July 11, 2025 • 31 mins
Ever feel “off” in midlife but can’t quite explain why? You’re not alone—and you’re not stuck. In this episode, functional health practitioner Dee Davidson joins me to explore why so many midlife women feel out of sync, struggle with hot flashes, and don’t feel like themselves.
But here’s the game-changer: Hot flashes and hormone symptoms aren’t something you have to just live with. Dee breaks down how seemingly small choices, especially around blood sugar and protein intake, can make a huge difference—and how learning to trust what your body is telling you can be the start of real transformation.
💛 This conversation is about reclaiming how you feel and deciding that midlife gets to feel amazing.
BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL LEARN:
✔ Why symptoms like bloating, poor sleep, and hot flashes are messages from your body, not just “part of aging”
✔ How blood sugar regulation affects hot flashes, sleep, and overall hormone balance
✔ How to think about protein in a smarter way (hint: it’s more than just eggs)
✔ The importance of the being part of your day, not just the doing
🎯 OMG Moment: Your hot flashes, headaches, or sleepless nights are not just a nuisance—they’re a signal from your body asking you to listen and respond with care.
Take Action
Start with one meal. Aim for 25–30 grams of protein in your breakfast and see how your energy, focus, and hormone symptoms shift. Not sure where to start? Use AI to help build personalized ideas based on the foods you already enjoy.
Go to confidentlyloveyourself.com to connect with Dee and find out more - and check out her podcast at Confidently Balance Your Hormones.
Why This Episode Matters
Midlife isn’t a slow decline—it’s a time for recalibration and power. When you begin to understand how your body works now, you can take simple steps that help you feel better than you have in years. This episode will help you listen to your body, stop settling for symptoms, and make aligned decisions for your well-being.
🎧 Hit follow and don’t miss next week’s episode where we’re diving into the midlife vision board reimagined—with practical, creative ways to see and shape your next chapter.
Text me to ask a question - I'll answer on the podcast!
🌸 Liked this episode? Share it with fellow midlife women over 40 navigating hormone balance, an empty nest, and self-confidence!
🫶 Love this show? Leave a review to help more women over 50 find us.
💡Want support through menopause, mindset shifts, or midlife transitions?
Book a free Mindset Coaching / Intro Call: cherylpfischer.com/coaching, and join us in Midlife Pivot on Patreon.
Let’s talk self-care, self-talk, and owning your next chapter—without the “midlife crisis” narrative.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Cheryl Fischer (00:01):
There is so much information out there isn't
there.
It can be just a lot to take in, and I might be part of that
problem for you occasionally,because every week you're
hearing some new advice and adifferent angle and a different
(00:21):
take.
Now, the reason that we're Mindyour Midlife here is that I
want to go into the mentalaspects, the deep, deep layers,
and not just do this, do this,do this, but what are we telling
ourselves about it and how isit meaningful and how can we
make it meaningful?
(00:41):
But the fact remains sometimeswe get overwhelmed about how to
actually live healthy and feelgood in midlife.
What the heck?
Let's talk about it.
Welcome to Mind your Midlife,your go-to resource for
confidence and success.
One thought at a time, unlikemost advice out there.
(01:03):
We believe that simply tellingyou to believe in yourself or
change your habits isn't enoughto wake up excited about life or
feel truly confident in yourbody.
Each week you'll gainactionable strategies and oh my
goodness, powerful insights tostop feeling stuck and start
loving your midlife.
This is the Mind your MidlifePodcast.
(01:28):
I once sat down with two of myfriends and just said I feel
bleh, I feel off I don't knowwhat is the word for that.
Just, you know I'm, I'm bleh, Ihave no other term for it and
(01:51):
we all in this conversation werein our 50s, as I am now, and we
didn't necessarily know theanswer to that.
Do I know what it's related to?
Well, I imagine it's related tohormones.
It's related maybe to beingoverextended and not resting
(02:12):
enough.
It's related to, maybe, someunhealthy habits of eating and
drinking that I had been doingin that recent period.
And deep under that it'srelated to am I valuing myself
enough to, as you've heard mesay before, take just a little
(02:36):
bit more care of myself in thisphase of life, myself in this
phase of life?
Are you Because all of this thedecision we make about how
we're treating our bodies andhow we're fixing any of these
issues that we might want to fixstems from?
(02:56):
Do you value yourself andbelieve deep down that you
deserve to have a really greatand vibrant midlife?
Because if you really believethat and that's what you're
telling yourself in your head,then I'm here to help you
underscore that and findsolutions that fit for you
(03:21):
Intrigued.
So we're going to have a bit ofa holistic discussion today
with my guest, dee Davidson.
Dee is a board-certifiedfunctional health practitioner
and if you've never heard offunctional health, that's more
of a whole body holistic healthperspective.
(03:42):
She specializes in hormonebalance, gut health and root
cause healing, and she has overtwo decades of experience,
mostly, interestingly, workingwith women in midlife.
She can do lab testing as wellas help us through lifestyle
shifts that make a hugedifference.
So I am super excited tointroduce you to Dee Okay
(04:14):
welcome, Dee.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (04:16):
Thank you so much for having me.
Cheryl Fischer (04:18):
So let's let's kind of start with this.
I know that hormone balance isa big topic for you.
It's something that you helppeople with, speak about a lot,
so tell us how hormones havebecome an issue in your life or
affected you.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (04:36):
We could track a whole episode just on
that, cheryl, but I'll give youthe snippet, and I know that
your audience is a little bitolder.
I'm in my 50s, but it did startback in my early 30s when I
went to conceive and I wasplaced in this category called
unexplained infertility, which Ithink there's always an
explanation for everything.
So I started to dig into whoelse was in this category of
(05:00):
unexplained infertility and whatmight have affected me being in
this category, and I started toreally become fascinated at how
little information is out there, whether it be for young girls
who are having painful periodsor PCOS or infertility, or at
midlife with perimenopause andmenopause.
(05:21):
There just isn't really a lotof education for women in regard
to their hormones, and I wasfascinated with how many
different things can have animpact.
It's not just, you know, seedcycling or reducing stress and
relaxing to get pregnant, andit's not you're getting hot
(05:42):
flashes so you put some yamcream on.
There's just so muchinformation and so many things
that things that go into it thatit brought me to where I am
today.
So, to give you the snippet, isthat I went through an
unexplained infertility.
I was able to conceive my twoboys, who are now 13 and 15.
(06:02):
One through the blessing of IVF.
I've learned a lot aboutinfertility.
I still do help a lot of womenwith infertility, but my main
clientele are women ages 40 pluswho are now seeing their body
change.
And how hormones affected melater in life is that I had a
(06:23):
really hard time embracing theshift from my 30s to 40s and now
50s.
As to questioning why, why am Ibloated now?
Why, you know, why don't I havethe six pack?
Why do I not feel the way thatI did?
