October 1, 2024 • 59 mins
Ever wondered how to truly balance your hormones for optimal health? In this episode, Nikki Durkin flips the script and interviews Nika Lawrie to dive into the fascinating world of female hormone health. Together, they break down the ebb and flow of hormones, tackle common misconceptions, and highlight key indicators of hormonal well-being like regular cycles, quality sleep, and maintaining a healthy body weight.
They also explore the impact of hormonal birth control, the importance of understanding your unique menstrual patterns, and how modern stressors affect women’s health. From stress management to holistic approaches, this episode is packed with practical tips and insights for embracing natural wellness and achieving hormonal balance.
MENTIONED IN THE SHOW:
Nikki's Episodes:
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- Part 2: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1136162/15551631
Yuka App: https://yuka.io/en/
Birth Control Documentary: https://www.thebusinessof.life/the-business-of-birth-control
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nika Lawrie (00:15):
Nikki, welcome back to the show.
I'm so happy to have you heretoday.
Thanks for having me again.
Yeah, so for the listeners,viewers we are flipping the
script today, so I invited mydear friend Nikki back onto the
show.
She was on the podcast a coupleweeks ago talking about Gamism
AI.
If you haven't listened to herepisodes, please, please, go
(00:36):
listen to them.
There's two.
We had to split it up into partone and part two because we
just went on forever and it wasamazing.
But I tell you, her episodeswill completely change your life
, so please go check them out.
I will link to them in the shownotes.
But today Nikki is coming backto get the download from me,
asking me questions all abouthormones and female reproductive
(01:00):
wellness and that kind of stuff.
So, nikki, with that, I'm goingto turn it over to you.
I am your guest.
You ask away.
Nikki Durkin (01:07):
Okay.
So it's quite cool because whenI met Nika and she was telling
me like everything that she knewand she had all of this
knowledge about, like functionalhealth, and the thing that was
really interesting to me that Iasked her about was hormones,
because you kind of hear all thetime like exercise and sleep
and and I think specifically forwomen's health, which is
(01:31):
something that I wasn't educatedon in high school or by society
is like hormone health.
So I thought maybe you couldjust kind of give me the
download.
What do I need to know as awoman?
So I thought maybe we couldstart by looking at like what
are the signs that my hormonesactually are healthy?
Yeah, and like it's likenothing to worry about, like
(01:53):
it's it, this is likefunctioning fine.
Nika Lawrie (01:56):
Absolutely so.
There's bunches of differentsigns, but the first thing I
want to say is balancing yourhormones is kind of a misnomer,
so we always hear you know womenshould balance their hormones.
Your hormones are going to ebband flow every day.
They're going to ebb and flowthroughout the month, so they
(02:16):
change as you sleep versusyou're awake.
So there's not really abalancing of hormones.
They're always going toincrease and decrease depending
on what's going on or what timeof month or day it is.
So that's the first thing.
But there are very keyindicators of ranges that your
hormones should be functioningin, and that's really the area
(02:37):
that we want to consider whenwe're thinking about quote
unquote balancing our hormones.
Are our hormones, even thoughthey kind of ebb and flow, are
they staying within the healthyranges?
And that's the big thing thatwe want to look at.
One of the biggest things tolook at specifically for women
and hormones is our menstrualcycle.
And I'm going to say this witha caveat If you're on hormonal
(03:00):
birth control whether that isthe pill or an IUD or some kind
of insert like the hormonal IUDthere's a copper IUD that
doesn't mess with your hormones,but the hormonal IUD well, any
of those are going to impact howyour hormones function
throughout the day or throughoutthe month, and so your range of
(03:22):
hormones is going to bedifferent and function different
than the average woman not on ahormonal birth control.
So that's the biggest thing tounderstand.
So women who are often onhormonal birth control or the
IUD that has hormones, don'thave any periods.
They can go six months or fiveyears without a period and we
(03:43):
can go down that rabbit hole.
I've got a bunch of issues withthat, but to stay within the
conversation right now, thebiggest thing to understand is
that the hormones from the birthcontrol are stopping your brain
from sending hormonal signalsto your reproductive system to
then release an egg and gothrough the whole period process
(04:08):
, the menstrual process.
So one of the biggest signs ifyou're not on a hormonal birth
control is your periods and areyou having a regular period, and
that can range very differentlyfor women.
It can range from every like 20days to every like 45 days.
It can be a big range.
(04:28):
So that 28 day you know every28 days you should have a period
.
That's just kind of a ballpark.
It's not an exact science.
Every woman's going to bedifferent and so if you're
having a regular period every,you know, four or five weeks or
so, and it's your regular system, so you.
So for me I sit around like 32days, and I've always kind of
(04:50):
been around that, and so I havea period ballpark every 32 days
or so, and so whatever that isfor you, as long as you're
having that normally, thenthat's a good sign that your
hormones are fairly healthy.
The other two pieces that youreally want to consider and
there's other factors too but isyour sleep?
How is your quality of sleep,especially as women start to age
(05:13):
?
So, are you waking up in themiddle of the night?
Are you having a hard timefalling asleep?
Are you sleeping like, is itlight sleep, where you're not
feeling rested in the morning,or you getting that good quality
, deep sleep where you're readyto go in the morning?
If you're not, that's a goodsign that some type of hormone
in your body is dysregulated.
It's not where it should be,and there are several that play
(05:35):
a role in that too, which we canget into.
And then the last one, I wouldsay it's a big one.
Especially as women start tohit ths and 40s, it'll start to
change a lot.
Is your weight?
Where is your weight at?
And each woman's healthy bodyweight is going to be different.
There's not a specific weightrange that a woman should be in
(05:58):
in the sense of the globalpicture, but each woman will
have a range based off of herspecific body type.
That's healthy, and if you'reoutside of that healthy pocket
of range, a lot of that can becontributed to hormonal
dysregulation, where yourhormones are not where they
should be.
So, weight gain, sleep issues,menstrual cycle those are the
(06:19):
big three that you want toconsider when thinking about
your hormones.
Nikki Durkin (06:33):
And okay.
So let's say I was to noticesomething's kind of off with
those things.
If I was to just go to a doctorand say, you know, like I'm not
sleeping well during the nightor like, notice weight gain, is
it common to be misdiagnosedwith something else, like does
this get kind of okay?
Do you want to tell me aboutwhat to watch out for?
Nika Lawrie (06:48):
yeah, so, um, so I know.
So you're in columbia right now.
I'm in the united states, um,so it can be different depending
on where you are around theworld.
So, kind of speaking to globalpopulation, I I know here in the
United States a lot of womenare struggling.
They go to their physician andthey say I have one, two, three
(07:09):
symptoms, whatever it is, andthe doctors are not listening to
them or maybe they'remisdiagnosing them, or maybe
they're attributing thosesymptoms to something different
and they're being misdiagnosed.
So this is a very, very commonissue.
I know it's very prevalent herein the United States.
I hear from women around theworld struggling with the same
(07:29):
kind of thing, though it's kindof different country by country
and health system by healthsystem.
But a lot of the time peoplewill say you know, maybe you are
having a hard time sleeping andyou're craving sugary foods,
and so they'll be like oh, maybeyou're just closer to your
(07:50):
period and your body's justcraving that kind of thing.
Or they'll say your sleepissues are caused by stress,
when reality it's a hormonedeficiency or a hormone issue,
and so there's a lot of back andforth pieces.
It's kind of hard to givespecific examples because each
person is going to be different,but the key, what you want to
(08:13):
do is have a conversation withyour physician or your medical
provider about where yourhormones are at and actually
have them tested.
It's simple blood work, it'snot complicated, it's usually
one or two little vials of bloodand they can test the different
levels of your hormones.
The biggest ones to look at forwomen are estrogen,
(08:35):
progesterone and testosterone,and understanding where those
are.
Women often don't think abouttestosterone, but if your
testosterone is too low, you canhave sleep issues, you can have
lethargy, you can feel likecompletely unmotivated, just
kind of blah health issuesdepression, anxiety, those kinds
(09:07):
of things and so it's reallykey to make sure that you know,
say, you go in with depressionor anxiety symptoms and then
they give you an SSRI to helpsupport the depression, but then
they don't actually test yourhormones.
That just medication thatthey've given you for depression
will not actually help addressthe root cause symptom, which is
like the hormones being off,and so then you need to find out
(09:30):
are the hormones off?
And if they are, let's deepdive or dive deeper and find out
why are the hormones off.
What do we need to do?
Does that make?
Nikki Durkin (09:37):
sense.
Yeah, that makes sense.
So I'm curious.
It sounds like, obviously, Imean, we're talking about the
human body, which is thisself-organizing system.
Yes, so, um, like stress beinglinked to hormones.
Um, it sounds like that's kindof like a vicious cycle, because
it's like are my hormones offbecause I'm stressed or am I
(10:00):
stressed because my hormones areoff or I don't know?
Like, yes, you want to likeelaborate?
Nika Lawrie (10:06):
yeah, it's kind of a chicken and an egg situation.
Um, each person you know you'llprobably hear me say this a
billion times each person isgoing to be different.
But if you are really stressedin life, if there's a lot of,
you know, emotional going onmaybe you've experienced some
trauma.
Even past trauma, likechildhood trauma can still be
(10:28):
causing that stress.
If you're in a stressful workenvironment, an unhealthy
relationship, you're dealingwith a familiar drama or stress,
that way, all of those aregoing to play a big role.
They're going to increase yourcortisol level, which is your
stress response hormone, andthat can cause havoc in your
health or in your body andreally disrupt how your hormones
(10:51):
are communicating throughoutyour body.
And so, yeah, so it's a littlebit of a chicken in the egg
which comes first, but I wouldgive more preface to if there's
external stress factors, that'slikely playing a bigger role
than you just being concernedthat your hormones are out of
whack and you need to fixsomething does that make sense?
Nikki Durkin (11:13):
oh no, it totally makes sense, and I brought back
to like periods of my life where, if I was like very stressed, I
could put on weight.
Yeah, I would eat this likesame thing, but I would just my
body would do this likeprotective thing where it's like
, well, I'm just gonna put onall the armor and then that's
(11:34):
actually your like, even thoughwe hate it.
Nika Lawrie (11:36):
That's actually your body working the exact way
it's supposed to work.
It puts on's like a.
It's a stress response to fightor flight, like our bodies
don't understand that.
You know, an argument with ourboyfriend is different than a
lion attacking us right orstarvation, there's not enough
food around.
(11:56):
So our bodies are going toreact the same way they did a
hundred thousand years ago right, we're going to.
If we're we feel stressed fromnot enough food, our body's
going to store fat on our on ourbodies so that we have food, we
have enough energy, basicallyto keep going Right, and so that
response, even though we hateit, is totally normal.
So the key there is to figureout how do I reduce the stress,
(12:20):
calm that fight or flight andreduce the cortisol response,
and then your body will kickback into a healthier
functioning system yeah, like Idid a complete.
Nikki Durkin (12:31):
I had to completely change my lifestyle
from high stress like ceorunning, running business, yeah,
and then I was like, I was likeyou know what I want?
The soft life like just, andonce I did that, I just I'm like
I can't, I can't go back intothat whole like grind, grind,
move, move, move.
Like that pace which I mean, ifwe're talking about women and
(12:55):
men and the difference betweenlike different needs and how the
system's built and stuff.
It's just like the more I'vegrown up and seen both sides of
that world, like the mainstreamsociety which is like it's built
on men's schedules, like let'sbe like very consistent in our
work, and like 24, 7 and pushand grind and whatever.
And I was just like, oh my god,I'm exhausted, um, and then, uh
(13:18):
it for me it was like when Iallowed myself or gave myself
permission to slow down and likeI was like I need to get
stressed out of my life.
It's like my body justnaturally came into alignment.
I didn't have to like controlit, I didn't.
