October 29, 2024 • 63 mins
Join Nika and Ashley Martinez-Brown as they dive into the hidden dangers of everyday toxins and their impact on fertility. We’ll uncover the chemicals lurking in food, personal care products, and household items that can disrupt hormones and harm reproductive health. Discover simple, affordable steps to reduce toxin exposure, make cleaner choices, and boost fertility naturally. Perfect for anyone wanting to lead a healthier lifestyle, especially if you’re planning to start a family.
MENTIONED IN THE SHOW:
- Between 1973 and 2018, the average sperm count declined by 51.6%. Research.
- Think Dirty
- Yuka
- Ashley's Previous Episode
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nika Lawrie (00:15):
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode
of Inspired with Nika Larie.
I, of course, am your host,nika Laurie, and, as I've done
in a couple past episodes, weare flipping the script today.
I have one of my longest, verybest friends in the whole world
on the show today, ashleyMartinez-Brown.
She is going to ask me a wholebunch of questions about
(00:38):
fertility and infertility andtoxin exposure.
We're just going to deep diveinto that, so I'm super excited
to get to that show, or thosequestions.
I didn't say that very well,but you guys know what I mean.
Also, I want to add thatAshley's actually been on the
show in a previous episode, sobe sure to check that out.
I'm going to link to it in theshow notes.
(00:58):
It was a great, great episodetalking about finding your
inspiration and serving others.
I really loved that episodewith you, ashley.
But anyways, welcome to theshow.
I'm so happy to have you back.
Thank you.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (01:10):
Thank you , Nika.
I am excited to be on and I'mexcited to flip this script and
be able to ask you somequestions and put you on the hot
seat today.
Nika Lawrie (01:21):
Let's do it.
I am ready for it, so bring iton seat today.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (01:27):
Let's do it, I am ready for it, so bring
it on Awesome.
So let's start off by talking alittle bit about fertility and
hormone balance.
Okay, so, for people who don'tknow a lot of this, like myself,
how do everyday toxic chemicalsin food and personal care
products impact fertility, bothin men and women?
Nika Lawrie (01:48):
Okay, so, other than an infertility issue that
could be hereditary, meaningthat it's like a family thing
that came through the history ofyour family, like genetics,
environmental toxins are goingto be the biggest, single
biggest factor in infertility orthe ability to have children.
(02:08):
So, do you want I can breakdown what environmental toxins
are, because I think that'sprobably that was my next
question.
Okay, so environmental toxinsit's it's an umbrella term for a
whole bunch of different things, but the general idea is that
there are a ton of chemicals inour everyday environment that
(02:30):
impact our hormones and impactour health, and in a negative
way almost always.
So let's look at the bigpicture of chemicals and then
the other picture of quoteunquote our environment.
So when I say chemicals,currently there's between 85 and
90,000 chemicals registered inthe United States as chemicals
(02:53):
that can be used in food,personal care, beauty products,
you know, manufacturing, makinggasoline or whatever, right?
Like all the differentchemicals that are used to
create plastics and all thesedifferent things, right?
So there's approximately 90,000of them.
Of those 90,000, there's about42 to 45,000 that are considered
(03:16):
in active use, meaning they arecurrently being used in
products that we are using orexposed to on a daily basis.
Of those 42,000 to 45,000chemicals, there's only a
handful when I say a handful,it's like maybe 1,500 that have
ever been tested for safety forhumans.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (03:39):
So only 1,500.
Only 1,500.
Nika Lawrie (03:43):
After the 90,000 that you just said Correct, yeah
, and that's not even like fulltesting, that's just like we're
pretty sure it maybe have issuesand maybe we should look into
it.
It's not like rigorous, likelet's test this chemical and see
what it's actually doing.
Of those 1,500, there's onlyfive chemicals that have ever
(04:06):
been banned in the United States, opposed to you.
Look at the EU, like Europeancountries, there's about 1,500
chemicals that have beencompletely banned.
They are not allowed to be usedin the EU because they are
known endocrine disruptingchemicals, which I'll explain in
(04:27):
a second, or chemicals that weknow are going to harm or damage
the environment or humans.
So when I say endocrinedisrupting chemicals are known
as EDCs, edcs are chemicals thatimpact our hormone system.
Our endocrine system is ourhormone system and it's a whole
(04:48):
system within our body.
That's like the messengers.
It's the communication systemof our body.
So a hormone fires and it tellsthe body that you're hungry or
that you're full, or that you'resleepy, or that it's time to
wake up, or oh, I need to runbecause the lion's coming after
me.
Right, it's all these differenthormones that are going to tell
our body what to do and how toreact, or when to digest food or
(05:11):
whatever it is right.
When that system gets messed up,our body doesn't function the
way it's supposed to, and sothese endocrine disrupting
chemicals are disrupting ourhormones, which disrupts the
messages going in our body, andso our body starts
malfunctioning, so linking thatall the way back to infertility.
(05:35):
Our sex hormones that arerelated to fertility are usually
the most easiest disrupted ofall the hormones, and so you're
thinking about testosterone,estrogen, progesterone.
There's some others too.
Those are often more disruptedby these chemicals than any of
(05:58):
the other hormones in our body,and so when I say these
chemicals impact fertility, thatis the big picture.
Does that make sense?
Ashley Martinez-Brown (06:08):
Yeah, that's wild.
Yeah, that's some facts rightthere that I did not know about,
so thank you for letting usknow that today.
So what specific chemicals, inthat case, or right ingredients
should people avoid whenpreparing their bodies for
pregnancy?
Nika Lawrie (06:26):
So the biggest thing.
So when we start talking aboutall these chemicals, it can get
really scary, because I didn'treally go into what I called
quote unquote the environment.
But the environment that youlive in has everything is a
chemical.
I mean air is a chemical, right, so you're constantly going to
have chemicals around you, butthe idea is that some of those
(06:50):
chemicals, like we talked about,are more harmful than others.
Right, when you're exposed tothese different chemicals, it
can come from different areas.
So there's, you know, pollutionin the air.
There's pollution in water youcan find lead or different
things in the water right,that's a potential exposure.
There's also these chemicals inthe food that we eat, the
(07:12):
personal care products that weuse every day, the makeup that
women are using, the chemicalsthat we use to clean our house,
to do our laundry, the perfumesthat we wear all of those
different things and a lot ofthose have really harmful
chemicals.
When we think about fertility orinfertility, one of the biggest
(07:34):
factors that you'll see isanything with fragrances.
So you're going to havephthalates and parabens are two
classes of chemicals that fallin a lot of personal care
products.
These are direct endocrinedisrupting chemicals, and so,
talking about fragrances, youoften will see phthalates used
(07:57):
either as the fragrance itselfor it's a chemical to help the
fragrance last longer.
So, thinking about laundrydetergent right, we buy these
smelly laundry detergentsbecause we want our clothes to
smell good and we want thatscent to stick around for a
while while the clothes sit inthe closet.
The problem is, is thephthalate that's used to make
(08:18):
the scent either the scentitself or make the scent stay in
the clothes for a long periodof time disrupts your endocrine
system when you wear the clothes, because it'll seep through
your, your skin, which is yourlargest organ, right?
And so, um, fragrances can comein a whole plethora of different
(08:39):
things, but you'll find them um.
Shampoos, anders, all of yourlaundry detergent and dryer
sheets.
Perfumes is a big one airfresheners, or like the Glade
plugins or the car scents, allof those kind of things.
The biggest factor that I willtell both men and women to do
when they're looking to getpregnant is remove as many
(09:04):
fragranced products out of theirlife as humanly possible, like
literally get rid of all of itand then give your body some
time to detox after you've movedout.
So that's the biggest factor.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (09:16):
There's some other ones too, but Wow,
I'm just all of this is justlike hitting me and I'm just
thinking of, like what can I gotake out right, all of it, yeah,
all of this checklist andgetting rid of those different
items.
So, with that what you justsaid, how do these toxins
interfere with the hormonebalance, like what?
(09:38):
How does that environmentreally affect what's happening
with your hormones and how doyou balance it so it can?
Why is it important forfertility?
Like what?
How?
What are those two and how dothey work together?
Nika Lawrie (09:54):
So what can happen is that the different hormones
so men and women have levels ofhormones that they're supposed
to be at right, so like men aregoing to have higher
testosterone levels than women,but women should still have a
certain amount of testosteronein their body, same with
estrogen or progesterone, thosekinds of hormones.
(10:15):
The problem is that a lot oftimes with these chemicals, when
they get into your body, theywill either lower or increase
the amount of a specific hormone.
So estrogen is a good exampleof this.
So some of these chemicals willactually replicate estrogen in
(10:37):
your body, and so then you getestrogen dominance, and that can
lead to a lot of health issues.
Cancer is a big one that it canlead to, and so it really
depends.
Each person is going to bedifferent, but the main idea is
it's going to impact how much orhow little of the specific
hormone you have in your body,and when those levels are off,
(11:00):
when your hormones are notbalanced, your body is in kind
of fight or flight mode, andwhen you're in that fight or
flight mode, getting pregnant isnot going to be a body's
priority, and so fertilitydecreases, your ability to get
pregnant decreases.
This also occurs in men andtheir ability to produce viable
(11:24):
sperm as well, and so it'sreally, really important that we
get the exposure to thesechemicals reduced as much as
possible when looking to befertile on both sides, male and
female.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (11:37):
Yeah, because a lot of times it's a
lot of men think it's just thewomen, right, like, oh well,
you're carrying the baby, right.
It's both sides though.
Nika Lawrie (11:47):
It's actually almost more men at this point,
and I'm not blaming men, but oneof the things that people it's
just starting to make kind ofpublic like people are really
starting to understand what'shappening.
Male fertility has decreased.
It's something like I don'tknow the exact number, so don't
(12:07):
quote me but it's something like75% in the last like 30 to 40
years, like it's a drasticpercentage.
I can find the exact number andput it in the show notes, but
it's a huge percentage of maleswho are now infertile or unable
to produce healthy sperm tocreate an embryo.
(12:31):
It's a massive number and a lotof it is due to these
environmental toxins.
So it's really really key thata couple who's looking to have a
child or create a child haveboth sides tested, because it is
just as likely the male thatmay be struggling as the female.
It's dire that both get tested.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (12:53):
I love that.
And so what are some of theearly signs of hormone
imbalances that couples shouldbe aware of when trying to
conceive?
Nika Lawrie (13:01):
Yeah, so there's a bunch of different signs.
It's usually easier to be ableto tell the signs in women than
in men because men, have youknow, they're the lucky ones
that don't tend to fluctuate inweight that much and their
hormones tend to stay morestable.
So it's not as obvious usuallyin men when these chemicals are
(13:24):
disrupting their hormones.
But it's still really importantthat they get checked,
especially because it'll impacttheir testosterone and then that
can cause a lot of eithermental health or physical issues
for them as well.
So that's a big one for themale side.
On the female side, it can be awhole host of things.
You can see things like weightgain or weight loss, either
(13:46):
direction.
If your weight's fluctuating oryou've gained 30 pounds in two
years, that's a big sign thatthere's something going on with
your hormones.
Your body doesn't normally justgain that much weight.
If you're having depression,anxiety, headaches, migraines
can be a thing.
Sleep issues, lethargy or notfeeling motivated, anger issues
(14:17):
there's I mean basically anyhealth issue you can think of
can be led back to your hormones.
One of the factors that you'llsee play in this too is we have
really high levels of simplecarbohydrates in our diets here
(14:38):
in the United States.
I mean, it's kind of happeningall over the world, but in the
United States you'll see a lotof people eating more sugar and
starchy foods than what isreally healthy for us.
And when?
Um our sugar, you know, whenour, when our insulin resistance
uh, how do I put it?
(14:58):
So when we're eating too muchsugar and we're eating too many
simple carbohydrates, weincrease our insulin, we
decrease our ability to manageit in our body, and when that
happens, that can impact all ofour other hormones as well, and
so testosterone in women is abig one that can be impacted by
that as well, and so you'llstart to see the weight gain
(15:20):
issues, the headaches so on allthose kinds of things.
So it's a whole host of thingsthat you can look for.
