I am so excited to have Brooke Rozmenoski as our guest today. Brooke is a women's health expert who has helped countless women achieve their health goals and improve their hormonal and gut health. If you're looking for some motivation to improve your health and well-being, then you've come to the right place!

In this episode, Brooke and I will discuss her journey and how she got started with helping women improve their health with her wealth of knowledge. We'll also talk about some of the top red flags that women often don't realize are signs of their hormones and gut health. You won't want to miss out on Brooke's expert advice on how to recognize and address these red flags.

We'll also cover the topic of sleep and work balance, especially for busy moms. Brooke and I will share our thoughts on the importance of understanding our bodies and knowing what's good and bad for our health. You'll also learn about Brooke's unique approach to helping and supporting people in a way that is not typically received from a doctor.

To wrap up the episode, Brooke will discuss the importance of transitioning your mindset to become more aware of your body. She'll recommend the two best things to start with when transitioning into a healthy lifestyle.

What you'll hear in this episode:

[2:50] How did you get started with helping so many women?

[5:15] Brooke talks to the person who says they are fine hormonally when in actuality they are not

[8:40] Top hormone red flags: things you may be doing that are hurting your hormones 

[11:15] How to balance sleep and work when you're busy

[15:00] Understanding what's going on with our bodies and knowing what's good and what's bad 

[17:50] How do you help and support people in a way that is not typically not received from a doctor?

[20:45] Things you may be doing that are hurting their gut health 

[22:45] How to introduce healthy gut practices into your family

[26:20] Breakdown of women's multiple cycles 

[32:35] Commons myths that are simply not true and where to find quality information 

[34:45] How to transition your mindset to become more aware of your body 

[42:20] Two best things to start with to transition into a healthy lifestyle 

[43:15] How to connect with Brooke and her community 

[46:00] Final words from Brooke

CONNECT WITH BROOKE

Follow Brooke: @brookerozzie

Check out her podcast: The Power of a Woman

Check out the Free 10 Habits Guide Resource

CONNECT WITH KELSEY

Follow Kelsey: @thisiskelseysmith

Follow Momma Has Goals: @mommahasgoals

Download the app for Apple or Android

Learn more at https://thisiskelseysmith.com/

Join our text list. Text "Goals" to (707) 347-0319

Speaker 1 0:00

When it comes to your gut health, diversity is everything, the more diversity

Kelsey Smith 0:08

let's reimagine mom life together. Mama has schools is your hub for relatable support and helpful resources that help you fuel yourself alongside motherhood. Your identity is bigger than moms. And whatever your goals are, together, we're making them a reality. Going back to when I started, Mama has goals. It was all about me finding all these really amazing people on the internet doing cool things, providing information to people, and wanting to get more of that information into the hands of people that didn't know it existed. And one of the first people I found was Brook Ross Menosky, and she's our guest. Today, Brooke is a functional nutrition practitioner, the owner of Brooke Razi coaching. And her and her team work with women to align their nutrition, their movement and their lifestyle, how they want to feel in their skin. So from building together community, answering your questions, testing hormones, gut health, going through cycle changes all of that she has a wealth of knowledge, and Brooke makes us super relatable. She is a mom of a five and almost three year old, and breaks this down to what does that look like on a day to day basis. She's super busy, she has help from her husband, but he's really busy too, and really breaks this down to regardless of what season you're in, regardless of what age your kids are, what your past health challenges are, what they could be, how can you take action today to go through these things? And how can you get some knowledge into the different cycles that we carry? What are some things to know that are no no's for hormone health? What are some things to know that are known hosts for gut health? How can you truly take action? And then what does that mean, in the sense of where does a doctor come into play? Where do you connect with other, you know, practitioners that are like Brooke, how can you get more information to truly just feel really good in your skin, we break all this down today with actionable takeaways to be able to truly hit the ground running and focus on You. What are some ways that you can do a little bit each day, so you're not taking on something that isn't sustainable and reliable, what this means from an individual approach, because we're not all built exactly the same. So so good. So let's dive in and learn about how we truly can take care of ourselves a little bit better. Hey, Brooke, I'm so excited to have you here. You're one of the first people I connected with when I started this idea of mama has goals in this online space and finding providers and resources to support women in their journey. And it was because you're such a wealth of knowledge and you help women with so many things that they may not be willing to like raise their hand and talk about or they're feeling a certain way. And they just think they need to suck it up and just kind of go through it. So talk to me a little bit about how you got here, how you really stepped into this wealth of knowledge and supporting so many women and how they're feeling