So I had to really understandthat hormone health it doesn't
(06:44):
only impact reproduction or yourperiods, that it impacts
everything.
Right, I control, I call it acontrol panel.
It controls your brain, yourpituitary, your thyroid, your
adrenals, your metabolism, yourinsulin.
It is your control panel.
And so you know, later on inlife things just don't run as
(07:05):
smoothly for most of us as theyonce did, and one little
stressor here or one littlestressor there will really
affect the hormones, which aresignals, and so I had to learn
how to recalibrate my body andfind its way back to ease and
balance.
And now I really enjoy helpingwomen, all ages really, but my
(07:27):
clientele is women midlife, ifyou will who are confused.
They don't really know what'sgoing on with their body.
They're not loving themselveswhen they look in the mirror and
it's overwhelming.
So that's why I'm so passionateabout it, because it's
overwhelming.
And to have someone have aroadmap or a checklist and say,
all right, well, let's look atthe call.
(07:47):
Right before this was a womanwho she wanted to have
functional lab testing.
As you know, that's somethingthat I do and she's like oh, my
sister worked with you and shehad all this testing done and
she thinks I need to talk to you.
I said well, before we talkabout lab testing, let's talk
about the things we can takepersonal responsibility for that
affect our hormones.
And right away we startedtalking about nutrition and
(08:10):
blood sugar management.
And right there she was tellingme she drinks coffee on an
empty stomach, she goes fivehours, seven hours, without
eating until her lunch.
So there's just so much thatimpacts the hormones and a lot
of it doesn't really need to beoverwhelming.
You just need someone whounderstands hormone health, like
myself, to say well, let's look, let's go through this
checklist and see what thingsare you doing that are
(08:33):
supporting your hormones ormaybe harming your hormones, and
that's what I love about it isthat you really can find
yourself back to feeling goodagain, and you just need to know
what things affect yourhormones.
Cheryl Fischer (08:45):
Yeah, and there's two reasons I'm really
excited to have you on thepodcast.
One is that, yes, the peoplelistening are absolutely 40 and
above.
I'm in my 50s as well, so, yes,we're absolutely in the same
place.
And the second reason isexactly what you said the word
overwhelm or overwhelming and asa podcast host, I'm on here
(09:10):
every week talking about thingsyou can do in midlife, and I
might be the source of someone'soverwhelm occasionally which is
not my goal, of course but whenwe get all this information
about what we could do to feelbetter and be more productive
and sleep better and this, andthat it can be a lot and I do I
(09:31):
do see your point that hormonesare really kind of the control
center in a lot of ways.
So let's start here.
One thing you said to me whenwe first met is that a lot of
women are kind of just feelingoff.
They just describe it as I justI don't feel myself, I feel off
, and so I know that you'veheard that many, many times.
(09:52):
So what would you say tosomeone who's kind of feeling
that way?
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (09:56):
Yes, I, would say that you need to
listen, listen to your intuition, those voices that we hear,
those little nudges that we feelthey're real and so don't
ignore them.
Those are real signals of theyou know.
Those are signs that somethingis indeed off.
So some of those signs, youknow whether it be bloating,
(10:17):
right, bloating poor sleep, hotflashes.
You don't.
You don't just get hot flashesbecause you're in midlife.
I, you know, I've had them inthe past, but then I also know
what can contribute to them.
And then I go, yeah, I can takea little more personal
accountability around that, andthen I haven't had them in a
long time, right?
So anything that you'reexperiencing that doesn't feel
(10:38):
familiar to who you are or whatyou've experienced, is a little
tap on the shoulder to say, okay, well, let me investigate what
might contribute to that symptom, that feeling off, and see
again, take inventory personalresponsibility for not managing
stress, I'm not breathing, I'mnot eating enough protein,
(11:01):
whatever those things that comeback in relationship to that
symptom.
But if you feel off, you'reprobably off, and then getting
the help or the, the informationto see like, why, where's that
stemming from?
Cheryl Fischer (11:15):
Yeah, yeah, figuring it out.
So let's go down this tangentbecause I hope it's a good
example of you know a symptomthat women might be feeling.
But when you said that we don'treally have to have hot flashes
, it caught my attention.
Really have to have hot flashes?
It caught my attention becauseI don't have terrible hot
(11:36):
flashes, but sometimes I havethem significantly.
So tell us a little bit moreabout what you mean, about being
able to minimize that orcontrol that.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (11:43):
Yes.
So I'm very proud because Ihave a lot of women that come to
me with hot flashes of the factthat I've helped a lot of women
, you know, eliminate, diminishthem, but a lot of them just
don't even have it anymore.
I have found there's a hugecorrelation between hot flashes
and blood sugar management.
Now, the blood sugar managementpiece isn't as simple as people
(12:05):
think either.
People think like blood sugarmanagement is I don't eat a lot
of candy or fruit high in sugarand I'm eating protein and
stabilizing my blood sugar.
But the thing is that bloodsugar is so much more
complicated and if anyone'swondering, am I balancing my
blood sugar?
A great place to start is Ifollow this woman, the glucose
(12:25):
goddess.
Have you heard of her?
I have not.
She's awesome and one of myclients.
She had really high A1C andshe's fit and she does all the
things and looks good, but herA1C was really high.
She was having hot flashes, bythe way, and I recommended this
and she's gotten her A1C, youknow, back to normal within the
last six months.
But she said, oh my gosh, thatwoman is awesome, she got her
(12:47):
book or whatever, but there's alot of pieces that would take us
way more than 30 minutes to getinto.
But I would say, look into bloodsugar regulation, because
typically, once you get yourblood sugar under control, it
doesn't mean that you're at A1Cor your fasting glucose is high,
but that throughout the day youhave a good pattern of staying
stable.
(13:07):
The hot flashes go away.
There's just a correlationbetween those two things.
Funny enough, and is it becausecortisol spikes when our blood
sugar is dysregulated?
I haven't gone that that far,but stabilize your blood sugar
and your hot flashes willtypically go away.
The other piece of blood sugarregulation is stress.
So there is a piece that peopleneed to understand.
(13:28):
It's not just food and exercise.
Stress will elevate your bloodsugar, by the way.
So if you're not doing a goodjob of managing stress, or you
have leaky boundaries or you'renot saying no and you need to be
saying no and resting that toowill dysregulate your blood
sugar.
But blood sugar and hot flasheshuge correlation.
Cheryl Fischer (13:50):
This is the very first time I've ever heard
anyone say that 100%.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (13:57):
And I'm telling you, it's like the first
thing I work with people on isblood sugar regulation, because
it's the root cause.
Dysregulation is the root causeof your immune system getting
taxed inflammation, you knowagain, good sleep if your
cortisol spiking at nightbecause your blood sugar was
dysregulated during the day andwhen you go to sleep at night
(14:20):
it's trying to recalculate, ifyou can imagine that, and
cortisol spikes and you wake up.