Basically, if you're notfeeling great and you don't have
good energy and you're not at aweight that's comfortable for
your body there isn't reallylike a set weight that everybody
should be at, becauseeverybody's different, but you
should be in that healthy rangethose are signs that you may
(15:43):
want to have your hormoneschecked.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (15:46):
Okay, and how can men play an active role
in preparing for pregnancy,especially in terms of balancing
their own hormones and avoidingtoxic exposure?
Nika Lawrie (15:58):
Yeah.
So this really could be a teameffort, or should be a team
effort when you go through thehouse and you decide, okay,
we're going to remove all theseproducts that have fragrances or
parabens, that so there'sphthalates and parabens.
There's a bunch of otherchemicals as well.
We can get into some of them,but it can be a team effort,
(16:18):
right and like okay, so we'regoing to identify these products
and we're going to remove theseproducts where we're going to
replace them with healthier,less toxic options.
So that's a husband and wife ora partnership conversation that
you can have there.
Then you can also look at howyou're eating.
How you're eating is really,really key for both partners to
(16:39):
produce healthy sperm andhealthy eggs.
And so, looking at, are weeating like we talked about too
much sugar and too much starchyfoods.
It doesn't mean that you haveto cut it all out.
It just means are we eating toomuch and how do we reduce that
and bring in some more healthieroptions?
Are we eating high fiber,really good quality fruits and
(17:00):
vegetables organic if possible,whenever possible, because the
herbicides and pesticidessprayed on those are also
endocrine disrupting chemicalsGlyphosate is a huge one.
Looking at trying to eat reallyhealthy meats as well, if
you're able to.
(17:20):
You want to get grass-fed andpasture-raised meats and poultry
and in wild-caught fish, sowild-caught salmon, those kinds
of things.
If you're able to access thoseand you have the means to buy
them, definitely recommend them.
If you don't look for thehealthiest option possible
within your budget, look for thehealthiest option possible
within your budget, for example,with organic foods.
(17:42):
If you can't afford the organicfresh fruits and vegetables,
frozen organic options is agreat alternative because
they're flash frozen at the peakof their ripeness, which is the
most nutrient dense part ormoment that the fruit or
vegetable is at, and then youwant the organic ones there.
(18:03):
So that's a great option if youcan't do the the um, the fresh
ones, because sometimes it'sreally expensive.
Also, buying fruits andvegetables that are organic,
that are in season, meaning that, like um, you know, apricots
are really big in like may june,kind of april, may june,
(18:24):
because that's when they areripe on the tree right, and so
you'll see a plethora of them inthe store.
We'll stock up on apricots andthen you can can them or freeze
them or just eat a whole bunch.
At that time, right, you'll seea lot of berries um are.
Uh.
There's a lot more berriesavailable at the end of the fall
or like tomatoes, becausethat's when the produce is
(18:44):
usually bulk and available, andso shopping seasonal really
helps too to cut down on costs.
And then buying bulk too.
If you have option to go toCostco or even buy in bulk at
your grocery store and stock up,that can help reduce those
prices too.
Egg in bulk at your grocerystore and stock up, that can
help reduce those prices too.
So those are the big things.
(19:08):
But really preparing the wholepoint of this is to prepare your
body to create another humanright, so like we want our
bodies in peak shape, both maleand female, to produce the best
healthiest sperm and the besthealthiest egg, to create the
best healthiest embryo possible.
And then, especially for thewoman, you know it's already
kind of no knowledge that youwant to eat well and take your
(19:30):
multivitamins or your prenatalvitamins when you're pregnant.
The whole reason for doing thatis because the baby is
absorbing vitamins and mineralsdirectly from the woman's body.
It's not just the food that youeat that it's absorbing.
It's literally pulling it outof your muscles and your bones
and pulling all that nutrientsdirectly from the woman's body
(19:51):
and so anything that you can doto keep replenishing that, to
keep your body strong, but alsoto create a healthy, to feed and
create that healthy embryo orfetus is really, really key.
So ideally, like the perfectpicture, is like you and your
partner want to start working onthat two years before you even
(20:12):
get pregnant.
So your bodies are at that peakthing.
But wherever you're at in thatjourney, start today so that
you're as healthy as possible asyou're going through it.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (20:21):
So I hope that answers it yes, it
definitely does so.
With that would you say, like,in terms of like meats that
people eat, right, Is it betterto go like a pork loin rather
than you know the red meat?
And could you talk a little bitmore on like your own lifestyle
, on how you're cooking in thekitchen, to implement those
(20:42):
healthy habits not only foryourself but your whole family,
right?
And just like, tell people howit tastes to eat that clean,
right?
Because sometimes it's fear ofnot knowing what you don't know
and it can be intimidatingsometimes to just go in and say
you know what, I'm going toinvest in myself.
(21:03):
I'm going to invest in eatingbetter and training my mind to
be on this fresh path.
Nika Lawrie (21:11):
Yeah.
So it should be a journey LikeI'm never going to tell somebody
, cut everything out today andbe perfect tomorrow and then
just start your life like thatBecause I couldn't do it.
It's a very special personthat's able to do that, and good
for them, because most peoplecannot do that.
(21:32):
So don't have that reallystrict, high expectation on
yourself.
For me it's been an ongoingjourney and it's been a little
bit of an up and down journey.
There's times where I'vecompletely cut all of the toxic
crap out and then I make it liketwo or three weeks and then
something inevitably starts tocome back in and then I, you
know, fall off the wagon alittle bit.
(21:52):
But every time I do more andmore, I'm better and better
right.
And so I never have gone backto the full picture of, like,
all the garbage before I knewwhat I knew right.
Because once you know, you'rejust like oh, I don't, I don't
really want that anymore, causeyou know it's poisoning your
body, right.
And so the first part is justunderstand it's a journey, take
(22:14):
baby steps, day by day, andstart doing it.
The other thing that's reallyimportant to understand is as
you start to remove theunhealthy foods or these toxic
chemicals from your dailyroutine, like washing your hair,
those kinds of things.
Your body's going to startdetoxing some of these things,
especially if you go on what'scalled a detox diet where you
(22:36):
cut out things like cut outgluten, dairy sugars, different
things like that.
It can be really rough forprobably like a 10 to 15 day
period.
Usually, when somebody doessomething like that, they have
three to four days where theyliterally feel like they have
the flu.
You literally feel like you'rejust exhausted and tired and
(22:58):
want to lay in bed and donothing because you feel like
crap.
That is your body detoxing allof this garbage out of your body
.
And so when you feel that,you're like, oh, that's why I
don't want that stuff in mybodies, because you know how bad
it actually is if you feel thiscrappy, trying to get it out of
your body.
Yeah, so those are two things,but what I will say is, once
(23:21):
you've gotten through to theother side, or even as you're
going through the process ofslowly removing things, you're
going to start to feel better.
You'll have more energy.
You'll have more clarity, likethe brain fog or the
forgetfulness.
A lot of that will go away.
Your cravings will change overtime and your tastes will change
over time.
(23:42):
I remember I'm going to tell afunny story that, ashley, you
can add to this.
So I was obsessed withStarbucks for like 20 years.
I was obsessed with chai lattesand I had one every single day
and then I realized that it waslike 64 grams of sugar in each
one and I was mortified.
And I remember one day I was inmy office Ashley and I used to
(24:04):
work together and I was in myoffice and Ashley came and took
a sip of my chai and she waslike I don't know better, like
flabbergasted by how sweet thechai was, and she's like I don't
know how you drink that stuff.
Right, ashley, if you want toadd anything.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (24:20):
And she's like I don't know how you drink
that stuff.
Right, ashley, if you want toadd anything, absolutely I mean
it's, it's funny.
We're talking about detoxing,and you know.
But also to your point.
I mean, it makes sense that weas humans also need to detox
from drinks and food.
Right To your point, it was thesweetest thing I had had.
I don't normally drink Coke.
To begin with, I mean I'll do aSprite and then I'll do water
(24:44):
or Gatorade juices, but that was, it was a sweet drink.
Nika Lawrie (24:48):
But to me it was just like my normal.
It was my Starbucks drink.
I just ordered it, right.
I haven't had Starbucks in twoyears, over two years now.
I can't fathom like drinking itbecause I know how sweet it
would be.
Like, sweet drinks for me areso sensitive now because I've
stopped drinking all that thatsugar all the time.
But when your body is justaccustomed to it, it doesn't
(25:11):
realize how sweet it actually is.
And so when I say your tastebuds change, it really does.
Like things that used to tastegood won't taste good anymore
and things that you used tothink were gross will start.
You'll start craving them, likelike a really good salad is so
good sometimes, once you starteating them on a regular basis,
right, and so just understandingthat, giving yourself that time
(25:34):
to remove and change thosefoods will allow your taste buds
to change with that process too.
So when, like you asked meabout pork, I personally don't
eat a lot of pork.
I'm just not.
We love bacon.
We do eat bacon, but we get yeah, we get really clean, healthy
bacon, like no nitrates, and wetry to be really careful about
(25:57):
the bacon we buy.
I don't know, everyone's alleat a pork chop, but it's just
not really my thing.
My husband likes it more than Ido, but I love a good steak.
A really good steak is my go-to, so I'm not opposed to eating.
I think eating meat is actuallyhealthier for you than being
(26:18):
vegan or vegetarian, becausemost women are not getting
enough protein, especially thosethat are eating a vegan or
vegetarian diet.
You just can't get enough fromthe vegetables, so protein is
really really key to a healthybody.
But the biggest thing I'll sayis, if you're going to eat meat
(26:38):
is to get it from a really good,clean um quality source.
So what I mean here is you canhave um grass fed beef.
So these are cows that go outinto the pasture, they eat grass
, they get to wander, they're inthe sun and they get to live
like the quote unquote normalcow life.
Or you can the um.
(27:01):
You know the typical farmedanimal that goes through the you
know whole process and lives ina box for most of its life and
it's fed crap um.
There, I think the practice isstopped, though I'm not.
A lot of the cows were fed candyfor years, like leftover candy,
(27:23):
like yeah, wrapper and all itwould just be, yeah, it would
just be the plastic wrapper, thecandy, everything would just be
ground up and then added tofeed like cow feed and they
would just eat all of it becauseit would fatten them up.
And so when you eat that,whatever the cow eats, you are
eating too Like you have tounderstand that.
(27:44):
So whatever your food eats, youthen eat and you become that
because you become what yourfood is.
And so if you want to beplastic and candy, you know, eat
the processed, unwell fed cows,right.
And so it's just understandingwhere your food's coming from
(28:07):
and then how that's going toimpact your body.
So does that make sense?
Ashley Martinez-Brown (28:11):
It definitely makes sense and it's
definitely a different way tolook at your food.
Yeah, you know from now on andwonder what kind of cow this is
coming from and whatnot.
So what would you say?
Are there any specificnutrients or supplements that
are particularly helpful forcouples trying to?
Nika Lawrie (28:31):
conceive, making sure that you're eating enough
protein, because you needprotein to build your muscles,
to make sure that yourmetabolism is working well,
especially women.
Postpartum, too, women do noteat enough protein, and then
(28:52):
they'll fluctuate weight-wiseafter giving birth, and so
protein, protein, protein forwomen is one of the biggest
things and is again that qualityprotein.
The other thing is one of thebiggest things and is again that
quality protein.
The other thing is reallymaking sure that you're getting
enough healthy fats, and soomega-3 is going to be your
biggest one, and one of theissues with food in the United
(29:13):
States is there's a bunch ofdifferent omegas right, there's
omega-3, there's omega-6,there's omega-9s, but the two
prominent ones you'll see areomega-3s and omega-6s.
Omega-3 is what you really needfor brain health, and when
you're developing a baby, youreally want that baby to have
(29:33):
everything possible to be smartand educated and do whatever
they want to do in life, right?
Well, they need omega-3.
And so the woman really needsto have high quality omega-3 in
her diet regularly.
She needs it for her own braintoo.
But the issue is that in ourfood system, omega-6s are the
(29:55):
prevalent oils or the omega fatsthat are in most of the food.
The problem is is omega-6s areinflammatory for our body and so
it'll be like a one to threeratio or even like a one to six
ratio.
So you'll have like one littlepiece of omega-3 and then like
(30:15):
six pieces of omega-6 in thefood that we eat, and so we're
not getting enough omega-3 andwe're getting too much omega-6.