Speaker 1 2:58

Thank you. I don't feel like I know very much. But sometimes I feel like I might be a little smart and figure things out. I so I've been a mom for over five years now I have two kids under five and almost three. And I've been in the fitness industry in some way shape, or form for over 15 years, I actually started as a trainer in my young 20s, which was a lot of like just how I fit in a bathing suit. And you know, was really most of my focus and I guess, emphasis on the nutrition and health side. And then about midway through my career, I went through a pretty traumatic event and lost my dad to cancer and my body went haywire, my hormones went off. It felt like no matter what I was doing, I was fighting my body to just feel good in my skin, I felt like I had to be perfect. With my nutrition, I wasn't really getting any answers on what was going on. Until I started to have to like kind of take things into my own hands and seek out other approaches, I finally started to get some resolve into what was going on with my own body. And I started to see that in my clients of they were feeling frustrated, they knew weren't getting the results that they should be getting at this point. And this kind of led into when I met my husband, and we had our daughter. And then I saw a whole nother world of how much women were not supported and understanding how their body functions even when it came to getting pregnant. But especially when it came to pregnancy and postpartum. And just you know, your life doesn't want ad and just how to support yourself after you have kids. So that's really what transpired. Our business and I went back to school after having our daughter and completed a two year functional training program. And now we bring a lot of that with our clients to really understand, you know, you know, obviously we're in your shoes, but also how do you still feel good in this new phase of life. And even though a lot of times we're told in your 30s 40s and 50s that like exhaustion just comes with the age really doesn't have to be It always used to really great me to hear the like, you know, have to have drink have to have caffeine to survive the day and wine to relax at night type of a thing was like that can't be it like, that can't be what we're destined to feel like.

Kelsey Smith 5:13

And so we're gonna get into speaking to like some ways that people may acknowledge that they're in this boat. But I know for me, I actually was like, I'm fine. Like, I have good energy, my hormones must be great. I've never had an issue with birth control. Like, I don't have any of these flags, until I started really thinking about it. And I think that we are so often especially during motherhood, we're focused on everybody else and our checklist for the day in our schedule that we haven't actually slowed down to really think about some of the symptoms. So talk to that person really quick. That person that's like, I don't have any of these symptoms, like I'm fine. But maybe they're not. Maybe they are, but that I think that there's a huge portion of the society of the world, but especially moms, that actually have some symptoms that they're not even aware of.

Speaker 1 6:03

Yeah, you know, a lot of the symptoms are subtle, too. In the beginning, it's you know, it is the well I'm good, right? Because we dismiss it because everybody else around us is feeling the same way. Right? It's the wake up waking up tired in the morning, like you should wake up feeling refreshed despite the fact that like if you're in a state where you have a kid that's waking you up a lot in the middle of the night, but within your control, you should be waking up feeling refreshed. In the morning, you should be dreaming at night, you should be sleeping through the night without waking up to pee. No matter how much water you're drinking in a day, you should still be able to sleep without waking up to pee. Getting through the day like those mid afternoon crashes, that is not a normal experience. You shouldn't be you know, needing the coffee or chocolate or something around that timeframe or feeling like you could go take a nap. And a lot of it too can be like an overstimulation, it's more of a subtle thing with with women and with moms especially that I see is we are stimulated super easily and agitated super easily by those things. So if it's like the TV's on and then the kids toys and then somebody's like waving something in your face, you can feel yourself getting like highly agitated and overstimulated, that's a sign that something's wrong. Either it'd be like a nervous system type thing, or dysregulation happening somewhere. But it's usually more of the subtle stuff from that standpoint. And then what we also run into with women is not pooping every day, you should poop every single day, a minimum of once one salad one but ideally like two to three times a day. And usually when I say that women's jaws hit the floor, and I'm like, No, you really need to need to poop regularly to regulate your sex hormones. PMS symptoms are not normal, like your cycle should almost surprise you on a monthly basis where you're going to if you're aware of your body, you're going to know something's happening, but it shouldn't disrupt daily function. And libido is a big one that not a lot of people talk about. But if you are not feeling that desire and your libido was low, especially if you are cyclical and around like ovulation time and like right before your period, you should have a libido spike. So those are all some subtle signs that people experience that think they're normal, and they're really not.

Kelsey Smith 8:14

Okay, and for the women driving that can't google libido, let's give them a break down

Speaker 1 8:18

your sex drive. But really what it is like your desire to have sex, it should be good, especially like 30s 40s As you get to know your body more like your desire to be intimate with your partner. Unless there's other reasons right outside of your physical body. But your sex drive should be pretty good, especially when we're talking about like leading up to your ovulation when your body wouldn't be wanting to and then usually get a little bit of a spike sometimes right before your period too.

