July 20, 2025 • 48 mins
in this empowering episode of the self-love archives podcast, we're joined by vicky chehade (@your.period.coach), a fertility awareness educator helping women reconnect with their cycles to reclaim their power, energy, and confidence.
we talk about what it really means to live with your body instead of pushing through it- from syncing your workouts and nutrition to your cycle, to navigating your fertility journey, pms, burnout, and the myths we've been told about our bodies as women.
whether you're curious about cycle syncing or want to deepen your self-love by honoring your body’s natural rhythm, this episode will leave you feeling more connected, more empowered, and way less alone in your monthly journey.
follow vicky here on instagram and here on tik tok
book coaching with vicky here + listen to her podcast, Let's Get Cyclical, here
connect with julia on instagram @beautybyjulia + tik tok @juliasalvia
unlock more archive content on instagram @theselflovearchive + tik tok @theselflovearchives
sign up for the self-love archives newsletter: www.theselflovearchives.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Julia Salvia (00:00):
What inspired you to become a period coach?
And what about your ownjourney actually brought
you to becoming one?
Vicky Chehade (00:08):
Oh, yes.
So I was a teacher inmy like beginnings of
my professional career.
And at the same timeI was also super into.
Fitness.
So I became a CrossFit coach.
This is like a really randomtrajectory, but like following.
So was a teacher, became aCrossFit coach, and from there
(00:31):
I got really into nutrition.
And in that I was working witha ton of women at my CrossFit
gym and all of them werelike, I wanna lose weight, I
wanna get toned, this or that.
And they were trying to eatas little food as possible.
And then in our conversations,they were just dealing with
like tons of hormonal issues atthe same time, like exhausted
(00:54):
all the time headaches.
I would then say, well, what'sgoing on with your period?
And those conversationsjust kept coming up and
coming up and coming up.
And then at the same exact time,I was also going through my
own personal hormone journey.
I had been on hormonal birthcontrol since I was 16 years
old, which I think is a prettycommon story for a lot of women.
(01:17):
And that all began because Iwas dealing with debilitating
period cramps as a teenager.
My mom had a ton of likereproductive issues.
She ended up needing ahysterectomy when she
was in her fifties.
And so with that, mydoctor was just like,
yeah, go on birth control.
(01:38):
Like just deal with it.
That's gonna fix everything.
And so I was onbirth control for.
12 years of my life and asI started getting into more
of like the holistic side ofthings, the nutrition, the
lifestyle, I said, I don't needto be on birth control anymore.
And when I came off of birthcontrol, I. That was when like
(01:58):
shit kind of hit the fan for me.
I didn't get aperiod right away.
My PMS was out of controland I felt like I just had
no guidance on any of it.
And so while I was workingwith a ton of women to
improve their nutrition,improve their lifestyle.
I was also going through thisjourney at the same time.
(02:19):
And so that was kind ofwhat inspired me to be like,
there's gotta be more to this.
And so I started digging deeper.
I found certification programs.
I found continuing educationprograms, and that's really
like what led me to thispath of now being able to
help women come off birthcontrol, help women minimize
their, you know, symptomsof like, let's say PCOS.
(02:40):
Mm-hmm.
Help women getpregnant, all of that.
Julia Salvia (02:43):
Yeah, I definitely relate personally like to
your story, but I know that ifyou know it can't just be me
and you that have experiencedthis, I'm sure so many women
have experienced even justthe simply like a doctor
being like, just go on birthcontrol, you'll be fine.
And it's, yeah, it'slacking in education of how
(03:05):
our bodies actually work.
It's lacking in education, whatbirth control actually does.
Yes.
To our bodies too.
And that's not to say that,you know, it's not going to
work for some people, but Iknow just from experience that
I got no education about what,how birth control actually
affects my body other than thefact that it's what I need to
(03:26):
take to, you know, stop havingreally horrible period cramps
and it's what I need to takeso that I don't get pregnant.
Vicky Chehade (03:33):
Yeah.
And, and that's it.
Yep.
Because they don't, and it'sjust What's another frustrating
thing too, is like doctorsaren't explaining the mechanism.
Yes.
They're not telling youwhat it's doing, but then
they're also not eventelling you about the side
effects of birth control.
And I have worked with somany women, and this is part
of my own personal story too.
Mm-hmm.
(03:53):
I dealt with debilitatingmigraines for years.
Yeah.
It was so bad.
All throughout college, I wasgoing to different neurologists.
I was getting MRIs.
Guess what stopped assoon as I got off of birth
control, all of my migraines.
Wow.
And it's just like, these arejust not conversations that
are happening, unfortunately.
And a huge motivator for meis just like women being able
(04:16):
to understand their bodiesand then make decisions like,
I'm not anti birth control.
I think it's, it's, Ithink it helps some people.
Right.
And it's a choicefor some people.
Mm. But what I'm not into isthat we're not being told the
whole story enough to makeour own decisions about it.
Julia Salvia (04:32):
It's like we're not even getting a choice.
It's like, here isyour only choice.
I know my stories, like Istruggled with acne and it
was always like, go on birthcontrol, go on birth control.
Or the other optionsweren't even that much
better than birth control.
It was like Spironolactoneor Accutane.
And both of those arealso hormonal medications.
So you're giving me onlyhormonal medication options.
(04:55):
You're not.
Giving me any other holisticoption, like you're saying,
take medication or suck it up.
Vicky Chehade (05:02):
Yeah, exactly.
And it's just such a shamebecause there are so many
things that can be donefor all of these issues.
Yeah.
Julia Salvia (05:18):
Hi guys.
Welcome back to theSelf-Love Archives podcast.
My name is Julia Salvia,your self-love Festie.
And I am really excited fortoday's conversation because
I'm talking with Vicki today.
She is your period coach, andwe are going to be chatting all
about your period menstruation,fertility, and all of the things
(05:39):
that I think we both agreedthat a lot of women lack in
their education and learning to.
You know, learningabout themselves.
And that's such an importantthing when it comes to loving
ourselves is knowing ourselves.
So, hi Vicki.
Hi.
Thank you for having me.
Of course.
Thank you so muchfor being here.
I, as I said to you beforewe even started recording,
(05:59):
I'm excited you're here,um, for my own gain,
but I love this informationso much because I think we
are all really lacking in,in this education about.
You know, our cycle, our bodies.
I mean, where wasthis information when
we were growing up?
(06:19):
Why?
Why were we only taught thatwe are here to reproduce when
it's so much more than that?
And the thing is, is thatit's funny that we're taught
that in some ways that ourbodies are just here to
reproduce, but we're noteven taught how to, you know,
take care of our bodies sothat they can reproduce.
(06:40):
A thousand percent.
You know what I mean?
Like, ifthat's your goal, amazing.
I have all the babies in theworld, but how do we take care
of that so that our babiescome into this world healthy?
And you know, that goesfar beyond just taking
care of our own bodies.
Um, but this conversation todayis about the power of women
(07:00):
and women being able to taketheir power back and, and, you
know, learning more about howto take care of our bodies.
Vicky Chehade (07:07):
Yes.
Oh my gosh.
I love that phrase because it'sso true of just like when I
always say to women, like, whenyou can unlock what is going
on with your menstrual cycle,you are, you're unstoppable.
Yeah.
Because you know exactlywhat to do and how to
feel and how to adjustyour life based on it and.
It is unfortunate, likeevery single woman I've ever
(07:29):
worked with has said to me,why am I in my thirties?
Why am I sometimes even, whyam I in my forties and I'm just
learning this about my body?
And it really is such a shame.
Yeah.
We're here to talkabout it today, so Yeah,
Julia Salvia (07:42):
and I'm super excited.
Like what are.
When it comes to thefour cycles, what are
those four cycles?
Just to give everybodya little bit of kind
of a, a starting place.
'cause I know we've beentalking about them a lot more.
You're seeing a lot more Yeah.
About them on social mediaand there's kind of that trend
going around like, oh, are youin your luteal phase right now?
(08:03):
So tell us what are thosefour phases and give us, I
guess, a little, um, exampleof what's going on during
those four phases for us.
Vicky Chehade (08:11):
Sure.
So the first phase ofyour menstrual cycle is
when you're bleeding.
So that's themenstruation phase.
And even I think that isinteresting because I know
when I was growing up and Iwas like tracking my stuff on
a calendar, I always thoughtabout my period as like the end.
Mm-hmm.
But your periodis actually the beginning.
So your period starts anew cycle, and so obviously
(08:33):
what's happening at thatpoint, you are bleeding.
It's a very inflammatoryprocess on the body, so
we're losing a lot of fluids.
We're losing a lot of nutrients.
If you're dealing with periodcramps, like that might
make you feel pretty low.
So that's a time when likehormones are also low.
Mm-hmm.
So for women, it can belike a, let's chill out.
(08:54):
Like let's kind of slowthings down a little bit.
At that time, the nextphase of the cycle is called
the follicular phase, and.
What's happening there is that afollicle, which will eventually
be the egg that gets ovulated,is starting to develop.
So I like to describethat as like your body is
preparing, it's preparingto be fertile in that phase.
(09:16):
So energy can start to increase.
A lot of women like feelreally good at this time,
at this point in the cycle.
Then we move into the ovulatoryphase, which that is the
only time in the whole cyclethat you can get pregnant.
And that's another big myth.
I feel like in health classgrowing up it was like
that mean girls moment oflike don't have sex because
(09:37):
you'll get pregnant and die.
Like I feel like they just, theytried to like teach us like,
you can get pregnant any dayand it's bad and all of that,
but you can't, you literallycan only get pregnant once
in your cycle and most womenare only fertile for like.
Six to like nine days.
Mm-hmm.
Out of the entire cycle.
So that's happeningaround ovulation.
(09:58):
From a like mood standpoint,that's when we can have
like a good boost in energy.
Um, our libido.
So like our sex drive is goingto increase at this time.
'cause again, we'refertile, right?
And like our bodies wantus to make a baby even
if we don't want to.
Um, confidence boostslike all of that.
That's kind of what'sgoing on in ovulation.
(10:20):
And then after we ovulate, wemove into our luteal phase.
And that is the phase that'sconnected to like PMS.
So yes.
So like all the memes or likefunny posts about like, yeah.
All of a sudden I startedlike screaming at my partner
'cause he was chewing tooloud and then I got my period.
It's like, that's yourluteal phase, right?
Like, but it doesn'thave to be that way.
(10:41):
Right?
Like we don't haveto always have PMS.
Like there are things wecan do to work on that.
But in that secondhalf of the cycle.
We have progesterone, whichis our keep calm hormone.
So naturally we're gonna feela little bit more fatigued, a
little bit more like internal,wanting to slow things down,
and that's just how it's meantto be based on our hormones.
Julia Salvia (11:03):
You said something really interesting
about like the myth, right?
That we are learning, wethink we can get pregnant
like all throughout, or justpeople in general think that
we could get pregnant like365 days of the year, and
that's obviously not true.
There's that windowof six to nine days.
Where it's actuallypossible for us to, um,
actually get pregnant Now.
(11:25):
What are other myths thatyou have found that, you
know, anyone that comes andworks with you, uh, come to
you about, or things thatyou have seen that you wanna
squash Right here, right now?