I was like naturally, it's justlike eating healthier, my body
just let go of like all thisstuff that it was just holding
(13:40):
on to.
So, yeah, it's fascinating.
It's like, yeah, it is, andespecially because I think, like
I don't know about you, but forme in Australia, when I grew up
, grew up, it was like um, verymuch a paradigm of like having
to control your body, like yourbody is bad and you need to like
like whip it into shape andcontrol it and earn, like earn a
(14:06):
healthy body, rather than likeno, no, you have a healthy body,
you just have to like not dostuff that makes it unhealthy,
like yeah, like like, like, andso I just I find it I don't know
if you want to elaborate onthat of like um, I think this
like more peaceful, holisticcaroline, of like that I
(14:26):
perceive now my relationshipwith my health, which is like
how do I nourish myself withfood and water and exercise like
and I only like to exercisemost days a week, just like
enjoy and like I don't forcemyself and like removing stress
and stuff, and so like, how doyou see those two like um, those
(14:48):
two paradigms like pushing upagainst each other?
And then how can women embracethis paradigm that's better,
like, more natural for them, butsociety's telling them it's
like no, you have to likecontrol, and like push and shove
and take medication.
Nika Lawrie (15:06):
I love.
I mean, I could go on and onabout this, cause I think this
is such a key thing.
One of the things I wasthinking about when you were
speaking a minute ago wasactually women.
When we think about stress, theway society is set up, women
have so many responsibilities,right, like we're we're now.
You know part of the being thebreadwinner, right, we have to
(15:27):
go out and make money and haveso many responsibilities, right,
like we're now you know, partof being the breadwinner, right,
we have to go out and makemoney and have the job.
And then we also have to growthe child inside us.
We have to give birth to thechild.
I mean, that stress alone is awhole other ballpark, right?
So we grow the children, thenwe give birth to the children,
and then our bodies are neverthe same.
Our bodies are still likechanging and transitioning after
we give birth, so that's astress and trauma on the body.
Then we have to mentally carrythe stress of raising a child
(15:50):
and keeping this other humanalone, while still trying to
figure out how to take care ofus and how to take care of our
partner and how to keep our jobgoing and how to keep the house
running and how to keep the petsalive, right, like you have to
do the grocery shopping, likethere's so many stress layers
that come with just being awoman in society, right, and so
you know you and I have talkedabout vibrations in the other
(16:13):
podcasts, but understanding thevibration level that we're at
just being women in this societyis huge, and so that stress
vibration runs throughout ourday all the time is huge, and so
that stress vibration runsthroughout our day all the time,
and so whatever we can do toreduce that you know, unhealthy
stress vibration as much aspossible is really really key to
(16:34):
overall health, and I love that.
You brought up the idea of youknow being healthy is not being
forceful and like winning theaward because I grinded out in
the gym, I restricted this manythings, and so I'm healthy
because I did this and I get theaward.
(16:54):
Instead, it should be aconversation about how do I
bring in healthy foods into mylife to nourish my body.
How do I bring in if I'm goingto eat a sweet treat?
How do I bring that in apositive manner?
So, like an example is myhusband and I try to do a date
night at least once a week.
It's usually every other weekbecause we have a pretty crazy
(17:15):
schedule, but we always do adate night and when we go I'll
try it.
We usually go to a nicerestaurant and if they have
creme brulee it's my favoritedessert I'll always order the
creme brulee and I don't worryabout it and I don't stress
about it, because it's like thisjoyful thing that I'm
experiencing with my husband andit's a date night and we, you
know, are enjoying time togetherand it's like a bonus that goes
(17:36):
with that.
And so it's not aboutrestricting sugar.
It's about appreciating andbringing in that positive,
almost like feminine, but likethat soft energy of enjoying
that sweet treat in that momentwith my husband.
Right, or yeah, or likethinking about working out.
Like working out.
It's less about like let's goto the gym and grind and work
(17:57):
out.
It's like how do I move my bodywhere it feels good?
So if it's like yoga or, youknow, a long walk or a light
hike in the foothills orwhatever, right, like it's
figuring out how do I keepmoving my body in a way that
makes my body feel good, havethat positive energy, that kind
of runs through your body afteryou've worked out.
(18:19):
It doesn't mean that you haveto, you know, run on the
treadmill for an hour and a half, which I absolutely do not
recommend.
But you know it's figuring outthose much more.
It's like listening to yourinternal energy of like, what is
going to nourish my body, howdo I feed my body, and then
doing those things.
Nikki Durkin (18:39):
Mm-hmm, like what kind of?
Because I think like so much ofhow we respond to life is based
on, like, the questions thatwe're asking ourselves.
And so what kind of questionswould you shift into to shift
out of the paradigm of, like,controlling, restricting, like
(19:00):
just formulate, kind of like Ineed to like, exercise this much
and do this much and eat any,eat these number of calories and
whatever, like, for example,I've I started asking myself
it's like, uh, what feelsnourishing to me?
Or it's like, it's likemeditating on these words, like
nourishment and joy, and likewhat is joyful to me, like when
I go to the gym.
If I don't want to go to the gym, I don't, I don't go to the gym
(19:21):
, but I want to go to the gymbecause it's like, because it's
like I like making my body upwith been sitting down and it
feels like an expression of whoI am.
And there's certain um, youknow, thought structures that I
deliberately like will savemyself before I go to remind
myself that you know I get tomove my body and I don't have to
(19:44):
like or just like.
So are there any kind of likemind tricks or um framing or
tips that you have the audienceabout how they can shift their
energy into more of that softer,like holistic paradigm that
you're talking about.
Nika Lawrie (20:01):
Yeah, so there's two things.
There's one that I've beenrecently really thinking about,
kind of a paradigm shift formyself, but there's a saying I
always say to myself when I likethinking about working out, is
you can either have a short-termpain for long-term gain or you
can have long-term pain for ashort-term game, and what I mean
(20:26):
by this is okay.
So a short-term pain would beI'm going to go work out in the
gym for half an hour, right, I'mgoing to go hard, you know,
strength train, feel good, right, do that, and it's like it
sucks for it really only sucksfor like the first five minutes.
When you get to the gym.
Once you're in the mode, you'rejust like I can knock this out,
(20:48):
right, but it's the short-termpain for a long-term gain.
So like, if you do, you know,30 minutes three times a week,
your body's going to keepgetting healthy and staying
healthy and staying stronger,and so that's that long-term
gain right On the opposite sideof that.
So think about a short-term gainfor a long-term pain.
So thinking about and I'm nottotally trying to hammer on
(21:12):
sugar, but sugar is such a goodexample of this so like a
short-term gain is like I'mgoing to drink a soda, right?
Like you get that dopaminespike and you're like, oh, like
that first sip with its littlebubbles in your mouth, it's so
good, right.
So you get the short-term gain.
It feels good for a few seconds.
Even by the time you get to theend of the soda you're like,
ugh, this is gross, I don't wantany more.
(21:32):
Right?
So it's this short-term gain.
But the long-term pain is like,if you keep drinking it every
day or whatever, it leads topotentially diabetes or heart
disease.
Or you know, sugar plays a rolein cancer.
There's, you know, weight gainissues, there's all these other
(21:54):
factors that, like, if you keepgiving yourself that short-term
gain, you're going to have thatlong-term pain.
Where, if you look at it on theother side, short-term pain is
working out.
Or you know, eating thevegetable that you don't like
the way it tastes, but you knowit's good for you.
The short-term pain for alifelong of health and wellness.
So that's a big thing that Ithink about when I'm like, not
(22:16):
convinced.
I want to go work out in thegym and like, okay, short-term
pain, long-term gain, right,it's just a little thing.
The other piece that I've reallybeen working on, or like
something that I've really comeinto my own over the last few
months, especially recently isreally looking at what I'm
calling the positive energyprinciple.
(22:38):
And so when we think about likeyou were talking about how do I
nourish my body, so you have tolearn to start to kind of
listen to your body and kind ofyour body will send you those
internal messages, right, andsometimes it's going to tell you
I need to just rest and lay onthe couch and like doom scroll,
(22:59):
you know whatever your favoritesocial media platform is, or
watch a you know a Netflixseries or whatever it is Like.
Sometimes that is the best,most nourishing thing you can do
for your body.
But maybe after you've watchedfour episodes of an eight
episode series, your body's likeyou need to get up and do
something, right, and so it'sgoing to tell you it's time to
(23:21):
move.
You need to move and so insteadof staying there for the next
four episodes which I'vehonestly done myself, but try
not to right, yeah.
Get up and move, go for a walk,eat some you know, cook a
healthy meal or something, dosomething.
And so it's listening to yourbody.
It will tell you, you know,this feels good, which is
(23:42):
positive energy, or this feelsbad or uneasy, which is negative
energy.
And if you just listencarefully and you keep following
the positive energy path, yourbody is going to tell you what
you need, keeping in mind thatyour body's going to say, oh, I
want sugar, but what sugarreally is is oh, I want
(24:02):
something that's going to feedmy body and give me energy.
And so there's a couple littleyou know caveats that you have
to learn there.
But really listening to whatyour body's saying and following
what feels, ask yourself thetwo questions Does this feel
good?
Do I want more of this in mylife, or does this feel bad?
Is this leading me down anunhealthy path?
(24:23):
And following the positiveenergy path, I think, is really
really key.
Nikki Durkin (24:28):
Yeah, I mean it's been oh no, I'm just saying like
in my life, like I think,transformative in terms of the
relationship with my body andpeace.
It's like I just want peace,like give me peace in my life
and my relationship with my bodywhen I was like 21, it was
(24:48):
entirely through the paradigm oflike how do I control, restrict
, you know, take some formulaand like eat this amount of
calories to do that, you know,like I have to do.
I have to like fit into thisnarrow box and now it's like I
just eat whatever I want,whenever I want.
It's just like I don't want toeat junk food.
Yeah, exactly, yeah, you know.
So I'm like I want just eatwhatever I want, whenever I want
.
It's just like I don't want toeat junk food.
Yeah, exactly.
(25:09):
So I'm like I want to eat likedelicious salads and wraps and
like super nourishing,nutritious food, but I can eat
whatever I want.
I just don't want to eat thatstuff, and then when I do want
to eat it, I eat it, which is somuch peace.
Nika Lawrie (25:30):
Oh my gosh.
I think the big big thing, too,is that following you know,
this like positive energy pathgives you the freedom to like if
you just want to eat somethingcrappy every once in a while,
it's okay.
Don't do it all the time, butevery once in a while, like,
don't ride yourself and feelguilty and all these horrible
things doing it, but it like 99%of the time, try to eat
something healthy.
But it's.
It's giving you freedom fromlike I have to restrict calories
(25:53):
here, or I have to cut thesetypes of food out of my body or
out of my diet, or I have tofollow this strict keto diet or
whatever.
It is right Like you can cutout all of the noise of the
health and wellness industry andstart to listen to how do I
nourish my body Like what isactually going to give me good
(26:13):
quality energy.
And if you don't know, thencome talk to me and I'll tell
you you know what fruits andvegetables and different things
to eat.
But really it's prettystraightforward common sense.
Nikki Durkin (26:26):
So okay, we kind of veered a little bit away from
hormones.
So let's go back, yeahsomething you were saying when
we're talking about the gym is.
You said oh, like I wouldn't goand run for an hour and a half
on the on the treadmill, so like, are there certain ways of
exercising or not exercising?
That might be likeoverstressing the body or like
(26:47):
claustrophobic hormonalimbalance.
Nika Lawrie (26:49):
Yes, so one of the biggest issues that I see when
it comes to women's bodies andhealth and working out is we've
been told for so long thatcardio is the answer.
Right, like go run on thetreadmill for an hour and a half
so that you can burn, you know,200 calories, or whatever,
(27:11):
right it's this.