Kelsey Smith 8:44

And there's a couple things that people do on a regular basis that are hurting their hormone hormones that they don't even think about. Can you talk about like the top five, like three to five red flags that you see like the normal person doing that you're like, Ah, don't do that.

Speaker 1 9:00

One of the biggest is drinking caffeine every morning on an empty stomach, like waking up and grabbing your coffee before you have anything. It's not that caffeine itself is bad. Caffeine, you know can be beneficial for some people, but the overuse of it and then the way that we use it can be a problem. So it actually can cause digestive distress. It actually can cause some hormonal distress if we do that. So it's really good to just wake up first thing and grab some water first, and then have a small meal or something in the morning and then grab your coffee in the morning. Instead of waking up and reaching for that first. The other ones speaking of the small meals, skipping breakfast, the waking up in missing a meal in the morning. Intermittent fasting you know like a lot of nutritional studies, things like that are not done on women. And a lot of women most that we talked to are usually more living in a state of stress. Either we're not sleeping well or hormones are off or something like that. Intermittent fasting or skipping meals is one of the worst things you can do when your body's already under a state of drifts. So it's really important to just wake up and even if it's just grabbing some protein, but that can be one of the best ways you can start your day is with 30 to 50 ish grams of protein in the morning. So coffee on an empty stomach skipping meals can be two big ones that can start, you know, a chronic state, you know, the one to two times is not what I'm talking about, I'm talking about the chronic, you know, who's staying up late to binge Netflix, you know, whatever it is that we're watching at night or scrolling social media on our phone, whether it is mindless for you because you were so like tied to other stuff during the day, your brain still perceives that as a task. And it's disrupting your circadian rhythm. And the more sleep we cut short, the less quality we're going to get. But also that's going to have a long term impact on your hormones. The one or two nights you stayed up late is not that big of a deal, but like multiple nights a week that you're not getting to bed until 11 o'clock midnight or later, because you're up watching TV shows or scrolling social, that's impacting your hormones, your blood sugar regulation into the next day. And it's also impacting your cognitive function and mood. But long term that's going to play an impact into to how you're feeling during the day, that energy, your hormonal function, all of that, too. So that's three.

So you're talking about sleep, right? And for those who listen to this podcast, I'm a late night person, it's something I've tried to shift since learning how this can affect my hormones. But you have two little kids, and you're an entrepreneur and your husband's also an entrepreneur, right? So you guys are a busy household. So how do you balance that if sometimes, have you just never worked late at night? Or how do you kind of force yourself to find that time during the day because I know, that's something that I do prioritize differently. And I see how I can unmake the time during the day. But there's definitely been seasons even in my job previously, or now as an entrepreneur, that that's my window to work. So what other than just saying like, prioritize differently? Is there any feedback for that?

Yeah, um, so I used to do that. And it was shifting the way I showed up in my business to it was shifting my energy and my business, the capacity I had for my clients. So I have a very hard boundary of I do not answer any messages after like, 7pm. From my phone, and I am completely tuned out after 8pm. And my phone's put away. And if it's not done that day, it's not done, it gets moved into the next day and taken care of, I think one of the most important things is really like prioritizing your own capacity, right? And really looking at like, what do I have the capacity for, and that there might be some things that you just don't have the capacity for, or you need to wait and have a plan to hire team or something like that to come in and support you. So one of the biggest things that I did was I hired in the business manager first. And it was just slowly bringing in other people that I could help that could help me in certain ways. But that takes some time, right, it takes the revenue, I guess, in your business for you to be able to do that. So if you're not in that state yet, it's really just recognizing your capacity and what's going to be your return on investment in your business. And also, the most important thing is just recognizing, like, if I'm coming from a place that's burned out and not functioning my best, my business isn't going to get my best. And I can really turn this around faster. If I hold a boundary with myself of when I am in a not so that my capacity can show up better the next day, my energy can be where I need it to be. And I can be fully functioning the way that I need to be. So my kids, you know, we did invest in our kids doing in my daughter's in preschool about to be in kindergarten, and our son is at a full time daycare where our daughter is because that was worth the financial investment for us, for me to have the uninterrupted time to be able to get those things done during the day. And then the days that they are home, it's it's having the clear communication with clients, you know, with whatever it is of, I'm available today, or I'm going to be slow to answer messages today. If it can't get done today, I'll get to it tomorrow and it kind of gets moved up to the top of the list type of a thing.