So that's another reason why inmidlife women go oh, I can't
sleep or I can't stay asleep,and then we talk about their
nutrition and their blood sugarregulation and it's like, well,
if you didn't do a great job ofregulating your blood sugar
during the day, when you go tosleep your body is doing a
(14:41):
reboot, right.
It's like when we do theupdates on our phone or our
computer, it's trying to helpyou.
So when you're not eating,walking, talking, having a bowel
movement, your body feels like,all right, she's sleeping right
now.
So we're going to try to.
You know correct things.
And so if you didn't do a goodjob with the blood sugar during
the day, it's also a reason thatI see people having night
sweats and waking up a lot.
Cheryl Fischer (15:04):
Oh, so the body is trying to sort of fix.
I'm going to loosely say whatwe did wrong during the day.
And the harder it has to work,maybe the harder it is for us to
sleep.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (15:18):
Yeah.
So think about cortisol, yourstress hormone that we hear so
much about.
Cortisol is the hormone thatopens your eyes in the morning.
If you don't spike cortisol andwhen we do a circadian rhythm
mapping or things like thatcortisol should be highest in
the morning it's the hormonethat wakes you up.
So think about when you go tosleep.
You're trying to sleep andstart asking yourself and get
(15:39):
curious why is cortisol awake?
Why is that spiking at night?
Is it because my blood sugar isdysregulated?
Is it because I haven'tprocessed emotional stress when
I go to bed?
Is Is it because maybe I havesome bad bacteria or things
that's trying to clean up?
That's the whole process ofelimination of what things could
it be?
But one thing we can get undercontrol is definitely our blood
(16:01):
sugar through, you know, eatingenough protein, eating often
enough and things like that.
Managing stress.
Cheryl Fischer (16:07):
I love it and I love that you're saying it's not
actually that hard to do.
Because I do think that, backto that overwhelm, that we feel
like, wow, that's a huge change,I'm never going to be able to
do it, it's going to be too hard, and then we kind of stop
ourselves.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (16:20):
It's being in tune, right.
And that's why I have everysingle client do a food journal.
It is one of the first thingswe do and I know people go, oh,
but it's like.
But if you really want tounderstand where the vital voids
are I call them vital voidsthen you have to.
There's something about writingit down and looking at it that
makes it real right, because Ihave a lot of clients,
(16:40):
especially women, who say, oh, Ieat protein.
And then they're like havingtwo eggs, that's 12 grams of
protein.
You need to eat 25 to 30 gramsof protein with each meal to
stabilize your blood sugar,right.
So it is eye-opening when youdo a food journal and we don't
do it for the rest of our life,but we do it to learn about
ourselves and learn aboutpatterns and where those gaps
(17:02):
are, where the vital voids are,so that we can help ourselves
and go okay, I didn't realizeI'm only having 20 grams, or I'm
going six hours without eating.
What happens to my blood sugar,which is a whole cascading
effect on the rest of our healthand our hormones.
Cheryl Fischer (17:18):
Yeah, that's a good point, Because we do feel
like, oh, I'm eating some eggs,that's plenty, that'll be fine.
And actually blood not bloodsugar but protein is such a big
topic on social media right now.
For midlife women in particular, I feel like all I hear on
Instagram is eat more protein,eat more protein, eat more
(17:38):
protein.
And it's a little daunting,especially because of what you
just said.
Two eggs is not nearly enough,so do you have any tips to kind
of make it easier to add in moreprotein?
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (17:51):
I think you know again it's controversial.
Some people say, oh, no animalprotein no dairy right.
So everyone's got a differentphilosophy.
I love chat GPT in general.
I don't know if you use it,cheryl, but for a lot of my
clients, because we are sodifferent and I hate that social
media makes us so in the box,right, everyone can eat a cup of
(18:13):
yogurt and then have this, andit's like I don't eat dairy,
right.
So I think it's nutrition is sobio individualized and what
works for one person might notwork for someone else.
For me, I don't mind eatingmeat chicken for breakfast.
Someone might go, that's toomuch for me.
So I like to have my clientsuse ChatGPT as a tool where you
can put in what types of proteinyou like, right.
(18:36):
And if you're not really sure,because people don't realize
like hemp seeds might addprotein, they're just thinking
of meat and eggs, right.
Or dairy, but you also getprotein from some vegetables and
things like that.
So you know, putting in chatGPT build me, you know, and I
recommend starting with one mealat a time instead of saying the
(18:57):
whole day, because we have toget one meal down, then move to
the next.
I just think it's way toooverwhelming to say, like, give
me 200 grams of protein a day,oh my God, I gotta change all
this stuff.
So start with, maybe, breakfast, because I do know breakfast is
the most important meal of theday when it comes to blood sugar
regulation, where, if you'reeating a high sugar breakfast
(19:18):
which a lot of Americans do orhigh carb breakfast all day long
, your body is fighting backthat blood sugar it's trying to
correct, correct, correct, goinginto the sleep cycle, right.
So making sure that you havethat high protein breakfast so
that's a good place to start isto say, all right, build me a
high protein breakfast, 25 to 30grams.
(19:39):
Here are the foods that I like.
Don't focus on what you don'tlike.
I think it's way more fun,cheryl, to focus on like what do
I like to eat, right?
Instead of like I got toeliminate all these foods and I
can't eat this and I can't eatthat, and then see what chat GPT
comes back with.
I just think it's amazing thatI know people there's
conflicting opinions on chat GPTbut as a tool for nutrition and
(20:01):
meal planning, and even I haveclients who use it for their
their dinners and they theyit'll even break out the recipe
and the grocery list justseeding chat GPT to say like
here's the parameter and startwith one meal and then go to the
next, because I think it isvery variable for people Like I
don't eat dairy, but some otherpeople they like to eat cottage
cheese and yogurt and thingslike that.
(20:24):
Layering that's the thing I wantyou to walk away.
Listening to this is that youdon't just have to eat five eggs
right To thing.
I want you to walk awaylistening to this is that you
don't just have to eat five eggsright To get to your 30 grams
of protein.
It can be, you know, you'regetting some protein from
spinach and you're getting someprotein from whatever you're
layering on there.
It doesn't have to be onesource and it gets easier
(20:44):
because you get used to, youknow what things add up.
Cheryl Fischer (20:48):
You know what I?
You said exactly not what Iexpected you to say, and I love
that, because I don't like to bethe average you know on the
podcast right, exactly right.
And as we're talking about thischat, gpt, I feel like, can
become maybe the next superbrowser in this way, because,
(21:12):
instead of Googling, we're ableto ask it and we're able to be
very specific and it's it's allit's doing, is it's going and
looking out at all the knowledgethat it can find and it's
coming back with an answer.