Vicky Chehade (11:37):
Yeah.
Oh man.
I was honestly, theworst stuff is on TikTok.
Like, I've seen the crazieststuff in my comments over there.
Mm-hmm.
Um, I mean, I think there'sa big myth of like, you can
ovulate twice in a cycle.
No, you cannot, youonly ovulate one time.
You release one egg.
I mean, sometimes if, if youwere gonna have twins right,
(11:58):
two eggs can be released.
Mm-hmm.
But it's all happeningat the same time.
Mm-hmm.
So.
Only ovulate once.
Oh.
I mean, this is like amyth maybe, but like a lot
of women come to me justthinking debilitating period.
Cramps or bleeding throughsuper tampons is normal.
Because their doctors havebasically said like, yeah,
don't worry about it.
(12:19):
Like it's okay.
No, that's not normal.
That is a big red flag.
And there are things thatcan be done to minimize that.
Julia Salvia (12:26):
Yeah.
There's something that I havelearned for myself, and I wanna
run this by you and see ifthis is true, because I think
this is something that couldrelate to a lot of people.
Is it true if you lessenyour caffeine intake during
the luteal phase, mostespecially, that that can help
lessen your period cramps?
Vicky Chehade (12:49):
Yes.
So.
I kind of go a littleback and forth on this
one because I don't want,I'm not about restriction.
Yeah.
So I don't wanna ever tellwomen like, don't drink any
coffee, don't have any caffeine.
The lal face, becauseeveryone's different.
Yeah.
Some peoplewho might be more sensitive
to caffeine can definitelybenefit from lowering it,
(13:09):
and the reason for that iscaffeine can actually increase
estrogen a little bit.
Mm-hmm.
And we don't want estrogen tobe high in the luteal phase.
So a lot of period issues,PMS period pain comes from
not having enough progesteroneand then having too much
estrogen at a time when wedon't want that much estrogen.
Julia Salvia (13:31):
Got it.
And is, would the same thingbe with alcohol as well?
Vicky Chehade (13:36):
Yeah, alcohol for a different reason.
Um.
More so in the second halfof the cycle, we really want
our liver and our gut healthto be like doing the most.
Yeah.
To detox out hormones thatwe don't need anymore.
Yeah.
And so the alcohol piecejust kind of leads to a
lot of inflammation andinflammation can worsen period
cramps, and then it's justanother thing that our liver
(13:57):
has to work to detox out.
Yeah.
Julia Salvia (13:59):
I know that sometimes I'm not a big
alcohol drinker, but I'malso not, I would say like.
I'm not the biggest caffeinedrinker either, but I do tend to
catch myself, you know, havingat least one cup of something
that has caffeine in it per day.
Okay, that's awesome.
But I notice that duringthat, you know, second
half of my cycle beforemy period, if I just.
(14:22):
Um, cut back.
I wouldn't even say restrict'cause I definitely am
right there with you.
I don't wanna restrict myselfin what my body is like
wanting, craving, or in, youknow, inhabit of, unless it's
getting to a point where, youknow, I need to roll it back
'cause it's getting unhealthy.
Um, for, for my body.
But I noticed that when, youknow, instead of having 200
(14:42):
milligrams of caffeine a day,I, you know, bring it back to
a hundred milligrams a day.
And that's like, you know, maybeone of those mini energy drinks,
or I just have, you know, oneshot of espresso instead of two.
You know, I found that thatactually helps immensely
when it comes to my periodcramps, which really aren't
that bad to begin withbecause I am super aware of.
(15:04):
You know, really trying topay attention to actually
like cycle, sinking my bodywith what my body needs at
each part of my cycle's.
Such an incrediblething to know.
Yeah, it's about yourself too.
I'm glad we squashed those,those myths for sure.
Yeah.
What do you think islike a simple shift
that someone can make?
(15:25):
Um, 'cause sometimes thisinformation can be a lot, right?
This can be so much all atthe same time and a lot to
focus on, especially with.
Everything else going onin the world, everything
else going on in our lives.
What do you think is atleast one simple shift that
someone can make today?
Yeah.
To help them, you know, learnto love their bodies in this
way of learning their bodies.
Vicky Chehade (15:47):
Absolutely.
I think the most importantfoundation is just starting by
tracking your own body because.
I love the idea of living inalignment with your cycle.
Yeah.
But I have a big beef withlike traditional cycle sinking.
Yeah.
Because it makes it seem likeit's a cookie cutter thing
(16:07):
that works for everyone andthat's just not the case.
Yeah.
Like, you know, I said mostwomen feel great during
ovulation, but there's awhole group of women that
I know that don't feel goodduring ovulation and actually
feel more anxious, so.
By you just tracking yourown symptoms throughout your
cycle, that's going to helpyou figure out what you need.
(16:28):
I'm not even talking likegoing crazy and like doing the
whole full blown cycle trackingwith like cervical mucus.
Like I teach women howto do that, but that's
a whole other thing.
Yeah.
I would honestly just start onthe first day of your period.
How do you feel?
How's your energy?
How's your hunger?
Do you get headaches,do you get cramps?
All of that, and then justkind of track that throughout
your entire cycle to notice.
(16:49):
When is your energy lower?
When do you get headaches?
When do you maybe feel bloated?
And then that's going to helpyou kind of start to paint
the picture for yourself.
Julia Salvia (16:58):
And sometimes I think that can be overwhelming
too from just a standpointof like tracking it.
I think everybody hastheir own modem, right?
To track things like theirjournal, um, a notebook.
Are there any apps though,that you might recommend
Vicky Chehade (17:10):
from a, if you're like learning, and I haven't
even talked about this yet, but.
Another part of my coachingis I teach women the fertility
awareness method, which is anatural form of birth control.
It's basically like you usingyour own body and you're
understanding your fertilitysigns, which is really cool.
Yeah.
So for the womenwho do that, there's a really
(17:31):
great app called Read Your Body.
So that allows you kind of trackit all and you can do custom
things, like you can add yourown if you want it to log like.
When you get bloated, if youwanted to log, when you go out
to eat, like you can put it allin there, which is pretty cool.
Mm-hmm.
If you wantsomething that's a little bit
more like algorithm based,where you're kind of just like
(17:51):
putting in your period andyou're putting symptoms in, I
really like the app Stardust.
Mm-hmm.
That's fun.
One, that's one that I
Julia Salvia (17:58):
use.
I like it a lot.
Vicky Chehade (17:59):
Yeah.
So I would say like that, Iwould say stardust for the
people who are just kind oflike delving into this stuff.
Yeah,
Julia Salvia (18:05):
I like it 'cause it's very, um, I
love that it's aesthetic.
I can't help but thelibra moon in me really
loving the aestheticness of the Stardust app.
Um, love it.
But also, um, I'm reallyloving the kind of
comparison with the moon.
So I, I think it's reallycool that I always, um, get
my period on a full moon.
(18:27):
That's the best.
It feels very witchy and I love
Vicky Chehade (18:29):
it.
Yeah, I love it.
No, same in the, the, theRead Your Body app that I use,
you can add the moon phases.
So for me, I'm always lookinglike where are things happening?
And so I love that.
So cool
Julia Salvia (18:39):
because it's, it's hard to not take into
consideration that a woman'scycle is 28 days and the
moon cycle is 28 days, andthen a man, a man's hormone,
hormone cycle is 24 hoursand then the sun is 24 hours.
I find it.
So intriguing and, and goingeven further and even deeper
into the conversation of, um,you know, paying attention to
(19:03):
everyone, paying attention totheir hormone cycles and our
connection that's even deep,that goes even deeper with
like the earth that we live on.
It's, it's so intriguing.
Vicky Chehade (19:12):
Yeah.
No, it's so cool.
And I'll like takethat one step further.
Like, I am so fascinatedby the fact that if you,
so some women ovulate.
Around the full moon.
Oh, okay.
And so the reason for that,if we think back to like
the beginnings of time wasthe sky would be lighter.
So it was a more optimaltime for baby making.
(19:35):
That's just so, it's prettycool that like our bodies
do sink up with that, whereit's like if you bleed during
the new moon when it's likedark and you don't really
need to be out and about.
The women were pretty like.
You know, keep to themselvesand then you ovulate with
the full moon when there'smore light around and you're,
you know, doing your thing.
It's just cool tolike, think about it.
There's
Julia Salvia (19:54):
so many traditions that come back
to, you know, the sun andthe earth and the moon too.
I know that like the bigthing in a lot of like Latin
cultures to not go out andlook at a, um, eclipse when
there's an eclipse outsidebecause of that darkness and.
There's, um, a myth convincedthat if you do while pregnant,
(20:16):
most especially your babywill have a specific, like
marking on it, like a birthmarkor something like that.
Um, and just the,the connections are
just so interesting.
Um, it's our, it's hardto ignore honestly.
Vicky Chehade (20:32):
It is.
It is.
Julia Salvia (20:33):
Yeah.
So you said somethingabout your fertility.
Fertility awareness.
Yes.
Tell me more about yourfertility awareness coaching.
Vicky Chehade (20:41):
Yes.
So that, and again, this is aconversation that most OBGYNs
are not having with you, butit is a form of birth control
that is just as effectiveas hormonal birth control.
So when you are taughtthe rules and when you're
working with a certified.
Fertility awareness educator,it's up to 98% effective
(21:04):
at preventing pregnancy,which is the same as your
birth control pills andyour IUDs and all of that.
And so essentially what itis, is it's learning different
signs that your body givesto tell you when you're
fertile or when you're not.
So the biggest one to payattention to is cervical mucus.
Mm-hmm.
And.
Most women are just like, oh, soyou mean like the stuff that I
(21:26):
find sometimes in my underwear?
It's like, I mean, yeah,but it's way more than that.
Yeah.
And what's really cool aboutlearning the method is you're
not doing a science experiment.
I basically am teachingwomen, like when you go to
the bathroom and when youwipe with toilet paper.
How does it feel?
If it feels dry, that's mostlikely that you're infertile.
(21:49):
If it feels slippery.
And then if you noticeanything that's clear,
that's stretchy, that'stelling you, you're fertile.
So once you kind of know whatyour body is showing you, you
get to see when you're fertile.
When you're not fertile.
And then there's othermethods too, like basal body
temperature tracking that letsyou know if you've ovulated.
Mm-hmm.
So it's really effective.
(22:10):
I've taught a lot of womenthis method, and what's great
about it is it either helpsyou prevent pregnancy or
it helps you get pregnant.
Yeah.
Because you basically knowI'm fertile right now, and
you're either having sexbecause you wanna get pregnant,
or you're having protectedsex, or you're avoiding
intercourse at that time.
Julia Salvia (22:30):
Yeah.
I think that's so importanttoo, because it's like a,
it's, it's such a great way.
'cause I think we come, we comeoff of birth control, right.
It is our first step intoreally learning more about
our bodies after we've, youknow, taken this big step
for a lot of us becausewe've been on it for so long.
You said you, you were onbirth control for 12 years.
Um, I was on it forabout nine, 10 years.
(22:53):
And I think that that's a storyvery similar to a lot of women,
um, that are deciding to finallycome off of their birth control.