And so that's inflaming ourbody and then not allowing our
brain to work and function orkids' brains to develop properly
.
So omega-3s are probably thebiggest thing and really getting
the healthy fat as well.
(30:36):
So you can get that from thingslike avocado, avocado oil, high
quality actual virgin virginolive oil, extra virgin olive
oil.
So the problem is you have toreally check your oil containers
when you purchase them to makesure that it's not cut with
(30:57):
something else, cause you'll see, oil could be cut with other
things.
Oh, it happens all the time.
Like you'll go to costco I don'tmean to call out costco because
you can buy them anywhere, it'sjust you'll go to the grocery
store and you'll see a containerthat's like the green container
, right, and it'll say extraextra virgin olive oil and then
(31:19):
underneath it'll say with canolaoil, but you won't really see
the canola oil.
You'll just see the extra virginolive oil and so you'll just
buy it, thinking it's that whenit's actually half canola oil
and canola oil is not healthyfor you.
So you have to actually turnthe bottle over and read it and
really make sure that it's extravirgin olive oil.
(31:39):
The other thing when you'rebuying the olive oil is you
really want to make sure thatit's extra virgin olive oil.
The other thing when you'rebuying the olive oil is you
really want to make sure thatit's cold pressed, because you
don't want it to be heated upand processed the way most oils
are processed, because itdamages the nutrients that are
inside the oil.
So cold pressed extra virginolive oil is the key there, and
it's got to be in a darkcontainer, ideally glass if
(32:00):
possible.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (32:01):
I think you've got to take a picture and
put that in the notes, the shownotes, for everybody to see.
I never knew that that wascrazy.
And I mean that goes evendeeper to actually reading the
fine print, right.
A lot of the things that wechoose to eat, they don't.
They don't put what weshouldn't know in the forefront,
right?
Nika Lawrie (32:20):
Oh yeah, and I mean the marketing that's done in
this country for food iscriminal.
Like, basically, anything thatsays health food on it is like
the worst thing that you can eat, because foods that are
actually healthy for you don'thave labels.
Like a carrot does not have alabel, right, like it's just a
(32:40):
bushel of carrots, right, butthen they'll sell you this like
granola bar.
That's like the health foodversion.
You know this is the bestoption protein and enriched with
vitamins and all it.
When you actually flip it over,it's like 90% sugar, so it's
like you really have to flipboxes over.
I pretty much say that if itcomes in a box, you probably
(33:03):
shouldn't eat it.
I mean, there's, there's, youknow, variations to that, but
for the most part it's beenreally highly processed and
that's going to lead to not onlyinfertility issues but overall
general health issues as well.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (33:19):
Well, and how can women support ovulation
and hormone regulation throughtheir diet?
Nika Lawrie (33:26):
So that's a big thing.
So you know, we talked aboutsugar and simple carbohydrates
earlier.
Protein is another factor inthat.
So what can happen is womenaren't getting enough protein,
and you really need protein tobuild your muscles the building
block for muscles right.
When you don't have enoughmuscle on your frame, so like on
(33:47):
your skeletal frame, whenthere's not enough muscle there,
your metabolism will get out ofwhack.
It won't function the way it'ssupposed to.
And what happens when yourmetabolism is out of whack is
then it messes with yourhormones and you'll either gain
weight or lose weight, and thenyou'll have a whole bunch of
other issues.
And then, when you have toolittle fats on your body, when
(34:10):
you've lost too much fat or youhave too much fat on your body,
this can then cause your body tonot be in the healthy range to
create an embryo.
And so there's really thispocket and, like I said earlier,
like it's really specific foreach woman's body, like every
woman's body is builtdifferently, and so I'm never
(34:31):
saying, you know, all womenshould weigh 130 pounds, because
that's not the case at all, butthere is a healthy range for
each woman, specific to her body, and usually it's around like
the 20 to 25% body fat range.
Anything under 18, usually awoman's not able to get pregnant
(34:53):
and then usually anything like30 and over is considered kind
of that obese range.
I don't really like the termobese anymore, but just to give
you an idea, because the bodycan start to struggle and not
have what it needs to thenproduce that healthy embryo, and
(35:13):
so you really have to becareful about what you're eating
and how that's impacting yourbody so that you can stay in
that healthy range in order tocreate that healthy embryo nice.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (35:28):
That's super interesting.
Is there a specific like I andI hate the word diet as well but
if they're a way of eatingright, a natural way of life,
that you would prefer.
I know there's a lot of fadsout there and a lot of people
going and doing different things, but I mean in terms of really
just wanting to keep your bodyhealthy, like what it would it
(35:50):
just be the organic, and stayinglooking at what you're eating
and and not necessarily dieting,but just changing a lifestyle
right, a healthier, healthierpath.
Nika Lawrie (36:01):
Yeah.
So I'm never going to say, uh,pick a diet, like I think
picking fad diets is probablythe worst thing people can do,
because it's so extreme usuallyand it will always tell.
Like you know, keto will tellyou to cut out all of these
simple carbs, right, like allthe starches, all the sugars,
(36:24):
all those things, and you canlose out on different aspects of
that and it can get reallystrict and really overwhelming
for people.
Or when you think about I don'tknow, I can't think like the
carnivore diet, right, where,like, people are, literally all
they're eating is meat, and likethe issue with that is that our
(36:46):
bodies, we're omnivores, we'redesigned to eat a little bit of
a bunch of different things,right.
And so the idea there is toreally figure out what works
specifically for your body, orwhat triggers your body, and
either bring in more or avoidthose things, right.
So, for me, I have a caseinallergy and casein is a protein
(37:09):
in dairy and so I can't drinkmilk because it'll make me sick.
But there are a few cheesesthat are very low in casein that
I can eat.
That don't bother me, and sothat's unique to my body.
My body does not like nightshadefoods, like I don't like
eggplant, I don't like tomato.
(37:30):
I just naturally do not likethose nightshade foods.
My daughter, on the other hand,is obsessed with tomatoes, and
so she loves cherry tomatoes.
She loves.
You know, I buy tomatoes allthe time for her.
I don't touch them, she lovesthem.
But that's like your bodysending those signals.
There's likely I don't knowwhat it is, but there's likely
(37:51):
something in me that tells methat my body is slightly
inflamed by those nightshadefoods and to not eat them.
And so it's really figuring outwhat works for you.
I always, if people have themeans, I recommend people to get
a food allergy test done,ideally a pretty comprehensive
one, allergy tests done, ideallya pretty comprehensive one,
(38:15):
just so that they have an ideaof what their body's reacting to
.
The note that I'll say withthat is that there are some
allergies that you're justinnately going to have, like
you're just born with, like somepeople are just born allergic
to peanuts, right, like that'sjust a thing.
But there are other allergiesthat you may have that come
later in life, based off of howyour body's being exposed to
(38:38):
things and how well your gut isworking, and when you heal your
gut, that allergy may thenlessen or go away altogether,
and so there's some allergiesthat'll happen on and off, and
it can be based on how healthyyour gut is and how healthy your
body is functioning.
And so just really don't takeeverything that you get back
(38:58):
from that test as like set instone forever.
It may be something that youwant to test again later on down
the road, when you healed yourgut or worked on changing your
diet, and see where you're atthen too, but at least it gives
you an idea of things that aregoing to be inflammatory to your
body or triggering to your body, and then you can avoid those.
(39:19):
And then, when it comes to justkind of the general diet, what
I'll always say is whole realfood as much as possible.
So the carrots, the cucumbers,the beef, the chicken, the, the,
the beef, the chicken, the?
Um, whole grains, um, so wholegrain wild rice or um, nuts,
like those kind of thing wholereal food, things that don't
(39:42):
come in reprocessed boxeswrapped in plastic or whatever,
right, those are really what youwant to eat, as much as
possible.
And then, if you have to add insomething fun here and there,
if you love pasta, have pastaonce a week, just try to make it
a healthier option.
Or have ice cream Sundayevening if you want, just make
(40:05):
sure you're not allergic tolactose, those kind of things,
but whole, real foods as much aspossible and organic and as
often as possible.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (40:14):
So you don't have to be an imposter to
eat your pasta, exactly, and youdon't have to get rid of it.
You just have to make sureyou're keeping an eye on what
you're putting in your body andI feel for a lot of folks, you
don't know what you don't know,right.
So knowing, when we hear theword toxic or like toxic things
(40:34):
in the environment, it's kind oflike an up there kind of term,
right, and we don't really knowwhat, what's incorporated?
Uh, because, um, as we weretalking about with marketing,
nobody wants us to see that sideof things, right, because they
want the opposite effect.
Right, they want to give usthose lucky charms and they want
to, they want to put all right,they want to give us those
lucky charms and they want toput all the sugary sweets to
(40:56):
keep that money going.
But, switching it up a littlebit, how does alcohol and
caffeine consumption affectfertility and what are some
healthier alternatives duringthe preconception phase?
Nika Lawrie (41:11):
Yeah, so short and simple.
Alcohol is a poison and itshould be avoided as much as
humanly possible.
I have maybe three drinks ayear.
I'll go out with girlfriendsand maybe have a drink there
once a year.
I might go, you know, toanniversary date with my husband
(41:33):
and have a cocktail, but it'svery, very rare that I drink
alcohol.
Alcohol is going to damage yourgut, it's going to damage your
brain cells, it's just, it's apoison, so just avoid it at all
costs.
Caffeine can be useful.
Low doses of caffeine in themorning as you're waking up can
(41:56):
be useful if you need it.
But you really don't need asmuch caffeine as most people are
exposing themselves to, likethe things that are in the
energy drinks like that is somuch more caffeine than anybody
actually needs, and so it can behelpful in the mornings to kind
of get your body going and tohelp kind of fire up your
(42:20):
cortisol and fire up yourmetabolism.
But it's not needed.
It's not something that isactually needed.
Like there's no actual use inyour body for caffeine, so you
don't need it.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (42:35):
I think us as society kind of put it in
our heads that we need it, rightLike let me get my pot of
coffee every morning and let meget my Red.
Nika Lawrie (42:44):
Bulls in.
The irony is that if you cutout the processed foods and all
the sugar and you actually letyour body detox, it's going to
suck for like a week.
But then you get to the otherside and you have so much energy
that you're like I don't everneed caffeine because my body
naturally makes that energy forme.
Like you don't have the energyright now and your need for
(43:06):
caffeine is because your body isso inflamed and has and I'm
talking general, not at you, butgeneral your body is inflamed
and your body is in that fightor flight mode, right, and so
the energy is going.
Your body's like in survivalmode.
Like oh my God, why does shekeep putting all these chemicals
(43:28):
?
Like we can't detox this stufffast enough.
Like I'm just living off of toomuch sugar and so we're not
burning.
Like we're not burning ketonesthat are like the healthier fats
to burn.
We're just burning the glucose,the sugar that we get from
sugar and simple starches allthe time, and so our bodies are
just like on overdrive all thetime because of the crap that
(43:50):
we're putting into our bodiesand so we need that caffeine for
that extra boost, right.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (43:57):
Well, and you're also continuously going
back to the same things, right?
Because if you're hungry andyou crash and you're like I need
a candy, that candy bar, youthink it's going to hold you
right, but it's just going togive you a quick rush of
dopamine and then you're goingto crash, yeah, and then the
crash on the other side of thatis actually even worse.
Nika Lawrie (44:19):
Like you dip even lower than you would have, and
so you want to really try tostabilize your blood sugar as
much as possible, and the wayyou actually stabilize that is
with healthy fats and protein,opposed to a sugary drink or a
candy bar.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (44:37):
Now let's talk about one of the probably
most interesting parts about andscary parts is really
detoxifying, right?
What does it mean to reallydetox your body and what are
like three simple takeaways thatpeople who are watching this
will be able to say cool.
This is where I'm going tostart with these three right,
(44:58):
because I feel like if we gave along list of items, it's
overwhelming, and I feel likewanting to get pregnant is
overwhelming as is.
But if you start with threesimple steps to start your
detoxification, for, like ofthat first week, what would your
advice be and where would theystart?
Nika Lawrie (45:19):
Yeah.
So the first tip I would giveis to so there's two or three
apps that you can download.
One's called Yuka.
It's Y-U-K-A.