It came from like the 80s, 90slike let's burn calories figure
out how to do that so everyonegot into running and treadmill
and cardio and all these things,and that's not actually how our
bodies work.
The key thing that we need tounderstand is we have to have
muscle on our body in order toburn the fat, to use the energy
(27:34):
that's stored in our body, andwhen we have low muscle mass,
our body is not going to burnenergy as well.
It does the opposite, actually.
It starts to store energy, andstored energy in the body is fat
, right.
So the better option to do isto strength train for women and
(27:55):
when I say strength train, a lotof women are like oh, but I
don't want to look like abodybuilder, unless you're
taking growth hormone and crazyamounts of testosterone and all
of these things.
You're never.
Your body is just not meant tolook like that.
Nikki Durkin (28:10):
it's not gonna happen I love it when, like men
respond to that.
It's almost like a meme whereit's like women are kind of like
oh, but I don't want to looklike a bodybuilder, and you've
got these men there.
That's like they like I'm a manand I spend my entire life
dedicating to eating, perfectly,I'm working at the gym and I
still don't look like abodybuilder.
And they just laugh at thisidea that it's like you think
(28:31):
this happens easily.
Yeah.
Nika Lawrie (28:35):
Like that's never going to happen, like you have
to go down some crazy rabbitholes to make your body look
like that.
What's going to happen is thatyou're going to have better
energy, you're going to feelbetter, your body's going to be
more tone, so you'll just lookbetter, you know, for your body
type.
You're gonna sleep better,you're going to probably digest
(28:58):
your food better, like it's sohelpful to have good muscle on
your body and it's literally itwill help you so much as you age
, because as you start to moveinto your 30s and 40s, you start
to lose muscle tone and so themore you can do now to work on
that and to strengthen yourmuscles and to really support
(29:23):
their structure, the better offyou're going to be as you age
and the less issues you'll haveas you age too.
So strength training is thebiggest thing I would say.
You know you can do a lot ofstrength training just at home
with light weights.
You can do body weights.
So, like squats and different,like pushups, different things
like that, strength training isthe biggest, best way that a
(29:45):
woman can support her body andhelp her maintain or lose weight
and maintain and support herhormones.
When it comes to exercise,running cardio for long periods
of time.
Some cardio is okay.
You want to have good cardio,that's important.
But being on the treadmill forlike an hour, an hour and a half
or whatever it is, is not goingto help you burn those calories
(30:06):
.
First off, you might burn alittle bit, but not enough to
actually like make a differenceand really like getting tone or
losing weight or whatever it isyou're trying to do.
But it puts a lot of stress onyour body too, and that stress
we talked about it earlierraises your cortisol, and when
your cortisol is high, you'remore likely to put on fat, and
so it becomes this wholeunhealthy cycle.
(30:27):
And so, instead of running forlong periods of time, instead
consider yoga, like the strengthtraining.
Like I mentioned.
Pilates is a great optionbecause it's kind of that in
between going for a nice briskwalk.
You can walk fast if you want,but getting outside and
experiencing nature while you dowalk is actually even more
(30:47):
beneficial.
So those are the things that Iwould recommend, opposed to
doing a heavy cardio workout.
Nikki Durkin (30:54):
How do you feel about like like sprints or
things that are intervaltraining?
Nika Lawrie (31:01):
So interval training is really key to this
is a great way.
Interval training is really keytoo.
This is a great way.
So one of the best things thatyou can do is do something for
like 45 seconds to a minute andthen take 30 seconds or a minute
off and then do something else,and so it's the.
The key is to have the peak,the like, the, the big push, and
(31:21):
then take a break and let yourheart rate drop down to normal
and then back up again, and thenlet your heart rate drop back
down and back up.
And the reason this is such agreat thing is when you know, we
go back to, you know primitivetimes and we think about the
lion coming after us.
Right, humans back then did notrun, you know, a marathon a day
(31:44):
just to lose weight.
Right, the only times that theygot up and run were like animals
were coming to attack them, orlike they had to run over to
grab something, or you know whatI mean.
And so we think about how ourbodies were actually designed to
function.
And it's having those, thosesprint moments where we run
really hard, full out, do asmuch as we can, and then we come
(32:07):
back down to neutral and we letour heart rate rest and we and
we pause and you know, controlour breathing again and then we
do it again, and so doingsomething like that that's
actually a really great way todo a workout if you have a
little bit of time.
So it's something I'll do whentraveling is I'll do a hit know
where I do like 10 push-ups oryou know 10 squats, and then I
(32:31):
take a break and then I dosomething else, or I jog in
place and take a break, and soit's a great tool to shorten
your workout time okay, um, okay.
Nikki Durkin (32:40):
So can you tell me about when we go back to
hormones, like what are somethings that you can do, or like
lifestyle changes to kind ofbalance your hormones, as you
say, without having to getmedication anymore?
Nika Lawrie (32:57):
Yeah, so I know I keep coming back to it, but the
biggest one is to reduce sugaras much as possible.
Um, and when I talk about sugar, I'm talking about, you know,
white refined sugar.
We're going to talk about sodasand sugary drinks, candies,
those kind of things.
And then the thing that peopledon't think about the most is
(33:18):
highly processed foods.
So we're thinking about, youknow, crackers and potato chips
and granola bars and kind of, ifit comes in a box, it's
probably ultra processed, it'sprobably highly processed.
And so reducing that as much aspossible as well, because the
way that functions in your body,as it functions as if it's a
(33:41):
sugar, it just burns up in yourbody quickly.
You know, you might get alittle boost of energy from it
burning, but then the excessfrom that then gets stored as
fat and the more you have of it,the more your hormones can
become dysregulated.
A lot of women will have, youknow, issues with having too
much sugar and then theirtestosterone is too low and,
(34:04):
like we talked about earlier,when their testosterone is low,
then they have lethargy andbrain fog and lack of motivation
and then that leads to a wholeunhealthy cycle, right?
So sugar and highly processedfoods, reducing that as much as
possible.
And I, like we talked earlier,I will never say don't have any,
(34:24):
because sometimes I just wannahave a creme brulee with my
husband at dinner, but I am alsonot telling you to go drink,
you know, a can of soda and abag of chips, right Like.
So really figuring out how tomanage that in a way that again
nourishes your body, manage thatin a way that again nourishes
(34:49):
your body.
On the flip side of that,there's actually a lot of foods
that you can bring into yourlife that really help.
So nuts and seeds have a lot ofdifferent beneficial factors to
help, kind of quote unquotebalance the hormones.
Again, it's really trying tokeep those hormones in those
healthy ranges.
So there's different nuts andseeds that you can have, there's
different vegetables that canhelp as well, and so instead of
(35:10):
kind of going down that whole,you know, eat this for this one
and eat that for that one,because you can just Google it
and there's a ton out there it'sreally understanding how to
transition the diet to healthierfood options and removing as
much of those unhealthy foods aspossible so just in terms of
like, like for me, I know, tokeep my life really convenient,
(35:34):
I tend to eat more or less thesame thing every day, like god.
Nikki Durkin (35:42):
So I'm currently in tolambia.
This is this one place whereit's just like, it's all, just
like really healthy food.
I used to eat there three timesa day, which was kind of
embarrassing, and I would walkin and like, oh, nikki's here
for breakfast.
They just like bring it out,and so I was like super
predictable.
But even if I'm eating, likeyou know, a salad for lunch and
(36:02):
a wrap for dinner or whatever,is it bad to eat like the same
thing every day, or should I betrying to get more variety if,
like, what I'm eating is healthy, like it's, you know?
Nika Lawrie (36:17):
So it's a relative question.
My answer is variety is usuallybetter, but let me give you one
example of why I say it's arelative question.
So there is a man named BrianJohnson.
He is a biohacker who is onthis extreme diet where he
(36:37):
literally eats.
They've mathematically figuredout meals for him to eat in a
very short period of time Ithink it's a six-hour window
that he eats each day and that'sit.
He fasts the rest of the timeand in that period of time he
eats.
I think it's two meals.
It's like a drink and then liketwo meals and then that's it.
(36:58):
But they figured out how to getall the vitamins and nutrients
he needs from those two specificmeals a day, every day, and
that's all he eats.
And his goal is his.
He wears t-shirts that saydon't die, and so his goal is to
live forever.
So we'll see.
You know, hopefully someonewill see I don't know.
But so if you figured out reallyhow to eat that completely
(37:23):
supports your body, then I'd sayit's probably okay to eat close
to the same thing every singleday.
He also takes like 60 to 100supplements a day.
Nikki Durkin (37:33):
I can imagine, yeah, and so you know it's a
relative answer.
Nika Lawrie (37:38):
On the flip side, for us everyday normal people, I
think variety is really key,and there's two reasons for that
.
One variety is key because youget different vitamins and
minerals and different nutrientsfrom different types of food,
right?
So different colors of food.
So you're thinking like purplecarrots versus white carrots
versus orange carrots all havedifferent vitamins and minerals
(38:02):
in them that do different things, and so you know that's an
example of one one vegetablethat has different things,
different colors.
You know different grapes aredifferent colors, those kinds of
things right.
So that can give you a range ofvitamins and minerals that come
from it.
But the other side of that thatmost people don't talk about is
actually the bacteria that comewith the food that you're eating
(38:24):
, and so your gut microbiome ismassive in your overall health,
and your gut microbiome actuallycontrols how a lot of the
hormones in your body work, andso if you want healthy hormones,
you need to have a healthy gut,and in order to have a healthy
gut, you want a diversepopulation of probiotics,
(38:48):
prebiotics, and that comes fromdifferent types of food that you
eat.
There's actual bacteria on allthe food that you eat, and so
it'll come from, that.
It comes from the soil that thefood was grown in, and so that
matters.
It comes from the water youdrink, the environment you live
in, the animals that you'rearound.
All of those play a factor inhow healthy your gut microbiome
(39:11):
is.
And then, for a whole otherepisode, we could go down the
rabbit hole of the differentchemicals that we're exposed to
in the foods that we eat, theproducts that we use, the makeup
that we wear.
All that stuff can actuallydamage a lot of the bacteria in
our gut and can cause issueswith our hormones as well.
But that's a big thing.
(39:32):
So my overall suggestion is toeat diverse and eat.
Eat clean, eat diverse and thenknow as much as possible where
your food is coming.
Nikki Durkin (39:43):
Okay, okay, cool yeah, so well, okay.
So this is the question that'sthis is coming.
Okay, okay, cool, yeah, so well,okay.
So this is this little question.
This this is coming up for meat the moment is, um, hunger,
hunger's a hormone like ghrelin,ghrelin what's it called?
Ghrelin, ghrelin, yeah, ghrelin.
So I was curious about thisbecause maybe like a month or
(40:05):
two ago, I was on antibioticsand um, I and I forgot that I
was on antibiotics.
I'm like, oh my god, I want toeat everything I was.
I was so annoying like I wouldsit down and be hungry again.
I hated it.
Um, and then when I went offthem, it's like I don't know,
for some reason at the moment,it's like I don't need to eat
(40:28):
till like 2 pm in the afternoon,like I'm just not not hungry, I
don't really want to eat.
So it's like I don't eat.
Is that bad?
Like as in, as in, should I be?
Should I be going?
Okay, I'm not hungry, but Ishould eat something in the
morning.
Or do I listen to my body?
It's just like I'm going to.
We're not hungry.
Like, how much should I crossthat?
Nika Lawrie (40:51):
So, first, the antibiotics um, probably wreaked
havoc in your gut because itkills off good and bad bacteria,
right, and so it's important toeat diversely and eat if you
can eat things that arefermented and things like that
(41:11):
to help rebuild the microbiomeafter you've been on antibiotics
.
So that's a big part.
First, talking about yourhunger levels and how they
change, that is totally normal,and so there are.
So some people just have nointerest in breakfast in the
morning.
I'm not usually a breakfastperson.