And they're like,well, where do I begin?
Like, I still want to, you know,they still want the benefits
of being on birth control,but there's so many different
directions to, to go in.
So I think that that's suchan amazing thing to learn
(23:13):
about our bodies so that wecan make sure that we are
not getting pregnant or thatbecause we don't want to be.
Or we can make sure that weare trying to get pregnant and,
and learning more about ourbodies when the optimal time
is to actually get pregnant.
Vicky Chehade (23:28):
Absolutely.
Julia Salvia (23:29):
In regards to, uh, the fertility awareness
coaching that you do, howdo you help your clients go
from feeling like their cyclemight be a burden to feeling
like it's more of a, you know,a powerful thing that they
can have more of awareness
Vicky Chehade (23:46):
in?
Yeah.
No, absolutely.
I think what makes itfeel like such a burden is
when we are in the dark.
Yeah.
And we just like don't know.
Right.
And so again, I think backto when I was a teenager and
first getting my period andreally knew like nothing about
my body other than Okay, cool.
Every 28 days or so itwould come and I would
(24:08):
get, have horrible crampsand feel like crap.
But when we actually can learnand plan around it, like that
leads to such empowerment andI see this time and time again,
even women I've worked with whomaybe have like endometriosis or
a condition where like horribleperiod pain and a lot of
(24:29):
symptoms, I've taught them howto actually track their cycle.
And then they can reallystart to adjust their life.
So they can be like, alright,I might not, you know, be able
to do as many social thingswhen I have this happen.
Or I really need to make sureI am minimizing, like we said
before, my caffeine, my alcohol,or any kind of like foods
(24:50):
that might make things worse.
And so getting that awarenessand just actually knowing
what's coming for you, knowingwhen your period is coming,
knowing how long your lutealphase is, knowing when your
symptoms might show up.
That gives us the answers.
And then from there we canadvocate for ourselves at
the doctor if we need to.
We can make better choicesaround our nutrition, our
(25:12):
workouts, our lifestyle.
And I think that's likethe biggest piece is just,
it's not a mystery anymore.
You know exactly what you'regoing to be dealing with.
Julia Salvia (25:21):
Yeah.
So it's basically likeknowledge is power in this case.
It's, you know.
Yeah.
When you're, and, andthe thing is, is that the
knowledge is, is one thing.
But we all have completelydifferent bodies.
Yes.
So it's really tailoring thatknowledge to our bodies and
what's going on for us, um,when it comes to cycle sinking
(25:43):
and, and the, um, fertilityawareness and everything that
you help your clients with.
Uh.
There's obviously a differentmethod or something different
to consider when it comesto someone who might have
endometriosis or any of thoseother things that really
have a large effect on ouruterus and our bodies as women
(26:04):
beyond, um, just, you know,period cramps and beyond what
birth control might mask.
Sure, yeah.
What do you say to them?
What is kind of the mostimportant thing to, um.
Important place to come to.
'cause I know that the firstthing, again, going back
to, I think birth control ispushed on any woman, but I
(26:26):
think even more so, especiallysomeone who might be dealing
with, um, endometriosis.
Vicky Chehade (26:32):
Yeah.
I've seen that with, youknow, endo, with PCOS, with
women who are, you know,maybe women who have fibroids
or really heavy bleeding.
It's just like birth control.
Birth control, birth control.
And the thought process behindthat is let's just shut off all
the hormonal activity so then,you know, we can control it.
(26:52):
Air quotes, controlit a little bit more.
But most women, and I'veseen this with like all
those different issues, mostwomen tend to do better when
they come off birth controland when they know how to
actually support their bodies.
So that's the biggestdifference is.
After women learn how to tracktheir cycle and they learn their
symptoms, then I'm helping themdive into, well, what are some,
(27:15):
you know, nutrition thingsthat can make you feel better?
Maybe we are limitinginflammatory foods, or
if they have any foodsthat are trigger foods,
we're thinking about that.
Maybe they're pushing themselvesway too hard and they're
stressing way too much.
Cool.
We need to like be aware of thatand really work to manage those
things so there's just so muchthat can be done individually.
(27:38):
The way you eat, the wayyou sleep, the way you
live your life, the wayyou move your body, that
all impacts your symptoms.
Julia Salvia (27:45):
And how do you think that the coaching that you
do can support everyone in theirmental wellness, confidence and
kind of boundary setting whenit comes to you cycle sinking
and cycle sinking, coaching andfertility awareness, coaching,
so many modems of just, youknow, taking care of, uh, a
Vicky Chehade (28:02):
woman's body.
Yeah.
No, totally.
And I mean, the nervous systemsupport piece is always a
conversation that I'm havingwith my clients, since
that's not like my specialty.
I often am saying like,if you're not in therapy,
like, who's your therapist?
Yeah.
Or like, you know, I'm, I'm kindof talking to them about like
these different ways, right?
(28:22):
Mm-hmm.
And then obviously too, assomething I can help them
with for the coaching islike, are you taking time
to rest in your luteal faceif you're feeling tired?
Or are you trying to like whiteknuckle through all of the huge
to-do lists that you have to do?
It's like that's a big pieceof awareness of just breaking
the guilt around, needing tobe doing things at all time and
(28:46):
just learning that as women, wehave hormones that fluctuate.
And with that, ourneeds have to fluctuate.
Our energy's gonna fluctuate,and we can't operate at
the same pace every singleday throughout our cycle.
Julia Salvia (28:59):
We can have the.
Awareness.
We can have the knowledge andif we have the knowledge, we
can work with our bodies inthe best way that we know how.
Yeah, absolutely.
And feel like we're actuallylike moving the needle forward
on a project that we reallywanna work on feeling better
each thing, each and everyday, because we actually know
(29:19):
how to take care of our bodiesin the ways that we need to.
Vicky Chehade (29:23):
Absolutely.
I always say like.
Once you learn all of thisstuff and once you figure
out too, then on top of it,the nutrition piece, all of
that, like you get to crackthe code on your own body.
And it's so empowering to beable to just know what your
body needs at any given point.
Julia Salvia (29:41):
Yeah, for sure.
And you wouldn't saythat there's like one,
like a day in the life.
If I were to ask you likewhat a day in the life of
working with your body inthis way would look like?
What would you saythat that looks like?
Obviously it's, it'sgoing to change.
I already know by likeasking this question, it's
gonna change depending onwho you are as a person.
(30:02):
So anyone listening like knowthis, but what would be more
of like, the most optimalway to work with your body in
one of the phases, let's say?
Vicky Chehade (30:12):
Yeah.
I, I'm, I'm honestly evengonna pull it back even further
and just generally, theseare things that you should
do every day, no matter whereyou're at in your cycle.
Yeah.
And so the first thing is.
Eating a breakfast within anhour of waking up, I will die
on this hill because there'sso much conflicting info out
there about like, oh, fastingthis, fasting that, no.
(30:34):
For women, one of the mostsupportive things you can
do is you wake up and thenwithin an hour eat a breakfast
that has protein, fat, andlike a little bit of fiber.
So classic example is justlike some scrambled eggs with
some cheese and maybe someberries or like a piece of.
Sourdough toast.
Like do that.
(30:55):
And that just like setsyou up for better energy
throughout the day.
Fewer cravings later in the day.
And you're essentiallytelling your body like,
Hey, we feel good now.
Like we have fuel, we feel safe.
And then that's going to getthe hormone signaling going.
So starting your day withlike, solid breakfast,
don't wait on that.
Um, coffee after breakfast.
Also, another reallyimportant one there.
(31:16):
And then honestly justlike nourishing yourself
throughout the day.
And so when I say that, I meanfrom a nutrition side of things,
but also from a mental healthside of things too, is make sure
that you are doing somethingevery single day that fills
your cup, because that goessuch a long way from a hormone
standpoint of just tellingyour brain, Hey, we feel good.
(31:41):
We feel safe now.
And then that's what leads to.
Optimal hormone function,which is going to lead to
less symptoms in your cycle.
Julia Salvia (31:50):
Yeah, I love that.
I think that's so smart.
Um, I definitely have totake some of that advice
myself, especially eatingbreakfast and things like
that sooner in the day.
Um, yes.
I'm gonna be thinkingabout you tomorrow.
Try it.
Vicky Chehade (32:07):
It, I swear it is the one thing that when
women start to like, slowlyimplement it, they're like,
wow, I like feel so much better.
And yeah, it's, it's simple.
It takes work, obviously, but
Julia Salvia (32:18):
yeah.
Vicky Chehade (32:18):
Yeah, for sure.
Julia Salvia (32:20):
Now for anyone that struggles in any sort
of aspect with, um, PCOSendometriosis, their cycle
learning, um, and tryingto advocate for themselves.
What's like one thing you wouldtell them to give them a little
bit more hope in this case?
Vicky Chehade (32:37):
Hmm.
If you are going to adoctor who isn't listening
to you, find a new doctor,that's always my number one.
Number one rule.
Find, reach out.
Find someone like mewho can help with the
day in and day out.
And I always say this like,I'm not a doctor, obviously
I can't do doctor things.
(32:59):
Mm-hmm.
But.
When it comes to thefemale body, it really
does take a team.
And so having someone like mein your back corner, I'm with
you for all the hundreds ofdecisions you make in a day that
are going to impact your cycle.
And I feel like a big, abig thing that I, not even
intentionally, but a big thingthat I end up helping women
with is just being able tobetter advocate for themselves.
(33:22):
So bringing data to yourdoctor's office, and that starts
with like the tracking of just.
Writing down, Hey, for the lastthree cycles I've had migraines
every day in my luteal phaseor for the last three cycles,
my period cramps have mademe call out of work, right?
So the more that you can bringthe data and just say to them
(33:43):
like, this is what's goingon, hopefully they'll listen
and do some testing for you.
And if not, like I said, tryto find a a doctor who will,
Julia Salvia (33:52):
we don't think of like our doctors and
the people that help us.
In our lives as a, youknow, weaved support
community, essentially.
Mm-hmm.
Um, like working together.
And I, I'm not sure where thatgot lost in translation over
the past couple of years, butI truly, truly believe myself.
And I, I think you also agreewith me that all of them should
(34:14):
be working together to help you.
Whether that is, you know,you as their, as their period
coach, um, or their, you know,giving them fertility awareness.
'cause they're wanting to.
Be, get, become pregnant.
Yeah.
Um, working with you, withtheir doctor, with, um,
their doula, like working alltogether is so important to
(34:35):
have that, you know, communityof support surrounding you.
Absolutely.
To actually get you towhere you need to go.
'cause we were never meant todo all of this by ourselves.
I don't know where we thinkthat was supposed to be a
thing, but we're supposed toall, you know, help each other.
Basically go abouteach day of our
Vicky Chehade (34:55):
lives.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
A hundred percent.
It's women again, if goingback to like the beginnings
of time, like women havealways been communal.
Yeah.
And unfortunately, yeah.
That kind of has gotten lostover, you know, the years.
Julia Salvia (35:11):
Yeah, for sure.
What advice though, would yougive to someone who, um, maybe
like a teenager that's juststarting their, uh, journey
with their period and, um.