The Environmental Working Grouphas two apps that you can
download.
One is for personal careproducts and then one is for
food.
There's also Think Dirty isanother app that you can
(45:42):
download.
These apps Yuka is my personalfavorite of all of them, by the
way but these apps you candownload and put them on your
phone and then you scan thebarcode of your personal care or
your beauty products or yourlaundry detergent, basically
anything that has a barcode.
Last time we used Yuka, I don'tthink it had food in it.
(46:03):
I know the environmentalworking one has a lot of the
food.
But start with personal care andbeauty products.
Scan all of the stuff that youhave in your house with barcode
and it's got a rating.
So it's like red, yellow, greenor like one through 10.
They're each apps a little bitdifferent, but the ratings are
easy to understand and if it's ared or a 10, get rid of that
(46:26):
product, just throw it away.
You don't need it in your house, just get rid of it.
If it's a yellow, decide if it'slike how strict do you want to
go and then if it's a green,it's an okay product to keep in
your house, right, and if it's ared, these are products that
are absolutely disrupting yourhormones and should be thrown in
the trash.
(46:47):
Do not bring them in.
Replace them with somethingelse.
You can go to Target orwherever you shop and scan the
products in the store to findthe products that are non-toxic
that you can then replace yourproducts with.
That would be the firstrecommendation, especially for
those trying to get pregnant,both male and female.
(47:07):
Scan all your products If youcan afford it.
Replace them as fast aspossible If you can't use them,
and then buy a healthier optionnext time.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (47:17):
Right, what are some of the reds that
came up when you, when you, whenyou started this journey, like,
what are the reds that came upthat you were like, oh man, I
get rid of?
Nika Lawrie (47:27):
that Basically every laundry detergent that you
can any name brand laundrydetergent that you can think of
is a red.
Almost all name brand.
Like think about, like you gointo the store and there's like
10 big names that you see inshampoos and conditioners Almost
(47:48):
all of those are reds.
Most of the makeup that you'llsee in drugstores are reds.
I'm trying to think of whatelse they're like all all air
fresheners, like the plugins,the car scents all of the all of
those are reds.
Trying to think of what else,so it's, it's going to be a lot
(48:11):
of stuff.
Trying to think of what else,so it's, it's going to be a lot
of stuff.
My, my favorite for shampoo andconditioner to go to the store,
my favorite is Shea Moisturebecause they they specifically
do not use phthalates orparabens.
They also don't use sulfates,so it's not as damaging for your
hair.
But that's a big one.
Look on the bottle like, scanthe barcode and then also look.
(48:35):
A lot of companies will startto tell you we don't use
phthalates or we don't useparabens.
You really want to look forbrands that say we don't use
both, because a lot of companiesI know there's one company that
was my favorite for a long timeand I don't use them anymore.
But they say we don't usephthalates in there.
It's either phthalates orparabens.
(48:56):
But they say we don't usephthalates in our products, but
they say nothing about parabensanymore, and so that's an issue
is like oh, we look clean, welook like we're doing it, but we
haven't actually moved all ofthe toxic chemicals.
So that would be a big one.
So personal care and beauty iswhere I would start first, and
perfumes are a big one.
There's a couple of companiesout there that are starting to
(49:16):
make clean perfumes too.
Yeah, so that's, that's thefirst place I would start.
The next place I would start iswith cooking, and it's actually
not food.
You'd be surprised.
What I would say is actually um,removing any plastic Tupperware
storage containers that youhave and never pre or reheat
(49:39):
anything in plastic.
So if you have something in aplastic Tupperware, do not put
that in the microwave.
Um, because those chemicalsfrom the plastic are leaching
into your food and then you'regoing to eat that and that's
going to be an issue.
Um, and then remove any likelike you really want to drink
from like stainless steel orglass cups and bottles whenever
possible, and then, if you'reable to.
(50:00):
You want to get like a reverseosmosis or some type of water
filtration system in your house.
It can be, you know, if you canonly do a Brita filter, that's
great, but don't store the waterin the plastic brita container.
Get a big plastic or, I'm sorry, a big glass, um like jug thing
(50:21):
for your house.
They make them.
You can order them on amazonwhere they have the little or
tap thing, and so filter thewater and then store it in the
glass container, opposed to theplastic.
If not, you can buy reverseosmosis that you can install
yourself, that go into yourkitchen sink and they're like
two, maybe $300.
I think I paid $230 for ours,so it wasn't.
(50:42):
You know it's a little bit ofan investment, but it wasn't
massive.
There's full house systems.
Yeah, I mean there's hugesystems that you can get for
like six grand.
I have not done that, but maybesomeday it's a more affordable
route for yeah, exactly, butlike two, three hundred bucks
for your health.
I think it's worth it.
So that would be.
(51:03):
And then the third step I wouldsay is really start looking at
the food that you're eating andtrying to remove as much ultra
processed food as humanlypossible and bringing in as much
whole, real, organic foodwhenever possible.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (51:18):
So, like first two days, take me through
that first two days of like whata detox would start feeling
like right, because a lot oftimes when, even when people
jump to diets, it's like, oh, Ican't, their mind tricks them
and thinks like they can't livewithout it.
Right, it's an addiction.
I mean, we're addicted to sugar, we're addicted to salt, we're
(51:40):
addicted to everything thatmakes us feel good quickly.
So how does it, how long doesit typically take to get those
chemicals out?
And what do you tell folks outthere who have a hard time, like
those first three, four daystrying right and things like
that Do?
Nika Lawrie (51:59):
it Okay, so, um, so it's.
It's a process, right, andeverybody's going to have a
different experience, but thegeneral experience is this so I
so, whenever I'm trying tocompletely detox or cut
something out that I'm likeaddicted to, what I actually do
(52:19):
is I stock up my house withreally healthy foods and then I
hand all of my money and creditcards over to my husband for the
first week, and it's a pain inthe butt because you don't have
money with you.
So you have to like, thinkabout planning your week ahead
of time, right, Like it's hard,but I pack my lunches or I plan
accordingly.
(52:40):
I make sure that I don't havebusiness meetings or
appointments or whatever, sothat I can structure my work
week or whatever around onlyeating the foods that I'm
bringing with me or not havingto pay for something like going
out to dinner with a friend orwhatever.
So I plan it that way.
So that's because once I canget past usually seven to 10
days I'm in a routine where myroutine is different and I don't
(53:01):
need that thing anymore.
So that's one trick that I useto get past those cravings is
like I literally cut out myability to get access to
whatever that thing is and itworks really, really well.
I've done it a bunch of timesand so that's one thing I'd
recommend.
But it is you do have to plan.
So the first two days you'regoing to really mentally
struggle because all you'regoing to want to do is think
(53:23):
about whatever.
Like say, you're trying to cutout sugary drinks, we'll just
say that, right, and you'retrying to cut that out.
All you're going to think aboutis wanting to go get that
sugary drink.
So that's where cutting out thecredit card thing really helps.
So once you're past a coupledays, you'll start to kind of
feel let's get a better example,because sugary drinks won't
(53:45):
necessarily make you feel likeyou're detoxing If you cut out,
if you go on a full detox diet.
So no gluten, no dairy, no sugar, no highly processed foods are
usually the standard four.
A lot of times people will alsocut out eggs from that as well
and soy those are big ones aswell, but it just depends.
But if you're doing the sugar,gluten, dairy and processed
(54:13):
foods the first few days, you'regoing to struggle right.
It's going to be hard.
But get past the first threedays.
Day four, five, six it can varyfor everybody You're going to
feel like you have the flu,you're going to feel really
tired, you're going to have verylow energy and it's going to
suck.
Some people get diarrhea, somepeople don't.
(54:35):
It just really depends.
Some people will sweat a lotand smell really stinky.
That's your body detoxing.
So I usually tell people to planit where those days are usually
over a weekend, when you'rehome and you can just kick back
or whatever.
So usually start a detox onlike a Wednesday and so then by
you know, saturday, sunday, youcan start to have your body
(54:58):
really detox those things.
By once you get through thosetwo or three days of crappiness
on the other side you're like,oh my God, I'm really starting
to feel good by day 10, you'regoing to have more energy,
you're going to feel healthier,your body's going to feel just
like lighter and cleaner andmore detox, like it's just your
body feels different.
So that's a big part of it.
(55:19):
And then it usually takesbetween there's not an exact
number, but it can take between15 and like 60 days to change a
habit.
For me, I know, usually aroundday 20, I stop having the same
cravings because my routine'schanged enough.
But again, everybody's going tobe different, so it can just
really depend.
(55:39):
But once you've built up thatnew routine and you're just used
to it, that's your routine thenand then those are your go-to
things.
The one thing that I'll say tobe very careful about is, when
you start to add things back inone, do it slowly, because your
body might react to something.
And two likely, if you're goingto add in, like if you're going
to bring in sugary drinks againafter you detox them, you're
(56:02):
going to get hooked like rightaway and so just before warns
like you're probably going tohave to go through the whole
detox again.
So just decide if it's worthbringing it back in or not.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (56:12):
So that kind of answers that, yeah,
that's a fine line to walk whenyou're talking about, you know,
if you drink a Pepsi, right?
Or your chai tea, like we don'twant you to go backwards your
two years, you know, free of thechai, exactly I will never.
Nika Lawrie (56:29):
I will never drink a Starbucks chai latte again,
because I think about it as likeI'm an alcoholic.
I cannot open that door againbecause I'll fall right back
into it.
So I just don't do it.
And so you just decide it's notworth it.
It was making me sick anyways,so why do it?
Ashley Martinez-Brown (56:45):
So that's it there anything specific like
during these detox, detox likeera, spread these these two
weeks or three weeks, howeverlong the detox goes on that
people should be adding to theirdetox and not forget about?
Right, because your body isdoing different things at this
time.
(57:06):
So are there a few things tokeep their like, keep them
stable and like their theirmental health okay during this
process, if they really don'thave an accountability partner
to go through this with.
Nika Lawrie (57:19):
Yeah, so I'll make this the final question and try
to get all those answers, justfor the sake of time.
So one of the things that I'lldefinitely always preface when
people are going through a detoxor trying to change these major
pieces of their diet andlifestyle especially those that
(57:40):
are on medications or mightstruggle with depression so any
type of medication at all, notjust a medication relating to
depression, any type ofmedication or they're struggling
with depression or anxiety or amental health issue they should
have that conversation witheither their physician, their
primary care or their mentalhealth therapist or whatever,
(58:03):
and have them be their supportthrough the process, so that
they're not doing it on theirown, because sometimes detoxing
can impact medications.
It can definitely impact theirmental health and so it's really
, really important to make surethat they have that care and
support through it.
With that, a lot of timespeople come out the other side.
(58:25):
I've seen a lot of patients orclients that no longer need
their depression medicationsonce they've gone through the
full detox and gotten to theother side.
That doesn't mean it'll happenfor everybody, but I have seen
that happen.
I've seen people come off ofdiabetes medications.
I've seen people come off likestop struggling with autoimmune
(58:49):
issues they were having.
So there's a lot of benefitsthat might heal some of the
health issues that you'repotentially having after going
through that detox.
The other side of that is justkeep in mind like you're
probably going to reallystruggle with like the cravings
and the exhaustion and likequitting for a couple days.
(59:10):
So like for the 10 days itmight suck, but I promise it
really can be worthwhile.
Getting to the other side, um,cause it's like rainbows and
butterflies on the other side,so does that answer your
question.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (59:23):
If you're able to come to fruition and go
full circle and be able tobetter yourself for a future
baby.
I mean this.
This all just goes together sowell, and thank you for giving
me an opportunity to ask you allthese questions.
I'm excited to put a lot ofwhat you taught me today into my
own life, and I hope otherswill find the same support that
(59:48):
they need, because a lot ofthese questions aren't asked
normally, so it's great to putit out there.
And thank you for letting me bethe host with the most, and I
appreciate your time on yourshow.
Nika Lawrie (01:00:01):
Oh, thank you so, so much for coming on and doing
this with me, ashley.
I'm so grateful for yourfriendship, as always, and I'm
grateful for you taking the timeto ask me all these questions
and just try to share thisknowledge with all the women out
there.