Sometimes I am.
(41:32):
Sometimes I'm like this morning, for example, I was hungry, so
I ate breakfast.
A lot of mornings I'm nothungry until like 11 or 12 in
the afternoon, and so that'swhen I decide to eat.
And so, as long as it's notnegatively impacting your life
or you know you're not starving,then I think it's okay.
I think it's okay to listen toyour body.
(41:53):
The two caveats I would saywith that is if it becomes a
long-term issue where you'reheaded towards like an eating
disorder or something like that,then you definitely want to
avoid that and make sure thatyou get a healthy eating cycle
in place.
But and I'm not saying towardsyou, I'm just saying it kind of
in general but the other thingthat I will say is that, oh man,
(42:18):
I just lost my train of thought.
Anyways, ask me anotherquestion and I'll come back.
Nikki Durkin (42:24):
Okay, so, um, we've talked about, like, eating
, exercise, we talked brieflyabout sleep, stress, um,
environmental toxins.
Stress, um, environmentaltoxins, what, what?
Because that feels like another, like unknown, like something I
(42:45):
don't know, I don't know, andit's just like permeating my
environment and like, for me, Ifeel like I don't use a lot of
products, like I, I'm pretty,I'm fairly minimal, but I'm sure
there's like things that I canimprove on that I don't even
know about.
So what are the what's like,the 20% that would give me 80%
(43:06):
of this?
Nika Lawrie (43:08):
Okay, so I could do a thousand shows on
environmental toxins, becauseit's so big and so profound and
so massively important when itcomes to our health.
But to give you that 20%,that's going to give you the 80
overall right.
So environmental toxins are arange of different chemicals
(43:28):
that we are exposed to throughdifferent means of life that
impact our health in differentways.
The most common ones thatyou'll hear about are called
endocrine disrupting chemicals,so EDCs and our endocrine system
is our hormone system, and ourhormone system is our signaling
system.
(43:48):
It's our messenger system ofthe body, so it tells everywhere
in our body what to do right,and so there's hormones that
come from places in our brain.
There's hormones that come fromour gut.
There's hormones that come fromdifferent glands throughout our
body, and so there's hormonesthat come from places in our
brain.
There's hormones that come fromour gut.
There's hormones that come fromdifferent glands throughout our
body, and so all of those tellour body to do different things,
and when those get messed up,when they get disrupted, our
(44:09):
body doesn't function the wayit's supposed to, and then we
start to have different issueslike weight gain or bowel issues
, or lethargy, or brain fog orwhatever it is right,
infertility is a huge one, sodifferent things like that.
So these endocrine disruptingchemicals, these EDCs, are in
(44:30):
all different kinds of things inour world now and unfortunately
it's getting bigger and biggerand worse and worse as time goes
on.
So currently there are probablyabout 90,000 chemicals.
The last I heard was like86,000 or something registered
chemicals that are used.
Of those 86, there's about41,000, 42,000 that are in
(44:53):
active use, meaning that they'reused in products and food and
things that we buy and use everyday.
Many of those chemicals I'm notsaying all 46,000, but there
are thousands of those chemicalsare endocrine disrupting
chemicals or chemicals that areimpacting the body in a negative
way.
Somehow.
Many of these chemicals havenot been regulated at all in the
(45:16):
US.
There's only five actually thathave ever been restricted in
the United States.
To give a comparison, in the EUand Europe about 1,500 have
been regulated.
So five in the US, 1,500 inEurope, and then different
countries vary.
So I'm not sure what it's likein Colombia and in different
(45:39):
countries vary.
So I'm not sure what it's likein Colombia.
I know Australia tends tofollow more of the UK EU
guidelines, but there's tons ofchemicals out there that are
still impacting us in a negativeway, like artificial sweeteners
, colors like yellow number fiveor yellow number six.
(46:00):
There's lots of differentpreservatives that are put in
food that will impact us.
Another example of this arethings that are used in personal
care and beauty products.
You'll hear about things likephthalates or parabens.
Most of those are associatedwith the scents or the
(46:36):
fragrances that are in thesechemicals.
You'll see them in cosmetics aswell.
Body washes and even in ourmakeups have fragrances, our
face creams have fragrance, likeeverything right, and so,
understanding that thesechemicals are a lot of different
things, I'll give you one moreexample that's a really
prevalent one.
Is plastics, so you have BPA.
(46:57):
Is plastics, so you have BPA.
So there's actually a wholeseries of BPA to BPZ, and
there's some others betweenthere as well.
In BPA, you'll see a lot ofcompanies say, oh, it's BPA-free
, we don't use it, but whatthey've actually done is just
transition from BPA to like BPSor BPF like Sam is in, or S is
(47:19):
in Sam or F is in Frank right,and so BPA is still an unhealthy
chemical that can impact yourhormones, and even though it's
BPA free, it doesn't mean thatit's BPS or BPF free.
So it's a really common.
So it's like a marketing thing.
Nikki Durkin (47:37):
BPA has like a bad rap.
So they say oh yeah, we don'tuse BPA, but they're still got
the underlying.
Nika Lawrie (47:44):
Exactly, yes, so, yeah.
So the best option is then justdon't use plastic.
Opt for stainless steel orglass.
And so when I, when I talkabout this, think about like
your water bottles.
Try to avoid plastic waterbottles as much as possible.
Food storage always keep yourfood storage in a glass
(48:08):
Tupperware, especially if it'shot.
The last thing you want to dois put hot, like, say, lasagna,
like hot, fatty, greasy food ina plastic Tupperware.
Like my soul dies when I seethings like that, because it's
leaching the chemicals from theplastic into the food and then,
when you heat the food, you'redigesting those chemicals and
(48:31):
then those chemicals are goingto impact your hormones and
cause those issues.
Nikki Durkin (48:34):
Good to know.
Nika Lawrie (48:36):
Avoiding fragrances as much as possible.
So this was one of the hardestones for me, because I loved
perfumes, but once I learnedthis I was like, oh crap, I have
to get these out of my life.
So really trying to takeperfumes out of your life and
different fragrances.
So laundry detergents are a bigplace you'll find those
fragrances.
Shampoos are a big place you'llfind those fragrances.
(49:02):
Shampoos, makeup, body careproducts, those kind of things.
So opt for options in thepersonal care and kind of
cleanliness industry that eitherdon't have fragrances or are
using essential oils as theirfragrances and it's not an exact
science with essential oils,but that's the biggest thing is
try to go.
If you have to have thefragrance, try to do something
(49:22):
with essential oils.
This can be kind of a big crazything to navigate, but the
awesome thing is there's severalapps that you can just download
and then you just scan thebarcode and it'll give you a
scale of like red, yellow, greenor like one through 10 of like
this is clean.
This is okay.
This is not great, but you know, use discretion or avoid red
(49:45):
flag, don't use.
And so, um, some of those appsare think dirty, um, yuka, uh,
environmental working group hastwo different ones, one for,
like uh, personal care, and theother ones for food, um, and so
those are a couple apps that youcan use.
Yuka is my personal favoriteout of them.
How do you spell that y-u-k-a?
(50:07):
Okay, yeah, and it had.
I haven't looked at it in awhile, but it has a little uh
carrot on it, like a little fakecarrot, so that's a big thing
yeah, okay, okay, that's, that'sgood to know.
Nikki Durkin (50:19):
And then I guess, like the other, maybe like one
of the final things is like, um,things like birth control.
So how does that, um, how doeslike the hormonal medication
kind of like affect all of that?
I know we talked about itbriefly, but is there anything
else to add?
Nika Lawrie (50:37):
Yeah, so one of the things I'll actually just say
is, like, if people areinterested to learn about
hormonal birth control and likehow it's impacting your body as
a woman and like the history ofit, there is a incredible
documentary.
It was done by Rikki Lake.
I don't know if you know whoRikki Lake was.
(50:57):
I know she was a tv host herein like the I think, mid 90s or
something I remember as achildhood.
Nikki Durkin (51:05):
I remember my.
No, I remember my um.
My babysitter used to what likewhen I was home with her in the
middle of the day.
Yeah, that's the only reason.
Nika Lawrie (51:14):
Yeah, so she was a tv host here, you know, and it
was like kind of a you know sortof cheesy talk show back in the
day.
But she's gone on this wholejourney with one of her business
partners to really start toinform women about different
health issues that are impactingthem, so that women have.
One of my biggest things Ialways try to say is informed
(51:34):
consent, so that if you decideto use these medications or
prescriptions or whatever, youunderstand the potential side
effects of them.
Nikki Durkin (51:42):
We're not telling you not to.
Nika Lawrie (51:43):
It's just understand the impact, right.
So they did this incredibledocumentary.
I cannot think of the exactname of it, but if you look up
Ricky Lake birth controldocumentary, it'll pop up.
You'll find it.
I will also put it in the shownotes of this episode so that
listeners can find it.
But Ricky Lake birth controldocumentary it looks like it's
(52:05):
the business of birth control.
Yes, okay, business of birthcontrol, that is it.
So that is so phenomenal Ithink every woman needs to watch
it.
It will give you the history ofbirth control.
It will help you understand howit's impacted our health and
our lives over the years.
The biggest thing for those whodon't go watch the documentary
to understand is hormonal birthcontrol is controlling the way
(52:28):
your body is communicatingthroughout the body.
Does that make sense?
It is impacting all yourhormonal signals throughout the
day, and so it's not giving youa clear picture of the health
that your body is actually at,the level of health that your
body is actually at, and then itcan also have some serious
(52:50):
long-term side effects.
It can actually play a role ininfertility which people don't
know.
I mean, that's a big piece thatwe're not educated on, which
people don't know I mean that'sa big piece that we're not
educated on.
It can cause issues withdepression and anxiety.
There's a whole host of otherissues that can come from being
on hormonal birth control.
(53:10):
So I always recommend if womencan transition to a birth
control that is not hormonal.
The copper IUD is one example.
There's some other options outthere as well.
That is the best option foryour overall health is to remove
those hormones from your bodyand then allow your body to
(53:30):
function as it should.
Nikki Durkin (53:34):
Okay, and it's probably like one of the final
questions is like how can womenwork with their healthcare
providers to kind of monitor andmanage their hormone levels
effectively?
Nika Lawrie (53:46):
So it just doesn't become an issue in the first
place in your conversation withyour physician, look at your
physician as your health partner, not a educated superior above
(54:07):
you.
Right?
Do not let your physician tellyou or dictate what you're going
to do with your health.
This is a conversation whereyou're going to work together to
support your overall besthealth.
They are your health partner,not your superior.
So that's the biggest thing ishave those conversations and
come in ready to ask questionsand demand real answers.
And if they can't give youthose real answers, then ask
them to find out and come backor find a physician who can
(54:30):
support you in that.
The second part of that istesting is really key.
So I would recommend people tohave a full health workup every
six months at minimum once ayear.
But as you're aging and movingcloser to perimenopause
menopause, those kinds of thingsyou want to do it every six
months so we can see how thoselevels are changing.
(54:53):
If you can do it so differenthealthcare systems are different
.
It's harder in the US than inthe UK and other places.
If you can do it quarterly,that's phenomenal because then
you can see how your hormonesare ebbing and flowing
throughout the year and reallyunderstanding that.
And again simple blood tests,sometimes a saliva test,
depending on which one you'retesting, but that's a huge piece
(55:15):
.
And then the last thing I wouldsay is, as women are
transitioning to perimetopauseand menopause, is to make sure
also this is really key forwomen who are looking to have
children sometime in the nearfuture is to really understand
where their hormones are at aswell.
So it's kind of all women, butif you're looking to have a
(55:35):
child sometime in the next twoor three years and then if you
are, you know there's no reasonfor women to suffer and struggle
and feel like crap when there'sreally great options out there
(56:02):
for hormone replacement therapy.
