Text with your questions & comments for future episodes!
Life can often feel like a tightrope walk, the delicate balance between health, self-care, and responsibilities teetering on the edge of overwhelming. When I was first diagnosed with PCOS, the lack of information and guidance pulled me into a spiral of health burnout. This podcast brings you along my personal journey, as I grappled with my diagnosis, found balance, learnt to build a healthy routine, and navigated lifestyle changes.
What if you could find a new perspective, one that encourages you to shift from the weight loss fixation and acknowledge the complexities of PCOS? A crucial turning point for me was realizing that the information out there was far too narrow, focusing primarily on shedding pounds. I decided to return to school, gain more knowledge, and today, I share my wisdom with you. We explore the importance of balance in your diet, lifestyle and mind. I discuss the challenge of finding restaurants that cater to your needs, and the importance of building a repertoire of healthy meals. I also share the importance of mindset and celebrating small victories, as well as the role of reframing in transformative processes.
But it's not all about what you eat, it's also about what you consume mentally. The information overload can often lead to health burnout. How then, do you sift through the noise, and unfollow accounts that do not resonate with you? This episode invites you to reflect, to understand the cyclical nature of engagement, and to prioritize self-care, especially for those with childhood trauma or perfectionism tendencies. We discuss my personal experiences with fitness and treating myself as a priority. Tune in and discover how to navigate the complexities of living with PCOS, the importance of self-care, and the power of a b
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Today we are going to do alistener suggested topic.
I'm going to read to you whatshe wrote in.
It was Allison who wrote inthis topic suggestion, but I
really resonated with it.
I thought it was great.
Over the last year I've beenkind of dealing with the same
(00:21):
issue myself, so I have somepersonal experience with this
topic and I just want to sharewhat I know, what I've seen work
for people, and just somegeneral encouragement.
So the topic is how does onedeal with health burnout?
You spend such a long length oftime trying to get your
diagnosis in the first place,and then you have to do the work
(00:43):
of navigating, changing yourlifestyle to align with that
diagnosis, and on and on and on,and after a while it can really
wear on you, right.
So we're going to talk aboutsome of that stuff today, and,
yeah, I guess let's just getinto today's topic, shall we?
Oh, before I do though, youknow I have always have a few
little housekeeping things thefirst thing is please don't
(01:06):
forget to submit your questions.
There is a form that should belinked.
Whether you're watching this onYouTube.
It should be linked in thedescription box.
If you are listening to thissomewhere, check the description
and there should be a link toit and there's a space where you
can fill out a Google form andask questions for the podcast.
I am still working on the serieswhere I will answer you guys's
questions.
(01:26):
Just give me some backgroundinformation on you.
You know what the question isthat you have, and then I will
give you some advice.
I'm really trying to sharespecific kind of stories of
people's health journeys andthen what I would do as their
nutritionist maybe to help,because I think that's a little
bit more interesting than justanswering like just singular
questions.
(01:46):
So give me some background.
You know I'm a functionalnutritionist.
I need the history ofeverything right.
So if you're interested in medoing that for you, please don't
feel.
Don't forget to fill out theform and thank you to those who
have already.
I have a nice long backlog ofquestions to answer when I get
around to filming, so thank youfor that.
I appreciate it and if youhaven't already, please don't
(02:07):
forget to give me a littlereview on Apple Podcasts.
You'll help me a lot.
We're finally getting to thepoint where the podcast is
starting to bring in a littlebit, a little bit of income for
me, which is awesome and that'sall.
Thanks to you for listening andI really appreciate it, because
I would love to do more of this.
I would love to do this fulltime.
(02:28):
I would love to get a bettermicrophone so you guys can
really just hear every little,every little sound that my mouth
makes.
No, I'm just kidding.
Anyway, let's get into today'stopic health burnout.
What does one do?
So I'm going to read you this,what this, what Allison wrote in
, so you can get a sense forwhat we're talking about here.
(02:48):
So she says this isn't as mucha question as it is a suggestion
for a topic.
Have you ever covered healthburnout?
I've been on my health journeyfor over a decade and I'm just
now getting answers.
I'm getting great informationon managing my PCOS, but I'm so
burnt out from trying everythingunder the sun for years that I
find it hard to implement yetanother health regimen.
(03:08):
It's hard to bring the samelevel of energy to each new
potential diagnosis, like takinga whole new lot of vitamins and
eating yet another diet can beoverwhelming.
Even when you finally get theright diagnosis, feel free to
use it or discard it.
Well, allison, I'm using itbecause topic suggestions first
of all, thank you for the topicsuggestion.
(03:28):
Sometimes I get podcast burnoutwhere I'm like what am I going
to talk about?
How many?
How many different things canone talk about surrounding PCOS
or functional nutrition?
Sometimes it feels like I'mgoing to run out of things to
say, but then, miraculously, Inever do so.
Anyway, I appreciate thesuggestion.
It really inspired me, so Iwanted to go ahead and get this
recorded.
Okay, so what are my tips forhealth burnout?
(03:51):
I have PCOS as well and I havebeen working on this lifestyle
change first getting thediagnosis, then aligning my
lifestyle, figuring out whatthat alignment even looks like
for a long, long time.
I'll be 35 this year and I wasdiagnosed with PCOS when I was
around 20.
So it's been about 15 years.
(04:12):
I know some of you have beenworking on this longer than that
, but for me that's a big chunkof my life and when I was first
diagnosed, there really wasn't alot of great information about
how nutrition and lifestylecould impact PCOS, whether
positively or negatively.
Right, that, just thatinformation just didn't really
exist.
There were a few people talkingabout it One of my mentors,
(04:32):
stephanie Rupert, who, if youguys were into paleo way way
back like in 2011, 2012, therewas a blogger named Stephanie
Rupert and she wrote a book onPaleo for Women and she did a
lot of content specificallyabout PCOS on her blog.
She has a podcast still actuallywith.
(04:53):
It was a real popular podcastfor a while.
I think it's probably stillpopular.
Anyway, way back then Iinterned for her and that was,
you know, one of my attempts tokind of like gather as much
information as I could.
I felt like she was doing someinteresting stuff with it.
That was a little bit deeperlevel than what I had heard
(05:14):
around.