You know, wanting tomaybe learn a little bit
more about their bodies.
Vicky Chehade (35:26):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
So the thing that we're nevertaught as teenagers is, and
this is gonna sound a littleweird, but like your first
couple years of having a periodare gonna be kind of crappy.
And the reason for thatis like your body is
just not fully developed.
(35:48):
Mm-hmm.
So.
It's trying to ovulate.
It's trying to have a regularcycle, but we actually don't
fully like mature from anovulatory standpoint until
we're in our early twenties.
So I got my period at12, that is eight years.
Right?
Like if I just think about itlike that until things should
have been fully matured.
(36:08):
Sure.
But I went onbirth control at 16 because
my periods are so bad.
Yeah.
So I just wish someone hadexplained to me like this
isn't a forever thing.
This is a season of life.
You know, all the informationI have now of just how much
food could have impacted thingsand you know, the way I was
(36:28):
exercising, like I was a bigathlete growing up, right?
Like that absolutelyplayed into things.
So for the teenagers, I wouldjust say like, obviously
seek out help if somethingis like really not going
well for you from yourdoctor, but be open to.
Learning about yourbody really early on.
Be open to the fact thatthings might not be super
(36:49):
regular in the beginning.
And just telling yourselflike, this is a season of
life and I can nourish myself.
I can do things to make ita little bit better too.
Julia Salvia (36:59):
And would that be kind of similar advice
that you would give theirparent or caretaker to help
you know, someone that'sactually going through that?
Vicky Chehade (37:07):
Yeah, and, and that's the cool thing
too, is like I've worked.
I've like done workshops.
I've, you know, spoken toolder women as well, and a
lot of them were like, wow, Ican't wait to then pass this
information on to my daughter.
Yeah.
And so that'simportant too, of like,
hopefully our generation thatis finally learning this info
(37:27):
with the future generationswill be able to have a better,
you know, better handle on it.
Julia Salvia (37:33):
Yeah.
I love that so much.
I think it's so importanttoo, to have that.
Close knit support systemtoo, like especially as a
teenager with going throughsomething that seems so big,
so new and so confusing.
Yes.
Especially when it's really,sometimes the only way that
we're being taught aboutany of it is through school.
(37:53):
Yeah.
And that's not enough or reallywhat we should be learning.
Vicky Chehade (37:59):
Yeah.
You know?
Julia Salvia (38:01):
No,
Vicky Chehade (38:01):
because again, they're not gonna
be super candid in a. Youknow, school, classroom.
Yeah.
Or I even just like crackup because I remember my mom
gave me, there was like thisAmerican Girl Doll book.
Yeah.
Called The Careand Keeping of You.
I know this bookand like, I just remember
that was how I learned aboutwhat my period was supposed
(38:24):
to be like was from this book.
And it's like so crazy to thinkabout that, that there was
no open dialogue beyond that.
So.
That's certainly not howI will be teaching my
daughter when it's her time.
Julia Salvia (38:37):
Yes.
I, I totally feel you on thatbecause I think I learned how
to take care of my period andall of the way, like by myself.
Like I don't really rememberthere being any education other
than the school education thatI received on like, you know,
simple things like how to usea tampon, like what is the
(38:58):
best mode of birth control.
I mean, that's a huge one.
Trying.
Especially now that I'm, Ididn't actually know that
we're, you know, as teenagerswe're still getting into, uh,
you know, our bodies are kindof still getting into like
what ovulations like whatare periods like up until 20,
but we're being pushed to goon birth control at like 16.
(39:20):
Yeah.
That's crazy to me.
'cause that's around the same,that's around the time I feel
like 16 to 18 when, um, youknow, we start going to see our
gynecologist for the first time.
Yeah, and to be pushed onbirth control that easily is
crazy to me, where it almostfeels like you're not allowing
your body to develop in theway that it should before
(39:41):
throwing something at it.
Vicky Chehade (39:43):
Yeah, and I just too, I think again, like
there's just this lack of trust,I would say, in how women can.
Treat their own bodies, learnabout their own bodies too.
Because I think anothermotive for OB-GYNs is like,
well, let's just put you onbirth control in case you're
sexually active as a teenager.
And you know, we're notgonna worry about that.
(40:04):
But again, like I just thinkback, if I started learning
the fertility awarenessmethod at like 14 years old,
you would be a pro at it.
Yeah.
You know, in your teen years,in your early twenties,
like when you're, youknow, sexually active, so.
Yeah, the system is alittle bit unfortunate.
Julia Salvia (40:24):
I'm just grateful that we're here today talking
about this and that it seemslike a lot more women and a lot
more people are starting to talkabout women's bodies a lot more
in, in the good ways, let's say,um, and, and talk about, you
know, what it means to actuallyhave a period and what it means
(40:45):
to, um, you know, cycle syncin a way that actually works.
For our bodies and for us, it,it feels good that we are moving
in what seems like the rightdirection and not just taking
the information that we'relearning in school with us.
Yeah.
AB
Vicky Chehade (41:01):
absolutely, and I think with all of this, it just
comes down to, as a woman, youhave to advocate for yourself.
Mm-hmm.
And you have to be confident.
Like I've had tons of clientswho, you know, they'll go to
their annual appointment andtheir doctor will be like.
Oh, well.
Like why are you off ofbirth control if you're
not trying to get pregnant?
And they'll be like, well,I just don't wanna be on it.
(41:23):
Or like, I'm learning thefertility awareness method.
And like doctorswill laugh at them.
Yeah.
And to some, to some women,like that sucks and they aren't
prepared for that because we'resupposed to trust our doctors.
Right.
But so I just say like.
Stick to your guns, getthe right kind of support,
find the people who aregoing to listen to you.
Mm-hmm.
And then continue to justadvocate for yourself.
Julia Salvia (41:45):
Yeah.
'cause there are gonna be peoplethat are going to listen to you.
There are gonna be people thattrust you and it is out there.
I, I think that as the morethat we talk about it and
the more that we use these.
Modems of taking careof our body and this
having this education andknowledge and awareness of
taking care of our bodies.
I think that we're gonna startto see that more doctors,
(42:06):
specifically gynecologists anddoctors that are specifically
for, you know, for women andwomen's bodies, are going to
show up and actually startto advocate for us as well
in the ways that we need.
Vicky Chehade (42:17):
I agree.
Something I will say that's likea pretty big myth for any women
who maybe are thinking aboutthat next chapter in their life.
They, you know, want tobecome pregnant within
the next year or so.
Most OBGYNs will say, comeoff of birth control as
soon as you're ready tostart trying to conceive.
And something that they'renot telling you is it takes
(42:39):
your body time to come offof birth control and start
regulating your cycle.
Mm-hmm.
And so.
I always like to say to women,if you are planning to try to
conceive, come off of birthcontrol a year before that,
like give your body the time itneeds to like truly regulate.
Because what's happeningis when you are on birth
(43:01):
control, you are basicallyflatlining your hormones.
The connection betweenyour brain and your
ovaries is not happening.
Mm-hmm.
So when you come off of it, youhave to rework that connection
again, and that can justtake a little bit of time.
So.
That's not even just forwomen trying to get pregnant,
that's for anyone comingoff of birth control.
Like give your bodygrace, be patient, and
(43:24):
just kind of plan that.
It can take like sixmonths to a year for your
cycle to fully regulate.
Julia Salvia (43:31):
It's so interesting you say that too,
because one of the biggestreasons why I came off of
birth control was becauseof the, partially because
of the idea of potentiallywanting to have kids.
And my thought process is, well,I'm never, if I stay on birth
control all the way up untilI, you know, that moment, that
time that I decide that I wannaconceive, like, I'm not even
(43:54):
gonna know what my body's like.
I'm not even gonnaknow who I am.
So let me learn about myselfand my body now in this moment
so that when the time comes,if I should decide to conceive.
I'm gonna know what'snormal and what's not.
Vicky Chehade (44:13):
Love that.
That is like the best approach.
I say that to everyone like.
The, and the women whoI work with, they're
the most successful.
Meaning they can getpregnant quicker.
Yeah.
When they've taken thetime ahead of time to learn
their body, learn theircycle, and just prepare
themselves, nourish theirbodies and get ready for it.
Julia Salvia (44:35):
Yeah.
I know that birth controlaffects all of our bodies
differently, and I'm, I'm surethat there are some people where
it really doesn't make too muchof a difference, but there is
kind of like that fact that yousaid it's like it's flatlining.
Our, our hormonesand, and who we are.
And, you know, there's thatlack of connection between
our brain and our uterus.
And I think that's so important,especially when it comes to,
(44:56):
you know, conceiving and,and really understanding our
bodies throughout that process.
And that's something that even,you know, minus the medical
aside, minus the actual like,um, pregnancy aside, but.
Something that I would want toexperience if I choose that for
myself, like I wanna experiencewhat all of these things feel
(45:18):
so that I can better advocatefor myself, that if something
is, you know, God forbid goingwrong, I have the means to say
this isn't normal because Iknow myself and I know my body.
And this isn't right, and Ican go seek, you know, the
help, whether that's, youknow, mental help, physical
help, whatever that might be.
(45:39):
I can go seek that for myselfand advocate for myself e
Vicky Chehade (45:42):
exactly.
And like I should have alsomentioned that too, of like
when I teach women fam thefertility awareness method.
A lot of women think aboutit as like, oh, I'm gonna
learn this as birth control,or I'm gonna learn this
to get pregnant quicker.
Mm-hmm.
But honestly, one of the mostimportant benefits is just it
teaches you about your health.
Like our, our menstrualcycle is truly, truly our,
(46:05):
our monthly report card.
And if things are off, ifyou are having irregular
cycles, if you're havingdebilitating period cramps,
mood swings, acne, you name it.
Right?
If you're dealingwith all of that.
Something is going on withyour body and this is your,
we are so lucky as women.
That's always how Ilike to say it, right?
Yeah.
Like men don't haveanything like this.
(46:27):
Yeah.
We, every single month getto learn is our body happy?
And that would be, doyou have a regular cycle?
Do you feel good throughoutyour cycle or is something off?
And that's gonna show upas all of those symptoms.
Julia Salvia (46:41):
I love that.
I love that We are so luckyto be women because our bodies
work in the way that they doand in such an intricate way.
And I, I love that.
For us,
Vicky Chehade (46:52):
seriously, it's just, and this is the
problem of like, we've beentaught to silence it our
whole lives or we've been toldlike, ignore these symptoms.
It's normal.
You're just a woman.
But it's like, no, that's yourbody communicating with you.
Yeah.
So it is really, and that's such
Julia Salvia (47:06):
a powerful thing to have.
Yeah.
That is such a powerful modeof, of communication to be
able to understand and, andknow ourselves through the
communication of like what ourbody is physically feeling.
We can know, totally knowso much more about how we're
taking care of ourselves.
Vicky Chehade (47:24):
Yeah, absolutely.
Julia Salvia (47:26):
Thank you Vicki, so much for being here.
This was such a greatconversation and I hope everyone
got so much out of this.
I know, I definitely did.
Please let everyone know wherethey can find you, where they
can book coaching with you,um, and all of that good stuff.
Vicky Chehade (47:42):
Awesome.