Nikki Durkin (56:05):
Um, so those are the big three, I would say right
, yes, oh well, I feel like Ifeel like I'm quite educated of,
like I'm like okay, like I knowwhat to look out for, I know
like where I can make tweaks tomy lifestyle to make sure that
things are kind of like movingalong well.
Nika Lawrie (56:26):
So thank you so much, you're welcome.
Well, thank you forinterviewing me for the show.
I truly appreciate it.
Nikki Durkin (56:32):
A lot of fun great .
Nikki, welcome back to the show.
I'm so happy to have you heretoday.
Thanks for having me again.
Yeah, so for the listeners,viewers we are flipping the
script today, so I invited mydear friend Nikki back onto the
show.
She was on the podcast a coupleweeks ago talking about Gamism
AI.
If you haven't listened to herepisodes, please, please, go
(00:36):
listen to them.
There's two.
We had to split it up into partone and part two because we
just went on forever and it wasamazing.
But I tell you, her episodeswill completely change your life
, so please go check them out.
I will link to them in the shownotes.
But today Nikki is coming backto get the download from me,
asking me questions all abouthormones and female reproductive
(01:00):
wellness and that kind of stuff.
So, nikki, with that, I'm goingto turn it over to you.
I am your guest.
You ask away.
Nikki Durkin (01:07):
Okay.
So it's quite cool because whenI met Nika and she was telling
me like everything that she knewand she had all of this
knowledge about, like functionalhealth, and the thing that was
really interesting to me that Iasked her about was hormones,
because you kind of hear all thetime like exercise and sleep
and and I think specifically forwomen's health, which is
(01:31):
something that I wasn't educatedon in high school or by society
is like hormone health.
So I thought maybe you couldjust kind of give me the
download.
What do I need to know as awoman?
So I thought maybe we couldstart by looking at like what
are the signs that my hormonesactually are healthy?
Yeah, and like it's likenothing to worry about, like
(01:53):
it's it, this is likefunctioning fine.
Nika Lawrie (01:56):
Absolutely so.
There's bunches of differentsigns, but the first thing I
want to say is balancing yourhormones is kind of a misnomer,
so we always hear you know womenshould balance their hormones.
Your hormones are going to ebband flow every day.
They're going to ebb and flowthroughout the month, so they
(02:16):
change as you sleep versusyou're awake.
So there's not really abalancing of hormones.
They're always going toincrease and decrease depending
on what's going on or what timeof month or day it is.
So that's the first thing.
But there are very keyindicators of ranges that your
hormones should be functioningin, and that's really the area
(02:37):
that we want to consider whenwe're thinking about quote
unquote balancing our hormones.
Are our hormones, even thoughthey kind of ebb and flow, are
they staying within the healthyranges?
And that's the big thing thatwe want to look at.
One of the biggest things tolook at specifically for women
and hormones is our menstrualcycle.
And I'm going to say this witha caveat If you're on hormonal
(03:00):
birth control whether that isthe pill or an IUD or some kind
of insert like the hormonal IUDthere's a copper IUD that
doesn't mess with your hormones,but the hormonal IUD well, any
of those are going to impact howyour hormones function
throughout the day or throughoutthe month, and so your range of
(03:22):
hormones is going to bedifferent and function different
than the average woman not on ahormonal birth control.
So that's the biggest thing tounderstand.
So women who are often onhormonal birth control or the
IUD that has hormones, don'thave any periods.
They can go six months or fiveyears without a period and we
(03:43):
can go down that rabbit hole.
I've got a bunch of issues withthat, but to stay within the
conversation right now, thebiggest thing to understand is
that the hormones from the birthcontrol are stopping your brain
from sending hormonal signalsto your reproductive system to
then release an egg and gothrough the whole period process
(04:08):
, the menstrual process.
So one of the biggest signs ifyou're not on a hormonal birth
control is your periods and areyou having a regular period, and
that can range very differentlyfor women.
It can range from every like 20days to every like 45 days.
It can be a big range.
(04:28):
So that 28 day you know every28 days you should have a period
.
That's just kind of a ballpark.
It's not an exact science.
Every woman's going to bedifferent and so if you're
having a regular period every,you know, four or five weeks or
so, and it's your regular system, so you.
So for me I sit around like 32days, and I've always kind of
(04:50):
been around that, and so I havea period ballpark every 32 days
or so, and so whatever that isfor you, as long as you're
having that normally, thenthat's a good sign that your
hormones are fairly healthy.
The other two pieces that youreally want to consider and
there's other factors too but isyour sleep?
How is your quality of sleep,especially as women start to age
(05:13):
?
So, are you waking up in themiddle of the night?
Are you having a hard timefalling asleep?
Are you sleeping like, is itlight sleep, where you're not
feeling rested in the morning,or you getting that good quality
, deep sleep where you're readyto go in the morning?
If you're not, that's a goodsign that some type of hormone
in your body is dysregulated.
It's not where it should be,and there are several that play
(05:35):
a role in that too, which we canget into.
And then the last one, I wouldsay it's a big one.
Especially as women start tohit ths and 40s, it'll start to
change a lot.
Is your weight?
Where is your weight at?
And each woman's healthy bodyweight is going to be different.
There's not a specific weightrange that a woman should be in
(05:58):
in the sense of the globalpicture, but each woman will
have a range based off of herspecific body type.
That's healthy, and if you'reoutside of that healthy pocket
of range, a lot of that can becontributed to hormonal
dysregulation, where yourhormones are not where they
should be.
So, weight gain, sleep issues,menstrual cycle those are the
(06:19):
big three that you want toconsider when thinking about
your hormones.
Nikki Durkin (06:33):
And okay.
So let's say I was to noticesomething's kind of off with
those things.
If I was to just go to a doctorand say, you know, like I'm not
sleeping well during the nightor like, notice weight gain, is
it common to be misdiagnosedwith something else, like does
this get kind of okay?
Do you want to tell me aboutwhat to watch out for?
Nika Lawrie (06:48):
yeah, so, um, so I know.
So you're in columbia right now.
I'm in the united states, um,so it can be different depending
on where you are around theworld.
So, kind of speaking to globalpopulation, I I know here in the
United States a lot of womenare struggling.
They go to their physician andthey say I have one, two, three
(07:09):
symptoms, whatever it is, andthe doctors are not listening to
them or maybe they'remisdiagnosing them, or maybe
they're attributing thosesymptoms to something different
and they're being misdiagnosed.
So this is a very, very commonissue.
I know it's very prevalent herein the United States.
I hear from women around theworld struggling with the same
(07:29):
kind of thing, though it's kindof different country by country
and health system by healthsystem.
But a lot of the time peoplewill say you know, maybe you are
having a hard time sleeping andyou're craving sugary foods,
and so they'll be like oh, maybeyou're just closer to your
(07:50):
period and your body's justcraving that kind of thing.
Or they'll say your sleepissues are caused by stress,
when reality it's a hormonedeficiency or a hormone issue,
and so there's a lot of back andforth pieces.
It's kind of hard to givespecific examples because each
person is going to be different,but the key, what you want to
(08:13):
do is have a conversation withyour physician or your medical
provider about where yourhormones are at and actually
have them tested.
It's simple blood work, it'snot complicated, it's usually
one or two little vials of bloodand they can test the different
levels of your hormones.
The biggest ones to look at forwomen are estrogen,
(08:35):
progesterone and testosterone,and understanding where those
are.
Women often don't think abouttestosterone, but if your
testosterone is too low, you canhave sleep issues, you can have
lethargy, you can feel likecompletely unmotivated, just
kind of blah health issuesdepression, anxiety, those kinds
(09:07):
of things and so it's reallykey to make sure that you know,
say, you go in with depressionor anxiety symptoms and then
they give you an SSRI to helpsupport the depression, but then
they don't actually test yourhormones.
That just medication thatthey've given you for depression
will not actually help addressthe root cause symptom, which is
like the hormones being off,and so then you need to find out
(09:30):
are the hormones off?
And if they are, let's deepdive or dive deeper and find out
why are the hormones off.
What do we need to do?
Does that make?
Nikki Durkin (09:37):
sense.
Yeah, that makes sense.
So I'm curious.
It sounds like, obviously, Imean, we're talking about the
human body, which is thisself-organizing system.
Yes, so, um, like stress beinglinked to hormones.
Um, it sounds like that's kindof like a vicious cycle, because
it's like are my hormones offbecause I'm stressed or am I
(10:00):
stressed because my hormones areoff or I don't know?
Like, yes, you want to likeelaborate?
Nika Lawrie (10:06):
yeah, it's kind of a chicken and an egg situation.
Um, each person you know you'llprobably hear me say this a
billion times each person isgoing to be different.
But if you are really stressedin life, if there's a lot of,
you know, emotional going onmaybe you've experienced some
trauma.
Even past trauma, likechildhood trauma can still be
(10:28):
causing that stress.
If you're in a stressful workenvironment, an unhealthy
relationship, you're dealingwith a familiar drama or stress,
that way, all of those aregoing to play a big role.
They're going to increase yourcortisol level, which is your
stress response hormone, andthat can cause havoc in your
health or in your body andreally disrupt how your hormones
(10:51):
are communicating throughoutyour body.
And so, yeah, so it's a littlebit of a chicken in the egg
which comes first, but I wouldgive more preface to if there's
external stress factors, that'slikely playing a bigger role
than you just being concernedthat your hormones are out of
whack and you need to fixsomething does that make sense?
Nikki Durkin (11:13):
oh no, it totally makes sense, and I brought back
to like periods of my life where, if I was like very stressed, I
could put on weight.
Yeah, I would eat this likesame thing, but I would just my
body would do this likeprotective thing where it's like
, well, I'm just gonna put onall the armor and then that's
(11:34):
actually your like, even thoughwe hate it.
Nika Lawrie (11:36):
That's actually your body working the exact way
it's supposed to work.
It puts on's like a.
It's a stress response to fightor flight, like our bodies
don't understand that.
You know, an argument with ourboyfriend is different than a
lion attacking us right orstarvation, there's not enough
food around.
(11:56):
So our bodies are going toreact the same way they did a
hundred thousand years ago right, we're going to.
If we're we feel stressed fromnot enough food, our body's
going to store fat on our on ourbodies so that we have food, we
have enough energy, basicallyto keep going Right, and so that
response, even though we hateit, is totally normal.
So the key there is to figureout how do I reduce the stress,
(12:20):
calm that fight or flight andreduce the cortisol response,
and then your body will kickback into a healthier
functioning system yeah, like Idid a complete.
Nikki Durkin (12:31):
I had to completely change my lifestyle
from high stress like ceorunning, running business, yeah,
and then I was like, I was likeyou know what I want?
The soft life like just, andonce I did that, I just I'm like
I can't, I can't go back intothat whole like grind, grind,
move, move, move.
Like that pace which I mean, ifwe're talking about women and
(12:55):
men and the difference betweenlike different needs and how the
system's built and stuff.
It's just like the more I'vegrown up and seen both sides of
that world, like the mainstreamsociety which is like it's built
on men's schedules, like let'sbe like very consistent in our
work, and like 24, 7 and pushand grind and whatever.
And I was just like, oh my god,I'm exhausted, um, and then, uh
(13:18):
it for me it was like when Iallowed myself or gave myself
permission to slow down and likeI was like I need to get
stressed out of my life.
It's like my body justnaturally came into alignment.
I didn't have to like controlit, I didn't.
I was like naturally, it's justlike eating healthier, my body
just let go of like all thisstuff that it was just holding
(13:40):
on to.
So, yeah, it's fascinating.