You know, most of the stuff thatI had heard about PCOS was just
purely weight loss based.
It was like lose weight and itmight help, but we don't know
for sure and we don't know howyou're going to do that.
You know it's like there justwasn't a lot out there.
If you were alive, living withPCOS at that time, you know what
I'm talking about.
It was just like a no man'sland.
So there were a lot of thesesort of fringe nutrition groups
(05:37):
that were starting to talk aboutPCOS.
But you know, and they were onto some good things, but they
didn't have, they didn't graspthe full complexity, and that's
not totally their fault.
The research didn't exist.
What's interesting about myjourney as a nutrition
professional has been that I'mgoing on nine years of being in
this field and the amount ofresearch that has come out since
(06:00):
I have already had mycertification, already had my
master's degree all that stuffhas been like amazing.
Just a ton of information.
So if I didn't stay updated onthe research, right like I would
still be back in the dark ages,because back then there just
wasn't that much stuff.
So, from a personal perspective, I started out working on my
PCOS completely in the dark.
(06:22):
I didn't grow up, you know,being interested in nutrition.
In fact, I had a friend incollege I've probably talked
about this before, but I had afriend in college and she was
really into nutrition.
Hi, margo, she was really intonutrition.
She, you know, she was likereally into eating healthy and I
used to be like, okay, you know, like I remember she was gluten
free when we were in collegeand I was like really gluten
(06:44):
free and I kind of like roll myeyes at it.
But you know, she actually wasprobably my first inspiration to
look into healthy eating andstuff, because from watching her
and watching you know, forexample, the way that she was
able to keep a healthy weight,the way that her skin looked
compared to mine, all this kindof stuff, it sort of like
started to make sense to me.
(07:05):
I started putting the piecestogether, that there might be
something that was wrong withthe way I was eating and that
that might be impacting, youknow, selfishly.
Back then I cared about what Ilooked like physically, what
might.
I was very, very obsessed withmy waist circumference, my
(07:26):
weight, my, my skin.
I had really bad dark circlesunder my eyes and all that kind
of stuff, and so I startedgathering back then that maybe
there was a nutrition componentto all of this and trying to put
the pieces together.
But I felt like I was hittingmy head up against a wall so
much because I would try onething and it wouldn't really
(07:49):
work, or I would try asupplement that I heard about
and I wouldn't really notice anydifference, and it was just
like I didn't know how to evenaddress things.
I didn't even know how, likewhere, to start.
So I went back to school to getmy master's degree in nutrition,
mostly for me.
Yes, I had this dream.
(08:09):
I thought it would be reallycool to be a blogger, a PCMS
blogger and podcaster, just likemy mentor right, and that was a
dream of mine.
But I never in a million yearsthought that I would actually
end up doing that.
I thought that that kind ofthing was like for other people.
Success in that field was forother people, not for me.
(08:29):
I had to work on my selfconfidence quite a bit, guys,
but you know, I got.
I was like I'm going to get mymaster's degree in this because
I want to learn how tounderstand the biology of this,
like the biochemistry of thisright, like I really want to
understand the deeper componentsand put the pieces together for
(08:50):
myself, because I just didn'tfeel like any of the books that
I read were doing a good job ofthat.
It was too oversimplified, andso when I went back to school,
that's what it mostly was for itwas mostly for me to figure
this stuff out.
Now, around that time, I didstart to make some inroads and
(09:12):
understanding PCOS, but it wasstill a little ways away from me
to actually incorporate most ofthem Because by that point I
was already burnt out.
My search for information hadburned me out.
So I started working in thefield.
I started helping others in thefield and with time I was able
to integrate a lot of thesedifferent changes where when I
(09:33):
look back now, I completely havea different relationship to
food and nutrition and all thatstuff than I did way back then.
But it was a long road.
It wasn't like I learned what Ineeded to do and then
immediately started doing it andeverything was great and my
period was great and I gotpregnant naturally and all that
(09:53):
stuff.
No, if you guys know my personalstory, you know that I had
endometrial cancer.
When I was still in my master'sprogram I got developed
endometrial cancer.
You'll know that I had to gothrough IVF to get pregnant,
partially because of the cancerbut partially because I was
never able to fully regulate mycycles.
There were a lot of things thatI learned how to do them with
other people, but I stillstruggled to implement for
(10:15):
myself.
So I guess the reason I'mtelling you that is so that you
understand that I get thestruggle of being burnt out
about health to the point whereyou can know what to do, but
there's a block between knowingwhat to do and actually doing it
.
That's something that I stillwork on to this day.
(10:36):
So these are my tips and advice.
This is the stuff that's workedfor me and worked for our
clients.
Truthfully, not everything hereis something that I've fully,
always 100 percent of the timebeen able to do, but it's
something that I continue towork on and something that has
helped me.
So the first thing is learningto do things one step at a time.
(11:00):
I know that sounds simple, butlet me explain.
Oftentimes, when we getinterested in a topic if you're
like me and you're a littleneuro spicy you get interested
in a topic and you go down therabbit hole.
You're just like down, down,down down.
You gather all the informationand it's like information
overload.
So you have all of these tips,all this advice, all these
(11:22):
little steps, all these littlethings that you should implement
.
You can get just like almostlike overwhelm, where you're
stuck knowing all the stuff butnot being able to figure out in
what order you should implementthem.
Most people try to do everythingall at once.
So they hear that they shouldeat more protein, more fiber,
(11:44):
they hear that they should eatthis many carbs.
They hear that they should eata Mediterranean diet and a low
glycemic diet and that theyshould exercise this many times
a week and do this much strengthtraining.
So they're like Monday, that'sit, eat my protein, I'm eating
my fiber, and they go throughthe whole list and they get like
a week into that and maybe theyfeel pretty good, but they're
emotionally drained andexhausted and they are like,
(12:09):
yeah, I don't know that this isworth it.
Sure, maybe I feel better, butI'm so overwhelmed.
I have no time, energy, spacefor anything else in my life.
Got no energy for my family,got no energy for my friends.
Got no energy for my hobbies.
I spend all my time mealplanning, meal prepping and
exercising Right.
That's what it can feel likewhen you're at the beginning of
(12:30):
this and you try to do it all atonce.