But even better than thanGoogling and I love that you
said that and personally I don'teat dairy either, so I do know
like some alternate ways to getprotein, but I know I'm not
(21:35):
getting enough, given whatyou've said, so I will try it as
well.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (21:39):
Yeah, and you know, you can be so specific
to say you know these foods andso personalized.
That's what I love, is that?
Why do we all have to be thesame, like we're not the same
people, cheryl, I have differentlikes and dislikes and you know
different food sensitivitiesand things like that, and you
can.
You can say you know, make themsingle ingredient foods if you
(22:00):
don't want to eat.
You know processed food andthings like that.
It meets you where you're atBecause you know, for some of my
clients, they come to me andthey are still eating like a
healthier waffle or proteinpancake and I have to meet them
where they're at and say this isreally where we want you.
But let's not look at the gap.
Let's see, like, how can we getyou there, right, right?
Cheryl Fischer (22:21):
I want to circle back to something you said and
that was doing and being, and Ithink for me, my kids are in
their 20s, so they're living ontheir own.
You're in a different phase interms of having kids at home and
taking care of them, and whenwe're in that phase where we're
hands on all day, all the time,there's not a lot of being I
(22:43):
think it's and then we get to apoint where we have a moment to
go oh, oh, okay, now I can takecare of myself, maybe, but we're
not used to it and we almostdon't know how to do it, and so
the fact that you're sayingbalance, doing and being to me
(23:05):
says that really well.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (23:07):
It's true, and you know a good place to.
I have a lot of clients thatare in your phase of life or
beyond a lot.
I have a lot of clients who'vealready retired and they don't
really have a new routine or anew set schedule and definitely
have never been used to being.
And I say, start with thebookends, right.
What do you do in the firsthour of the day?
That's a good place to just beand set your intention for the
(23:30):
day.
Do some breathing, get somesunlight, you know, get outside
that type of stuff.
And then the stuff's going tohappen in between, right, when
you can some days you can bemore than other days.
We have to be doing right.
And then at the end of the day,what's that last hour will look
like again?
Are you doing your meditationor journaling, or reflecting on
the day, or gratitude and thingslike that?
(23:51):
So start with yourself, becauseyou're going to give to
everybody else in between, andthen end with yourself.
Right.
Always come back to self at theend of the day too.
Cheryl Fischer (24:00):
I love that.
It's very simple, it's easy toremember, absolutely, and I love
to just read and relax at night.
So I think I have the nightdown, but I'm not sure I have
the morning down, so I need tothink about that.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (24:12):
Well, most women wake up their eyes open
and go I got to do this and Igot to do that, and you know,
that's the piece where you knowwe have to be a little bit more
aware.
And sometimes it just startswith 10 minutes with yourself of
just how do I want to again.
(24:32):
When we talk about being anddoing, I laugh when I have to
take my mother to the doctor'sappointment, like no, not,
that's again doing, but how doyou want to feel today?
Take yourself through the day.
Of course, we can't control howthe day is going to go, but how
do you want to feel today?
On the other side, you knowwhat's your intention for your
day.
It could just be starting withthat.
(24:55):
That's starting with yourselfand telling yourself this is how
I want to feel today, and thenyou can again habit stack as you
go along.
Some people like journaling,some people like doing
meditation, some people, youknow, like doing some kind of
exercise before they go on theirphone.
But start with yourself.
You know big or small.
Cheryl Fischer (25:11):
I love that, and one thing that I've really had
to force myself to learn is toset an intention before, before
the day before doing something,before talking to someone.
It was not something that Iever understood at all and it's
huge, so it makes a difference,doesn't it?
It really, really does, itabsolutely does.
(25:32):
Okay, so I have one more sortof big overarching question for
you.
But before I do that, so that Idon't forget, I like the way
that you work with clients inthat you look at sort of this
whole life perspective and helpthem figure out some things that
they could change without itbeing medication or without it
(25:54):
being supplements necessarily.
But then that's involved andyou can do the testing and you
can kind of do it all.
So where can people find you ifthey're curious about what you
do or they want to learn more?
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (26:06):
Yes, great question.
Just on my website,confidentlyloveyourselfcom, or
on Instagram confidentlyunderscore love, underscore
yourself A lot of freebies andthings on my website and on my
Instagram as well.
And if they're just curious andwant to poke around, there's a
blog my own, my confidentlybalance your pod, my confidently
(26:26):
balance your hormones podcast,is on there as well.
Cheryl Fischer (26:29):
Yes, and I'll make sure the links are in the
show notes for everything aswell.
Thank you so.
So the sort of overarchingquestion I'm referring to is
we've talked about a lot ofthings and I know I'm taking
away a couple of things that Iam absolutely going to use.
And, that being said, afterlistening to a podcast episode,
nobody can remember everything.
(26:50):
So for the person who'slistening, who's driving or
walking or whatever, and they,they should hold on to, in your
opinion, one particular OMGthing, what would you say?
That is?
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (27:01):
I would say that you need to stop ignoring
the signs, the symptoms, ifyou're waking up and having a
headache, if you're waking up inthe middle of the night or
you're not getting good sleep.
I'm here at 51.
Again, I go to bed at 10 and Iwake up usually at 5, 530, and I
don't wake up and I don't evennot even to go to the bathroom.
Right, so you don't have to bestuck with those symptoms and
(27:25):
what I want to tell you is thatthe symptoms are taps on the
shoulder.
To go a little deeper, whileyou can, I always tell my
clients it's a blessing, asymptom's a blessing because
it's your body saying hey, payattention, and then from there,
look for help and be an advocate.
Even if your doctor's sayingyour labs look okay and
everything's fine, it's a partof midlife.
(27:46):
That's not true.
You can still have vitality andfeel your best.
It is an opportunity.
Opportunity.
A symptom is an opportunity toask more questions and get
curious about your body.
I'm here, cheryl's got you knowher knowledge and a huge
network, like I do.
There's always someone outthere and whoever your greater
force or being is, god's spirit,the universe, ask, just sit and
(28:09):
say you know what do I need andlisten to that message that
comes back.
What do I need?
What does my to that messagethat comes back.
What do I need?
What does my body need?
What does this mean?
What is this telling me?
Get curious and then be anadvocate for your health and put
it out there and seek theanswers, because symptoms are
not normal.
Cheryl Fischer (28:26):
That's a bit of a mic drop.
We don't have to live this way.
We can feel great.
It doesn't matter that we're inour 50s or 40s or 60s.
Yes, right, thank you.
Well, dee, I know that this isgoing to be a very popular
episode because you have saidsome things a little differently
than others have said it, andthat is amazing.
So thank you for joining me.
(28:46):
Thanks so much for having me.
What a fascinating discussion.
First of all, her OMG moment Ifind to be tremendously
empowering.
Trust your instincts, you canfeel amazing, find the help.
And that, again, is back towhat I said at the beginning
(29:08):
when we believe deep in our gut,in the thoughts in our head, in
our subconscious mind, that wedeserve it.