Yeah. And I think exactly what you're saying has been the realization that I've had is it really just is being truly honest with yourself and where you're spending your time. And I think that if you've never done this and you're listening, like go into your settings of your phone and see how much time each day you're spending on your phone and your screen time. I think that that is like a huge eye opener for anyone. And for me like I was like, No, I'm super productive at night. I'm not tired. I'm not waking up tired. And then when I started talking to Brooke and for people like Brooke I was like, Oh, so you're telling me my body needs like three days to recover minimum from that one day that I stayed up till 1am working even though I think I'm fine what's happening behind the scenes and like the longevity of how I'm hurting my hormones in my body and everything else is really detrimental to my health and that creates these like bigger health problems. So we think about like just how you show Like how your cells work, how everything works that way, and I didn't, having no medical background and really not focusing on that I had no idea. I do want to talk about that a little bit.

Yeah, you know, when it comes down to, I like to say, no one, you shouldn't have to have a PhD to understand your body, right. And I think that's a really frustrating thing that I experienced. And I know a lot of our clients experience is being able to advocate for what you need, but you shouldn't need to, you should be able to understand and that's what we really work with with our clients is to understand from like, the most simplistic form is to empower you to understand what your body needs, how its functioning. And when these situations do come up, because they do for everybody, where you're going to have a leader night or an off day, or whatever it is, how you can support yourself through that so that you can feel better and it can't, you know, doesn't have the detrimental impact or chronic impact of that continuing continually happening. But there's a lot of things that can come in, we're talking about late night sleeping, or socially dysregulation in general, right? Your nervous system really comes into play with that. But also you have a circadian rhythm that your body is following during the day. So some things you can do is just wake up in the morning and get some sunlight in your eyes, even like I'm in Michigan, and today, it's a gray sky day, but I'm still gonna get some light in my eyes before 10am to help set my circadian rhythm. And then I'm going to try to just get out and get some movement and try to just focus on something along those lines outside as much as I can today. And then at night, we call it like a three to one method. So three hours before bed, trying to cut out food so that your mind is not trying to digest anything, two hours before bed trying to cut out liquids, and then an hour before bed, try to cut out the electronics. And that can help to regulate that circadian rhythm. So that your body is starting to adapt and start to get back into that hormonal essentially that circadian rhythm is a hormonal rhythm that your body has during the day to help you be alert in the morning, and then you know sleepy at night to go to bed. So those are some of the biggest things to focus on when it comes to like the impacts of what that can do. From a testing standpoint, you know, if you really want to know something that's going on, or if you're feeling like something is off, the biggest thing is just advocating for and asking, you know, when you're getting a lab hold or something along those lines, asking your doctor to check deeper into your thyroid check all thyroid markers to check hormones through bloodwork, I don't necessarily recommend but you can ask them to check anything that comes from like liver markers or anything along those lines to see if you have anything else that can be playing a role in why you may not be sleeping your best. And it's okay to advocate and say like, no, can you check this, this and this marker, right when you're going to your doctor and if they don't pull it or they ask why they just may not understand why you're asking. And you may need to just go in with a list of like, here's why I'm asking for these because this is how I'm feeling. And I know that this might be correlated type of a thing.

So let's take that a step back and talk about like, why you do what you do. And like how you support people, because I know for me coming into the space, I was like, well, doesn't my doctor look at all of that, like, why would I need someone else to support me in my testing for my hormones or my gut health. And I feel like for some people, those have kind of become like buzzwords. So let's talk a little bit about like, how you support people, why you support them. And why that doesn't exist typically at the doctor

is nothing that knock your doctor, right? Your doctor is amazing. I don't want anybody to think that like we don't like doctors we do but it's more so knowing who you're going to and what support you're looking for. Right. And when you're going to your standard physician, you're not going to say like I'm not feeling amazing in my skin and I want to have optimal health, right you're going and when they're looking at lab markers they're looking for are you in a disease state or a non disease state essentially is the most that they're checking. And if you're not in a disease state, they're going to tell you, you're fine. You could even be bordering the disease state and they're still going to tell you, you're fine, because from there, and they're not there to give you lifestyle and nutrition and stress management tips and things that you can do to feel 100% They're there to look at essentially like do you need to be on a medication? Or do you not? And are you in a good spite space from a health perspective? And their eyes are not? So when you're going there, I think sometimes we go to our doctor with the wrong intention, or asking the wrong question. We're going to they're expecting them to give us the nutrition advice and lifestyle advice and all those things. And that's just not it's not that they're not trained in it. But that's not what the type of medicine that they're necessarily practicing. Right? And when you come to a functional perspective, we're really looking at like, alright, you may not be in a disease state, but you're not feeling 100% So why aren't you feeling 100%? And our deeper question is always why. So if you're not getting the answers and you're not in a disease state, then that's where we can come in. And we can say alright, so from a blood marker perspective, your doctors telling you your findings. You don't need a medication, but you're still symptomatic of these things. So let's figure out why you're symptomatic. We usually run deeper testing and in a functional state endpoint and attesting for looking at blood work, we're actually looking at tighter windows. Because you may not be in a place where you need a medication, but you still may not be in an optimal place for what those function values are either. So we're usually looking at that we also look beyond just bloodwork and we look at stool testing with clients, salivary testing, which can give us different perspectives of how your body is processing and breaking things down, or how your gut is functioning, and what could be coming into play for why you're not feeling great. And that allows us to really individualize a nutritional approach a lifestyle approach, and see how those things are impacting your body before you get to the disease state and catch it at that point. So it's not about like, Are you healthy? It's more about like, are you optimizing your health is what we're looking at in there.