So a better approach isactually to follow the one step
at a time rule, and that looksdifferent for different people
because we all learn atdifferent paces and we're all
starting from different places.
But an example of this would beyou know, I just talked about
protein, fiber, mediterranean,low glycemic and exercise and
then strength training, right.
(12:51):
So these are all things that weknow will benefit PCOS.
Instead of trying to do all ofthem, pick one or two things and
really focus on those first.
So always my suggestion of likethe first thing to start is
either getting enough protein orswitching to like a
Mediterranean diet.
I think those are both two goodplaces that a person can start
(13:13):
and you'll have a lot to do withjust those two things, because
if you're coming from a placewhere you're not eating that
much protein, you got to do somemental work to think about okay
, well, like, where am I goingto add protein?
How am I going to get it Like?
I'm going to have to cook itright and all that stuff.
So that's one.
A Mediterranean diet, on theother hand, doesn't require as
much protein, although long termyou would want to raise your
(13:34):
protein levels with it, but itdoes require, you know, new
groceries and a differentconcept of what foods we
prioritize versus don'tprioritize.
Side note, if you didn't know,I do have a podcast on the
Mediterranean diet that tellsyou how to do it, if you want to
do it, by the way, and I havesome modifications for PCOS in
(13:56):
there, anyway, so either one ofthose are good places to start
that have pretty good outcomesas far as like, just those
changes can make a difference.
It's not going to be, you know,your entire life changes by
tomorrow, but over the course ofmaybe three months you will
notice substantial changes inyour body from implementing
those things, and those arethings that aren't easy to do,
(14:19):
but it is just one thing youhave to focus on.
Once you feel like you have agrasp on what you need to do for
protein, for example, then itstarts to become a little bit
easier to plan out your weeks.
The way that I always do itwith protein is I think about
(14:39):
how much protein I need to eatand then I divide that up by how
many meals are in the week andthat's how much I buy at the
grocery store, and then I justbuy like veggies and stuff to go
along with it.
Right, I don't do anythingcomplicated, I don't follow
complicated recipes, I just likeseason things differently and
cook them.
So you start being able to planyour meals a little bit easier
and then it starts to becomesecond nature to you to eat that
(15:02):
much protein.
You start getting used to eatinga lot of protein and you're
like you know, at first you'rekind of like full and you're
like, oh, so much protein.
But then, after a while, youstart to crave it, you start to
want it and you're like, yeah,this is good, right.
So give that at least two weeks.
I would say at least two weeks.
Usually, most people need abouta month, though, of doing
something different beforethey're ready to move on and add
(15:24):
something else.
So give yourself a couple ofweeks, give yourself a month.
Wait until you've done a fewthings.
Number one you've beenimplementing that regularly,
steadily.
Number two it doesn't feelincredibly hard anymore.
It might feel challenging, butit doesn't feel like you're
having to drag yourself to do it.
(15:45):
It's more starting to become alittle bit second nature to you.
The other thing you want towait for is the development of a
repertoire, and what I mean bythat is oftentimes, when you're
starting a new diet, you don'thave a lot of recipes to choose
from, because you haven't triedenough things yet.
So you start out and you'recooking very simple things, or
(16:07):
you are cooking the same thingover and over again, because you
just don't know what to do andyou haven't experimented yet.
So there's an element tochanging your lifestyle where
you first have to implement itand get used to the structure of
it and then you have to startexpanding it and fitting it more
into what you like and what'sgoing to be sustainable long
term.
(16:29):
So if you think about your dailylife, with how you eat now, you
probably have some go-torecipes.
You probably have some go-torestaurants right when, like, if
you need to make somethingquick, maybe you're making I
don't know, my thing that Ialways make when I need to make
something quick is spaghetti.
You have a restaurant maybethat you go to like I go to Kava
(16:49):
Chipotle a lot.
Okay, so if you are busy, youknow you have a place you can
stop.
Maybe you go to Chick-fil-A,whatever it may be.
So you probably have already arepertoire of things to choose
from.
When you're stressed, whenyou're overwhelmed, when you
feel like putting more effort in, when you feel like putting
less effort in, etc.
What you are waiting for withthe food is to get to that place
(17:10):
, but with the new structure.
So the first step is to buildthe structure where you are
consistently eating the amountof protein that you need to eat.
The second step is to startexperimenting with new recipes
or new sauces or new herbs ornew spices and trying things in
different combinations so thatyou can say, yes, I loved that,
(17:33):
let's add that into the regularroutine.
No, that was disgusting.
I'm never eating that again.
Okay, same thing goes forrestaurants, fast food places.
You would be surprised at howmany fairly decent options exist
at most restaurants and even alot of fast food places.
It is out there.
The trouble with fast foodplaces is typically not the
(17:57):
thing you're craving, right.
So you're like you're there,you're tempted because you want
to get I don't know.
You want to get the chickensandwich, but instead you need
to get the grilled nuggets withthe fruit cup or whatever it may
be right, in order to get whatyou need, or you need to not get
the fries or what have you.
So that part is tough, but theoptions do exist so that when
(18:20):
you are in a hurry, you can grabsomething.
The other part of the repertoireis trying new places, trying
new things that you haven'ttried before when it comes to
restaurants, because a lot ofpeople have like their standard
go-tos and they need to branchout.
For example, if you have a Kavaor some sort of Mediterranean
food restaurant in your area,like Greek food or something
(18:41):
like that, those can be greatplaces to get a quick meal that
is going to meet your proteinrequirements.
I really like Kava.
Chipotle is a good one too.
Free birds like places likethat that make bowls, you know.
So if you've never tried placeslike that or what have you,
those are good places to startbuilding your repertoire with.
(19:03):
So you got to try differentstuff and start to build that.
But that whole process therethat I just described does not
happen in a week, it doesn'thappen in two weeks, it doesn't
even happen in a month.
Minimum, I would say thatsomething like that's going to
take three months.
Because they always say like ittakes 28 days to build a habit.
I think that's BS and I don't,you know, maybe you agree with
(19:26):
me, maybe you don't.
I think it takes 28 days tobuild habits the wrong word.
It takes 28 days to build aroutine, but it takes a lot
longer to build a habit, becauseto me, a habit is something I
do subconsciously or withouthaving to think about it.