We're going to figure it out.
And the next thing I want tosay is I'm not sure anyone has
ever made such a connection forme.
Maybe you agree with this too,about blood sugar management and
(29:30):
hot flashes what you can betI'm digging into that.
So huge things learned today.
I hope you agree.
I hope you enjoyed the episode.
Make sure that you have joinedus in Patreon for Midlife Pivot,
(29:51):
and that's patreoncom slashmindyourmidlife Easy to find
absolutely free all summer.
And Dee joins me for an extralittle discussion of her DRESS
acronym and what all the piecesof that are, to help you kind of
take stock of where you are andwhere you might want to tweak
(30:12):
something to feel even better inyour life.
So I'll see you over there andmake sure you've hit the follow
button, because next week we'regoing to talk about something
you might have heard of beforeand that is vision boards.
But we're going to tweak it sothat when you're in midlife and
(30:33):
you are wanting stuff to lookforward to in your life over the
next 20, 30, 40 years, you canmake a vision board.
And I'm going to make it easyfor you because, just like you
heard today, we might just betalking about AI again.
I'll see you then and in themeantime, slow down, notice
(30:54):
what's going on in your head andwhat's going on around you and
let's create something amazing.
There is so much information out there isn't
there.
It can be just a lot to take in, and I might be part of that
problem for you occasionally,because every week you're
hearing some new advice and adifferent angle and a different
(00:21):
take.
Now, the reason that we're Mindyour Midlife here is that I
want to go into the mentalaspects, the deep, deep layers,
and not just do this, do this,do this, but what are we telling
ourselves about it and how isit meaningful and how can we
make it meaningful?
(00:41):
But the fact remains sometimeswe get overwhelmed about how to
actually live healthy and feelgood in midlife.
What the heck?
Let's talk about it.
Welcome to Mind your Midlife,your go-to resource for
confidence and success.
One thought at a time, unlikemost advice out there.
(01:03):
We believe that simply tellingyou to believe in yourself or
change your habits isn't enoughto wake up excited about life or
feel truly confident in yourbody.
Each week you'll gainactionable strategies and oh my
goodness, powerful insights tostop feeling stuck and start
loving your midlife.
This is the Mind your MidlifePodcast.
(01:28):
I once sat down with two of myfriends and just said I feel
bleh, I feel off I don't knowwhat is the word for that.
Just, you know I'm, I'm bleh, Ihave no other term for it and
(01:51):
we all in this conversation werein our 50s, as I am now, and we
didn't necessarily know theanswer to that.
Do I know what it's related to?
Well, I imagine it's related tohormones.
It's related maybe to beingoverextended and not resting
(02:12):
enough.
It's related to, maybe, someunhealthy habits of eating and
drinking that I had been doingin that recent period.
And deep under that it'srelated to am I valuing myself
enough to, as you've heard mesay before, take just a little
(02:36):
bit more care of myself in thisphase of life, myself in this
phase of life?
Are you Because all of this thedecision we make about how
we're treating our bodies andhow we're fixing any of these
issues that we might want to fixstems from?
(02:56):
Do you value yourself andbelieve deep down that you
deserve to have a really greatand vibrant midlife?
Because if you really believethat and that's what you're
telling yourself in your head,then I'm here to help you
underscore that and findsolutions that fit for you
(03:21):
Intrigued.
So we're going to have a bit ofa holistic discussion today
with my guest, dee Davidson.
Dee is a board-certifiedfunctional health practitioner
and if you've never heard offunctional health, that's more
of a whole body holistic healthperspective.
(03:42):
She specializes in hormonebalance, gut health and root
cause healing, and she has overtwo decades of experience,
mostly, interestingly, workingwith women in midlife.
She can do lab testing as wellas help us through lifestyle
shifts that make a hugedifference.
So I am super excited tointroduce you to Dee Okay
(04:14):
welcome, Dee.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (04:16):
Thank you so much for having me.
Cheryl Fischer (04:18):
So let's let's kind of start with this.
I know that hormone balance isa big topic for you.
It's something that you helppeople with, speak about a lot,
so tell us how hormones havebecome an issue in your life or
affected you.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (04:36):
We could track a whole episode just on
that, cheryl, but I'll give youthe snippet, and I know that
your audience is a little bitolder.
I'm in my 50s, but it did startback in my early 30s when I
went to conceive and I wasplaced in this category called
unexplained infertility, which Ithink there's always an
explanation for everything.
So I started to dig into whoelse was in this category of
(05:00):
unexplained infertility and whatmight have affected me being in
this category, and I started toreally become fascinated at how
little information is out there, whether it be for young girls
who are having painful periodsor PCOS or infertility, or at
midlife with perimenopause andmenopause.
(05:21):
There just isn't really a lotof education for women in regard
to their hormones, and I wasfascinated with how many
different things can have animpact.
It's not just, you know, seedcycling or reducing stress and
relaxing to get pregnant, andit's not you're getting hot
(05:42):
flashes so you put some yamcream on.
There's just so muchinformation and so many things
that things that go into it thatit brought me to where I am
today.
So, to give you the snippet, isthat I went through an
unexplained infertility.
I was able to conceive my twoboys, who are now 13 and 15.
(06:02):
One through the blessing of IVF.
I've learned a lot aboutinfertility.
I still do help a lot of womenwith infertility, but my main
clientele are women ages 40 pluswho are now seeing their body
change.
And how hormones affected melater in life is that I had a
(06:23):
really hard time embracing theshift from my 30s to 40s and now
50s.
As to questioning why, why am Ibloated now?
Why, you know, why don't I havethe six pack?
Why do I not feel the way thatI did?
So I had to really understandthat hormone health it doesn't
(06:44):
only impact reproduction or yourperiods, that it impacts
everything.
Right, I control, I call it acontrol panel.
It controls your brain, yourpituitary, your thyroid, your
adrenals, your metabolism, yourinsulin.
It is your control panel.
And so you know, later on inlife things just don't run as
(07:05):
smoothly for most of us as theyonce did, and one little
stressor here or one littlestressor there will really
affect the hormones, which aresignals, and so I had to learn
how to recalibrate my body andfind its way back to ease and
balance.
And now I really enjoy helpingwomen, all ages really, but my
(07:27):
clientele is women midlife, ifyou will who are confused.
They don't really know what'sgoing on with their body.
They're not loving themselveswhen they look in the mirror and
it's overwhelming.
So that's why I'm so passionateabout it, because it's
overwhelming.
And to have someone have aroadmap or a checklist and say,
all right, well, let's look atthe call.
(07:47):
Right before this was a womanwho she wanted to have
functional lab testing.
As you know, that's somethingthat I do and she's like oh, my
sister worked with you and shehad all this testing done and
she thinks I need to talk to you.
I said well, before we talkabout lab testing, let's talk
about the things we can takepersonal responsibility for that
affect our hormones.