Well, thank you for having me.
First of all, this was so fun.
I just like love getting totalk about this stuff, but
if you wanna connect withme in any way, Instagram and
TikTok, it's the same handle.
It's at your period coach,so periods in between.
And then my website is justyour period, coach.com.
Julia Salvia (48:02):
Perfect.
Thank you Vicki so much again.
I appreciate it.
Vicky Chehade (48:06):
No, this was great.
Thank you so much.
Julia Salvia (48:07):
Of course.
Thank you.
What inspired you to become a period coach?
And what about your ownjourney actually brought
you to becoming one?
Vicky Chehade (00:08):
Oh, yes.
So I was a teacher inmy like beginnings of
my professional career.
And at the same timeI was also super into.
Fitness.
So I became a CrossFit coach.
This is like a really randomtrajectory, but like following.
So was a teacher, became aCrossFit coach, and from there
(00:31):
I got really into nutrition.
And in that I was working witha ton of women at my CrossFit
gym and all of them werelike, I wanna lose weight, I
wanna get toned, this or that.
And they were trying to eatas little food as possible.
And then in our conversations,they were just dealing with
like tons of hormonal issues atthe same time, like exhausted
(00:54):
all the time headaches.
I would then say, well, what'sgoing on with your period?
And those conversationsjust kept coming up and
coming up and coming up.
And then at the same exact time,I was also going through my
own personal hormone journey.
I had been on hormonal birthcontrol since I was 16 years
old, which I think is a prettycommon story for a lot of women.
(01:17):
And that all began because Iwas dealing with debilitating
period cramps as a teenager.
My mom had a ton of likereproductive issues.
She ended up needing ahysterectomy when she
was in her fifties.
And so with that, mydoctor was just like,
yeah, go on birth control.
(01:38):
Like just deal with it.
That's gonna fix everything.
And so I was onbirth control for.
12 years of my life and asI started getting into more
of like the holistic side ofthings, the nutrition, the
lifestyle, I said, I don't needto be on birth control anymore.
And when I came off of birthcontrol, I. That was when like
(01:58):
shit kind of hit the fan for me.
I didn't get aperiod right away.
My PMS was out of controland I felt like I just had
no guidance on any of it.
And so while I was workingwith a ton of women to
improve their nutrition,improve their lifestyle.
I was also going through thisjourney at the same time.
(02:19):
And so that was kind ofwhat inspired me to be like,
there's gotta be more to this.
And so I started digging deeper.
I found certification programs.
I found continuing educationprograms, and that's really
like what led me to thispath of now being able to
help women come off birthcontrol, help women minimize
their, you know, symptomsof like, let's say PCOS.
(02:40):
Mm-hmm.
Help women getpregnant, all of that.
Julia Salvia (02:43):
Yeah, I definitely relate personally like to
your story, but I know that ifyou know it can't just be me
and you that have experiencedthis, I'm sure so many women
have experienced even justthe simply like a doctor
being like, just go on birthcontrol, you'll be fine.
And it's, yeah, it'slacking in education of how
(03:05):
our bodies actually work.
It's lacking in education, whatbirth control actually does.
Yes.
To our bodies too.
And that's not to say that,you know, it's not going to
work for some people, but Iknow just from experience that
I got no education about what,how birth control actually
affects my body other than thefact that it's what I need to
(03:26):
take to, you know, stop havingreally horrible period cramps
and it's what I need to takeso that I don't get pregnant.
Vicky Chehade (03:33):
Yeah.
And, and that's it.
Yep.
Because they don't, and it'sjust What's another frustrating
thing too, is like doctorsaren't explaining the mechanism.
Yes.
They're not telling youwhat it's doing, but then
they're also not eventelling you about the side
effects of birth control.
And I have worked with somany women, and this is part
of my own personal story too.
Mm-hmm.
(03:53):
I dealt with debilitatingmigraines for years.
Yeah.
It was so bad.
All throughout college, I wasgoing to different neurologists.
I was getting MRIs.
Guess what stopped assoon as I got off of birth
control, all of my migraines.
Wow.
And it's just like, these arejust not conversations that
are happening, unfortunately.
And a huge motivator for meis just like women being able
(04:16):
to understand their bodiesand then make decisions like,
I'm not anti birth control.
I think it's, it's, Ithink it helps some people.
Right.
And it's a choicefor some people.
Mm. But what I'm not into isthat we're not being told the
whole story enough to makeour own decisions about it.
Julia Salvia (04:32):
It's like we're not even getting a choice.
It's like, here isyour only choice.
I know my stories, like Istruggled with acne and it
was always like, go on birthcontrol, go on birth control.
Or the other optionsweren't even that much
better than birth control.
It was like Spironolactoneor Accutane.
And both of those arealso hormonal medications.
So you're giving me onlyhormonal medication options.
(04:55):
You're not.
Giving me any other holisticoption, like you're saying,
take medication or suck it up.
Vicky Chehade (05:02):
Yeah, exactly.
And it's just such a shamebecause there are so many
things that can be donefor all of these issues.
Yeah.
Julia Salvia (05:18):
Hi guys.
Welcome back to theSelf-Love Archives podcast.
My name is Julia Salvia,your self-love Festie.
And I am really excited fortoday's conversation because
I'm talking with Vicki today.
She is your period coach, andwe are going to be chatting all
about your period menstruation,fertility, and all of the things
(05:39):
that I think we both agreedthat a lot of women lack in
their education and learning to.
You know, learningabout themselves.
And that's such an importantthing when it comes to loving
ourselves is knowing ourselves.
So, hi Vicki.
Hi.
Thank you for having me.
Of course.
Thank you so muchfor being here.
I, as I said to you beforewe even started recording,
(05:59):
I'm excited you're here,um, for my own gain,
but I love this informationso much because I think we
are all really lacking in,in this education about.
You know, our cycle, our bodies.
I mean, where wasthis information when
we were growing up?
(06:19):
Why?
Why were we only taught thatwe are here to reproduce when
it's so much more than that?
And the thing is, is thatit's funny that we're taught
that in some ways that ourbodies are just here to
reproduce, but we're noteven taught how to, you know,
take care of our bodies sothat they can reproduce.
(06:40):
A thousand percent.
You know what I mean?
Like, ifthat's your goal, amazing.
I have all the babies in theworld, but how do we take care
of that so that our babiescome into this world healthy?
And you know, that goesfar beyond just taking
care of our own bodies.
Um, but this conversation todayis about the power of women
(07:00):
and women being able to taketheir power back and, and, you
know, learning more about howto take care of our bodies.
Vicky Chehade (07:07):
Yes.
Oh my gosh.
I love that phrase because it'sso true of just like when I
always say to women, like, whenyou can unlock what is going
on with your menstrual cycle,you are, you're unstoppable.
Yeah.
Because you know exactlywhat to do and how to
feel and how to adjustyour life based on it and.
It is unfortunate, likeevery single woman I've ever
(07:29):
worked with has said to me,why am I in my thirties?
Why am I sometimes even, whyam I in my forties and I'm just
learning this about my body?
And it really is such a shame.
Yeah.
We're here to talkabout it today, so Yeah,
Julia Salvia (07:42):
and I'm super excited.
Like what are.
When it comes to thefour cycles, what are
those four cycles?
Just to give everybodya little bit of kind
of a, a starting place.
'cause I know we've beentalking about them a lot more.
You're seeing a lot more Yeah.
About them on social mediaand there's kind of that trend
going around like, oh, are youin your luteal phase right now?
(08:03):
So tell us what are thosefour phases and give us, I
guess, a little, um, exampleof what's going on during
those four phases for us.
Vicky Chehade (08:11):
Sure.
So the first phase ofyour menstrual cycle is
when you're bleeding.
So that's themenstruation phase.
And even I think that isinteresting because I know
when I was growing up and Iwas like tracking my stuff on
a calendar, I always thoughtabout my period as like the end.
Mm-hmm.
But your periodis actually the beginning.
So your period starts anew cycle, and so obviously
(08:33):
what's happening at thatpoint, you are bleeding.
It's a very inflammatoryprocess on the body, so
we're losing a lot of fluids.
We're losing a lot of nutrients.
If you're dealing with periodcramps, like that might
make you feel pretty low.
So that's a time when likehormones are also low.
Mm-hmm.
So for women, it can belike a, let's chill out.
(08:54):
Like let's kind of slowthings down a little bit.
At that time, the nextphase of the cycle is called
the follicular phase, and.
What's happening there is that afollicle, which will eventually
be the egg that gets ovulated,is starting to develop.
So I like to describethat as like your body is
preparing, it's preparingto be fertile in that phase.
(09:16):
So energy can start to increase.
A lot of women like feelreally good at this time,
at this point in the cycle.
Then we move into the ovulatoryphase, which that is the
only time in the whole cyclethat you can get pregnant.
And that's another big myth.
I feel like in health classgrowing up it was like
that mean girls moment oflike don't have sex because
(09:37):
you'll get pregnant and die.
Like I feel like they just, theytried to like teach us like,
you can get pregnant any dayand it's bad and all of that,
but you can't, you literallycan only get pregnant once
in your cycle and most womenare only fertile for like.
Six to like nine days.
Mm-hmm.
Out of the entire cycle.
So that's happeningaround ovulation.
(09:58):
From a like mood standpoint,that's when we can have
like a good boost in energy.
Um, our libido.
So like our sex drive is goingto increase at this time.
'cause again, we'refertile, right?
And like our bodies wantus to make a baby even
if we don't want to.
Um, confidence boostslike all of that.
That's kind of what'sgoing on in ovulation.
(10:20):
And then after we ovulate, wemove into our luteal phase.
And that is the phase that'sconnected to like PMS.
So yes.
So like all the memes or likefunny posts about like, yeah.
All of a sudden I startedlike screaming at my partner
'cause he was chewing tooloud and then I got my period.
It's like, that's yourluteal phase, right?
Like, but it doesn'thave to be that way.
(10:41):
Right?
Like we don't haveto always have PMS.
Like there are things wecan do to work on that.
But in that secondhalf of the cycle.
We have progesterone, whichis our keep calm hormone.
So naturally we're gonna feela little bit more fatigued, a
little bit more like internal,wanting to slow things down,
and that's just how it's meantto be based on our hormones.
Julia Salvia (11:03):
You said something really interesting
about like the myth, right?
That we are learning, wethink we can get pregnant
like all throughout, or justpeople in general think that
we could get pregnant like365 days of the year, and
that's obviously not true.
There's that windowof six to nine days.
Where it's actuallypossible for us to, um,
actually get pregnant Now.
(11:25):
What are other myths thatyou have found that, you
know, anyone that comes andworks with you, uh, come to
you about, or things thatyou have seen that you wanna
squash Right here, right now?
Vicky Chehade (11:37):
Yeah.
Oh man.
I was honestly, theworst stuff is on TikTok.
Like, I've seen the crazieststuff in my comments over there.
Mm-hmm.
Um, I mean, I think there'sa big myth of like, you can
ovulate twice in a cycle.
No, you cannot, youonly ovulate one time.
You release one egg.
I mean, sometimes if, if youwere gonna have twins right,
(11:58):
two eggs can be released.