Yeah. And so we talked about like three things that people do that they might not realize are hurting your home hormones? Are there things that people do that hurt their gut that you should kind of check also that are kind of like across the board, you see this with a lot of people that wouldn't know,

yeah, when it comes to your gut health, diversity is everything, you know, the more diversity and variety we can have into our diet, the better. Some of the things that can actually impact gut health that is not spoken about as much as chronic stressors, physical or mental chronic stressors can impact our health, we either have the people that are Type A always on the go, and then they're doing CrossFit workouts five days a week, and then you know, they're not really sleeping in either and then or not recovering. They're high stress, that's a chronic stress as well. They also have the chronic stressors of like I am living in survival mode, basically. And then that can be a chronic stress, as well as traumas. And all those things can be chronic stressors that people are undergoing. And that can impact gut health. Other things that can impact gut health is birth control use can impact it, especially more than a pill form can impact your microbiome and how your body is diversified as far as that other things like NSAID use. So overusing like Tylenols, things like that can impact it highly refined carbohydrate intake over a long period of time, I'm not talking about the one time you made a couple of cookies, right, but like, over a wide variety of time can play a role. And then not eating a variety of like fruits and veggies and diversity, when it comes to that complete huge role in how your gut is functioning. A lot of times we'll talk to people who are on the go all the time, so their meals are on the go often. And they can't remember the last time that they purposely included vegetables and things into their meals, right. So those those are some signs that there might be something off with your gut, and that we might need to look there first, for why your hormones or why you're not feeling your best.

And I know one of my favorite things to see you share about is how you really make this like a positive lifestyle within your own family and with your kids. Let's talk a little bit about that how this isn't something that we just fixed when we're older, but that we can start off good or at any point where we are even if your kids aren't young, it's something you can introduce. And you do it in a way that isn't just like, Oh, I'm feeding my kids just like spinach and chicken, like they're eating things that they love as kids and you're introducing all different aspects of it. So what are some ways that that's worked really well for you?

Yeah, our daughter is in full picky stage, she's five, and our son is almost three and at moments has his opinion. So with our kids, I tried to just keep it as like, you know, I'm gonna let them have their opinion, because in this age, they're trying to develop their own sense of taste and personality, right. And a lot of times, we can take the Defiance as like, Well, my kids will never eat this type of thing. And it's not that it's just that they're trying to develop their own right, their own sense of everything. So I go with that with my kids. And when we're putting a meal together, I've got a few rules, there's always a protein option, there's always some sort of like fruit or veggie or something along those lines, that's going to deliver them some more nutrient density, there's always some sort of a fat option on their plate. And there's always something that I know that they will eat on their plate too. So if I know that, like strawberries are their favorite, or they've been loving apples lately, or whatever, it's always going to be on their plate, because I know when I give them their plate, there's at least going to be something that they're going to go to first more than likely. And then it opens up conversation for other things on their plate. We rarely ever push things with our kids. So you're probably not going to find me saying like you need to eat this or that type of thing. I will encourage and we talked to our daughter around like this is what protein does for us. And this is why we eat the fruits and veggies and how they make us feel. But for the most part, I just let the kids eat what's there because especially at this like age, when they're trying to develop their own sense of identity. If I'm pushing something on them, it's more likely they're gonna be reluctant to take part of it right. So, but the biggest thing I think that influences with them is they see me eating the same way. Right? They see me serving them similar things that we're eating They don't see me reacting when they won't eat something. And I'm very neutral along the, this is what we're having for dinner. If you don't want to have it, that's totally fine. But this is what we're having. And I'm not really giving them other options on that either, which is tough. I'm holding a boundary with them on, this is what we're having for dinner. And I always make sure within that, that there's something that they like, but there's still a boundary of Mommy's not your own separate plate, because then they become adapted to that. And then it's a tougher battle to switch it.