And right away we startedtalking about nutrition and
(08:10):
blood sugar management.
And right there she was tellingme she drinks coffee on an
empty stomach, she goes fivehours, seven hours, without
eating until her lunch.
So there's just so much thatimpacts the hormones and a lot
of it doesn't really need to beoverwhelming.
You just need someone whounderstands hormone health, like
myself, to say well, let's look, let's go through this
checklist and see what thingsare you doing that are
(08:33):
supporting your hormones ormaybe harming your hormones, and
that's what I love about it isthat you really can find
yourself back to feeling goodagain, and you just need to know
what things affect yourhormones.
Cheryl Fischer (08:45):
Yeah, and there's two reasons I'm really
excited to have you on thepodcast.
One is that, yes, the peoplelistening are absolutely 40 and
above.
I'm in my 50s as well, so, yes,we're absolutely in the same
place.
And the second reason isexactly what you said the word
overwhelm or overwhelming and asa podcast host, I'm on here
(09:10):
every week talking about thingsyou can do in midlife, and I
might be the source of someone'soverwhelm occasionally which is
not my goal, of course but whenwe get all this information
about what we could do to feelbetter and be more productive
and sleep better and this, andthat it can be a lot and I do I
(09:31):
do see your point that hormonesare really kind of the control
center in a lot of ways.
So let's start here.
One thing you said to me whenwe first met is that a lot of
women are kind of just feelingoff.
They just describe it as I justI don't feel myself, I feel off
, and so I know that you'veheard that many, many times.
(09:52):
So what would you say tosomeone who's kind of feeling
that way?
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (09:56):
Yes, I, would say that you need to
listen, listen to your intuition, those voices that we hear,
those little nudges that we feelthey're real and so don't
ignore them.
Those are real signals of theyou know.
Those are signs that somethingis indeed off.
So some of those signs, youknow whether it be bloating,
(10:17):
right, bloating poor sleep, hotflashes.
You don't.
You don't just get hot flashesbecause you're in midlife.
I, you know, I've had them inthe past, but then I also know
what can contribute to them.
And then I go, yeah, I can takea little more personal
accountability around that, andthen I haven't had them in a
long time, right?
So anything that you'reexperiencing that doesn't feel
(10:38):
familiar to who you are or whatyou've experienced, is a little
tap on the shoulder to say, okay, well, let me investigate what
might contribute to that symptom, that feeling off, and see
again, take inventory personalresponsibility for not managing
stress, I'm not breathing, I'mnot eating enough protein,
(11:01):
whatever those things that comeback in relationship to that
symptom.
But if you feel off, you'reprobably off, and then getting
the help or the, the informationto see like, why, where's that
stemming from?
Cheryl Fischer (11:15):
Yeah, yeah, figuring it out.
So let's go down this tangentbecause I hope it's a good
example of you know a symptomthat women might be feeling.
But when you said that we don'treally have to have hot flashes
, it caught my attention.
Really have to have hot flashes?
It caught my attention becauseI don't have terrible hot
(11:36):
flashes, but sometimes I havethem significantly.
So tell us a little bit moreabout what you mean, about being
able to minimize that orcontrol that.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (11:43):
Yes.
So I'm very proud because Ihave a lot of women that come to
me with hot flashes of the factthat I've helped a lot of women
, you know, eliminate, diminishthem, but a lot of them just
don't even have it anymore.
I have found there's a hugecorrelation between hot flashes
and blood sugar management.
Now, the blood sugar managementpiece isn't as simple as people
(12:05):
think either.
People think like blood sugarmanagement is I don't eat a lot
of candy or fruit high in sugarand I'm eating protein and
stabilizing my blood sugar.
But the thing is that bloodsugar is so much more
complicated and if anyone'swondering, am I balancing my
blood sugar?
A great place to start is Ifollow this woman, the glucose
(12:25):
goddess.
Have you heard of her?
I have not.
She's awesome and one of myclients.
She had really high A1C andshe's fit and she does all the
things and looks good, but herA1C was really high.
She was having hot flashes, bythe way, and I recommended this
and she's gotten her A1C, youknow, back to normal within the
last six months.
But she said, oh my gosh, thatwoman is awesome, she got her
(12:47):
book or whatever, but there's alot of pieces that would take us
way more than 30 minutes to getinto.
But I would say, look into bloodsugar regulation, because
typically, once you get yourblood sugar under control, it
doesn't mean that you're at A1Cor your fasting glucose is high,
but that throughout the day youhave a good pattern of staying
stable.
(13:07):
The hot flashes go away.
There's just a correlationbetween those two things.
Funny enough, and is it becausecortisol spikes when our blood
sugar is dysregulated?
I haven't gone that that far,but stabilize your blood sugar
and your hot flashes willtypically go away.
The other piece of blood sugarregulation is stress.
So there is a piece that peopleneed to understand.
(13:28):
It's not just food and exercise.
Stress will elevate your bloodsugar, by the way.
So if you're not doing a goodjob of managing stress, or you
have leaky boundaries or you'renot saying no and you need to be
saying no and resting that toowill dysregulate your blood
sugar.
But blood sugar and hot flasheshuge correlation.
Cheryl Fischer (13:50):
This is the very first time I've ever heard
anyone say that 100%.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (13:57):
And I'm telling you, it's like the first
thing I work with people on isblood sugar regulation, because
it's the root cause.
Dysregulation is the root causeof your immune system getting
taxed inflammation, you knowagain, good sleep if your
cortisol spiking at nightbecause your blood sugar was
dysregulated during the day andwhen you go to sleep at night
(14:20):
it's trying to recalculate, ifyou can imagine that, and
cortisol spikes and you wake up.
So that's another reason why inmidlife women go oh, I can't
sleep or I can't stay asleep,and then we talk about their
nutrition and their blood sugarregulation and it's like, well,
if you didn't do a great job ofregulating your blood sugar
during the day, when you go tosleep your body is doing a
(14:41):
reboot, right.
It's like when we do theupdates on our phone or our
computer, it's trying to helpyou.
So when you're not eating,walking, talking, having a bowel
movement, your body feels like,all right, she's sleeping right
now.
So we're going to try to.
You know correct things.
And so if you didn't do a goodjob with the blood sugar during
the day, it's also a reason thatI see people having night
sweats and waking up a lot.
Cheryl Fischer (15:04):
Oh, so the body is trying to sort of fix.
I'm going to loosely say whatwe did wrong during the day.
And the harder it has to work,maybe the harder it is for us to
sleep.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (15:18):
Yeah.
So think about cortisol, yourstress hormone that we hear so
much about.
Cortisol is the hormone thatopens your eyes in the morning.
If you don't spike cortisol andwhen we do a circadian rhythm
mapping or things like thatcortisol should be highest in
the morning it's the hormonethat wakes you up.
So think about when you go tosleep.