It's like, yeah, it is, andespecially because I think, like
I don't know about you, but forme in Australia, when I grew up
, grew up, it was like um, verymuch a paradigm of like having
to control your body, like yourbody is bad and you need to like
like whip it into shape andcontrol it and earn, like earn a
(14:06):
healthy body, rather than likeno, no, you have a healthy body,
you just have to like not dostuff that makes it unhealthy,
like yeah, like like, like, andso I just I find it I don't know
if you want to elaborate onthat of like um, I think this
like more peaceful, holisticcaroline, of like that I
(14:26):
perceive now my relationshipwith my health, which is like
how do I nourish myself withfood and water and exercise like
and I only like to exercisemost days a week, just like
enjoy and like I don't forcemyself and like removing stress
and stuff, and so like, how doyou see those two like um, those
(14:48):
two paradigms like pushing upagainst each other?
And then how can women embracethis paradigm that's better,
like, more natural for them, butsociety's telling them it's
like no, you have to likecontrol, and like push and shove
and take medication.
Nika Lawrie (15:06):
I love.
I mean, I could go on and onabout this, cause I think this
is such a key thing.
One of the things I wasthinking about when you were
speaking a minute ago wasactually women.
When we think about stress, theway society is set up, women
have so many responsibilities,right, like we're we're now.
You know part of the being thebreadwinner, right, we have to
(15:27):
go out and make money and haveso many responsibilities, right,
like we're now you know, partof being the breadwinner, right,
we have to go out and makemoney and have the job.
And then we also have to growthe child inside us.
We have to give birth to thechild.
I mean, that stress alone is awhole other ballpark, right?
So we grow the children, thenwe give birth to the children,
and then our bodies are neverthe same.
Our bodies are still likechanging and transitioning after
we give birth, so that's astress and trauma on the body.
Then we have to mentally carrythe stress of raising a child
(15:50):
and keeping this other humanalone, while still trying to
figure out how to take care ofus and how to take care of our
partner and how to keep our jobgoing and how to keep the house
running and how to keep the petsalive, right, like you have to
do the grocery shopping, likethere's so many stress layers
that come with just being awoman in society, right, and so
you know you and I have talkedabout vibrations in the other
(16:13):
podcasts, but understanding thevibration level that we're at
just being women in this societyis huge, and so that stress
vibration runs throughout ourday all the time is huge, and so
that stress vibration runsthroughout our day all the time,
and so whatever we can do toreduce that you know, unhealthy
stress vibration as much aspossible is really really key to
(16:34):
overall health, and I love that.
You brought up the idea of youknow being healthy is not being
forceful and like winning theaward because I grinded out in
the gym, I restricted this manythings, and so I'm healthy
because I did this and I get theaward.
(16:54):
Instead, it should be aconversation about how do I
bring in healthy foods into mylife to nourish my body.
How do I bring in if I'm goingto eat a sweet treat?
How do I bring that in apositive manner?
So, like an example is myhusband and I try to do a date
night at least once a week.
It's usually every other weekbecause we have a pretty crazy
(17:15):
schedule, but we always do adate night and when we go I'll
try it.
We usually go to a nicerestaurant and if they have
creme brulee it's my favoritedessert I'll always order the
creme brulee and I don't worryabout it and I don't stress
about it, because it's like thisjoyful thing that I'm
experiencing with my husband andit's a date night and we, you
know, are enjoying time togetherand it's like a bonus that goes
(17:36):
with that.
And so it's not aboutrestricting sugar.
It's about appreciating andbringing in that positive,
almost like feminine, but likethat soft energy of enjoying
that sweet treat in that momentwith my husband.
Right, or yeah, or likethinking about working out.
Like working out.
It's less about like let's goto the gym and grind and work
(17:57):
out.
It's like how do I move my bodywhere it feels good?
So if it's like yoga or, youknow, a long walk or a light
hike in the foothills orwhatever, right, like it's
figuring out how do I keepmoving my body in a way that
makes my body feel good, havethat positive energy, that kind
of runs through your body afteryou've worked out.
(18:19):
It doesn't mean that you haveto, you know, run on the
treadmill for an hour and a half, which I absolutely do not
recommend.
But you know it's figuring outthose much more.
It's like listening to yourinternal energy of like, what is
going to nourish my body, howdo I feed my body, and then
doing those things.
Nikki Durkin (18:39):
Mm-hmm, like what kind of?
Because I think like so much ofhow we respond to life is based
on, like, the questions thatwe're asking ourselves.
And so what kind of questionswould you shift into to shift
out of the paradigm of, like,controlling, restricting, like
(19:00):
just formulate, kind of like Ineed to like, exercise this much
and do this much and eat any,eat these number of calories and
whatever, like, for example,I've I started asking myself
it's like, uh, what feelsnourishing to me?
Or it's like, it's likemeditating on these words, like
nourishment and joy, and likewhat is joyful to me, like when
I go to the gym.
If I don't want to go to the gym, I don't, I don't go to the gym
(19:21):
, but I want to go to the gymbecause it's like, because it's
like I like making my body upwith been sitting down and it
feels like an expression of whoI am.
And there's certain um, youknow, thought structures that I
deliberately like will savemyself before I go to remind
myself that you know I get tomove my body and I don't have to
(19:44):
like or just like.
So are there any kind of likemind tricks or um framing or
tips that you have the audienceabout how they can shift their
energy into more of that softer,like holistic paradigm that
you're talking about.
Nika Lawrie (20:01):
Yeah, so there's two things.
There's one that I've beenrecently really thinking about,
kind of a paradigm shift formyself, but there's a saying I
always say to myself when I likethinking about working out, is
you can either have a short-termpain for long-term gain or you
can have long-term pain for ashort-term game, and what I mean
(20:26):
by this is okay.
So a short-term pain would beI'm going to go work out in the
gym for half an hour, right, I'mgoing to go hard, you know,
strength train, feel good, right, do that, and it's like it
sucks for it really only sucksfor like the first five minutes.
When you get to the gym.
Once you're in the mode, you'rejust like I can knock this out,
(20:48):
right, but it's the short-termpain for a long-term gain.
So like, if you do, you know,30 minutes three times a week,
your body's going to keepgetting healthy and staying
healthy and staying stronger,and so that's that long-term
gain right On the opposite sideof that.
So think about a short-term gainfor a long-term pain.
So thinking about and I'm nottotally trying to hammer on
(21:12):
sugar, but sugar is such a goodexample of this so like a
short-term gain is like I'mgoing to drink a soda, right?
Like you get that dopaminespike and you're like, oh, like
that first sip with its littlebubbles in your mouth, it's so
good, right.
So you get the short-term gain.
It feels good for a few seconds.
Even by the time you get to theend of the soda you're like,
ugh, this is gross, I don't wantany more.
(21:32):
Right?
So it's this short-term gain.
But the long-term pain is like,if you keep drinking it every
day or whatever, it leads topotentially diabetes or heart
disease.
Or you know, sugar plays a rolein cancer.
There's, you know, weight gainissues, there's all these other
(21:54):
factors that, like, if you keepgiving yourself that short-term
gain, you're going to have thatlong-term pain.
Where, if you look at it on theother side, short-term pain is
working out.
Or you know, eating thevegetable that you don't like
the way it tastes, but you knowit's good for you.
The short-term pain for alifelong of health and wellness.
So that's a big thing that Ithink about when I'm like, not
(22:16):
convinced.
I want to go work out in thegym and like, okay, short-term
pain, long-term gain, right,it's just a little thing.
The other piece that I've reallybeen working on, or like
something that I've really comeinto my own over the last few
months, especially recently isreally looking at what I'm
calling the positive energyprinciple.
(22:38):
And so when we think about likeyou were talking about how do I
nourish my body, so you have tolearn to start to kind of
listen to your body and kind ofyour body will send you those
internal messages, right, andsometimes it's going to tell you
I need to just rest and lay onthe couch and like doom scroll,
(22:59):
you know whatever your favoritesocial media platform is, or
watch a you know a Netflixseries or whatever it is Like.
Sometimes that is the best,most nourishing thing you can do
for your body.
But maybe after you've watchedfour episodes of an eight
episode series, your body's likeyou need to get up and do
something, right, and so it'sgoing to tell you it's time to
(23:21):
move.
You need to move and so insteadof staying there for the next
four episodes which I'vehonestly done myself, but try
not to right, yeah.
Get up and move, go for a walk,eat some you know, cook a
healthy meal or something, dosomething.
And so it's listening to yourbody.
It will tell you, you know,this feels good, which is
(23:42):
positive energy, or this feelsbad or uneasy, which is negative
energy.
And if you just listencarefully and you keep following
the positive energy path, yourbody is going to tell you what
you need, keeping in mind thatyour body's going to say, oh, I
want sugar, but what sugarreally is is oh, I want
(24:02):
something that's going to feedmy body and give me energy.
And so there's a couple littleyou know caveats that you have
to learn there.
But really listening to whatyour body's saying and following
what feels, ask yourself thetwo questions Does this feel
good?
Do I want more of this in mylife, or does this feel bad?
Is this leading me down anunhealthy path?
(24:23):
And following the positiveenergy path, I think, is really
really key.
Nikki Durkin (24:28):
Yeah, I mean it's been oh no, I'm just saying like
in my life, like I think,transformative in terms of the
relationship with my body andpeace.
It's like I just want peace,like give me peace in my life
and my relationship with my bodywhen I was like 21, it was
(24:48):
entirely through the paradigm oflike how do I control, restrict
, you know, take some formulaand like eat this amount of
calories to do that, you know,like I have to do.
I have to like fit into thisnarrow box and now it's like I
just eat whatever I want,whenever I want.
It's just like I don't want toeat junk food.
Yeah, exactly, yeah, you know.
So I'm like I want just eatwhatever I want, whenever I want
.
It's just like I don't want toeat junk food.
Yeah, exactly.
(25:09):
So I'm like I want to eat likedelicious salads and wraps and
like super nourishing,nutritious food, but I can eat
whatever I want.
I just don't want to eat thatstuff, and then when I do want
to eat it, I eat it, which is somuch peace.
Nika Lawrie (25:30):
Oh my gosh.
I think the big big thing, too,is that following you know,
this like positive energy pathgives you the freedom to like if
you just want to eat somethingcrappy every once in a while,
it's okay.
Don't do it all the time, butevery once in a while, like,
don't ride yourself and feelguilty and all these horrible
things doing it, but it like 99%of the time, try to eat
something healthy.
But it's.
It's giving you freedom fromlike I have to restrict calories
(25:53):
here, or I have to cut thesetypes of food out of my body or
out of my diet, or I have tofollow this strict keto diet or
whatever.
It is right Like you can cutout all of the noise of the
health and wellness industry andstart to listen to how do I
nourish my body Like what isactually going to give me good
(26:13):
quality energy.
And if you don't know, thencome talk to me and I'll tell
you you know what fruits andvegetables and different things
to eat.
But really it's prettystraightforward common sense.
Nikki Durkin (26:26):
So okay, we kind of veered a little bit away from
hormones.
So let's go back, yeahsomething you were saying when
we're talking about the gym is.
You said oh, like I wouldn't goand run for an hour and a half
on the on the treadmill, so like, are there certain ways of
exercising or not exercising?
That might be likeoverstressing the body or like
(26:47):
claustrophobic hormonalimbalance.
Nika Lawrie (26:49):
Yes, so one of the biggest issues that I see when
it comes to women's bodies andhealth and working out is we've
been told for so long thatcardio is the answer.
Right, like go run on thetreadmill for an hour and a half
so that you can burn, you know,200 calories, or whatever,
(27:11):
right it's this.
It came from like the 80s, 90slike let's burn calories figure
out how to do that so everyonegot into running and treadmill
and cardio and all these things,and that's not actually how our
bodies work.
The key thing that we need tounderstand is we have to have
muscle on our body in order toburn the fat, to use the energy
(27:34):
that's stored in our body, andwhen we have low muscle mass,
our body is not going to burnenergy as well.
It does the opposite, actually.
It starts to store energy, andstored energy in the body is fat
, right.