I think it's so, so important,and I don't think enough of this
information is getting to thewomen who need it, and so I'm
just grateful that you took thetime to help me get this out out
(01:00:23):
there.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (01:00:23):
We want everybody to know, because we
don't know what we don't know,and so nika's uncovering that
and showing us the ways.
So, yeah, glad to be here andhope to do another episode with
you soon.
(01:00:43):
Anytime I'll have you, thankyou you're welcome.
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode
of Inspired with Nika Larie.
I, of course, am your host,nika Laurie, and, as I've done
in a couple past episodes, weare flipping the script today.
I have one of my longest, verybest friends in the whole world
on the show today, ashleyMartinez-Brown.
She is going to ask me a wholebunch of questions about
(00:38):
fertility and infertility andtoxin exposure.
We're just going to deep diveinto that, so I'm super excited
to get to that show, or thosequestions.
I didn't say that very well,but you guys know what I mean.
Also, I want to add thatAshley's actually been on the
show in a previous episode, sobe sure to check that out.
I'm going to link to it in theshow notes.
(00:58):
It was a great, great episodetalking about finding your
inspiration and serving others.
I really loved that episodewith you, ashley.
But anyways, welcome to theshow.
I'm so happy to have you back.
Thank you.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (01:10):
Thank you , Nika.
I am excited to be on and I'mexcited to flip this script and
be able to ask you somequestions and put you on the hot
seat today.
Nika Lawrie (01:21):
Let's do it.
I am ready for it, so bring iton seat today.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (01:27):
Let's do it, I am ready for it, so bring
it on Awesome.
So let's start off by talking alittle bit about fertility and
hormone balance.
Okay, so, for people who don'tknow a lot of this, like myself,
how do everyday toxic chemicalsin food and personal care
products impact fertility, bothin men and women?
Nika Lawrie (01:48):
Okay, so, other than an infertility issue that
could be hereditary, meaningthat it's like a family thing
that came through the history ofyour family, like genetics,
environmental toxins are goingto be the biggest, single
biggest factor in infertility orthe ability to have children.
(02:08):
So, do you want I can breakdown what environmental toxins
are, because I think that'sprobably that was my next
question.
Okay, so environmental toxinsit's it's an umbrella term for a
whole bunch of different things, but the general idea is that
there are a ton of chemicals inour everyday environment that
(02:30):
impact our hormones and impactour health, and in a negative
way almost always.
So let's look at the bigpicture of chemicals and then
the other picture of quoteunquote our environment.
So when I say chemicals,currently there's between 85 and
90,000 chemicals registered inthe United States as chemicals
(02:53):
that can be used in food,personal care, beauty products,
you know, manufacturing, makinggasoline or whatever, right?
Like all the differentchemicals that are used to
create plastics and all thesedifferent things, right?
So there's approximately 90,000of them.
Of those 90,000, there's about42 to 45,000 that are considered
(03:16):
in active use, meaning they arecurrently being used in
products that we are using orexposed to on a daily basis.
Of those 42,000 to 45,000chemicals, there's only a
handful when I say a handful,it's like maybe 1,500 that have
ever been tested for safety forhumans.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (03:39):
So only 1,500.
Only 1,500.
Nika Lawrie (03:43):
After the 90,000 that you just said Correct, yeah
, and that's not even like fulltesting, that's just like we're
pretty sure it maybe have issuesand maybe we should look into
it.
It's not like rigorous, likelet's test this chemical and see
what it's actually doing.
Of those 1,500, there's onlyfive chemicals that have ever
(04:06):
been banned in the United States, opposed to you.
Look at the EU, like Europeancountries, there's about 1,500
chemicals that have beencompletely banned.
They are not allowed to be usedin the EU because they are
known endocrine disruptingchemicals, which I'll explain in
(04:27):
a second, or chemicals that weknow are going to harm or damage
the environment or humans.
So when I say endocrinedisrupting chemicals are known
as EDCs, edcs are chemicals thatimpact our hormone system.
Our endocrine system is ourhormone system and it's a whole
(04:48):
system within our body.
That's like the messengers.
It's the communication systemof our body.
So a hormone fires and it tellsthe body that you're hungry or
that you're full, or that you'resleepy, or that it's time to
wake up, or oh, I need to runbecause the lion's coming after
me.
Right, it's all these differenthormones that are going to tell
our body what to do and how toreact, or when to digest food or
(05:11):
whatever it is right.
When that system gets messed up,our body doesn't function the
way it's supposed to, and sothese endocrine disrupting
chemicals are disrupting ourhormones, which disrupts the
messages going in our body, andso our body starts
malfunctioning, so linking thatall the way back to infertility.
(05:35):
Our sex hormones that arerelated to fertility are usually
the most easiest disrupted ofall the hormones, and so you're
thinking about testosterone,estrogen, progesterone.
There's some others too.
Those are often more disruptedby these chemicals than any of
(05:58):
the other hormones in our body,and so when I say these
chemicals impact fertility, thatis the big picture.
Does that make sense?
Ashley Martinez-Brown (06:08):
Yeah, that's wild.
Yeah, that's some facts rightthere that I did not know about,
so thank you for letting usknow that today.
So what specific chemicals, inthat case, or right ingredients
should people avoid whenpreparing their bodies for
pregnancy?
Nika Lawrie (06:26):
So the biggest thing.
So when we start talking aboutall these chemicals, it can get
really scary, because I didn'treally go into what I called
quote unquote the environment.
But the environment that youlive in has everything is a
chemical.
I mean air is a chemical, right, so you're constantly going to
have chemicals around you, butthe idea is that some of those
(06:50):
chemicals, like we talked about,are more harmful than others.
Right, when you're exposed tothese different chemicals, it
can come from different areas.
So there's, you know, pollutionin the air.
There's pollution in water youcan find lead or different
things in the water right,that's a potential exposure.
There's also these chemicals inthe food that we eat, the
(07:12):
personal care products that weuse every day, the makeup that
women are using, the chemicalsthat we use to clean our house,
to do our laundry, the perfumesthat we wear all of those
different things and a lot ofthose have really harmful
chemicals.
When we think about fertility orinfertility, one of the biggest
(07:34):
factors that you'll see isanything with fragrances.
So you're going to havephthalates and parabens are two
classes of chemicals that fallin a lot of personal care
products.
These are direct endocrinedisrupting chemicals, and so,
talking about fragrances, youoften will see phthalates used
(07:57):
either as the fragrance itselfor it's a chemical to help the
fragrance last longer.
So, thinking about laundrydetergent right, we buy these
smelly laundry detergentsbecause we want our clothes to
smell good and we want thatscent to stick around for a
while while the clothes sit inthe closet.
The problem is, is thephthalate that's used to make
(08:18):
the scent either the scentitself or make the scent stay in
the clothes for a long periodof time disrupts your endocrine
system when you wear the clothes, because it'll seep through
your, your skin, which is yourlargest organ, right?
And so, um, fragrances can comein a whole plethora of different
(08:39):
things, but you'll find them um.
Shampoos, anders, all of yourlaundry detergent and dryer
sheets.
Perfumes is a big one airfresheners, or like the Glade
plugins or the car scents, allof those kind of things.
The biggest factor that I willtell both men and women to do
when they're looking to getpregnant is remove as many
(09:04):
fragranced products out of theirlife as humanly possible, like
literally get rid of all of itand then give your body some
time to detox after you've movedout.
So that's the biggest factor.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (09:16):
There's some other ones too, but Wow,
I'm just all of this is justlike hitting me and I'm just
thinking of, like what can I gotake out right, all of it, yeah,
all of this checklist andgetting rid of those different
items.
So, with that what you justsaid, how do these toxins
interfere with the hormonebalance, like what?
(09:38):
How does that environmentreally affect what's happening
with your hormones and how doyou balance it so it can?
Why is it important forfertility?
Like what?
How?
What are those two and how dothey work together?
Nika Lawrie (09:54):
So what can happen is that the different hormones
so men and women have levels ofhormones that they're supposed
to be at right, so like men aregoing to have higher
testosterone levels than women,but women should still have a
certain amount of testosteronein their body, same with
estrogen or progesterone, thosekinds of hormones.
(10:15):
The problem is that a lot oftimes with these chemicals, when
they get into your body, theywill either lower or increase
the amount of a specific hormone.
So estrogen is a good exampleof this.
So some of these chemicals willactually replicate estrogen in
(10:37):
your body, and so then you getestrogen dominance, and that can
lead to a lot of health issues.
Cancer is a big one that it canlead to, and so it really
depends.
Each person is going to bedifferent, but the main idea is
it's going to impact how much orhow little of the specific
hormone you have in your body,and when those levels are off,
(11:00):
when your hormones are notbalanced, your body is in kind
of fight or flight mode, andwhen you're in that fight or
flight mode, getting pregnant isnot going to be a body's
priority, and so fertilitydecreases, your ability to get
pregnant decreases.
This also occurs in men andtheir ability to produce viable
(11:24):
sperm as well, and so it'sreally, really important that we
get the exposure to thesechemicals reduced as much as
possible when looking to befertile on both sides, male and
female.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (11:37):
Yeah, because a lot of times it's a
lot of men think it's just thewomen, right, like, oh well,
you're carrying the baby, right.
It's both sides though.
Nika Lawrie (11:47):
It's actually almost more men at this point,
and I'm not blaming men, but oneof the things that people it's
just starting to make kind ofpublic like people are really
starting to understand what'shappening.
Male fertility has decreased.
It's something like I don'tknow the exact number, so don't
(12:07):
quote me but it's something like75% in the last like 30 to 40
years, like it's a drasticpercentage.
I can find the exact number andput it in the show notes, but
it's a huge percentage of maleswho are now infertile or unable
to produce healthy sperm tocreate an embryo.
(12:31):
It's a massive number and a lotof it is due to these
environmental toxins.
So it's really really key thata couple who's looking to have a
child or create a child haveboth sides tested, because it is
just as likely the male thatmay be struggling as the female.
It's dire that both get tested.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (12:53):
I love that.
And so what are some of theearly signs of hormone
imbalances that couples shouldbe aware of when trying to
conceive?
Nika Lawrie (13:01):
Yeah, so there's a bunch of different signs.
It's usually easier to be ableto tell the signs in women than
in men because men, have youknow, they're the lucky ones
that don't tend to fluctuate inweight that much and their
hormones tend to stay morestable.
So it's not as obvious usuallyin men when these chemicals are
(13:24):
disrupting their hormones.
But it's still really importantthat they get checked,
especially because it'll impacttheir testosterone and then that
can cause a lot of eithermental health or physical issues
for them as well.
So that's a big one for themale side.
On the female side, it can be awhole host of things.
You can see things like weightgain or weight loss, either
(13:46):
direction.
If your weight's fluctuating oryou've gained 30 pounds in two
years, that's a big sign thatthere's something going on with
your hormones.
Your body doesn't normally justgain that much weight.
If you're having depression,anxiety, headaches, migraines
can be a thing.
Sleep issues, lethargy or notfeeling motivated, anger issues
(14:17):
there's I mean basically anyhealth issue you can think of
can be led back to your hormones.
One of the factors that you'llsee play in this too is we have
really high levels of simplecarbohydrates in our diets here
(14:38):
in the United States.
I mean, it's kind of happeningall over the world, but in the
United States you'll see a lotof people eating more sugar and
starchy foods than what isreally healthy for us.
And when?
Um our sugar, you know, whenour, when our insulin resistance
uh, how do I put it?
(14:58):
So when we're eating too muchsugar and we're eating too many
simple carbohydrates, weincrease our insulin, we
decrease our ability to manageit in our body, and when that
happens, that can impact all ofour other hormones as well, and
so testosterone in women is abig one that can be impacted by
that as well, and so you'llstart to see the weight gain
(15:20):
issues, the headaches so on allthose kinds of things.
So it's a whole host of thingsthat you can look for.
Basically, if you're notfeeling great and you don't have
good energy and you're not at aweight that's comfortable for
your body there isn't reallylike a set weight that everybody
should be at, becauseeverybody's different, but you
should be in that healthy rangethose are signs that you may
(15:43):
want to have your hormoneschecked.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (15:46):
Okay, and how can men play an active role
in preparing for pregnancy,especially in terms of balancing
their own hormones and avoidingtoxic exposure?
Nika Lawrie (15:58):
Yeah.
