I'm a fan of them. And they can, they can help you accelerate some of those things and help you figure out the right form of magnesium and the right dosage. And you know, when to take it and how to take it and all of those different things. But if you are in a place where you can't afford a practitioner, or maybe you're not ready to make the investment, just start prioritizing your sleep, drinking the water. Whoa mm-hmm <affirmative>

(37:50):

Yes. The foundations is definitely where to start yep. On your own. And we all have control over these things and you know, lifestyle is free. Lifestyle switches are free. We just have to be aware of what to do and how to do them. Right. And, and you're right. I like what you said about the body will come back to, it's not that we have to change anything. Our body wants to heal. Our body is, is naturally in a state of function and imbalance. And so it's just doing some of these things to get back and, and yeah, exactly what you said. There's definitely testing. We can do. There's definitely a deeper dive, but when you at least have the foundations, you you're at a starting point. Right. You're, you're making progress in the right direction. Yeah.

(38:33):

Yeah. And I mean, I I'm sure you've had experiences with this as well, but when I got to the point where things were not working well, I did invest a lot of money in working with practitioners, cuz I, I thought I was doing all of the things and for the most part I, I was doing pretty good. My diet was pretty clean. I was exercising. I was not prioritizing sleep. So <laugh> yeah. You know, those types of things. And, and it, it did take someone to point that out to me and just say, Hey, yeah, make, make this a point, make this more of a priority. So yeah, this has been a great conversation and little one now is ready to play and do all of the things. So <laugh>, we'll, we will wrap this up. Any closing thoughts, how can people find you and get to know you and the things

(39:36):

I think the biggest you know, statement that I want to leave everyone is that you, you, your birthright is to be empowered in your body. And, and so, you know, my goal for everyone is to understand their body better, to really feel like they are, they have the power and the control to really make decisions that serve their body. And so that's my that's always, my goal with a client is for them to, at the end of our time together, to always understand where to go when they start to feel symptoms again, mm-hmm <affirmative> and to know their body and understand their body better. So that's what I wanna leave you with, but I am most active on social media. And so my Instagram is Krista Elza at Krista Elza first and last name all combined. I'm the same on Facebook. So send me a DM. I have links in the bios there to, you know, schedule a call together if you wanted to. And yeah, I'd be happy to answer any questions that your listeners may have.

(40:34):

Awesome. Well, thank you so much and we will see you guys on the next episode.

(40:40):

Thanks.

(40:43):

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(40:57):

Pre.