So the better option to do isto strength train for women and
(27:55):
when I say strength train, a lotof women are like oh, but I
don't want to look like abodybuilder, unless you're
taking growth hormone and crazyamounts of testosterone and all
of these things.
You're never.
Your body is just not meant tolook like that.
Nikki Durkin (28:10):
it's not gonna happen I love it when, like men
respond to that.
It's almost like a meme whereit's like women are kind of like
oh, but I don't want to looklike a bodybuilder, and you've
got these men there.
That's like they like I'm a manand I spend my entire life
dedicating to eating, perfectly,I'm working at the gym and I
still don't look like abodybuilder.
And they just laugh at thisidea that it's like you think
(28:31):
this happens easily.
Yeah.
Nika Lawrie (28:35):
Like that's never going to happen, like you have
to go down some crazy rabbitholes to make your body look
like that.
What's going to happen is thatyou're going to have better
energy, you're going to feelbetter, your body's going to be
more tone, so you'll just lookbetter, you know, for your body
type.
You're gonna sleep better,you're going to probably digest
(28:58):
your food better, like it's sohelpful to have good muscle on
your body and it's literally itwill help you so much as you age
, because as you start to moveinto your 30s and 40s, you start
to lose muscle tone and so themore you can do now to work on
that and to strengthen yourmuscles and to really support
(29:23):
their structure, the better offyou're going to be as you age
and the less issues you'll haveas you age too.
So strength training is thebiggest thing I would say.
You know you can do a lot ofstrength training just at home
with light weights.
You can do body weights.
So, like squats and different,like pushups, different things
like that, strength training isthe biggest, best way that a
(29:45):
woman can support her body andhelp her maintain or lose weight
and maintain and support herhormones.
When it comes to exercise,running cardio for long periods
of time.
Some cardio is okay.
You want to have good cardio,that's important.
But being on the treadmill forlike an hour, an hour and a half
or whatever it is, is not goingto help you burn those calories
(30:06):
.
First off, you might burn alittle bit, but not enough to
actually like make a differenceand really like getting tone or
losing weight or whatever it isyou're trying to do.
But it puts a lot of stress onyour body too, and that stress
we talked about it earlierraises your cortisol, and when
your cortisol is high, you'remore likely to put on fat, and
so it becomes this wholeunhealthy cycle.
(30:27):
And so, instead of running forlong periods of time, instead
consider yoga, like the strengthtraining.
Like I mentioned.
Pilates is a great optionbecause it's kind of that in
between going for a nice briskwalk.
You can walk fast if you want,but getting outside and
experiencing nature while you dowalk is actually even more
(30:47):
beneficial.
So those are the things that Iwould recommend, opposed to
doing a heavy cardio workout.
Nikki Durkin (30:54):
How do you feel about like like sprints or
things that are intervaltraining?
Nika Lawrie (31:01):
So interval training is really key to this
is a great way.
Interval training is really keytoo.
This is a great way.
So one of the best things thatyou can do is do something for
like 45 seconds to a minute andthen take 30 seconds or a minute
off and then do something else,and so it's the.
The key is to have the peak,the like, the, the big push, and
(31:21):
then take a break and let yourheart rate drop down to normal
and then back up again, and thenlet your heart rate drop back
down and back up.
And the reason this is such agreat thing is when you know, we
go back to, you know primitivetimes and we think about the
lion coming after us.
Right, humans back then did notrun, you know, a marathon a day
(31:44):
just to lose weight.
Right, the only times that theygot up and run were like animals
were coming to attack them, orlike they had to run over to
grab something, or you know whatI mean.
And so we think about how ourbodies were actually designed to
function.
And it's having those, thosesprint moments where we run
really hard, full out, do asmuch as we can, and then we come
(32:07):
back down to neutral and we letour heart rate rest and we and
we pause and you know, controlour breathing again and then we
do it again, and so doingsomething like that that's
actually a really great way todo a workout if you have a
little bit of time.
So it's something I'll do whentraveling is I'll do a hit know
where I do like 10 push-ups oryou know 10 squats, and then I
(32:31):
take a break and then I dosomething else, or I jog in
place and take a break, and soit's a great tool to shorten
your workout time okay, um, okay.
Nikki Durkin (32:40):
So can you tell me about when we go back to
hormones, like what are somethings that you can do, or like
lifestyle changes to kind ofbalance your hormones, as you
say, without having to getmedication anymore?
Nika Lawrie (32:57):
Yeah, so I know I keep coming back to it, but the
biggest one is to reduce sugaras much as possible.
Um, and when I talk about sugar, I'm talking about, you know,
white refined sugar.
We're going to talk about sodasand sugary drinks, candies,
those kind of things.
And then the thing that peopledon't think about the most is
(33:18):
highly processed foods.
So we're thinking about, youknow, crackers and potato chips
and granola bars and kind of, ifit comes in a box, it's
probably ultra processed, it'sprobably highly processed.
And so reducing that as much aspossible as well, because the
way that functions in your body,as it functions as if it's a
(33:41):
sugar, it just burns up in yourbody quickly.
You know, you might get alittle boost of energy from it
burning, but then the excessfrom that then gets stored as
fat and the more you have of it,the more your hormones can
become dysregulated.
A lot of women will have, youknow, issues with having too
much sugar and then theirtestosterone is too low and,
(34:04):
like we talked about earlier,when their testosterone is low,
then they have lethargy andbrain fog and lack of motivation
and then that leads to a wholeunhealthy cycle, right?
So sugar and highly processedfoods, reducing that as much as
possible.
And I, like we talked earlier,I will never say don't have any,
(34:24):
because sometimes I just wannahave a creme brulee with my
husband at dinner, but I am alsonot telling you to go drink,
you know, a can of soda and abag of chips, right Like.
So really figuring out how tomanage that in a way that again
nourishes your body, manage thatin a way that again nourishes
(34:49):
your body.
On the flip side of that,there's actually a lot of foods
that you can bring into yourlife that really help.
So nuts and seeds have a lot ofdifferent beneficial factors to
help, kind of quote unquotebalance the hormones.
Again, it's really trying tokeep those hormones in those
healthy ranges.
So there's different nuts andseeds that you can have, there's
different vegetables that canhelp as well, and so instead of
(35:10):
kind of going down that whole,you know, eat this for this one
and eat that for that one,because you can just Google it
and there's a ton out there it'sreally understanding how to
transition the diet to healthierfood options and removing as
much of those unhealthy foods aspossible so just in terms of
like, like for me, I know, tokeep my life really convenient,
(35:34):
I tend to eat more or less thesame thing every day, like god.
Nikki Durkin (35:42):
So I'm currently in tolambia.
This is this one place whereit's just like, it's all, just
like really healthy food.
I used to eat there three timesa day, which was kind of
embarrassing, and I would walkin and like, oh, nikki's here
for breakfast.
They just like bring it out,and so I was like super
predictable.
But even if I'm eating, likeyou know, a salad for lunch and
(36:02):
a wrap for dinner or whatever,is it bad to eat like the same
thing every day, or should I betrying to get more variety if,
like, what I'm eating is healthy, like it's, you know?
Nika Lawrie (36:17):
So it's a relative question.
My answer is variety is usuallybetter, but let me give you one
example of why I say it's arelative question.
So there is a man named BrianJohnson.
He is a biohacker who is onthis extreme diet where he
(36:37):
literally eats.
They've mathematically figuredout meals for him to eat in a
very short period of time Ithink it's a six-hour window
that he eats each day and that'sit.
He fasts the rest of the timeand in that period of time he
eats.
I think it's two meals.
It's like a drink and then liketwo meals and then that's it.
(36:58):
But they figured out how to getall the vitamins and nutrients
he needs from those two specificmeals a day, every day, and
that's all he eats.
And his goal is his.
He wears t-shirts that saydon't die, and so his goal is to
live forever.
So we'll see.
You know, hopefully someonewill see I don't know.
But so if you figured out reallyhow to eat that completely
(37:23):
supports your body, then I'd sayit's probably okay to eat close
to the same thing every singleday.
He also takes like 60 to 100supplements a day.
Nikki Durkin (37:33):
I can imagine, yeah, and so you know it's a
relative answer.
Nika Lawrie (37:38):
On the flip side, for us everyday normal people, I
think variety is really key,and there's two reasons for that
.
One variety is key because youget different vitamins and
minerals and different nutrientsfrom different types of food,
right?
So different colors of food.
So you're thinking like purplecarrots versus white carrots
versus orange carrots all havedifferent vitamins and minerals
(38:02):
in them that do different things, and so you know that's an
example of one one vegetablethat has different things,
different colors.
You know different grapes aredifferent colors, those kinds of
things right.
So that can give you a range ofvitamins and minerals that come
from it.
But the other side of that thatmost people don't talk about is
actually the bacteria that comewith the food that you're eating
(38:24):
, and so your gut microbiome ismassive in your overall health,
and your gut microbiome actuallycontrols how a lot of the
hormones in your body work, andso if you want healthy hormones,
you need to have a healthy gut,and in order to have a healthy
gut, you want a diversepopulation of probiotics,
(38:48):
prebiotics, and that comes fromdifferent types of food that you
eat.
There's actual bacteria on allthe food that you eat, and so
it'll come from, that.
It comes from the soil that thefood was grown in, and so that
matters.
It comes from the water youdrink, the environment you live
in, the animals that you'rearound.
All of those play a factor inhow healthy your gut microbiome
(39:11):
is.
And then, for a whole otherepisode, we could go down the
rabbit hole of the differentchemicals that we're exposed to
in the foods that we eat, theproducts that we use, the makeup
that we wear.
All that stuff can actuallydamage a lot of the bacteria in
our gut and can cause issueswith our hormones as well.
But that's a big thing.
(39:32):
So my overall suggestion is toeat diverse and eat.
Eat clean, eat diverse and thenknow as much as possible where
your food is coming.
Nikki Durkin (39:43):
Okay, okay, cool yeah, so well, okay.
So this is the question that'sthis is coming.
Okay, okay, cool, yeah, so well,okay.
So this is this little question.
This this is coming up for meat the moment is, um, hunger,
hunger's a hormone like ghrelin,ghrelin what's it called?
Ghrelin, ghrelin, yeah, ghrelin.
So I was curious about thisbecause maybe like a month or
(40:05):
two ago, I was on antibioticsand um, I and I forgot that I
was on antibiotics.
I'm like, oh my god, I want toeat everything I was.
I was so annoying like I wouldsit down and be hungry again.
I hated it.
Um, and then when I went offthem, it's like I don't know,
for some reason at the moment,it's like I don't need to eat
(40:28):
till like 2 pm in the afternoon,like I'm just not not hungry, I
don't really want to eat.
So it's like I don't eat.
Is that bad?
Like as in, as in, should I be?
Should I be going?
Okay, I'm not hungry, but Ishould eat something in the
morning.
Or do I listen to my body?
It's just like I'm going to.
We're not hungry.
Like, how much should I crossthat?
Nika Lawrie (40:51):
So, first, the antibiotics um, probably wreaked
havoc in your gut because itkills off good and bad bacteria,
right, and so it's important toeat diversely and eat if you
can eat things that arefermented and things like that
(41:11):
to help rebuild the microbiomeafter you've been on antibiotics
.
So that's a big part.
First, talking about yourhunger levels and how they
change, that is totally normal,and so there are.
So some people just have nointerest in breakfast in the
morning.
I'm not usually a breakfastperson.
Sometimes I am.
(41:32):
Sometimes I'm like this morning, for example, I was hungry, so
I ate breakfast.
A lot of mornings I'm nothungry until like 11 or 12 in
the afternoon, and so that'swhen I decide to eat.
And so, as long as it's notnegatively impacting your life
or you know you're not starving,then I think it's okay.
I think it's okay to listen toyour body.