So this really could be a teameffort, or should be a team
effort when you go through thehouse and you decide, okay,
we're going to remove all theseproducts that have fragrances or
parabens, that so there'sphthalates and parabens.
There's a bunch of otherchemicals as well.
We can get into some of them,but it can be a team effort,
(16:18):
right and like okay, so we'regoing to identify these products
and we're going to remove theseproducts where we're going to
replace them with healthier,less toxic options.
So that's a husband and wife ora partnership conversation that
you can have there.
Then you can also look at howyou're eating.
How you're eating is really,really key for both partners to
(16:39):
produce healthy sperm andhealthy eggs.
And so, looking at, are weeating like we talked about too
much sugar and too much starchyfoods.
It doesn't mean that you haveto cut it all out.
It just means are we eating toomuch and how do we reduce that
and bring in some more healthieroptions?
Are we eating high fiber,really good quality fruits and
(17:00):
vegetables organic if possible,whenever possible, because the
herbicides and pesticidessprayed on those are also
endocrine disrupting chemicalsGlyphosate is a huge one.
Looking at trying to eat reallyhealthy meats as well, if
you're able to.
(17:20):
You want to get grass-fed andpasture-raised meats and poultry
and in wild-caught fish, sowild-caught salmon, those kinds
of things.
If you're able to access thoseand you have the means to buy
them, definitely recommend them.
If you don't look for thehealthiest option possible
within your budget, look for thehealthiest option possible
within your budget, for example,with organic foods.
(17:42):
If you can't afford the organicfresh fruits and vegetables,
frozen organic options is agreat alternative because
they're flash frozen at the peakof their ripeness, which is the
most nutrient dense part ormoment that the fruit or
vegetable is at, and then youwant the organic ones there.
(18:03):
So that's a great option if youcan't do the the um, the fresh
ones, because sometimes it'sreally expensive.
Also, buying fruits andvegetables that are organic,
that are in season, meaning that, like um, you know, apricots
are really big in like may june,kind of april, may june,
(18:24):
because that's when they areripe on the tree right, and so
you'll see a plethora of them inthe store.
We'll stock up on apricots andthen you can can them or freeze
them or just eat a whole bunch.
At that time, right, you'll seea lot of berries um are.
Uh.
There's a lot more berriesavailable at the end of the fall
or like tomatoes, becausethat's when the produce is
(18:44):
usually bulk and available, andso shopping seasonal really
helps too to cut down on costs.
And then buying bulk too.
If you have option to go toCostco or even buy in bulk at
your grocery store and stock up,that can help reduce those
prices too.
Egg in bulk at your grocerystore and stock up, that can
help reduce those prices too.
So those are the big things.
(19:08):
But really preparing the wholepoint of this is to prepare your
body to create another humanright, so like we want our
bodies in peak shape, both maleand female, to produce the best
healthiest sperm and the besthealthiest egg, to create the
best healthiest embryo possible.
And then, especially for thewoman, you know it's already
kind of no knowledge that youwant to eat well and take your
(19:30):
multivitamins or your prenatalvitamins when you're pregnant.
The whole reason for doing thatis because the baby is
absorbing vitamins and mineralsdirectly from the woman's body.
It's not just the food that youeat that it's absorbing.
It's literally pulling it outof your muscles and your bones
and pulling all that nutrientsdirectly from the woman's body
(19:51):
and so anything that you can doto keep replenishing that, to
keep your body strong, but alsoto create a healthy, to feed and
create that healthy embryo orfetus is really, really key.
So ideally, like the perfectpicture, is like you and your
partner want to start working onthat two years before you even
(20:12):
get pregnant.
So your bodies are at that peakthing.
But wherever you're at in thatjourney, start today so that
you're as healthy as possible asyou're going through it.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (20:21):
So I hope that answers it yes, it
definitely does so.
With that would you say, like,in terms of like meats that
people eat, right, Is it betterto go like a pork loin rather
than you know the red meat?
And could you talk a little bitmore on like your own lifestyle
, on how you're cooking in thekitchen, to implement those
(20:42):
healthy habits not only foryourself but your whole family,
right?
And just like, tell people howit tastes to eat that clean,
right?
Because sometimes it's fear ofnot knowing what you don't know
and it can be intimidatingsometimes to just go in and say
you know what, I'm going toinvest in myself.
(21:03):
I'm going to invest in eatingbetter and training my mind to
be on this fresh path.
Nika Lawrie (21:11):
Yeah.
So it should be a journey LikeI'm never going to tell somebody
, cut everything out today andbe perfect tomorrow and then
just start your life like thatBecause I couldn't do it.
It's a very special personthat's able to do that, and good
for them, because most peoplecannot do that.
(21:32):
So don't have that reallystrict, high expectation on
yourself.
For me it's been an ongoingjourney and it's been a little
bit of an up and down journey.
There's times where I'vecompletely cut all of the toxic
crap out and then I make it liketwo or three weeks and then
something inevitably starts tocome back in and then I, you
know, fall off the wagon alittle bit.
(21:52):
But every time I do more andmore, I'm better and better
right.
And so I never have gone backto the full picture of, like,
all the garbage before I knewwhat I knew right.
Because once you know, you'rejust like oh, I don't, I don't
really want that anymore, causeyou know it's poisoning your
body, right.
And so the first part is justunderstand it's a journey, take
(22:14):
baby steps, day by day, andstart doing it.
The other thing that's reallyimportant to understand is as
you start to remove theunhealthy foods or these toxic
chemicals from your dailyroutine, like washing your hair,
those kinds of things.
Your body's going to startdetoxing some of these things,
especially if you go on what'scalled a detox diet where you
(22:36):
cut out things like cut outgluten, dairy sugars, different
things like that.
It can be really rough forprobably like a 10 to 15 day
period.
Usually, when somebody doessomething like that, they have
three to four days where theyliterally feel like they have
the flu.
You literally feel like you'rejust exhausted and tired and
(22:58):
want to lay in bed and donothing because you feel like
crap.
That is your body detoxing allof this garbage out of your body
.
And so when you feel that,you're like, oh, that's why I
don't want that stuff in mybodies, because you know how bad
it actually is if you feel thiscrappy, trying to get it out of
your body.
Yeah, so those are two things,but what I will say is, once
(23:21):
you've gotten through to theother side, or even as you're
going through the process ofslowly removing things, you're
going to start to feel better.
You'll have more energy.
You'll have more clarity, likethe brain fog or the
forgetfulness.
A lot of that will go away.
Your cravings will change overtime and your tastes will change
over time.
(23:42):
I remember I'm going to tell afunny story that, ashley, you
can add to this.
So I was obsessed withStarbucks for like 20 years.
I was obsessed with chai lattesand I had one every single day
and then I realized that it waslike 64 grams of sugar in each
one and I was mortified.
And I remember one day I was inmy office Ashley and I used to
(24:04):
work together and I was in myoffice and Ashley came and took
a sip of my chai and she waslike I don't know better, like
flabbergasted by how sweet thechai was, and she's like I don't
know how you drink that stuff.
Right, ashley, if you want toadd anything.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (24:20):
And she's like I don't know how you drink
that stuff.
Right, ashley, if you want toadd anything, absolutely I mean
it's, it's funny.
We're talking about detoxing,and you know.
But also to your point.
I mean, it makes sense that weas humans also need to detox
from drinks and food.
Right To your point, it was thesweetest thing I had had.
I don't normally drink Coke.
To begin with, I mean I'll do aSprite and then I'll do water
(24:44):
or Gatorade juices, but that was, it was a sweet drink.
Nika Lawrie (24:48):
But to me it was just like my normal.
It was my Starbucks drink.
I just ordered it, right.
I haven't had Starbucks in twoyears, over two years now.
I can't fathom like drinking itbecause I know how sweet it
would be.
Like, sweet drinks for me areso sensitive now because I've
stopped drinking all that thatsugar all the time.
But when your body is justaccustomed to it, it doesn't
(25:11):
realize how sweet it actually is.
And so when I say your tastebuds change, it really does.
Like things that used to tastegood won't taste good anymore
and things that you used tothink were gross will start.
You'll start craving them, likelike a really good salad is so
good sometimes, once you starteating them on a regular basis,
right, and so just understandingthat, giving yourself that time
(25:34):
to remove and change thosefoods will allow your taste buds
to change with that process too.
So when, like you asked meabout pork, I personally don't
eat a lot of pork.
I'm just not.
We love bacon.
We do eat bacon, but we get yeah, we get really clean, healthy
bacon, like no nitrates, and wetry to be really careful about
(25:57):
the bacon we buy.
I don't know, everyone's alleat a pork chop, but it's just
not really my thing.
My husband likes it more than Ido, but I love a good steak.
A really good steak is my go-to, so I'm not opposed to eating.
I think eating meat is actuallyhealthier for you than being
(26:18):
vegan or vegetarian, becausemost women are not getting
enough protein, especially thosethat are eating a vegan or
vegetarian diet.
You just can't get enough fromthe vegetables, so protein is
really really key to a healthybody.
But the biggest thing I'll sayis, if you're going to eat meat
(26:38):
is to get it from a really good,clean um quality source.
So what I mean here is you canhave um grass fed beef.
So these are cows that go outinto the pasture, they eat grass
, they get to wander, they're inthe sun and they get to live
like the quote unquote normalcow life.
Or you can the um.
(27:01):
You know the typical farmedanimal that goes through the you
know whole process and lives ina box for most of its life and
it's fed crap um.
There, I think the practice isstopped, though I'm not.
A lot of the cows were fed candyfor years, like leftover candy,
(27:23):
like yeah, wrapper and all itwould just be, yeah, it would
just be the plastic wrapper, thecandy, everything would just be
ground up and then added tofeed like cow feed and they
would just eat all of it becauseit would fatten them up.
And so when you eat that,whatever the cow eats, you are
eating too Like you have tounderstand that.
(27:44):
So whatever your food eats, youthen eat and you become that
because you become what yourfood is.
And so if you want to beplastic and candy, you know, eat
the processed, unwell fed cows,right.
And so it's just understandingwhere your food's coming from
(28:07):
and then how that's going toimpact your body.
So does that make sense?
Ashley Martinez-Brown (28:11):
It definitely makes sense and it's
definitely a different way tolook at your food.
Yeah, you know from now on andwonder what kind of cow this is
coming from and whatnot.
So what would you say?
Are there any specificnutrients or supplements that
are particularly helpful forcouples trying to?
Nika Lawrie (28:31):
conceive, making sure that you're eating enough
protein, because you needprotein to build your muscles,
to make sure that yourmetabolism is working well,
especially women.
Postpartum, too, women do noteat enough protein, and then
(28:52):
they'll fluctuate weight-wiseafter giving birth, and so
protein, protein, protein forwomen is one of the biggest
things and is again that qualityprotein.
The other thing is one of thebiggest things and is again that
quality protein.
The other thing is reallymaking sure that you're getting
enough healthy fats, and soomega-3 is going to be your
biggest one, and one of theissues with food in the United
(29:13):
States is there's a bunch ofdifferent omegas right, there's
omega-3, there's omega-6,there's omega-9s, but the two
prominent ones you'll see areomega-3s and omega-6s.
Omega-3 is what you really needfor brain health, and when
you're developing a baby, youreally want that baby to have
(29:33):
everything possible to be smartand educated and do whatever
they want to do in life, right?
Well, they need omega-3.
And so the woman really needsto have high quality omega-3 in
her diet regularly.
She needs it for her own braintoo.
But the issue is that in ourfood system, omega-6s are the
(29:55):
prevalent oils or the omega fatsthat are in most of the food.
The problem is is omega-6s areinflammatory for our body and so
it'll be like a one to threeratio or even like a one to six
ratio.
So you'll have like one littlepiece of omega-3 and then like
(30:15):
six pieces of omega-6 in thefood that we eat, and so we're
not getting enough omega-3 andwe're getting too much omega-6.
And so that's inflaming ourbody and then not allowing our
brain to work and function orkids' brains to develop properly
.
So omega-3s are probably thebiggest thing and really getting
the healthy fat as well.
(30:36):
So you can get that from thingslike avocado, avocado oil, high
quality actual virgin virginolive oil, extra virgin olive
oil.