I don't have to put emotionalor mental effort into it.
That doesn't happen for meuntil it's been at least three
(19:47):
months.
Maybe you're different, but so,month one, get the structure.
Month two, start expanding.
By month three, you likely willhave a set of recipes that you
know you can rely on andrestaurants that you know you
can rely on.
If you're in a pinch, then, andonly then, should you start
(20:11):
adding something else.
At that point, you can chooseto add from one of three
categories.
With PCOS, we talk about thepillars, or I talk about the
pillars there's diet stuff,there's lifestyle stuff and then
there's activity stuff.
I usually recommend switchingaround because I think it keeps
(20:34):
it fresh.
You start off with diet.
I'm biased.
I'm a nutritionist.
I think that's the mostimportant thing.
You start off with diet.
Don't stress yourself out aboutexercise at that point.
If you feel up to doing somelittle short walks, trying to
build a little bit of a habitwith some walking, or there's
something that you're alreadydoing that you like, keep doing
that, that's fine.
That shouldn't be too intense,but don't put a lot of pressure
(20:56):
on yourself for that.
Stick to putting the pressureon yourself when it comes to the
nutrition piece.
Then, once it's been threemonths, pick from a different
category.
Maybe this is the time whenyou're like okay, I'm really
going to start investing in myactivity level, you're going to
start implementing strengthtraining, or maybe this is when
you start really doing guidedmeditations that you've been
(21:17):
meaning to do, or what have you.
There's different categories tochoose from, and I think it
helps if you switch around,which I think is probably one of
the things on here in my noteshere.
Switch it up.
Yeah, that's one of the thingsI wanted to mention is that if
you change the direction inwhich you're working on your
(21:39):
health from time to time, itkeeps it a little bit more fresh
and it prevents too muchburnout because you've given
yourself time and space.
I think the most important pieceof this is the next thing,
which is focus on the bigpicture.
Okay, because it still is goingto feel overwhelming to you If
(22:01):
you're saying, okay, I'm goingto work on this for three months
, but you're feeling a whole lotof guilt and pressure about the
fact that you're not doingeverything else.
You know what I'm saying, soyou have to zoom out and look at
the big picture.
I always tell my clients thinkabout how long you lived in a
state of not feeling good,hormones, not balanced, all that
(22:22):
kind of stuff.
Think how long that lasted inyour life.
It's probably going to take along time hopefully not quite as
long, but it's going to take along time for you to reverse
that or to get to a place whereyou're not feeling that way.
Rome wasn't built in a day.
It doesn't happen overnight.
I know that can be a little bitsometimes for perfectionists
(22:44):
hello, I know you.
But sometimes that can feelhard to believe.
It can feel like if I don't doit all now, I'm never going to
do it.
That's not the case.
The biggest change is a mentalone, because it's the difference
between thinking about yourselfas like wow, I'm really doing a
(23:05):
good job creating a habit withmy protein, like I am on the
right track, I'm making changes,I'm doing something I wasn't
doing before and this issomething that's positive for my
body.
I will get to the other thingswhen it's time for me to get to
them.
That is a much differentmindset than being like, okay,
I'm working on the protein thing, but God, I'm not doing the
exercise.
I'm really not doing anymindfulness, I'm still not
(23:28):
eating enough vegetables and I'mnot getting enough fiber.
I'm never going to get all ofthis.
Like, how am I going to do allof it?
Do you see what I'm saying?
It is a mindset shift, but it'sthe same action.
You're doing the exact samething on a day-to-day basis, but
it's how you feel aboutyourself while you're doing it
that separates those who aregoing to be long-term successful
from those who aren't, becausethose that are long-term
(23:50):
successful, they have hope andoptimism and positivity maybe
not every day, but they try tokeep that mindset of like.
You know what I am makingchanges.
Every day is a new day.
I'm not going to put a ton ofpressure, guilt, shame on myself
, because I'm just taking it onestep at a time.
(24:10):
Everybody moves at a differentpace here too.
So, when it comes to PCOSnutrition, there are the
fundamentals, there's the threepillars, the things that I've
been talking about.
That are important, but if yougrew up eating only frozen pizza
and fast food and candy and sodoes, it's going to take you a
(24:31):
lot longer to get to a PCOSfriendly diet than somebody who
was raised relatively healthy.
But let's say they ate a lot ofwhole wheat bread, sandwiches
and yogurt cups and things likethat, and they were eating
fruits and vegetables, but maybethey just the ratios were off,
okay.
So everyone starts at adifferent place.
Don't put the expectation onyourself that you are going to
(24:52):
be going at somebody else's pace.
Zoom out, try to see the bigpicture.
How good am I at that?
I have my good days and my baddays.
So I get it.
I know, I know, but that'ssomething that, if you ever get
in that space where you're likethis is all I've done so far, or
I've tried this and I haven'teven stuck with this If that's
(25:14):
where you're at mentally, justremember me, remember me talking
to you right now.
Zoom out to see the big picture,because what I'll tell my
clients too is like sometimespeople beat themselves up about
they went on vacation or that itwas the weekend and they kind
of like fell off their plan orwhatever.
And they're like man, I just Icouldn't even stick with this.
And I've paid all this moneyand I still can't stick with it.
(25:36):
And I'm like look, zoom out,think about what you would have
done on a vacation two years ago, before you ever started
working on your nutrition.
What kinds of things would youhave eaten?
How would you have felt?
How much would you have drank,all that kind of stuff?
And look at what you did thistime.
I can almost guarantee you thatthe choices that you made were
(25:57):
at least slightly different fromwhat you would have before,
because now you know your bodybetter, you probably drank a
little bit less than maybe youwould have before, or you drank
something different than whatyou would have before.
You probably ate a little lessI don't know dessert, or a
little less of this or that thanyou would have before, because
these things start to become sounconscious, so subconscious,
(26:20):
they start to become so secondnature that a lot of people
don't even realize that theirnutrition, their relationship to
nutrition, has changed, but ithas.
And now this is some advice forthose of you who are like, yeah
, well, that may be some people,but I still go on vacation and
I still, you know, I'm like it'sa creeper.
(26:42):
All I'm out there, I'm doingwhat I want to do, whatever.