Yeah. And I love the use of the word option. Like you said, there's always a protein option, there's always a fat option. And so it's their option to take those things. Now, let's say you get through dinner, and the kids get up and you're, you know, not quite to bedtime yet. And they're like, Mom, I'm hungry. I want a snack. Do you bring the plate back out? Or what is what? How do you navigate that? Yeah, so

we usually dinner we're early birds, we eat dinner on like, 536 ish, and our kids don't go to bed till 830. So if it's like within an hour of dinnertime, I say like, you know, you could eat a little more dinner if you want to your dinner still there. So I'll leave the plate there. But if it's beyond that, then we usually do like a bedtime snack. So we'll usually let them have a bedtime snacks option. So the communication is usually we just had dinner, if you're still hungry, you can have some more of your dinner. If not, then you can wait until we have snack time. And that's usually just kind of the boundary you hold with it.

I love that. So let's talk about shifting gears a little bit is we as women have multiple cycles, right? This was something that was new to me, I didn't really know that I'd love for you to just kind of take us from like base level what that even means up to actionable takeaways. Knowing that information.

I think one of the like, most shocking things for me, when I really started to dig into it more was like, I'm not meant to feel the same every single day. And as a cyclical woman, you're not you're not meant to feel the same every day. And I used to beat myself up over that of I'm not feeling the same every day. And that's actually not a bad thing. You're going through a 28 day cycle on average, you know, with your hormones, which means that they're going to be doing a little dance with each other throughout the month. So in the simplest form, right, you know, the day you start your period is technically the start of what we would call your follicular stage, you're probably not really feeling that until you're coming close to being out of your period. But um, you're usually what happens in there is your estrogen is starting to rise. And estrogen to you is like testosterone to a guy, it's a feel good hormone. I call it like your superpower hormone. It helps your libido, you're a little usually a little bit more focused around that time of the month a little more task oriented a little bit more of like a go getter or quote unquote motivated as a lot of people will kind of describe themselves in that time. And as you're leading up to it's usually about 11 to 14 day period as you're leading up to ovulation. And when you are like five to six days out from ovulation, you should also be noticing your libido starting to rise a little bit more around that time of the month because primally that if you wanted to get pregnant, you know you get pregnant around ovulation. So that's when you would probably want to be a little bit busier. And then as we come up to ovulation is we get a little bit of a testosterone spike. But this is usually when we're that kind of signifies the shift in our hormones in the cycle. And this is usually when we start to transition into our luteal stage where as shouldn't is still present, but progesterone starts to take the lead. And progesterone in this time of the month is still a feel good hormone, but it's a little bit more of a calming hormone, progesterone can be a little bit more of a sedative naturally. So we might need a little bit more sleep in this stage of our cycle, usually an average like 30 to 45 minutes that women need. This is when you actually get a little bit of a metabolic boost, because progesterone is a pro thyroid hormone. So you may feel yourself feel a little bit hungrier. And this stage of your cycle, usually on average, we recommend women take like another five to 10% in calories if you're tracking it, and you're noticing that hunger, and this was around the time that women feel like what's wrong with me, I started I was feeling really good. Like even a week ago, I was super motivated. And then all of a sudden, this month, I'm tired, I'm not motivated. I'm more hungry, you know, like what's going on. And a lot of that is just recognizing the shift in your body that there's nothing wrong with you, it's just that you actually needed a little bit more sleep, you might have needed a little bit more food. And your body actually needs you to be a little bit more restorative in nature in this time of your cycle. So it's not that there's anything wrong, you don't have to make massive shifts, it's just be more in tune with, I should probably go to bed a little bit earlier, or maybe my 5am workout becomes a 6am workout type of a thing in this stage of my cycle. And this is usually leading up to you know, your period, and then your period of marks that we're in it's kind of starting all over again. But right before our period our hormones you know all drop as well. So that's usually when we can start to feel a little bit more I guess different is when You're gonna notice the biggest difference, but that's when you should start to notice like, Alright, my periods got to come. It shouldn't be PMS, you know cramping, all those kinds of things, those are signals that something is off in that cycle. And that dance that estrogen and progesterone did with each other may be getting impacted. And we need to figure out where, and why. But that's about what it should feel like through the month, if you're getting excessive hunger, excessive fatigue, in that luteal stage of your cycle, you're getting more I guess, up and down mood swings, that's when you should notice like something might be off because they shouldn't be feeling this way. You know, from a workout standpoint, things don't really need to shift. There's not a lot of like data, to show that we actually need to shift our cycle or ship our workouts around our cycle. But what you may notice is because of that motivation, you're feeling more pretty ovulation and as your period starts, that you feel better in your workouts. And the reasons we may not feel as good and the luteal stages because we may be skipping that extra sleep that we need or may not be giving ourselves the extra calories that we need. So when you're coming into that luteal stage, if you're not able to give yourself that extra sleep or things, you may need a little bit more restoration. So it might be a good idea to like, swap or run for some yoga, or, you know, strength training session, give yourself longer rest breaks between the work that you're doing, you don't necessarily need to overhaul the whole thing, you know, and do a totally different approach. And that two weeks before your period. And when you're into your period, I usually suggest women like just give yourself a little bit of credit, you're you're bleeding right now. So like you might need to rest a little bit. But a good thing that you can do is increase red meat around that time leading up to your period to usually suggest like two to three times a week to help support the iron that you may be losing as your period starts as well and help support how you're feeling around that as well.