So the problem is you have toreally check your oil containers
when you purchase them to makesure that it's not cut with
(30:57):
something else, cause you'll see, oil could be cut with other
things.
Oh, it happens all the time.
Like you'll go to costco I don'tmean to call out costco because
you can buy them anywhere, it'sjust you'll go to the grocery
store and you'll see a containerthat's like the green container
, right, and it'll say extraextra virgin olive oil and then
(31:19):
underneath it'll say with canolaoil, but you won't really see
the canola oil.
You'll just see the extra virginolive oil and so you'll just
buy it, thinking it's that whenit's actually half canola oil
and canola oil is not healthyfor you.
So you have to actually turnthe bottle over and read it and
really make sure that it's extravirgin olive oil.
(31:39):
The other thing when you'rebuying the olive oil is you
really want to make sure thatit's extra virgin olive oil.
The other thing when you'rebuying the olive oil is you
really want to make sure thatit's cold pressed, because you
don't want it to be heated upand processed the way most oils
are processed, because itdamages the nutrients that are
inside the oil.
So cold pressed extra virginolive oil is the key there, and
it's got to be in a darkcontainer, ideally glass if
(32:00):
possible.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (32:01):
I think you've got to take a picture and
put that in the notes, the shownotes, for everybody to see.
I never knew that that wascrazy.
And I mean that goes evendeeper to actually reading the
fine print, right.
A lot of the things that wechoose to eat, they don't.
They don't put what weshouldn't know in the forefront,
right?
Nika Lawrie (32:20):
Oh yeah, and I mean the marketing that's done in
this country for food iscriminal.
Like, basically, anything thatsays health food on it is like
the worst thing that you can eat, because foods that are
actually healthy for you don'thave labels.
Like a carrot does not have alabel, right, like it's just a
(32:40):
bushel of carrots, right, butthen they'll sell you this like
granola bar.
That's like the health foodversion.
You know this is the bestoption protein and enriched with
vitamins and all it.
When you actually flip it over,it's like 90% sugar, so it's
like you really have to flipboxes over.
I pretty much say that if itcomes in a box, you probably
(33:03):
shouldn't eat it.
I mean, there's, there's, youknow, variations to that, but
for the most part it's beenreally highly processed and
that's going to lead to not onlyinfertility issues but overall
general health issues as well.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (33:19):
Well, and how can women support ovulation
and hormone regulation throughtheir diet?
Nika Lawrie (33:26):
So that's a big thing.
So you know, we talked aboutsugar and simple carbohydrates
earlier.
Protein is another factor inthat.
So what can happen is womenaren't getting enough protein,
and you really need protein tobuild your muscles the building
block for muscles right.
When you don't have enoughmuscle on your frame, so like on
(33:47):
your skeletal frame, whenthere's not enough muscle there,
your metabolism will get out ofwhack.
It won't function the way it'ssupposed to.
And what happens when yourmetabolism is out of whack is
then it messes with yourhormones and you'll either gain
weight or lose weight, and thenyou'll have a whole bunch of
other issues.
And then, when you have toolittle fats on your body, when
(34:10):
you've lost too much fat or youhave too much fat on your body,
this can then cause your body tonot be in the healthy range to
create an embryo.
And so there's really thispocket and, like I said earlier,
like it's really specific foreach woman's body, like every
woman's body is builtdifferently, and so I'm never
(34:31):
saying, you know, all womenshould weigh 130 pounds, because
that's not the case at all, butthere is a healthy range for
each woman, specific to her body, and usually it's around like
the 20 to 25% body fat range.
Anything under 18, usually awoman's not able to get pregnant
(34:53):
and then usually anything like30 and over is considered kind
of that obese range.
I don't really like the termobese anymore, but just to give
you an idea, because the bodycan start to struggle and not
have what it needs to thenproduce that healthy embryo, and
(35:13):
so you really have to becareful about what you're eating
and how that's impacting yourbody so that you can stay in
that healthy range in order tocreate that healthy embryo nice.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (35:28):
That's super interesting.
Is there a specific like I andI hate the word diet as well but
if they're a way of eatingright, a natural way of life,
that you would prefer.
I know there's a lot of fadsout there and a lot of people
going and doing different things, but I mean in terms of really
just wanting to keep your bodyhealthy, like what it would it
(35:50):
just be the organic, and stayinglooking at what you're eating
and and not necessarily dieting,but just changing a lifestyle
right, a healthier, healthierpath.
Nika Lawrie (36:01):
Yeah.
So I'm never going to say, uh,pick a diet, like I think
picking fad diets is probablythe worst thing people can do,
because it's so extreme usuallyand it will always tell.
Like you know, keto will tellyou to cut out all of these
simple carbs, right, like allthe starches, all the sugars,
(36:24):
all those things, and you canlose out on different aspects of
that and it can get reallystrict and really overwhelming
for people.
Or when you think about I don'tknow, I can't think like the
carnivore diet, right, where,like, people are, literally all
they're eating is meat, and likethe issue with that is that our
(36:46):
bodies, we're omnivores, we'redesigned to eat a little bit of
a bunch of different things,right.
And so the idea there is toreally figure out what works
specifically for your body, orwhat triggers your body, and
either bring in more or avoidthose things, right.
So, for me, I have a caseinallergy and casein is a protein
(37:09):
in dairy and so I can't drinkmilk because it'll make me sick.
But there are a few cheesesthat are very low in casein that
I can eat.
That don't bother me, and sothat's unique to my body.
My body does not like nightshadefoods, like I don't like
eggplant, I don't like tomato.
(37:30):
I just naturally do not likethose nightshade foods.
My daughter, on the other hand,is obsessed with tomatoes, and
so she loves cherry tomatoes.
She loves.
You know, I buy tomatoes allthe time for her.
I don't touch them, she lovesthem.
But that's like your bodysending those signals.
There's likely I don't knowwhat it is, but there's likely
(37:51):
something in me that tells methat my body is slightly
inflamed by those nightshadefoods and to not eat them.
And so it's really figuring outwhat works for you.
I always, if people have themeans, I recommend people to get
a food allergy test done,ideally a pretty comprehensive
one, allergy tests done, ideallya pretty comprehensive one,
(38:15):
just so that they have an ideaof what their body's reacting to
.
The note that I'll say withthat is that there are some
allergies that you're justinnately going to have, like
you're just born with, like somepeople are just born allergic
to peanuts, right, like that'sjust a thing.
But there are other allergiesthat you may have that come
later in life, based off of howyour body's being exposed to
(38:38):
things and how well your gut isworking, and when you heal your
gut, that allergy may thenlessen or go away altogether,
and so there's some allergiesthat'll happen on and off, and
it can be based on how healthyyour gut is and how healthy your
body is functioning.
And so just really don't takeeverything that you get back
(38:58):
from that test as like set instone forever.
It may be something that youwant to test again later on down
the road, when you healed yourgut or worked on changing your
diet, and see where you're atthen too, but at least it gives
you an idea of things that aregoing to be inflammatory to your
body or triggering to your body, and then you can avoid those.
(39:19):
And then, when it comes to justkind of the general diet, what
I'll always say is whole realfood as much as possible.
So the carrots, the cucumbers,the beef, the chicken, the, the,
the beef, the chicken, the?
Um, whole grains, um, so wholegrain wild rice or um, nuts,
like those kind of thing wholereal food, things that don't
(39:42):
come in reprocessed boxeswrapped in plastic or whatever,
right, those are really what youwant to eat, as much as
possible.
And then, if you have to add insomething fun here and there,
if you love pasta, have pastaonce a week, just try to make it
a healthier option.
Or have ice cream Sundayevening if you want, just make
(40:05):
sure you're not allergic tolactose, those kind of things,
but whole, real foods as much aspossible and organic and as
often as possible.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (40:14):
So you don't have to be an imposter to
eat your pasta, exactly, and youdon't have to get rid of it.
You just have to make sureyou're keeping an eye on what
you're putting in your body andI feel for a lot of folks, you
don't know what you don't know,right.
So knowing, when we hear theword toxic or like toxic things
(40:34):
in the environment, it's kind oflike an up there kind of term,
right, and we don't really knowwhat, what's incorporated?
Uh, because, um, as we weretalking about with marketing,
nobody wants us to see that sideof things, right, because they
want the opposite effect.
Right, they want to give usthose lucky charms and they want
to, they want to put all right,they want to give us those
lucky charms and they want toput all the sugary sweets to
(40:56):
keep that money going.
But, switching it up a littlebit, how does alcohol and
caffeine consumption affectfertility and what are some
healthier alternatives duringthe preconception phase?
Nika Lawrie (41:11):
Yeah, so short and simple.
Alcohol is a poison and itshould be avoided as much as
humanly possible.
I have maybe three drinks ayear.
I'll go out with girlfriendsand maybe have a drink there
once a year.
I might go, you know, toanniversary date with my husband
(41:33):
and have a cocktail, but it'svery, very rare that I drink
alcohol.
Alcohol is going to damage yourgut, it's going to damage your
brain cells, it's just, it's apoison, so just avoid it at all
costs.
Caffeine can be useful.
Low doses of caffeine in themorning as you're waking up can
(41:56):
be useful if you need it.
But you really don't need asmuch caffeine as most people are
exposing themselves to, likethe things that are in the
energy drinks like that is somuch more caffeine than anybody
actually needs, and so it can behelpful in the mornings to kind
of get your body going and tohelp kind of fire up your
(42:20):
cortisol and fire up yourmetabolism.
But it's not needed.
It's not something that isactually needed.
Like there's no actual use inyour body for caffeine, so you
don't need it.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (42:35):
I think us as society kind of put it in
our heads that we need it, rightLike let me get my pot of
coffee every morning and let meget my Red.
Nika Lawrie (42:44):
Bulls in.
The irony is that if you cutout the processed foods and all
the sugar and you actually letyour body detox, it's going to
suck for like a week.
But then you get to the otherside and you have so much energy
that you're like I don't everneed caffeine because my body
naturally makes that energy forme.
Like you don't have the energyright now and your need for
(43:06):
caffeine is because your body isso inflamed and has and I'm
talking general, not at you, butgeneral your body is inflamed
and your body is in that fightor flight mode, right, and so
the energy is going.
Your body's like in survivalmode.
Like oh my God, why does shekeep putting all these chemicals
(43:28):
?
Like we can't detox this stufffast enough.
Like I'm just living off of toomuch sugar and so we're not
burning.
Like we're not burning ketonesthat are like the healthier fats
to burn.
We're just burning the glucose,the sugar that we get from
sugar and simple starches allthe time, and so our bodies are
just like on overdrive all thetime because of the crap that
(43:50):
we're putting into our bodiesand so we need that caffeine for
that extra boost, right.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (43:57):
Well, and you're also continuously going
back to the same things, right?
Because if you're hungry andyou crash and you're like I need
a candy, that candy bar, youthink it's going to hold you
right, but it's just going togive you a quick rush of
dopamine and then you're goingto crash, yeah, and then the
crash on the other side of thatis actually even worse.
Nika Lawrie (44:19):
Like you dip even lower than you would have, and
so you want to really try tostabilize your blood sugar as
much as possible, and the wayyou actually stabilize that is
with healthy fats and protein,opposed to a sugary drink or a
candy bar.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (44:37):
Now let's talk about one of the probably
most interesting parts about andscary parts is really
detoxifying, right?
What does it mean to reallydetox your body and what are
like three simple takeaways thatpeople who are watching this
will be able to say cool.
This is where I'm going tostart with these three right,
(44:58):
because I feel like if we gave along list of items, it's
overwhelming, and I feel likewanting to get pregnant is
overwhelming as is.
But if you start with threesimple steps to start your
detoxification, for, like ofthat first week, what would your
advice be and where would theystart?
Nika Lawrie (45:19):
Yeah.
So the first tip I would giveis to so there's two or three
apps that you can download.
One's called Yuka.
It's Y-U-K-A.
The Environmental Working Grouphas two apps that you can
download.
One is for personal careproducts and then one is for
food.
There's also Think Dirty isanother app that you can
(45:42):
download.
These apps Yuka is my personalfavorite of all of them, by the
way but these apps you candownload and put them on your
phone and then you scan thebarcode of your personal care or
your beauty products or yourlaundry detergent, basically
anything that has a barcode.