So the other piece of advicethat I always give is try to see
everything as an experiment.
So this is another reframingthing, right?
We're all going to have timesin our life when we do get burnt
out and we're like, nah, I'mnot dealing with this right now,
I'm not thinking about this,I'm on vacation, I want to enjoy
(27:02):
myself.
I'm not thinking the singlething about what I'm eating or
drinking.
Sometimes we go through phaseslike that.
I always say that is anopportunity to use yourself as a
little science experiment,because what's going to happen
is that, now that your brain hasturned on to the idea that your
health issues are connected tohow you're eating, now you're
(27:23):
going to notice everything.
Now you're going to startnoticing things you didn't
notice before.
So, even if it's exactly thesame as what it would have
looked like two years ago, yourresponse to it is going to be
different.
That looks different fordifferent people, right?
Sometimes we get a littlecaught up in the guilt and the
shame because we're like gosh, Iknew this was going to make me
feel bad and I still did itright.
(27:46):
Or we are just feeling likewe're not doing good enough
because we didn't make betterchoices on vacation or whatever.
But the reality is that evenjust that awareness that I ate
this and I feel like this, thatis change.
That's positive change to yourhealth, because that awareness
(28:08):
is going to serve you later.
It's a motivator and if itdoesn't motivate change, right,
this second, it will motivatechange down the road.
Zoom out big picture.
Six months from now you mightbe like, oh yeah, I really now
I've connected enough dots, I'verun enough science experiments.
I know that when I eat this, Ifeel like this, and I've done it
enough times that now I'm readyto really stop doing that.
(28:32):
It may take six months, it maytake a year, it may take two
years, right, like, just dependson you.
I've lived this.
So I spent oh God, I'membarrassed to even tell you how
long I spent like particularlywith dairy.
Okay, I had a really bad dairysensitivity back in the day.
How many times did I have totest for myself?
(28:53):
When I eat this, I feel thiswhen I eat this mama's on the
toilet, you know what I mean?
Like I had to do that sofreaking many times, so many
times, before I finally was like, first acknowledged it, like
yeah, yeah, this is what's goingto happen.
And then I was in the phasewhere it was like yellow Sorry,
(29:15):
that was like a cringe youmillennial word, but you know so
it was like, okay, well, onlylive once, so might as well
enjoy it.
And so I'd be like yeah, I knowthis is going to happen, but I
don't care.
So now there's awareness, right.
And then it moved on to thephase of I know this is going to
happen.
I don't want it to happen, somaybe sometimes I won't do that,
(29:37):
maybe sometimes I'll avoid thatuntil finally it got to the
point where I was like, okay, Idon't like feeling that way, so
I'm not going to do that.
And I gave up dairy for a long,long time and guess what?
I can eat dairy again.
And now I don't have stomachissues because it took me years,
but I finally was able to kindof like go down all the phases
about.
So that's just one example.
(29:59):
But whenever you discoversomething makes you feel bad,
even if you can't pinpointexactly what it was, but you
know it had something to do withwhat you ate or how you slept
or whatever, whatever, that'sexperimenting, that's gathering
information and data is whatdrives change, in my opinion.
(30:19):
So you know, ignorance is theenemy of lifestyle change,
because if you just stayignorant about it you can be
like, nah, that's not happening.
But once you start noticing,once you start realizing, that's
when you're going to startgetting the urge, the internal
urge, your body, pushing you tobe like, hey, we noticed this,
(30:39):
let's not do that anymore.
And again, everyone at theirown pace, zoom out big picture.
Okay.
So what are some other thingsthat we can do here when we're
dealing with health burnout?
There's a few things on my listhere, so I'm trying to figure
out what order to say them in.
I guess I'll just go down thelist.
(31:00):
So another one that I think isimportant is to allow yourself
breaks.
Like I said before, anythingthat you have to do day in and
day out, forever and ever, feelsvery hard.
It feels like a prison sentence, right?
When you think about your PCOSnutrition, you're like, oh my
God, I've got to do mindfulness.
I've got to sleep really well,I've got to do.
(31:21):
I've got a strength train twicea week and I have to eat enough
protein every day forever, forthe rest of my life.
Yeah, that feels hard becauseof the drudgery.
And then you start dreading itand you're like ugh, can I just
not?
Yeah, you absolutely can justnot.
It's your choice.
(31:41):
It's always your choice.
What you do Doesn't matter if Isay this is right or this is
wrong or this is what you shoulddo or shouldn't do.
At the end of the day, you'rethe one in charge of what you
eat, what you put in your body,how you move it, all that stuff.
It's always your choice andit's always your decision.
And I don't mean that in like apatronizing kind of reverse
psychology way, I really meanthat it's your choice at the end
(32:02):
of the day.
Like there are plenty of peoplewith PCOS who never do a thing
about it, they just like livewith it and they're like this is
just my fate, right?
But you are listening to thispodcast, so I know that at some
level you want to change.
You want it to be different.
(32:23):
You have hope that it could bedifferent, cause if you didn't
believe that it could bedifferent, why would you be
listening to me?
You know what I mean.
Not very many people get thisfar into an Amber Fisher podcast
.
So here you are, you'relistening.
There's an element of you,whether it's conscious or
subconscious, that wants changeand wants to have a different
(32:44):
experience of health, their body, their hormones, all of that
stuff.
So it's working under thesurface.
Let it work under the surface.
And if that means thatsometimes you need to let it
work under the surface while notengaging in the surface level
(33:06):
changes, then that's what itmeans.
So what I mean by that is thesecond that you become aware is
kind of not to put a Christianreference on you guys.
But you know, like the Gardenof Eden, the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil,whatever once humanity turned on
(33:27):
and they knew about good andevil and all that, there's no
going back.
It's the same thing withnutrition Once you know that
there's something that needs tochange, whether you know what it
is or not, there's no goingback, you know.
And so now that you know underthe surface, in the subconscious
part of your brain I don'tactually have like data to back
(33:49):
this up, I think it probablyexists, but anyway, this is what
I've noticed In the back ofyour brain.
You're working on that.
Your brain's doing all thelittle connections and it's
mulling it over, it's ruminatingon this thought, it's coming to
conclusions.