Nice. And if someone's plant based, is that like spinach, or like what are things that they can do?

Yeah, ideally, red meat is best because we get the heme iron is the most absorbable form. But if you are going more towards a plant based if you could eat eggs, you can get a little bit more from eggs would be beneficial. Otherwise, yeah, spinach is can be a great source play based options is not going to be like my main forte. But usually if you are vegan or vegetarian, you have a pretty good idea of what you need to be taking in you. I don't recommend anybody supplement with iron without checking your irons, your levels first and blood work, which is what you need. But it could even be a B 12 deficiency. So you may need to have your B 12. checked if you're in that state to to make sure that any iron anemia or anything you're experiencing is not like a B 12 issue too.

So you just gave us so much information. And for someone that is that's new, they may be like oh my gosh, I need to go learn more about this. And obviously we recommend reaching out to Brooke directly. But if someone's headed to Dr. Google, or they, you know, have their phone listening, and now their Instagram algorithm and their Facebook algorithm is going to be giving them all sorts of information. What are some of like the myths or some things to like, watch out for that you might be like, hey, you know, that's not actually a truth.

Context is everything. You know, the symptoms for a lot of things can be very, very similar. So context matters the most. So I usually advise staying off of Dr. Google, because you're usually kind of like diagnosed with yourself with something that is not true. But if you're looking for resources, or places to start, I would say in the most simplest form, like just start with eating whole real food, and three meals a day and having a protein a good fat quality veggies and some good dense carbohydrates on your plate three times a day, walk, you know, move your body regularly. Again, you don't have to get 10,000 steps in a day, but figure out how many you are getting. And maybe try to challenge that a little bit and increase that movement strength train three times a week is phenomenal. It's really good metabolically, it's not necessarily shown to have like huge impacts on weight loss directly, but indirectly it does. And sleep just try to get as much restorative sleep in your week as you possibly can. Those are some of the best places for somebody to start. But if you're looking for other resources or places to go, you know, I would really suggest just kind of paying attention to yourself and your own habits instead of looking at other things. Pay attention to your own habits in the context of journal it out for a day. And how did that make me feel? And did I wake up feeling rested in the morning and then look back at your last 24 hours of what happened in my last 24 hours for why I was feeling that way? The best knowledge you can give yourself is like awareness of your own self in what you're doing. So that's usually where I would suggest somebody start

Yeah. And I know for me, I thought I was doing that and I then wasn't and I got more real with myself. So what are some of the ways like with how busy you are and with your kids, other than knowing this is a priority? What are some ways that you maybe like transition your mindset to get more aware with like how you're feeling today? Do you have like a morning routine or a journaling practice or like how do you check in with yourself each day

I wish I had a morning routine, but my kids wake me up in the morning. So that's my routine. I mean, I have a morning hustle is what I'll call, it's like Get up, get the kids ready, get them off to school, and then I come home. And I purposely block an hour between when I dropped the kids off at school, and when I actually start work and that date or take appointments, so that I can come home and have an hour to do whatever I need to do to feel centered for that day, some days, that's gonna take a walk some days that sit down and go through something in my business, some days, that is, you know, read a devotional or journal or do a workout, it just depends on what kind of feeling good. So I don't set any agenda for myself in that timeframe other than to just do what I need to do in that time to feel centered for the day. And then at the end of every day, when I turn those electronics off before bed, I have like a toolbox that I kind of go to I'm either implementing breathwork, if my day has just been more mentally taxing, or meditation, or journaling, I'll do an Epsom salt bath a few times a week, and my husband will kind of like watch the kids downstairs while I just go hide out upstairs type of a thing. So I'm trying to intentionally set time every day, what I'm doing, I don't put a pressure on myself to have a specific agenda around it. But there's at least 20 minutes of what I would say is like mentally restorative time for myself in my day somewhere.