(41:53):
The two caveats I would saywith that is if it becomes a
long-term issue where you'reheaded towards like an eating
disorder or something like that,then you definitely want to
avoid that and make sure thatyou get a healthy eating cycle
in place.
But and I'm not saying towardsyou, I'm just saying it kind of
in general but the other thingthat I will say is that, oh man,
(42:18):
I just lost my train of thought.
Anyways, ask me anotherquestion and I'll come back.
Nikki Durkin (42:24):
Okay, so, um, we've talked about, like, eating
, exercise, we talked brieflyabout sleep, stress, um,
environmental toxins.
Stress, um, environmentaltoxins, what, what?
Because that feels like another, like unknown, like something I
(42:45):
don't know, I don't know, andit's just like permeating my
environment and like, for me, Ifeel like I don't use a lot of
products, like I, I'm pretty,I'm fairly minimal, but I'm sure
there's like things that I canimprove on that I don't even
know about.
So what are the what's like,the 20% that would give me 80%
(43:06):
of this?
Nika Lawrie (43:08):
Okay, so I could do a thousand shows on
environmental toxins, becauseit's so big and so profound and
so massively important when itcomes to our health.
But to give you that 20%,that's going to give you the 80
overall right.
So environmental toxins are arange of different chemicals
(43:28):
that we are exposed to throughdifferent means of life that
impact our health in differentways.
The most common ones thatyou'll hear about are called
endocrine disrupting chemicals,so EDCs and our endocrine system
is our hormone system, and ourhormone system is our signaling
system.
(43:48):
It's our messenger system ofthe body, so it tells everywhere
in our body what to do right,and so there's hormones that
come from places in our brain.
There's hormones that come fromour gut.
There's hormones that come fromdifferent glands throughout our
body, and so there's hormonesthat come from places in our
brain.
There's hormones that come fromour gut.
There's hormones that come fromdifferent glands throughout our
body, and so all of those tellour body to do different things,
and when those get messed up,when they get disrupted, our
(44:09):
body doesn't function the wayit's supposed to, and then we
start to have different issueslike weight gain or bowel issues
, or lethargy, or brain fog orwhatever it is right,
infertility is a huge one, sodifferent things like that.
So these endocrine disruptingchemicals, these EDCs, are in
(44:30):
all different kinds of things inour world now and unfortunately
it's getting bigger and biggerand worse and worse as time goes
on.
So currently there are probablyabout 90,000 chemicals.
The last I heard was like86,000 or something registered
chemicals that are used.
Of those 86, there's about41,000, 42,000 that are in
(44:53):
active use, meaning that they'reused in products and food and
things that we buy and use everyday.
Many of those chemicals I'm notsaying all 46,000, but there
are thousands of those chemicalsare endocrine disrupting
chemicals or chemicals that areimpacting the body in a negative
way.
Somehow.
Many of these chemicals havenot been regulated at all in the
(45:16):
US.
There's only five actually thathave ever been restricted in
the United States.
To give a comparison, in the EUand Europe about 1,500 have
been regulated.
So five in the US, 1,500 inEurope, and then different
countries vary.
So I'm not sure what it's likein Colombia and in different
(45:39):
countries vary.
So I'm not sure what it's likein Colombia.
I know Australia tends tofollow more of the UK EU
guidelines, but there's tons ofchemicals out there that are
still impacting us in a negativeway, like artificial sweeteners
, colors like yellow number fiveor yellow number six.
(46:00):
There's lots of differentpreservatives that are put in
food that will impact us.
Another example of this arethings that are used in personal
care and beauty products.
You'll hear about things likephthalates or parabens.
Most of those are associatedwith the scents or the
(46:36):
fragrances that are in thesechemicals.
You'll see them in cosmetics aswell.
Body washes and even in ourmakeups have fragrances, our
face creams have fragrance, likeeverything right, and so,
understanding that thesechemicals are a lot of different
things, I'll give you one moreexample that's a really
prevalent one.
Is plastics, so you have BPA.
(46:57):
Is plastics, so you have BPA.
So there's actually a wholeseries of BPA to BPZ, and
there's some others betweenthere as well.
In BPA, you'll see a lot ofcompanies say, oh, it's BPA-free
, we don't use it, but whatthey've actually done is just
transition from BPA to like BPSor BPF like Sam is in, or S is
(47:19):
in Sam or F is in Frank right,and so BPA is still an unhealthy
chemical that can impact yourhormones, and even though it's
BPA free, it doesn't mean thatit's BPS or BPF free.
So it's a really common.
So it's like a marketing thing.
Nikki Durkin (47:37):
BPA has like a bad rap.
So they say oh yeah, we don'tuse BPA, but they're still got
the underlying.
Nika Lawrie (47:44):
Exactly, yes, so, yeah.
So the best option is then justdon't use plastic.
Opt for stainless steel orglass.
And so when I, when I talkabout this, think about like
your water bottles.
Try to avoid plastic waterbottles as much as possible.
Food storage always keep yourfood storage in a glass
(48:08):
Tupperware, especially if it'shot.
The last thing you want to dois put hot, like, say, lasagna,
like hot, fatty, greasy food ina plastic Tupperware.
Like my soul dies when I seethings like that, because it's
leaching the chemicals from theplastic into the food and then,
when you heat the food, you'redigesting those chemicals and
(48:31):
then those chemicals are goingto impact your hormones and
cause those issues.
Nikki Durkin (48:34):
Good to know.
Nika Lawrie (48:36):
Avoiding fragrances as much as possible.
So this was one of the hardestones for me, because I loved
perfumes, but once I learnedthis I was like, oh crap, I have
to get these out of my life.
So really trying to takeperfumes out of your life and
different fragrances.
So laundry detergents are a bigplace you'll find those
fragrances.
Shampoos are a big place you'llfind those fragrances.
(49:02):
Shampoos, makeup, body careproducts, those kind of things.
So opt for options in thepersonal care and kind of
cleanliness industry that eitherdon't have fragrances or are
using essential oils as theirfragrances and it's not an exact
science with essential oils,but that's the biggest thing is
try to go.
If you have to have thefragrance, try to do something
(49:22):
with essential oils.
This can be kind of a big crazything to navigate, but the
awesome thing is there's severalapps that you can just download
and then you just scan thebarcode and it'll give you a
scale of like red, yellow, greenor like one through 10 of like
this is clean.
This is okay.
This is not great, but you know, use discretion or avoid red
(49:45):
flag, don't use.
And so, um, some of those appsare think dirty, um, yuka, uh,
environmental working group hastwo different ones, one for,
like uh, personal care, and theother ones for food, um, and so
those are a couple apps that youcan use.
Yuka is my personal favoriteout of them.
How do you spell that y-u-k-a?
(50:07):
Okay, yeah, and it had.
I haven't looked at it in awhile, but it has a little uh
carrot on it, like a little fakecarrot, so that's a big thing
yeah, okay, okay, that's, that'sgood to know.
Nikki Durkin (50:19):
And then I guess, like the other, maybe like one
of the final things is like, um,things like birth control.
So how does that, um, how doeslike the hormonal medication
kind of like affect all of that?
I know we talked about itbriefly, but is there anything
else to add?
Nika Lawrie (50:37):
Yeah, so one of the things I'll actually just say
is, like, if people areinterested to learn about
hormonal birth control and likehow it's impacting your body as
a woman and like the history ofit, there is a incredible
documentary.
It was done by Rikki Lake.
I don't know if you know whoRikki Lake was.
(50:57):
I know she was a tv host herein like the I think, mid 90s or
something I remember as achildhood.
Nikki Durkin (51:05):
I remember my.
No, I remember my um.
My babysitter used to what likewhen I was home with her in the
middle of the day.
Yeah, that's the only reason.
Nika Lawrie (51:14):
Yeah, so she was a tv host here, you know, and it
was like kind of a you know sortof cheesy talk show back in the
day.
But she's gone on this wholejourney with one of her business
partners to really start toinform women about different
health issues that are impactingthem, so that women have.
One of my biggest things Ialways try to say is informed
(51:34):
consent, so that if you decideto use these medications or
prescriptions or whatever, youunderstand the potential side
effects of them.
Nikki Durkin (51:42):
We're not telling you not to.
Nika Lawrie (51:43):
It's just understand the impact, right.
So they did this incredibledocumentary.
I cannot think of the exactname of it, but if you look up
Ricky Lake birth controldocumentary, it'll pop up.
You'll find it.
I will also put it in the shownotes of this episode so that
listeners can find it.
But Ricky Lake birth controldocumentary it looks like it's
(52:05):
the business of birth control.
Yes, okay, business of birthcontrol, that is it.
So that is so phenomenal Ithink every woman needs to watch
it.
It will give you the history ofbirth control.
It will help you understand howit's impacted our health and
our lives over the years.
The biggest thing for those whodon't go watch the documentary
to understand is hormonal birthcontrol is controlling the way
(52:28):
your body is communicatingthroughout the body.
Does that make sense?
It is impacting all yourhormonal signals throughout the
day, and so it's not giving youa clear picture of the health
that your body is actually at,the level of health that your
body is actually at, and then itcan also have some serious
(52:50):
long-term side effects.
It can actually play a role ininfertility which people don't
know.
I mean, that's a big piece thatwe're not educated on, which
people don't know I mean that'sa big piece that we're not
educated on.
It can cause issues withdepression and anxiety.
There's a whole host of otherissues that can come from being
on hormonal birth control.
(53:10):
So I always recommend if womencan transition to a birth
control that is not hormonal.
The copper IUD is one example.
There's some other options outthere as well.
That is the best option foryour overall health is to remove
those hormones from your bodyand then allow your body to
(53:30):
function as it should.
Nikki Durkin (53:34):
Okay, and it's probably like one of the final
questions is like how can womenwork with their healthcare
providers to kind of monitor andmanage their hormone levels
effectively?
Nika Lawrie (53:46):
So it just doesn't become an issue in the first
place in your conversation withyour physician, look at your
physician as your health partner, not a educated superior above
(54:07):
you.
Right?
Do not let your physician tellyou or dictate what you're going
to do with your health.
This is a conversation whereyou're going to work together to
support your overall besthealth.
They are your health partner,not your superior.
So that's the biggest thing ishave those conversations and
come in ready to ask questionsand demand real answers.
And if they can't give youthose real answers, then ask
them to find out and come backor find a physician who can
(54:30):
support you in that.
The second part of that istesting is really key.
So I would recommend people tohave a full health workup every
six months at minimum once ayear.
But as you're aging and movingcloser to perimenopause
menopause, those kinds of thingsyou want to do it every six
months so we can see how thoselevels are changing.
(54:53):
If you can do it so differenthealthcare systems are different
.
It's harder in the US than inthe UK and other places.
If you can do it quarterly,that's phenomenal because then
you can see how your hormonesare ebbing and flowing
throughout the year and reallyunderstanding that.
And again simple blood tests,sometimes a saliva test,
depending on which one you'retesting, but that's a huge piece
(55:15):
.
And then the last thing I wouldsay is, as women are
transitioning to perimetopauseand menopause, is to make sure
also this is really key forwomen who are looking to have
children sometime in the nearfuture is to really understand
where their hormones are at aswell.
So it's kind of all women, butif you're looking to have a
(55:35):
child sometime in the next twoor three years and then if you
are, you know there's no reasonfor women to suffer and struggle
and feel like crap when there'sreally great options out there
(56:02):
for hormone replacement therapy.
Nikki Durkin (56:05):
Um, so those are the big three, I would say right
, yes, oh well, I feel like Ifeel like I'm quite educated of,
like I'm like okay, like I knowwhat to look out for, I know
like where I can make tweaks tomy lifestyle to make sure that
things are kind of like movingalong well.
Nika Lawrie (56:26):
So thank you so much, you're welcome.
Well, thank you forinterviewing me for the show.
I truly appreciate it.
Nikki Durkin (56:32):
A lot of fun great .
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