All that can be happening underthe surface while you're still
eating the exact same way, livein the same way, yada, yada.
(34:10):
And if you've ever been like,most of us have gone through
weight loss at some point.
So I'm gonna use this as anexample.
But you know how you can belike I'm gonna start a diet on
Monday and you can do that likea hundred times and Monday comes
and like maybe you do it forlike breakfast or you know,
sometimes you get further thanothers.
(34:30):
Maybe you get a week into it,maybe you get a couple of days
into it, maybe you don't evenmake it through the day,
whatever.
Maybe you never start at all.
But then all of a sudden, thereexists a moment when suddenly
you're like ping no, this isreally it, and you actually have
the motivation to like, followthrough.
You know, let's not think aboutwhat happens at the end of that
(34:51):
.
Maybe we regain whatever.
But you know, I'm talking aboutthat feeling of like this is it
.
Now I have not just like thesubtle motivation, but I'm
really like like my time hascome, like the stars are aligned
.
This is the moment.
So it's the same thing withlifestyle changes.
It's working under the surface.
(35:11):
Your brain is weighing outdifferent options.
It's grieving too.
There's a grieving process thatcomes with realizing that you
have to eat differently thanother people and there's no
timeline on grief, right?
We never tell people who, like,have had a loved one die that
they need to get over it andlike, move on with their life
within this certain amount oftime.
We never say that.
So it's the same thing with,like, nutrition change or any
(35:33):
kind of lifestyle change.
Your mind just needs the timethat it needs to grieve.
It needs the time that it needsto work through all that stuff
and then the stars will align,it will be your moment and you
will start.
So allow yourself breaks if youneed them, and allow yourself
(35:54):
time.
I think it's very similar tothat whole weight loss process.
Like, you may have some falsestarts, you may think this is it
, this is my moment and it's notreally your moment, but every
time that you kind of startagain, you have that hope, you
have that trust, you go forward.
Every time you do that, you'rechanging the way that your brain
(36:20):
understands your cravings, yourcues food, nutrition, all that
stuff.
You're building pathways.
So, like, the neurons in yourbrain are connected and they run
in loops, right, so they liketo do the same thing over and
over again.
Your brain loves habits andthis is why anxiety is such a
like and annoying thing to dealwith, because when you have
(36:40):
anxiety, then that becomes yournormal and your brain, like, is
always looking for somethingelse to be anxious about.
And so, in order to disruptthat, you have to, like, do some
major hard work on trainingyour brain into different
thinking patterns, right.
It's the same thing with healthand nutrition.
Like it's always gonna be, yourbrain's gonna wanna take the
(37:01):
easy way out.
Your brain's gonna be like, ugh, let's not, let's just get some
fast food.
Right.
But every time that you make theopposite choice, you are
stepping down that path.
Think of it like a path throughthe woods.
It's really overgrown and youdon't even know at first if,
like, no path even exists atfirst.
(37:22):
Right, you have to clear ityourself.
So you're stepping on this tallgrass and you know, when you
step on some tall grass for thefirst time, it kind of like it
comes down, but then it mightcome back up a little bit.
But let's say you make anotherchoice again and you keep
treading that same path.
Eventually grass doesn't growthere anymore.
Eventually that path becomeswider, eventually that path
clears out and becomes easy towalk and you're like, okay, this
(37:47):
is just the path that I go downand the other one starts
getting overgrown, right.
So if your brain has gone downthe familiar, easy, less
challenging pathway, it's not abad thing.
That's just your brain doingwhat it's designed to do.
But every time you make adifferent choice for your brain
and you start building that newpathway.
(38:08):
You're building that newpathway, so it's okay either way
.
So much of this is mindset andreframing.
So allow yourself breaks if youneed to.
Sometimes I find that, likewith any kind of health journey
just allowing myself a mentalbreak of even like a week or two
or however long it needs to be.
(38:29):
I come back refreshed,recharged.
So typically I will plan timesoff from just life in general,
if I can.
I'm like really lucky to beable to do that, since I'm
self-employed, but you knowvacation time or whatever, and I
don't stress about what I eaton vacation.
(38:49):
I'm at a place in my life whereI feel like I make good enough
choices the majority of the timethat when I am on vacation, I
can just kind of do what I want,and you'll get there too right.
But yeah, I don't stress aboutit too much.
However, I naturally do makedifferent choices than I would
have years ago.
Like years ago I probably wouldhave had like spaghetti with
like like I love spaghettibolognese with like no meat you
(39:14):
know what I mean Like just likeno protein.
Or like I would have had justlike macaroni and cheese as a
meal God, I love macaroni andcheese, but I wouldn't do that
now because I don't want to havediarrhea and also I don't want
to have like my blood sugar dipin like two hours and have to
eat a snack.
So I would change it.
Even from what I'm craving, Ilike always add things to it or
(39:34):
whatever, but I don't worry toomuch while I'm on vacation.
Those are like subconscioushabits and changes that I make.
So it's okay to allow breaks.
If you think about a break asan opportunity to rest and to
disconnect from your internalmental struggles, then it can be
(39:56):
really rejuvenating in a shortperiod of time.
But if you think about a restor a break as a failure, then it
never actually rejuvenates you.
And that's the hard part,because I think, as someone with
anxiety and perfectionismissues, it has taken me a long
time and a lot of therapy to beable to allow myself to take
(40:18):
breaks and not actually stressabout it while I'm taking the
break, but maybe me saying itwill help you.
So build it in One suggestionthat I have for breaks, though
and this can sometimes help yourelax a little bit more make a
list of all the things that youneed to do when you come back.
So, even if it's something likeyou're like duh, but write it
(40:40):
down, so write down.
When I come back I go to likeschedule stuff out.
So I'm scheduled for thisworkout class on this day, I'm
scheduled for I don't know I'mgonna walk 15 minutes on this
day, like, write it down,schedule it out, because
whenever you write somethingdown it activates a part of your
(41:02):
brain.
That's a little bit morelogical.
So, even if it feels a littlesilly, do it anyway.
The other thing I would suggestis to have a meal plan ready to
go for you Day one when youcome back from your break.
You have, depending on how longthe break is, either you've
already bought all the groceriesor you have your list so that
(41:22):
you can go get those groceries.