Mm-hmm.
But it's all happeningat the same time.
Mm-hmm.
So.
Only ovulate once.
Oh.
I mean, this is like amyth maybe, but like a lot
of women come to me justthinking debilitating period.
Cramps or bleeding throughsuper tampons is normal.
Because their doctors havebasically said like, yeah,
don't worry about it.
(12:19):
Like it's okay.
No, that's not normal.
That is a big red flag.
And there are things thatcan be done to minimize that.
Julia Salvia (12:26):
Yeah.
There's something that I havelearned for myself, and I wanna
run this by you and see ifthis is true, because I think
this is something that couldrelate to a lot of people.
Is it true if you lessenyour caffeine intake during
the luteal phase, mostespecially, that that can help
lessen your period cramps?
Vicky Chehade (12:49):
Yes.
So.
I kind of go a littleback and forth on this
one because I don't want,I'm not about restriction.
Yeah.
So I don't wanna ever tellwomen like, don't drink any
coffee, don't have any caffeine.
The lal face, becauseeveryone's different.
Yeah.
Some peoplewho might be more sensitive
to caffeine can definitelybenefit from lowering it,
(13:09):
and the reason for that iscaffeine can actually increase
estrogen a little bit.
Mm-hmm.
And we don't want estrogen tobe high in the luteal phase.
So a lot of period issues,PMS period pain comes from
not having enough progesteroneand then having too much
estrogen at a time when wedon't want that much estrogen.
Julia Salvia (13:31):
Got it.
And is, would the same thingbe with alcohol as well?
Vicky Chehade (13:36):
Yeah, alcohol for a different reason.
Um.
More so in the second halfof the cycle, we really want
our liver and our gut healthto be like doing the most.
Yeah.
To detox out hormones thatwe don't need anymore.
Yeah.
And so the alcohol piecejust kind of leads to a
lot of inflammation andinflammation can worsen period
cramps, and then it's justanother thing that our liver
(13:57):
has to work to detox out.
Yeah.
Julia Salvia (13:59):
I know that sometimes I'm not a big
alcohol drinker, but I'malso not, I would say like.
I'm not the biggest caffeinedrinker either, but I do tend to
catch myself, you know, havingat least one cup of something
that has caffeine in it per day.
Okay, that's awesome.
But I notice that duringthat, you know, second
half of my cycle beforemy period, if I just.
(14:22):
Um, cut back.
I wouldn't even say restrict'cause I definitely am
right there with you.
I don't wanna restrict myselfin what my body is like
wanting, craving, or in, youknow, inhabit of, unless it's
getting to a point where, youknow, I need to roll it back
'cause it's getting unhealthy.
Um, for, for my body.
But I noticed that when, youknow, instead of having 200
(14:42):
milligrams of caffeine a day,I, you know, bring it back to
a hundred milligrams a day.
And that's like, you know, maybeone of those mini energy drinks,
or I just have, you know, oneshot of espresso instead of two.
You know, I found that thatactually helps immensely
when it comes to my periodcramps, which really aren't
that bad to begin withbecause I am super aware of.
(15:04):
You know, really trying topay attention to actually
like cycle, sinking my bodywith what my body needs at
each part of my cycle's.
Such an incrediblething to know.
Yeah, it's about yourself too.
I'm glad we squashed those,those myths for sure.
Yeah.
What do you think islike a simple shift
that someone can make?
(15:25):
Um, 'cause sometimes thisinformation can be a lot, right?
This can be so much all atthe same time and a lot to
focus on, especially with.
Everything else going onin the world, everything
else going on in our lives.
What do you think is atleast one simple shift that
someone can make today?
Yeah.
To help them, you know, learnto love their bodies in this
way of learning their bodies.
Vicky Chehade (15:47):
Absolutely.
I think the most importantfoundation is just starting by
tracking your own body because.
I love the idea of living inalignment with your cycle.
Yeah.
But I have a big beef withlike traditional cycle sinking.
Yeah.
Because it makes it seem likeit's a cookie cutter thing
(16:07):
that works for everyone andthat's just not the case.
Yeah.
Like, you know, I said mostwomen feel great during
ovulation, but there's awhole group of women that
I know that don't feel goodduring ovulation and actually
feel more anxious, so.
By you just tracking yourown symptoms throughout your
cycle, that's going to helpyou figure out what you need.
(16:28):
I'm not even talking likegoing crazy and like doing the
whole full blown cycle trackingwith like cervical mucus.
Like I teach women howto do that, but that's
a whole other thing.
Yeah.
I would honestly just start onthe first day of your period.
How do you feel?
How's your energy?
How's your hunger?
Do you get headaches,do you get cramps?
All of that, and then justkind of track that throughout
your entire cycle to notice.
(16:49):
When is your energy lower?
When do you get headaches?
When do you maybe feel bloated?
And then that's going to helpyou kind of start to paint
the picture for yourself.
Julia Salvia (16:58):
And sometimes I think that can be overwhelming
too from just a standpointof like tracking it.
I think everybody hastheir own modem, right?
To track things like theirjournal, um, a notebook.
Are there any apps though,that you might recommend
Vicky Chehade (17:10):
from a, if you're like learning, and I haven't
even talked about this yet, but.
Another part of my coachingis I teach women the fertility
awareness method, which is anatural form of birth control.
It's basically like you usingyour own body and you're
understanding your fertilitysigns, which is really cool.
Yeah.
So for the womenwho do that, there's a really
(17:31):
great app called Read Your Body.
So that allows you kind of trackit all and you can do custom
things, like you can add yourown if you want it to log like.
When you get bloated, if youwanted to log, when you go out
to eat, like you can put it allin there, which is pretty cool.
Mm-hmm.
If you wantsomething that's a little bit
more like algorithm based,where you're kind of just like
(17:51):
putting in your period andyou're putting symptoms in, I
really like the app Stardust.
Mm-hmm.
That's fun.
One, that's one that I
Julia Salvia (17:58):
use.
I like it a lot.
Vicky Chehade (17:59):
Yeah.
So I would say like that, Iwould say stardust for the
people who are just kind oflike delving into this stuff.
Yeah,
Julia Salvia (18:05):
I like it 'cause it's very, um, I
love that it's aesthetic.
I can't help but thelibra moon in me really
loving the aestheticness of the Stardust app.
Um, love it.
But also, um, I'm reallyloving the kind of
comparison with the moon.
So I, I think it's reallycool that I always, um, get
my period on a full moon.
(18:27):
That's the best.
It feels very witchy and I love
Vicky Chehade (18:29):
it.
Yeah, I love it.
No, same in the, the, theRead Your Body app that I use,
you can add the moon phases.
So for me, I'm always lookinglike where are things happening?
And so I love that.
So cool
Julia Salvia (18:39):
because it's, it's hard to not take into
consideration that a woman'scycle is 28 days and the
moon cycle is 28 days, andthen a man, a man's hormone,
hormone cycle is 24 hoursand then the sun is 24 hours.
I find it.
So intriguing and, and goingeven further and even deeper
into the conversation of, um,you know, paying attention to
(19:03):
everyone, paying attention totheir hormone cycles and our
connection that's even deep,that goes even deeper with
like the earth that we live on.
It's, it's so intriguing.
Vicky Chehade (19:12):
Yeah.
No, it's so cool.
And I'll like takethat one step further.
Like, I am so fascinatedby the fact that if you,
so some women ovulate.
Around the full moon.
Oh, okay.
And so the reason for that,if we think back to like
the beginnings of time wasthe sky would be lighter.
So it was a more optimaltime for baby making.
(19:35):
That's just so, it's prettycool that like our bodies
do sink up with that, whereit's like if you bleed during
the new moon when it's likedark and you don't really
need to be out and about.
The women were pretty like.
You know, keep to themselvesand then you ovulate with
the full moon when there'smore light around and you're,
you know, doing your thing.
It's just cool tolike, think about it.
There's
Julia Salvia (19:54):
so many traditions that come back
to, you know, the sun andthe earth and the moon too.
I know that like the bigthing in a lot of like Latin
cultures to not go out andlook at a, um, eclipse when
there's an eclipse outsidebecause of that darkness and.
There's, um, a myth convincedthat if you do while pregnant,
(20:16):
most especially your babywill have a specific, like
marking on it, like a birthmarkor something like that.
Um, and just the,the connections are
just so interesting.
Um, it's our, it's hardto ignore honestly.
Vicky Chehade (20:32):
It is.
It is.
Julia Salvia (20:33):
Yeah.
So you said somethingabout your fertility.
Fertility awareness.
Yes.
Tell me more about yourfertility awareness coaching.
Vicky Chehade (20:41):
Yes.
So that, and again, this is aconversation that most OBGYNs
are not having with you, butit is a form of birth control
that is just as effectiveas hormonal birth control.
So when you are taughtthe rules and when you're
working with a certified.
Fertility awareness educator,it's up to 98% effective
(21:04):
at preventing pregnancy,which is the same as your
birth control pills andyour IUDs and all of that.
And so essentially what itis, is it's learning different
signs that your body givesto tell you when you're
fertile or when you're not.
So the biggest one to payattention to is cervical mucus.
Mm-hmm.
And.
Most women are just like, oh, soyou mean like the stuff that I
(21:26):
find sometimes in my underwear?
It's like, I mean, yeah,but it's way more than that.
Yeah.
And what's really cool aboutlearning the method is you're
not doing a science experiment.
I basically am teachingwomen, like when you go to
the bathroom and when youwipe with toilet paper.
How does it feel?
If it feels dry, that's mostlikely that you're infertile.
(21:49):
If it feels slippery.
And then if you noticeanything that's clear,
that's stretchy, that'stelling you, you're fertile.
So once you kind of know whatyour body is showing you, you
get to see when you're fertile.
When you're not fertile.
And then there's othermethods too, like basal body
temperature tracking that letsyou know if you've ovulated.
Mm-hmm.
So it's really effective.
(22:10):
I've taught a lot of womenthis method, and what's great
about it is it either helpsyou prevent pregnancy or
it helps you get pregnant.
Yeah.
Because you basically knowI'm fertile right now, and
you're either having sexbecause you wanna get pregnant,
or you're having protectedsex, or you're avoiding
intercourse at that time.
Julia Salvia (22:30):
Yeah.
I think that's so importanttoo, because it's like a,
it's, it's such a great way.
'cause I think we come, we comeoff of birth control, right.
It is our first step intoreally learning more about
our bodies after we've, youknow, taken this big step
for a lot of us becausewe've been on it for so long.
You said you, you were onbirth control for 12 years.
Um, I was on it forabout nine, 10 years.
(22:53):
And I think that that's a storyvery similar to a lot of women,
um, that are deciding to finallycome off of their birth control.
And they're like,well, where do I begin?
Like, I still want to, you know,they still want the benefits
of being on birth control,but there's so many different
directions to, to go in.
So I think that that's suchan amazing thing to learn
(23:13):
about our bodies so that wecan make sure that we are
not getting pregnant or thatbecause we don't want to be.
Or we can make sure that weare trying to get pregnant and,
and learning more about ourbodies when the optimal time
is to actually get pregnant.
Vicky Chehade (23:28):
Absolutely.