You're trying to sleep andstart asking yourself and get
(15:39):
curious why is cortisol awake?
Why is that spiking at night?
Is it because my blood sugar isdysregulated?
Is it because I haven'tprocessed emotional stress when
I go to bed?
Is Is it because maybe I havesome bad bacteria or things
that's trying to clean up?
That's the whole process ofelimination of what things could
it be?
But one thing we can get undercontrol is definitely our blood
(16:01):
sugar through, you know, eatingenough protein, eating often
enough and things like that.
Managing stress.
Cheryl Fischer (16:07):
I love it and I love that you're saying it's not
actually that hard to do.
Because I do think that, backto that overwhelm, that we feel
like, wow, that's a huge change,I'm never going to be able to
do it, it's going to be too hard, and then we kind of stop
ourselves.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (16:20):
It's being in tune, right.
And that's why I have everysingle client do a food journal.
It is one of the first thingswe do and I know people go, oh,
but it's like.
But if you really want tounderstand where the vital voids
are I call them vital voidsthen you have to.
There's something about writingit down and looking at it that
makes it real right, because Ihave a lot of clients,
(16:40):
especially women, who say, oh, Ieat protein.
And then they're like havingtwo eggs, that's 12 grams of
protein.
You need to eat 25 to 30 gramsof protein with each meal to
stabilize your blood sugar,right.
So it is eye-opening when youdo a food journal and we don't
do it for the rest of our life,but we do it to learn about
ourselves and learn aboutpatterns and where those gaps
(17:02):
are, where the vital voids are,so that we can help ourselves
and go okay, I didn't realizeI'm only having 20 grams, or I'm
going six hours without eating.
What happens to my blood sugar,which is a whole cascading
effect on the rest of our healthand our hormones.
Cheryl Fischer (17:18):
Yeah, that's a good point, Because we do feel
like, oh, I'm eating some eggs,that's plenty, that'll be fine.
And actually blood not bloodsugar but protein is such a big
topic on social media right now.
For midlife women in particular, I feel like all I hear on
Instagram is eat more protein,eat more protein, eat more
(17:38):
protein.
And it's a little daunting,especially because of what you
just said.
Two eggs is not nearly enough,so do you have any tips to kind
of make it easier to add in moreprotein?
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (17:51):
I think you know again it's controversial.
Some people say, oh, no animalprotein no dairy right.
So everyone's got a differentphilosophy.
I love chat GPT in general.
I don't know if you use it,cheryl, but for a lot of my
clients, because we are sodifferent and I hate that social
media makes us so in the box,right, everyone can eat a cup of
(18:13):
yogurt and then have this, andit's like I don't eat dairy,
right.
So I think it's nutrition is sobio individualized and what
works for one person might notwork for someone else.
For me, I don't mind eatingmeat chicken for breakfast.
Someone might go, that's toomuch for me.
So I like to have my clientsuse ChatGPT as a tool where you
can put in what types of proteinyou like, right.
(18:36):
And if you're not really sure,because people don't realize
like hemp seeds might addprotein, they're just thinking
of meat and eggs, right.
Or dairy, but you also getprotein from some vegetables and
things like that.
So you know, putting in chatGPT build me, you know, and I
recommend starting with one mealat a time instead of saying the
(18:57):
whole day, because we have toget one meal down, then move to
the next.
I just think it's way toooverwhelming to say, like, give
me 200 grams of protein a day,oh my God, I gotta change all
this stuff.
So start with, maybe, breakfast, because I do know breakfast is
the most important meal of theday when it comes to blood sugar
regulation, where, if you'reeating a high sugar breakfast
(19:18):
which a lot of Americans do orhigh carb breakfast all day long
, your body is fighting backthat blood sugar it's trying to
correct, correct, correct, goinginto the sleep cycle, right.
So making sure that you havethat high protein breakfast so
that's a good place to start isto say, all right, build me a
high protein breakfast, 25 to 30grams.
(19:39):
Here are the foods that I like.
Don't focus on what you don'tlike.
I think it's way more fun,cheryl, to focus on like what do
I like to eat, right?
Instead of like I got toeliminate all these foods and I
can't eat this and I can't eatthat, and then see what chat GPT
comes back with.
I just think it's amazing thatI know people there's
conflicting opinions on chat GPTbut as a tool for nutrition and
(20:01):
meal planning, and even I haveclients who use it for their
their dinners and they theyit'll even break out the recipe
and the grocery list justseeding chat GPT to say like
here's the parameter and startwith one meal and then go to the
next, because I think it isvery variable for people Like I
don't eat dairy, but some otherpeople they like to eat cottage
cheese and yogurt and thingslike that.
(20:24):
Layering that's the thing I wantyou to walk away.
Listening to this is that youdon't just have to eat five eggs
right To thing.
I want you to walk awaylistening to this is that you
don't just have to eat five eggsright To get to your 30 grams
of protein.
It can be, you know, you'regetting some protein from
spinach and you're getting someprotein from whatever you're
layering on there.
It doesn't have to be onesource and it gets easier
(20:44):
because you get used to, youknow what things add up.
Cheryl Fischer (20:48):
You know what I?
You said exactly not what Iexpected you to say, and I love
that, because I don't like to bethe average you know on the
podcast right, exactly right.
And as we're talking about thischat, gpt, I feel like, can
become maybe the next superbrowser in this way, because,
(21:12):
instead of Googling, we're ableto ask it and we're able to be
very specific and it's it's allit's doing, is it's going and
looking out at all the knowledgethat it can find and it's
coming back with an answer.
But even better than thanGoogling and I love that you
said that and personally I don'teat dairy either, so I do know
like some alternate ways to getprotein, but I know I'm not
(21:35):
getting enough, given whatyou've said, so I will try it as
well.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (21:39):
Yeah, and you know, you can be so specific
to say you know these foods andso personalized.
That's what I love, is that?
Why do we all have to be thesame, like we're not the same
people, cheryl, I have differentlikes and dislikes and you know
different food sensitivitiesand things like that, and you
can.
You can say you know, make themsingle ingredient foods if you
(22:00):
don't want to eat.
You know processed food andthings like that.
It meets you where you're atBecause you know, for some of my
clients, they come to me andthey are still eating like a
healthier waffle or proteinpancake and I have to meet them
where they're at and say this isreally where we want you.
But let's not look at the gap.
Let's see, like, how can we getyou there, right, right?
Cheryl Fischer (22:21):
I want to circle back to something you said and
that was doing and being, and Ithink for me, my kids are in
their 20s, so they're living ontheir own.
You're in a different phase interms of having kids at home and
taking care of them, and whenwe're in that phase where we're
hands on all day, all the time,there's not a lot of being I
(22:43):
think it's and then we get to apoint where we have a moment to
go oh, oh, okay, now I can takecare of myself, maybe, but we're
not used to it and we almostdon't know how to do it, and so
the fact that you're sayingbalance, doing and being to me
(23:05):
says that really well.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (23:07):
It's true, and you know a good place to.