You know what meals you'remaking and you just get down to
business as soon as you comeback.
Because you're prepared, don'tgo on a break.
Well, I never say I don't.
Wanna say don't completely,because sometimes it can be okay
, but it can help.
I guess it can help withgetting back in the swing of
things if you're prepared inadvance for getting back in the
(41:43):
swing of things.
I find that people often likethey go on vacation.
They don't so much struggle onvacation.
It's the couple of weeks afterwhere they're kind of like
they're like false, startingtrying to get back in the game.
And a lot of it is lack of prep.
Because if you start eating acertain way after you've been on
vacation, you're gonna behungrier, you know you're gonna
(42:04):
have cravings, are gonna comeback up, you're gonna be more
tired, like your body kind ofhas to go through that phase of
like readjustment and it's hardto think when you're in that
state.
So if you start in the morningand you don't have a plan for
dinner by the end of the day,you're gonna be like, ugh, nah,
we'll just do it tomorrow, do ittomorrow.
So you gotta kind of be likeprepared in advance.
(42:25):
I would even say like meal prepon a day when you're still kind
of like you know, don't sayokay, I'm coming home from
vacation on Sunday, on MondayI'm back on it Like no, take
Monday meal prep, go get fastfood, just relax.
Get prepared Tuesday to startover.
You know what I'm saying.
Or you start fresh and I'llstart over, okay, so that's
(42:48):
another thing.
Breaks are okay from time totime.
The other two things are numberone unfollow.
This is like everybody's alittle different with their
relationship to social media,but I do find that, like
Instagram for example, can be avery saturated place.
Now I am a content creator, asyou know, on Instagram, so I do
(43:13):
a lot of content.
Some's better than others, butI produce a lot.
And because I talk about PCOSso much, the algorithm thinks I
wanna hear about PCOS all thetime.
So my whole feed is PCOS and Ican tell you guys, just like as
a person I'm not interested inall that all the time Like it's
a lot, it's overwhelming.
First I get this person sayingthis, then I get this person
(43:34):
saying that, then I get this tipand that tip and on its own, it
would all probably mostly begood information.
Everybody like oh yeah, that'shelpful, but in a row like that,
just like over and over, oh myGod, it's too much.
So I have burner accounts.
Okay, I have an account whereall I see is gardening stuff and
I have an account where all Isee is pole stuff because I do
(43:55):
pole fitness.
So I have various burneraccounts.
My TikTok doesn't get hardly anyhealth content, even though
it's like my business TikTok,because I've trained that
algorithm.
I'm like don't show me healthcontent.
I make enough myself.
I don't need to see more of it.
But if you're following like 30different influencers who talk
about PCOS, it's just gonna betoo much.
(44:17):
Pick your favorites and stayfollowing them, and it's okay to
unfollow the others.
Now, if you find that you'regetting a lot out of it, or like
seeing PCOS content keeps youmotivated, then that's fine, do
you?
But I think it's okay.
You have permission to unfollowpeople who make you feel bad
about yourself, who are just toointense, who you know.
(44:40):
It's just okay to kind of likecut back on all that stuff.
And I know, and you know, feelfree to unfollow me if you need
to.
But I know from being on thecontent creator side that this
happens to people.
People are very cyclical andthey do things at the same time,
and so there are differenttimes of the year where those of
us in the content creationsphere will have more unfollows
(45:01):
than follows, will have more,will just have more like more
engagement than others.
So, like the spring time,beginning of the year, we tend
to get a lot of engagement.
The fall back to school time,we tend to get a lot of
engagement.
Summer and winter.
That's when we lose followersand stuff.
Maybe other people aredifferent, but that's what goes
(45:22):
on for me, because people arecyclical and over the summer you
wanna relax, you wanna go tothe pool, you wanna go on
vacation, you wanna go to thebeach, you don't really wanna
think about I don't know.
You don't really wanna hearmore PCOS information, and
that's okay.
So if you already feel likeyou've got a good resource for
the information that you need,stick with that resource.
(45:43):
Stick with that resource.
Stick with that person.
Unfollowing can also be helpful,because different nutrition
professionals have differentopinions.
There is no one set like listof this is exactly how a person
with PCOS should be treated,what the advice should be.
What have you?
There are some consensusesamongst most licensed
professionals, but you're gonnafind lots of ranges of variation
(46:04):
of what people say.
My opinions on things are myopinions, based on the research
that I've read, based on myexperience, and all that and
other people's are gonna be thesame, so you may resonate more
with one person than another.
That's okay.
Unfollow the people you don'tresonate with, just kind of
simplify things or streamlinethings, because I think when it
comes to mental overwhelm andoverload and health burnout.
(46:26):
Too much information is italmost like adds to that tax
that your brain has to do, likeyou're already having to think
about things right, and then youget all this new information
and you're like, oh, I need toincorporate that too, or I
should save that for laterbecause I shouldn't look.
You know, the information willbe there when you need it.
You can go seek it out when youneed it.
(46:47):
It doesn't need to like hit youin the face every day.
I think it's just thatcontributes to health burnout
almost more than other things atleast for me it does.
When I start seeing a bunch ofPCOS content, I'm like I can't
do this.
I mean, like I have a couple ofpeople that I really admire and
I like their work and I thinkyou know, and they inspire me
and I watch their content, butother people I just, you know, I
(47:10):
just don't watch it becauseit's too much, it's TMI, okay,
the last thing that I wanna sayand this is another mindset
thing is allow yourself to be apriority.
What do I mean by that?
A lot of us with PCOS arecoming from places where we've
got childhood trauma or we haveperfectionism tendencies or
(47:30):
we're a little bit type A, butthere's a lot of that going on
in the PCOS community and peoplelike that tend to have.
You know, there's some eldestdaughter syndrome going on for a
lot of us, right.
So people like that tend tostruggle with putting their
needs first.
They tend to believe at like adeep level that they are not as
(47:51):
important as the other people intheir life.
They're not as important astheir kids, they're not as
important as their family,they're not as important as
their work.
What have you?
This is something that Imajorly struggle with,
especially since becoming a mom.
And then in my work, I feelvery indebted to my work.
I feel beholden to it,sometimes Like I need to put
(48:11):
more my energy into that becauseit's important work that I'm
doing.