Julia Salvia (23:29):
In regards to, uh, the fertility awareness
coaching that you do, howdo you help your clients go
from feeling like their cyclemight be a burden to feeling
like it's more of a, you know,a powerful thing that they
can have more of awareness
Vicky Chehade (23:46):
in?
Yeah.
No, absolutely.
I think what makes itfeel like such a burden is
when we are in the dark.
Yeah.
And we just like don't know.
Right.
And so again, I think backto when I was a teenager and
first getting my period andreally knew like nothing about
my body other than Okay, cool.
Every 28 days or so itwould come and I would
(24:08):
get, have horrible crampsand feel like crap.
But when we actually can learnand plan around it, like that
leads to such empowerment andI see this time and time again,
even women I've worked with whomaybe have like endometriosis or
a condition where like horribleperiod pain and a lot of
(24:29):
symptoms, I've taught them howto actually track their cycle.
And then they can reallystart to adjust their life.
So they can be like, alright,I might not, you know, be able
to do as many social thingswhen I have this happen.
Or I really need to make sureI am minimizing, like we said
before, my caffeine, my alcohol,or any kind of like foods
(24:50):
that might make things worse.
And so getting that awarenessand just actually knowing
what's coming for you, knowingwhen your period is coming,
knowing how long your lutealphase is, knowing when your
symptoms might show up.
That gives us the answers.
And then from there we canadvocate for ourselves at
the doctor if we need to.
We can make better choicesaround our nutrition, our
(25:12):
workouts, our lifestyle.
And I think that's likethe biggest piece is just,
it's not a mystery anymore.
You know exactly what you'regoing to be dealing with.
Julia Salvia (25:21):
Yeah.
So it's basically likeknowledge is power in this case.
It's, you know.
Yeah.
When you're, and, andthe thing is, is that the
knowledge is, is one thing.
But we all have completelydifferent bodies.
Yes.
So it's really tailoring thatknowledge to our bodies and
what's going on for us, um,when it comes to cycle sinking
(25:43):
and, and the, um, fertilityawareness and everything that
you help your clients with.
Uh.
There's obviously a differentmethod or something different
to consider when it comesto someone who might have
endometriosis or any of thoseother things that really
have a large effect on ouruterus and our bodies as women
(26:04):
beyond, um, just, you know,period cramps and beyond what
birth control might mask.
Sure, yeah.
What do you say to them?
What is kind of the mostimportant thing to, um.
Important place to come to.
'cause I know that the firstthing, again, going back
to, I think birth control ispushed on any woman, but I
(26:26):
think even more so, especiallysomeone who might be dealing
with, um, endometriosis.
Vicky Chehade (26:32):
Yeah.
I've seen that with, youknow, endo, with PCOS, with
women who are, you know,maybe women who have fibroids
or really heavy bleeding.
It's just like birth control.
Birth control, birth control.
And the thought process behindthat is let's just shut off all
the hormonal activity so then,you know, we can control it.
(26:52):
Air quotes, controlit a little bit more.
But most women, and I'veseen this with like all
those different issues, mostwomen tend to do better when
they come off birth controland when they know how to
actually support their bodies.
So that's the biggestdifference is.
After women learn how to tracktheir cycle and they learn their
symptoms, then I'm helping themdive into, well, what are some,
(27:15):
you know, nutrition thingsthat can make you feel better?
Maybe we are limitinginflammatory foods, or
if they have any foodsthat are trigger foods,
we're thinking about that.
Maybe they're pushing themselvesway too hard and they're
stressing way too much.
Cool.
We need to like be aware of thatand really work to manage those
things so there's just so muchthat can be done individually.
(27:38):
The way you eat, the wayyou sleep, the way you
live your life, the wayyou move your body, that
all impacts your symptoms.
Julia Salvia (27:45):
And how do you think that the coaching that you
do can support everyone in theirmental wellness, confidence and
kind of boundary setting whenit comes to you cycle sinking
and cycle sinking, coaching andfertility awareness, coaching,
so many modems of just, youknow, taking care of, uh, a
Vicky Chehade (28:02):
woman's body.
Yeah.
No, totally.
And I mean, the nervous systemsupport piece is always a
conversation that I'm havingwith my clients, since
that's not like my specialty.
I often am saying like,if you're not in therapy,
like, who's your therapist?
Yeah.
Or like, you know, I'm, I'm kindof talking to them about like
these different ways, right?
(28:22):
Mm-hmm.
And then obviously too, assomething I can help them
with for the coaching islike, are you taking time
to rest in your luteal faceif you're feeling tired?
Or are you trying to like whiteknuckle through all of the huge
to-do lists that you have to do?
It's like that's a big pieceof awareness of just breaking
the guilt around, needing tobe doing things at all time and
(28:46):
just learning that as women, wehave hormones that fluctuate.
And with that, ourneeds have to fluctuate.
Our energy's gonna fluctuate,and we can't operate at
the same pace every singleday throughout our cycle.
Julia Salvia (28:59):
We can have the.
Awareness.
We can have the knowledge andif we have the knowledge, we
can work with our bodies inthe best way that we know how.
Yeah, absolutely.
And feel like we're actuallylike moving the needle forward
on a project that we reallywanna work on feeling better
each thing, each and everyday, because we actually know
(29:19):
how to take care of our bodiesin the ways that we need to.
Vicky Chehade (29:23):
Absolutely.
I always say like.
Once you learn all of thisstuff and once you figure
out too, then on top of it,the nutrition piece, all of
that, like you get to crackthe code on your own body.
And it's so empowering to beable to just know what your
body needs at any given point.
Julia Salvia (29:41):
Yeah, for sure.
And you wouldn't saythat there's like one,
like a day in the life.
If I were to ask you likewhat a day in the life of
working with your body inthis way would look like?
What would you saythat that looks like?
Obviously it's, it'sgoing to change.
I already know by likeasking this question, it's
gonna change depending onwho you are as a person.
(30:02):
So anyone listening like knowthis, but what would be more
of like, the most optimalway to work with your body in
one of the phases, let's say?
Vicky Chehade (30:12):
Yeah.
I, I'm, I'm honestly evengonna pull it back even further
and just generally, theseare things that you should
do every day, no matter whereyou're at in your cycle.
Yeah.
And so the first thing is.
Eating a breakfast within anhour of waking up, I will die
on this hill because there'sso much conflicting info out
there about like, oh, fastingthis, fasting that, no.
(30:34):
For women, one of the mostsupportive things you can
do is you wake up and thenwithin an hour eat a breakfast
that has protein, fat, andlike a little bit of fiber.
So classic example is justlike some scrambled eggs with
some cheese and maybe someberries or like a piece of.
Sourdough toast.
Like do that.
(30:55):
And that just like setsyou up for better energy
throughout the day.
Fewer cravings later in the day.
And you're essentiallytelling your body like,
Hey, we feel good now.
Like we have fuel, we feel safe.
And then that's going to getthe hormone signaling going.
So starting your day withlike, solid breakfast,
don't wait on that.
Um, coffee after breakfast.
Also, another reallyimportant one there.
(31:16):
And then honestly justlike nourishing yourself
throughout the day.
And so when I say that, I meanfrom a nutrition side of things,
but also from a mental healthside of things too, is make sure
that you are doing somethingevery single day that fills
your cup, because that goessuch a long way from a hormone
standpoint of just tellingyour brain, Hey, we feel good.
(31:41):
We feel safe now.
And then that's what leads to.
Optimal hormone function,which is going to lead to
less symptoms in your cycle.
Julia Salvia (31:50):
Yeah, I love that.
I think that's so smart.
Um, I definitely have totake some of that advice
myself, especially eatingbreakfast and things like
that sooner in the day.
Um, yes.
I'm gonna be thinkingabout you tomorrow.
Try it.
Vicky Chehade (32:07):
It, I swear it is the one thing that when
women start to like, slowlyimplement it, they're like,
wow, I like feel so much better.
And yeah, it's, it's simple.
It takes work, obviously, but
Julia Salvia (32:18):
yeah.
Vicky Chehade (32:18):
Yeah, for sure.
Julia Salvia (32:20):
Now for anyone that struggles in any sort
of aspect with, um, PCOSendometriosis, their cycle
learning, um, and tryingto advocate for themselves.
What's like one thing you wouldtell them to give them a little
bit more hope in this case?
Vicky Chehade (32:37):
Hmm.
If you are going to adoctor who isn't listening
to you, find a new doctor,that's always my number one.
Number one rule.
Find, reach out.
Find someone like mewho can help with the
day in and day out.
And I always say this like,I'm not a doctor, obviously
I can't do doctor things.
(32:59):
Mm-hmm.
But.
When it comes to thefemale body, it really
does take a team.
And so having someone like mein your back corner, I'm with
you for all the hundreds ofdecisions you make in a day that
are going to impact your cycle.
And I feel like a big, abig thing that I, not even
intentionally, but a big thingthat I end up helping women
with is just being able tobetter advocate for themselves.
(33:22):
So bringing data to yourdoctor's office, and that starts
with like the tracking of just.
Writing down, Hey, for the lastthree cycles I've had migraines
every day in my luteal phaseor for the last three cycles,
my period cramps have mademe call out of work, right?
So the more that you can bringthe data and just say to them
(33:43):
like, this is what's goingon, hopefully they'll listen
and do some testing for you.
And if not, like I said, tryto find a a doctor who will,
Julia Salvia (33:52):
we don't think of like our doctors and
the people that help us.
In our lives as a, youknow, weaved support
community, essentially.
Mm-hmm.
Um, like working together.
And I, I'm not sure where thatgot lost in translation over
the past couple of years, butI truly, truly believe myself.
And I, I think you also agreewith me that all of them should
(34:14):
be working together to help you.
Whether that is, you know,you as their, as their period
coach, um, or their, you know,giving them fertility awareness.
'cause they're wanting to.
Be, get, become pregnant.
Yeah.
Um, working with you, withtheir doctor, with, um,
their doula, like working alltogether is so important to
(34:35):
have that, you know, communityof support surrounding you.
Absolutely.
To actually get you towhere you need to go.
'cause we were never meant todo all of this by ourselves.
I don't know where we thinkthat was supposed to be a
thing, but we're supposed toall, you know, help each other.
Basically go abouteach day of our
Vicky Chehade (34:55):
lives.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
A hundred percent.
It's women again, if goingback to like the beginnings
of time, like women havealways been communal.
Yeah.
And unfortunately, yeah.
That kind of has gotten lostover, you know, the years.
Julia Salvia (35:11):
Yeah, for sure.
What advice though, would yougive to someone who, um, maybe
like a teenager that's juststarting their, uh, journey
with their period and, um.
You know, wanting tomaybe learn a little bit
more about their bodies.
Vicky Chehade (35:26):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
So the thing that we're nevertaught as teenagers is, and
this is gonna sound a littleweird, but like your first
couple years of having a periodare gonna be kind of crappy.
And the reason for thatis like your body is
just not fully developed.
(35:48):
Mm-hmm.
So.
It's trying to ovulate.
It's trying to have a regularcycle, but we actually don't
fully like mature from anovulatory standpoint until
we're in our early twenties.