I have a lot of clients thatare in your phase of life or
beyond a lot.
I have a lot of clients who'vealready retired and they don't
really have a new routine or anew set schedule and definitely
have never been used to being.
And I say, start with thebookends, right.
What do you do in the firsthour of the day?
That's a good place to just beand set your intention for the
(23:30):
day.
Do some breathing, get somesunlight, you know, get outside
that type of stuff.
And then the stuff's going tohappen in between, right, when
you can some days you can bemore than other days.
We have to be doing right.
And then at the end of the day,what's that last hour will look
like again?
Are you doing your meditationor journaling, or reflecting on
the day, or gratitude and thingslike that?
(23:51):
So start with yourself, becauseyou're going to give to
everybody else in between, andthen end with yourself.
Right.
Always come back to self at theend of the day too.
Cheryl Fischer (24:00):
I love that.
It's very simple, it's easy toremember, absolutely, and I love
to just read and relax at night.
So I think I have the nightdown, but I'm not sure I have
the morning down, so I need tothink about that.
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (24:12):
Well, most women wake up their eyes open
and go I got to do this and Igot to do that, and you know,
that's the piece where you knowwe have to be a little bit more
aware.
And sometimes it just startswith 10 minutes with yourself of
just how do I want to again.
(24:32):
When we talk about being anddoing, I laugh when I have to
take my mother to the doctor'sappointment, like no, not,
that's again doing, but how doyou want to feel today?
Take yourself through the day.
Of course, we can't control howthe day is going to go, but how
do you want to feel today?
On the other side, you knowwhat's your intention for your
day.
It could just be starting withthat.
(24:55):
That's starting with yourselfand telling yourself this is how
I want to feel today, and thenyou can again habit stack as you
go along.
Some people like journaling,some people like doing
meditation, some people, youknow, like doing some kind of
exercise before they go on theirphone.
But start with yourself.
You know big or small.
Cheryl Fischer (25:11):
I love that, and one thing that I've really had
to force myself to learn is toset an intention before, before
the day before doing something,before talking to someone.
It was not something that Iever understood at all and it's
huge, so it makes a difference,doesn't it?
It really, really does, itabsolutely does.
(25:32):
Okay, so I have one more sortof big overarching question for
you.
But before I do that, so that Idon't forget, I like the way
that you work with clients inthat you look at sort of this
whole life perspective and helpthem figure out some things that
they could change without itbeing medication or without it
(25:54):
being supplements necessarily.
But then that's involved andyou can do the testing and you
can kind of do it all.
So where can people find you ifthey're curious about what you
do or they want to learn more?
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (26:06):
Yes, great question.
Just on my website,confidentlyloveyourselfcom, or
on Instagram confidentlyunderscore love, underscore
yourself A lot of freebies andthings on my website and on my
Instagram as well.
And if they're just curious andwant to poke around, there's a
blog my own, my confidentlybalance your pod, my confidently
(26:26):
balance your hormones podcast,is on there as well.
Cheryl Fischer (26:29):
Yes, and I'll make sure the links are in the
show notes for everything aswell.
Thank you so.
So the sort of overarchingquestion I'm referring to is
we've talked about a lot ofthings and I know I'm taking
away a couple of things that Iam absolutely going to use.
And, that being said, afterlistening to a podcast episode,
nobody can remember everything.
(26:50):
So for the person who'slistening, who's driving or
walking or whatever, and they,they should hold on to, in your
opinion, one particular OMGthing, what would you say?
That is?
Dee Davidson, FDN-P (27:01):
I would say that you need to stop ignoring
the signs, the symptoms, ifyou're waking up and having a
headache, if you're waking up inthe middle of the night or
you're not getting good sleep.
I'm here at 51.
Again, I go to bed at 10 and Iwake up usually at 5, 530, and I
don't wake up and I don't evennot even to go to the bathroom.
Right, so you don't have to bestuck with those symptoms and
(27:25):
what I want to tell you is thatthe symptoms are taps on the
shoulder.
To go a little deeper, whileyou can, I always tell my
clients it's a blessing, asymptom's a blessing because
it's your body saying hey, payattention, and then from there,
look for help and be an advocate.
Even if your doctor's sayingyour labs look okay and
everything's fine, it's a partof midlife.
(27:46):
That's not true.
You can still have vitality andfeel your best.
It is an opportunity.
Opportunity.
A symptom is an opportunity toask more questions and get
curious about your body.
I'm here, cheryl's got you knowher knowledge and a huge
network, like I do.
There's always someone outthere and whoever your greater
force or being is, god's spirit,the universe, ask, just sit and
(28:09):
say you know what do I need andlisten to that message that
comes back.
What do I need?
What does my to that messagethat comes back.
What do I need?
What does my body need?
What does this mean?
What is this telling me?
Get curious and then be anadvocate for your health and put
it out there and seek theanswers, because symptoms are
not normal.
Cheryl Fischer (28:26):
That's a bit of a mic drop.
We don't have to live this way.
We can feel great.
It doesn't matter that we're inour 50s or 40s or 60s.
Yes, right, thank you.
Well, dee, I know that this isgoing to be a very popular
episode because you have saidsome things a little differently
than others have said it, andthat is amazing.
So thank you for joining me.
(28:46):
Thanks so much for having me.
What a fascinating discussion.
First of all, her OMG moment Ifind to be tremendously
empowering.
Trust your instincts, you canfeel amazing, find the help.
And that, again, is back towhat I said at the beginning
(29:08):
when we believe deep in our gut,in the thoughts in our head, in
our subconscious mind, that wedeserve it.
We're going to figure it out.
And the next thing I want tosay is I'm not sure anyone has
ever made such a connection forme.
Maybe you agree with this too,about blood sugar management and
(29:30):
hot flashes what you can betI'm digging into that.
So huge things learned today.
I hope you agree.
I hope you enjoyed the episode.
Make sure that you have joinedus in Patreon for Midlife Pivot,
(29:51):
and that's patreoncom slashmindyourmidlife Easy to find
absolutely free all summer.
And Dee joins me for an extralittle discussion of her DRESS
acronym and what all the piecesof that are, to help you kind of
take stock of where you are andwhere you might want to tweak
(30:12):
something to feel even better inyour life.
So I'll see you over there andmake sure you've hit the follow
button, because next week we'regoing to talk about something
you might have heard of beforeand that is vision boards.
But we're going to tweak it sothat when you're in midlife and
(30:33):
you are wanting stuff to lookforward to in your life over the
next 20, 30, 40 years, you canmake a vision board.
And I'm going to make it easyfor you because, just like you
heard today, we might just betalking about AI again.
I'll see you then and in themeantime, slow down, notice
(30:54):
what's going on in your head andwhat's going on around you and
let's create something amazing.
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