Right, and you may feel the same.
Maybe you're a nurse or maybeyour doctor, or maybe you're
this or that.
You may feel like I have a lotof responsibility to show up for
this.
If you're a mom, you may bethink I have a lot of
responsibility to show up as amom and so there's nothing left
over for me at the end of theday, like I'm getting the crumbs
(48:33):
.
But that's how it should be.
I'm not going to do the gasmask.
I'm not gonna do the gas maskexample.
You know what I'm talking aboutin the airplane, but you can't
pour from an empty cup.
I mean, these are cliches for areason, but it's true though,
(48:54):
because if you reframe this andput yourself as the priority,
then what magically happens issuddenly you have more energy,
and when you have more energy,you're more clear.
You can see things for whatthey are a little bit better.
And when you're more clear andyou can see things for what they
are, you realize that, withyour kids, for example, that
(49:16):
they need quality time with you,but they don't need every hour
of the day with you.
If you can give them somereally good quality time every
day, it's okay.
If it's not all day long, rightWith your family.
There's probably some placeswhere people might be leaning on
(49:38):
you a little bit more thanmaybe they should and they could
pick up the slack a bit more.
Right, because sometimes whathappens is we think other people
need us so much so we end updoing it for them, and then they
sort of lose their own agencyor they get lazy and they start
letting you do it for them, andso it can become a vicious cycle
.
So there are probably placeswhere you can pull back a little
(50:00):
bit and find that, wow, they'reactually capable of doing that
themselves.
Your family is going tofunction better.
Your immediate family is goingto function better if the person
at the center of it which isusually the mom, the wife, the
mother, whoever when that personis energetic, clear-eyed, in a
(50:25):
good mood, like all those things.
And that is only going tohappen if you truly treat
yourself like a priority.
So how do I do this in my life?
Well, I am very dedicated to myfitness endeavors, so I have
(50:47):
not every evening of the week,but a good number of the
evenings of the week I'm goingsomewhere and doing something.
So I am going to.
Lately I've been taking salsadance lessons, bachata lessons,
I do pole dancing and it's a lotto fit into any schedule.
All the classes are at night,unfortunately, but this is
something that makes me feelgood, makes me feel really happy
(51:07):
and makes me.
It's also good for my body,good for my PCS.
It's like a two-for-one, but itreally puts me in a good mood
and I'm not willing to give thatup, to sit at home more and
potentially, you know, in myhead I'm like, oh, if I stayed
home I'd be more present and Ihave more time.
Blah, blah, blah.
But what's the reality, guys?
When I'm at home, I'm not superpresent all the time.
(51:32):
Right, I'm on my phone or I'mwatching alone.
Do you guys like to watch alone?
We're Indian matchmaking.
That's my favorite show.
I'm watching TV, you know I'mdistracted by what have you
cooking, whatever?
And I find that even though Ispent a couple hours in the
evenings going and doing thesethings that are really good for
me, I still seem to manage tohave time to spend time with my
(51:57):
son, quality time with him,still have time to cook.
You know I have to be a littlebit more judicious about when I
cook and prepping and thingslike that, but I make it work
because this is so important tome.
It makes me happy and me beinghappy is really important to me,
and that wasn't always the casemy life.
I'm not spent a very largechunk of my life putting my
(52:20):
happiness as a priority.
My happiness was like down thelist of things that was
important and myresponsibilities were a lot
higher.
But now I'm switching that upand I find that actually like I
end up doing a lot of the thingsthat I was afraid I wouldn't be
able to do, just because I'm ina better mood.
So that's how that looks for me.
It may look like you know.
It may look like cooking whatyou know you need to eat, even
(52:45):
though you're gonna get somecomplaints from some picky
eaters in your family.
You wouldn't believe how manyof my clients are like they
won't make the changes becausethey're like my kids complain or
my husband complains, like,okay, so I know, that sucks, you
know, but like this is aboutyou and they can get on board,
they can have, they can cooksome spaghetti and put butter on
(53:07):
it and eat on the side.
They can have some mashedpotatoes, like you know it's,
it's.
There are a lot of ways that ourmind starts to kind of like
block us from making changesbecause we're afraid what other
people are gonna think, what arethe people gonna say, and we
don't feel confident enough inour worth as a priority.
So when those kinds of things,those kinds of complaints from
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family or whatever the pickyeaters, whatever when they start
to get in the way is because wedon't feel confident.
We don't really believe that wedeserve to be a priority.
We don't believe that wedeserve to be the best version
of ourselves.
We believe everybody elsedeserves that and we're there to
support them and if we getaround to it for us, great.
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But it probably won't happen,right.
So mindset shift.
But maybe this podcast will giveyou the the little spark that
you need to remember that youbeing a priority is not selfish
and it's not wrong and it'sactually probably the best thing
that you could ever do foryourself and for your family.
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So, yeah, allow that to be true, allow yourself to believe that
you deserve more, because youdo, and if that means spending
some of your hard earned moneyinstead of on this or that.
But maybe you hire somebody tocome clean your house once a
week or something, or you payfor some factor meals that are
(54:37):
pre-made, or you know green chefor HelloFresh or something, so
that you can take a little bitof the pressure off yourself
with this or that.
Or you ask your partner to stepup and do this or that, or you
know I get it.
I mean I've read Fair Play, but, like you know, people can.
People will often surprise youif you believe in them, that
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they have the capacity and thenyou believe in yourself that you
deserve to not have to doeverything for everybody else.
It might surprise you.
So that is my Health Burnoutpodcast.
I hope it helped.
Like I said, I wouldn't callmyself a complete expert in
doing all of this.
This is stuff that I stillstruggle with myself, but these
(55:19):
are things that have helpedclients, have helped myself in
the past and you know you mayresonate with one thing more
than another, but hopefully youresonated with something.
If you got all the way to theend, if this podcast was helpful
for you, let me know.
You leave me a review and tellme, or you can send an email to
the podcast or fill out thequestions for him.
Whatever, I'd love to know ifthis, if this type of content is
(55:41):
helpful for you.
If you prefer more of the sortof informational stuff, yeah
Well, I'll let you guys go havea great day.
I'll see you next week.