So I got my period at12, that is eight years.
Right?
Like if I just think about itlike that until things should
have been fully matured.
(36:08):
Sure.
But I went onbirth control at 16 because
my periods are so bad.
Yeah.
So I just wish someone hadexplained to me like this
isn't a forever thing.
This is a season of life.
You know, all the informationI have now of just how much
food could have impacted thingsand you know, the way I was
(36:28):
exercising, like I was a bigathlete growing up, right?
Like that absolutelyplayed into things.
So for the teenagers, I wouldjust say like, obviously
seek out help if somethingis like really not going
well for you from yourdoctor, but be open to.
Learning about yourbody really early on.
Be open to the fact thatthings might not be super
(36:49):
regular in the beginning.
And just telling yourselflike, this is a season of
life and I can nourish myself.
I can do things to make ita little bit better too.
Julia Salvia (36:59):
And would that be kind of similar advice
that you would give theirparent or caretaker to help
you know, someone that'sactually going through that?
Vicky Chehade (37:07):
Yeah, and, and that's the cool thing
too, is like I've worked.
I've like done workshops.
I've, you know, spoken toolder women as well, and a
lot of them were like, wow, Ican't wait to then pass this
information on to my daughter.
Yeah.
And so that'simportant too, of like,
hopefully our generation thatis finally learning this info
(37:27):
with the future generationswill be able to have a better,
you know, better handle on it.
Julia Salvia (37:33):
Yeah.
I love that so much.
I think it's so importanttoo, to have that.
Close knit support systemtoo, like especially as a
teenager with going throughsomething that seems so big,
so new and so confusing.
Yes.
Especially when it's really,sometimes the only way that
we're being taught aboutany of it is through school.
(37:53):
Yeah.
And that's not enough or reallywhat we should be learning.
Vicky Chehade (37:59):
Yeah.
You know?
Julia Salvia (38:01):
No,
Vicky Chehade (38:01):
because again, they're not gonna
be super candid in a. Youknow, school, classroom.
Yeah.
Or I even just like crackup because I remember my mom
gave me, there was like thisAmerican Girl Doll book.
Yeah.
Called The Careand Keeping of You.
I know this bookand like, I just remember
that was how I learned aboutwhat my period was supposed
(38:24):
to be like was from this book.
And it's like so crazy to thinkabout that, that there was
no open dialogue beyond that.
So.
That's certainly not howI will be teaching my
daughter when it's her time.
Julia Salvia (38:37):
Yes.
I, I totally feel you on thatbecause I think I learned how
to take care of my period andall of the way, like by myself.
Like I don't really rememberthere being any education other
than the school education thatI received on like, you know,
simple things like how to usea tampon, like what is the
(38:58):
best mode of birth control.
I mean, that's a huge one.
Trying.
Especially now that I'm, Ididn't actually know that
we're, you know, as teenagerswe're still getting into, uh,
you know, our bodies are kindof still getting into like
what ovulations like whatare periods like up until 20,
but we're being pushed to goon birth control at like 16.
(39:20):
Yeah.
That's crazy to me.
'cause that's around the same,that's around the time I feel
like 16 to 18 when, um, youknow, we start going to see our
gynecologist for the first time.
Yeah, and to be pushed onbirth control that easily is
crazy to me, where it almostfeels like you're not allowing
your body to develop in theway that it should before
(39:41):
throwing something at it.
Vicky Chehade (39:43):
Yeah, and I just too, I think again, like
there's just this lack of trust,I would say, in how women can.
Treat their own bodies, learnabout their own bodies too.
Because I think anothermotive for OB-GYNs is like,
well, let's just put you onbirth control in case you're
sexually active as a teenager.
And you know, we're notgonna worry about that.
(40:04):
But again, like I just thinkback, if I started learning
the fertility awarenessmethod at like 14 years old,
you would be a pro at it.
Yeah.
You know, in your teen years,in your early twenties,
like when you're, youknow, sexually active, so.
Yeah, the system is alittle bit unfortunate.
Julia Salvia (40:24):
I'm just grateful that we're here today talking
about this and that it seemslike a lot more women and a lot
more people are starting to talkabout women's bodies a lot more
in, in the good ways, let's say,um, and, and talk about, you
know, what it means to actuallyhave a period and what it means
(40:45):
to, um, you know, cycle syncin a way that actually works.
For our bodies and for us, it,it feels good that we are moving
in what seems like the rightdirection and not just taking
the information that we'relearning in school with us.
Yeah.
AB
Vicky Chehade (41:01):
absolutely, and I think with all of this, it just
comes down to, as a woman, youhave to advocate for yourself.
Mm-hmm.
And you have to be confident.
Like I've had tons of clientswho, you know, they'll go to
their annual appointment andtheir doctor will be like.
Oh, well.
Like why are you off ofbirth control if you're
not trying to get pregnant?
And they'll be like, well,I just don't wanna be on it.
(41:23):
Or like, I'm learning thefertility awareness method.
And like doctorswill laugh at them.
Yeah.
And to some, to some women,like that sucks and they aren't
prepared for that because we'resupposed to trust our doctors.
Right.
But so I just say like.
Stick to your guns, getthe right kind of support,
find the people who aregoing to listen to you.
Mm-hmm.
And then continue to justadvocate for yourself.
Julia Salvia (41:45):
Yeah.
'cause there are gonna be peoplethat are going to listen to you.
There are gonna be people thattrust you and it is out there.
I, I think that as the morethat we talk about it and
the more that we use these.
Modems of taking careof our body and this
having this education andknowledge and awareness of
taking care of our bodies.
I think that we're gonna startto see that more doctors,
(42:06):
specifically gynecologists anddoctors that are specifically
for, you know, for women andwomen's bodies, are going to
show up and actually startto advocate for us as well
in the ways that we need.
Vicky Chehade (42:17):
I agree.
Something I will say that's likea pretty big myth for any women
who maybe are thinking aboutthat next chapter in their life.
They, you know, want tobecome pregnant within
the next year or so.
Most OBGYNs will say, comeoff of birth control as
soon as you're ready tostart trying to conceive.
And something that they'renot telling you is it takes
(42:39):
your body time to come offof birth control and start
regulating your cycle.
Mm-hmm.
And so.
I always like to say to women,if you are planning to try to
conceive, come off of birthcontrol a year before that,
like give your body the time itneeds to like truly regulate.
Because what's happeningis when you are on birth
(43:01):
control, you are basicallyflatlining your hormones.
The connection betweenyour brain and your
ovaries is not happening.
Mm-hmm.
So when you come off of it, youhave to rework that connection
again, and that can justtake a little bit of time.
So.
That's not even just forwomen trying to get pregnant,
that's for anyone comingoff of birth control.
Like give your bodygrace, be patient, and
(43:24):
just kind of plan that.
It can take like sixmonths to a year for your
cycle to fully regulate.
Julia Salvia (43:31):
It's so interesting you say that too,
because one of the biggestreasons why I came off of
birth control was becauseof the, partially because
of the idea of potentiallywanting to have kids.
And my thought process is, well,I'm never, if I stay on birth
control all the way up untilI, you know, that moment, that
time that I decide that I wannaconceive, like, I'm not even
(43:54):
gonna know what my body's like.
I'm not even gonnaknow who I am.
So let me learn about myselfand my body now in this moment
so that when the time comes,if I should decide to conceive.
I'm gonna know what'snormal and what's not.
Vicky Chehade (44:13):
Love that.
That is like the best approach.
I say that to everyone like.
The, and the women whoI work with, they're
the most successful.
Meaning they can getpregnant quicker.
Yeah.
When they've taken thetime ahead of time to learn
their body, learn theircycle, and just prepare
themselves, nourish theirbodies and get ready for it.
Julia Salvia (44:35):
Yeah.
I know that birth controlaffects all of our bodies
differently, and I'm, I'm surethat there are some people where
it really doesn't make too muchof a difference, but there is
kind of like that fact that yousaid it's like it's flatlining.
Our, our hormonesand, and who we are.
And, you know, there's thatlack of connection between
our brain and our uterus.
And I think that's so important,especially when it comes to,
(44:56):
you know, conceiving and,and really understanding our
bodies throughout that process.
And that's something that even,you know, minus the medical
aside, minus the actual like,um, pregnancy aside, but.
Something that I would want toexperience if I choose that for
myself, like I wanna experiencewhat all of these things feel
(45:18):
so that I can better advocatefor myself, that if something
is, you know, God forbid goingwrong, I have the means to say
this isn't normal because Iknow myself and I know my body.
And this isn't right, and Ican go seek, you know, the
help, whether that's, youknow, mental help, physical
help, whatever that might be.
(45:39):
I can go seek that for myselfand advocate for myself e
Vicky Chehade (45:42):
exactly.
And like I should have alsomentioned that too, of like
when I teach women fam thefertility awareness method.
A lot of women think aboutit as like, oh, I'm gonna
learn this as birth control,or I'm gonna learn this
to get pregnant quicker.
Mm-hmm.
But honestly, one of the mostimportant benefits is just it
teaches you about your health.
Like our, our menstrualcycle is truly, truly our,
(46:05):
our monthly report card.
And if things are off, ifyou are having irregular
cycles, if you're havingdebilitating period cramps,
mood swings, acne, you name it.
Right?
If you're dealingwith all of that.
Something is going on withyour body and this is your,
we are so lucky as women.
That's always how Ilike to say it, right?
Yeah.
Like men don't haveanything like this.
(46:27):
Yeah.
We, every single month getto learn is our body happy?
And that would be, doyou have a regular cycle?
Do you feel good throughoutyour cycle or is something off?
And that's gonna show upas all of those symptoms.
Julia Salvia (46:41):
I love that.
I love that We are so luckyto be women because our bodies
work in the way that they doand in such an intricate way.
And I, I love that.
For us,
Vicky Chehade (46:52):
seriously, it's just, and this is the
problem of like, we've beentaught to silence it our
whole lives or we've been toldlike, ignore these symptoms.
It's normal.
You're just a woman.
But it's like, no, that's yourbody communicating with you.
Yeah.
So it is really, and that's such
Julia Salvia (47:06):
a powerful thing to have.
Yeah.
That is such a powerful modeof, of communication to be
able to understand and, andknow ourselves through the
communication of like what ourbody is physically feeling.
We can know, totally knowso much more about how we're
taking care of ourselves.
Vicky Chehade (47:24):
Yeah, absolutely.
Julia Salvia (47:26):
Thank you Vicki, so much for being here.
This was such a greatconversation and I hope everyone
got so much out of this.
I know, I definitely did.
Please let everyone know wherethey can find you, where they
can book coaching with you,um, and all of that good stuff.
Vicky Chehade (47:42):
Awesome.
Well, thank you for having me.
First of all, this was so fun.
I just like love getting totalk about this stuff, but
if you wanna connect withme in any way, Instagram and
TikTok, it's the same handle.
It's at your period coach,so periods in between.
And then my website is justyour period, coach.com.
Julia Salvia (48:02):
Perfect.
Thank you Vicki so much again.
I appreciate it.
Vicky Chehade (48:06):
No, this was great.
Thank you so much.
Julia Salvia (48:07):
Of course.
Thank you.
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