Last time we used Yuka, I don'tthink it had food in it.
(46:03):
I know the environmentalworking one has a lot of the
food.
But start with personal care andbeauty products.
Scan all of the stuff that youhave in your house with barcode
and it's got a rating.
So it's like red, yellow, greenor like one through 10.
They're each apps a little bitdifferent, but the ratings are
easy to understand and if it's ared or a 10, get rid of that
(46:26):
product, just throw it away.
You don't need it in your house, just get rid of it.
If it's a yellow, decide if it'slike how strict do you want to
go and then if it's a green,it's an okay product to keep in
your house, right, and if it's ared, these are products that
are absolutely disrupting yourhormones and should be thrown in
the trash.
(46:47):
Do not bring them in.
Replace them with somethingelse.
You can go to Target orwherever you shop and scan the
products in the store to findthe products that are non-toxic
that you can then replace yourproducts with.
That would be the firstrecommendation, especially for
those trying to get pregnant,both male and female.
(47:07):
Scan all your products If youcan afford it.
Replace them as fast aspossible If you can't use them,
and then buy a healthier optionnext time.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (47:17):
Right, what are some of the reds that
came up when you, when you, whenyou started this journey, like,
what are the reds that came upthat you were like, oh man, I
get rid of?
Nika Lawrie (47:27):
that Basically every laundry detergent that you
can any name brand laundrydetergent that you can think of
is a red.
Almost all name brand.
Like think about, like you gointo the store and there's like
10 big names that you see inshampoos and conditioners Almost
(47:48):
all of those are reds.
Most of the makeup that you'llsee in drugstores are reds.
I'm trying to think of whatelse they're like all all air
fresheners, like the plugins,the car scents all of the all of
those are reds.
Trying to think of what else,so it's, it's going to be a lot
(48:11):
of stuff.
Trying to think of what else,so it's, it's going to be a lot
of stuff.
My, my favorite for shampoo andconditioner to go to the store,
my favorite is Shea Moisturebecause they they specifically
do not use phthalates orparabens.
They also don't use sulfates,so it's not as damaging for your
hair.
But that's a big one.
Look on the bottle like, scanthe barcode and then also look.
(48:35):
A lot of companies will startto tell you we don't use
phthalates or we don't useparabens.
You really want to look forbrands that say we don't use
both, because a lot of companiesI know there's one company that
was my favorite for a long timeand I don't use them anymore.
But they say we don't usephthalates in there.
It's either phthalates orparabens.
(48:56):
But they say we don't usephthalates in our products, but
they say nothing about parabensanymore, and so that's an issue
is like oh, we look clean, welook like we're doing it, but we
haven't actually moved all ofthe toxic chemicals.
So that would be a big one.
So personal care and beauty iswhere I would start first, and
perfumes are a big one.
There's a couple of companiesout there that are starting to
(49:16):
make clean perfumes too.
Yeah, so that's, that's thefirst place I would start.
The next place I would start iswith cooking, and it's actually
not food.
You'd be surprised.
What I would say is actually um,removing any plastic Tupperware
storage containers that youhave and never pre or reheat
(49:39):
anything in plastic.
So if you have something in aplastic Tupperware, do not put
that in the microwave.
Um, because those chemicalsfrom the plastic are leaching
into your food and then you'regoing to eat that and that's
going to be an issue.
Um, and then remove any likelike you really want to drink
from like stainless steel orglass cups and bottles whenever
possible, and then, if you'reable to.
(50:00):
You want to get like a reverseosmosis or some type of water
filtration system in your house.
It can be, you know, if you canonly do a Brita filter, that's
great, but don't store the waterin the plastic brita container.
Get a big plastic or, I'm sorry, a big glass, um like jug thing
(50:21):
for your house.
They make them.
You can order them on amazonwhere they have the little or
tap thing, and so filter thewater and then store it in the
glass container, opposed to theplastic.
If not, you can buy reverseosmosis that you can install
yourself, that go into yourkitchen sink and they're like
two, maybe $300.
I think I paid $230 for ours,so it wasn't.
(50:42):
You know it's a little bit ofan investment, but it wasn't
massive.
There's full house systems.
Yeah, I mean there's hugesystems that you can get for
like six grand.
I have not done that, but maybesomeday it's a more affordable
route for yeah, exactly, butlike two, three hundred bucks
for your health.
I think it's worth it.
So that would be.
(51:03):
And then the third step I wouldsay is really start looking at
the food that you're eating andtrying to remove as much ultra
processed food as humanlypossible and bringing in as much
whole, real, organic foodwhenever possible.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (51:18):
So, like first two days, take me through
that first two days of like whata detox would start feeling
like right, because a lot oftimes when, even when people
jump to diets, it's like, oh, Ican't, their mind tricks them
and thinks like they can't livewithout it.
Right, it's an addiction.
I mean, we're addicted to sugar, we're addicted to salt, we're
(51:40):
addicted to everything thatmakes us feel good quickly.
So how does it, how long doesit typically take to get those
chemicals out?
And what do you tell folks outthere who have a hard time, like
those first three, four daystrying right and things like
that Do?
Nika Lawrie (51:59):
it Okay, so, um, so it's.
It's a process, right, andeverybody's going to have a
different experience, but thegeneral experience is this so I
so, whenever I'm trying tocompletely detox or cut
something out that I'm likeaddicted to, what I actually do
(52:19):
is I stock up my house withreally healthy foods and then I
hand all of my money and creditcards over to my husband for the
first week, and it's a pain inthe butt because you don't have
money with you.
So you have to like, thinkabout planning your week ahead
of time, right, Like it's hard,but I pack my lunches or I plan
accordingly.
(52:40):
I make sure that I don't havebusiness meetings or
appointments or whatever, sothat I can structure my work
week or whatever around onlyeating the foods that I'm
bringing with me or not havingto pay for something like going
out to dinner with a friend orwhatever.
So I plan it that way.
So that's because once I canget past usually seven to 10
days I'm in a routine where myroutine is different and I don't
(53:01):
need that thing anymore.
So that's one trick that I useto get past those cravings is
like I literally cut out myability to get access to
whatever that thing is and itworks really, really well.
I've done it a bunch of timesand so that's one thing I'd
recommend.
But it is you do have to plan.
So the first two days you'regoing to really mentally
struggle because all you'regoing to want to do is think
(53:23):
about whatever.
Like say, you're trying to cutout sugary drinks, we'll just
say that, right, and you'retrying to cut that out.
All you're going to think aboutis wanting to go get that
sugary drink.
So that's where cutting out thecredit card thing really helps.
So once you're past a coupledays, you'll start to kind of
feel let's get a better example,because sugary drinks won't
(53:45):
necessarily make you feel likeyou're detoxing If you cut out,
if you go on a full detox diet.
So no gluten, no dairy, no sugar, no highly processed foods are
usually the standard four.
A lot of times people will alsocut out eggs from that as well
and soy those are big ones aswell, but it just depends.
But if you're doing the sugar,gluten, dairy and processed
(54:13):
foods the first few days, you'regoing to struggle right.
It's going to be hard.
But get past the first threedays.
Day four, five, six it can varyfor everybody You're going to
feel like you have the flu,you're going to feel really
tired, you're going to have verylow energy and it's going to
suck.
Some people get diarrhea, somepeople don't.
(54:35):
It just really depends.
Some people will sweat a lotand smell really stinky.
That's your body detoxing.
So I usually tell people to planit where those days are usually
over a weekend, when you'rehome and you can just kick back
or whatever.
So usually start a detox onlike a Wednesday and so then by
you know, saturday, sunday, youcan start to have your body
(54:58):
really detox those things.
By once you get through thosetwo or three days of crappiness
on the other side you're like,oh my God, I'm really starting
to feel good by day 10, you'regoing to have more energy,
you're going to feel healthier,your body's going to feel just
like lighter and cleaner andmore detox, like it's just your
body feels different.
So that's a big part of it.
(55:19):
And then it usually takesbetween there's not an exact
number, but it can take between15 and like 60 days to change a
habit.
For me, I know, usually aroundday 20, I stop having the same
cravings because my routine'schanged enough.
But again, everybody's going tobe different, so it can just
really depend.
(55:39):
But once you've built up thatnew routine and you're just used
to it, that's your routine thenand then those are your go-to
things.
The one thing that I'll say tobe very careful about is, when
you start to add things back inone, do it slowly, because your
body might react to something.
And two likely, if you're goingto add in, like if you're going
to bring in sugary drinks againafter you detox them, you're
(56:02):
going to get hooked like rightaway and so just before warns
like you're probably going tohave to go through the whole
detox again.
So just decide if it's worthbringing it back in or not.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (56:12):
So that kind of answers that, yeah,
that's a fine line to walk whenyou're talking about, you know,
if you drink a Pepsi, right?
Or your chai tea, like we don'twant you to go backwards your
two years, you know, free of thechai, exactly I will never.
Nika Lawrie (56:29):
I will never drink a Starbucks chai latte again,
because I think about it as likeI'm an alcoholic.
I cannot open that door againbecause I'll fall right back
into it.
So I just don't do it.
And so you just decide it's notworth it.
It was making me sick anyways,so why do it?
Ashley Martinez-Brown (56:45):
So that's it there anything specific like
during these detox, detox likeera, spread these these two
weeks or three weeks, howeverlong the detox goes on that
people should be adding to theirdetox and not forget about?
Right, because your body isdoing different things at this
time.
(57:06):
So are there a few things tokeep their like, keep them
stable and like their theirmental health okay during this
process, if they really don'thave an accountability partner
to go through this with.
Nika Lawrie (57:19):
Yeah, so I'll make this the final question and try
to get all those answers, justfor the sake of time.
So one of the things that I'lldefinitely always preface when
people are going through a detoxor trying to change these major
pieces of their diet andlifestyle especially those that
(57:40):
are on medications or mightstruggle with depression so any
type of medication at all, notjust a medication relating to
depression, any type ofmedication or they're struggling
with depression or anxiety or amental health issue they should
have that conversation witheither their physician, their
primary care or their mentalhealth therapist or whatever,
(58:03):
and have them be their supportthrough the process, so that
they're not doing it on theirown, because sometimes detoxing
can impact medications.
It can definitely impact theirmental health and so it's really
, really important to make surethat they have that care and
support through it.
With that, a lot of timespeople come out the other side.
(58:25):
I've seen a lot of patients orclients that no longer need
their depression medicationsonce they've gone through the
full detox and gotten to theother side.
That doesn't mean it'll happenfor everybody, but I have seen
that happen.
I've seen people come off ofdiabetes medications.
I've seen people come off likestop struggling with autoimmune
(58:49):
issues they were having.
So there's a lot of benefitsthat might heal some of the
health issues that you'repotentially having after going
through that detox.
The other side of that is justkeep in mind like you're
probably going to reallystruggle with like the cravings
and the exhaustion and likequitting for a couple days.
(59:10):
So like for the 10 days itmight suck, but I promise it
really can be worthwhile.
Getting to the other side, um,cause it's like rainbows and
butterflies on the other side,so does that answer your
question.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (59:23):
If you're able to come to fruition and go
full circle and be able tobetter yourself for a future
baby.
I mean this.
This all just goes together sowell, and thank you for giving
me an opportunity to ask you allthese questions.
I'm excited to put a lot ofwhat you taught me today into my
own life, and I hope otherswill find the same support that
(59:48):
they need, because a lot ofthese questions aren't asked
normally, so it's great to putit out there.
And thank you for letting me bethe host with the most, and I
appreciate your time on yourshow.
Nika Lawrie (01:00:01):
Oh, thank you so, so much for coming on and doing
this with me, ashley.
I'm so grateful for yourfriendship, as always, and I'm
grateful for you taking the timeto ask me all these questions
and just try to share thisknowledge with all the women out
there.
I think it's so, so important,and I don't think enough of this
information is getting to thewomen who need it, and so I'm
just grateful that you took thetime to help me get this out out
(01:00:23):
there.
Ashley Martinez-Brown (01:00:23):
We want everybody to know, because we
don't know what we don't know,and so nika's uncovering that
and showing us the ways.
So, yeah, glad to be here andhope to do another episode with
you soon.
(01:00:43):
Anytime I'll have you, thankyou you're welcome.
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