And I love that you use the example of that it changes because I think even with we were just talking about your cycle changing, you may need something different at different points of the month. And we're talking 20 minutes, I think so often, we're looking at this, and we're like, why there's no way I could find two hours in my day to do this. And it's like, no 20 minutes. And you you kind of said that it's might even be broken up, like 20 minutes, at the end of the day, and then somewhere else something and so I think that that's really important to know that it's not always like this beautiful morning routine, especially when you have little humans that are changing their schedule, that it's just allowing yourself to find some time for you somewhere. So I do love that. How have you communicated that with your husband? Do you have any tips around that to say like, Hey, I need a break, I'm gonna need to go take a bath. I know that something a lot of our community kind of struggles with is showing up vocally for themselves in that way. Is there something that works? Well, for you guys?

Yeah, it's really advocating for your needs and understanding, I had to take a look at like, Okay, this is a partnership, right? Like, this is not just like mom is the sole provider for everything with the kids. It's this is 5050. And so it definitely took some learning on his end of the natural inclinations, that he would have to just default to me for stuff. And so it really took me kind of holding some strong boundaries with him of, hey, this is your responsibility, this is my responsibility. And he would ask me in the past, like, Will this give me a to do list and I'm like, No, that's still make me making me carry the mental load of giving you the to do list, right? Like, I shouldn't have to give you a to do list as the partner of will the kids watches need to be packed, or they need to be taken to school or, you know, this one's sick, because we need to take care of this. Like, that's not just my mental load. That's all of our mental load. So I think the first thing is understanding like, you need to take yourself out of the sole caretaker role. And also remember that there's a partner who's supposed to be a caretaker with you, if that's the scenario. And if that is, it's okay to unload some of that caretaking to them as well. They're not going to do it the way that you do it. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. I think the toughest part is like we can unload it, but then we try to control the way that it's done. You have to unload it and let go of it. And then hold the line and responsibility of it getting done. Sometimes we unload it and I've done this. And then when it's not done or done the way that we want, we just take it back over and then get resentful that it's not getting done, right. But instead of taking it back over, that's where we should be holding that line of responsibility of Well, no, this is actually yours to take care of. And that takes time. It's not happening overnight. So I think that's one of the most important things and then also just it's okay to communicate like, Hey, I'm really overstimulated right now. I need to go take a 20 minute break. Do you got this? Right? Do you need anything for me? And there's nothing wrong with asking that too.

I love that. And I think whether it's communicating with your partner, testing your gut health, your hormones, like your exercise, your schedule all of that. There's like these buckets and I always think of is like bumpers when you're bowling like there's these bumpers to stay within but like kind of like where the ball goes in between there can be different for everyone. And so with your clients and with these topics, maybe not as much as stuff in the household but like the gut health and the hormones. Why is it important to like realize you're an individual also, why is it important to say like, okay, these are the, the bowling lanes and the bumpers, and these are the things I can be learning but I need to have some sort of individual approach and this is how I can help myself with that. What does that look like?

Yeah, our bodies are all very different, right? Right, like we may, we may have general needs that are very similar from each other, but the way in which those get applied, our lifestyles are behind the scenes, our stressors, our past experiences, and our genetics are all very different. So it's really important to just recognize that like, what may work for one person is not going to work for another. And my behind the scenes is not the same as somebody else's. So the way that somebody else preps their food and does all these things, may feel like a second job to me, and it may not be something that I can take on. So it's really good at the problem I see a lot is we jump into like diets and exercise programs and things like that, that require us to adapt our lifestyle to meet that diet approach. And instead, what you should be doing is taking a diet approach that's going to meet you where you're currently at where you're at in your life, and take you to where you want to be. And that means recognizing your capacity, your behind the scenes, you know, what works for you what your time schedule looks like in a daily basis. And I always say taking a layered approach based on what you need, and not trying to tackle everything at once. Take on one or two things at a time, master that habit and then move on to another one.

Yeah, that was so good. I need to say that again. So instead of focusing on just where you want to go, focus on where you're at, and really what you can take in right now. Right, you have to recognize

your capacity. So often we will be like, Alright, I'm gonna start this diet, and I'm gonna do this thing for 12 weeks, and then we get two weeks into it. And we're like, this is really overwhelming, and I cannot maintain this. So it's really important to just recognize, like, it's not a failure on my end that I can't overhaul my whole life overnight. I can't either. But if you want sustainability, and you want something to last, it's actually going to be a lot better than any, you know, any study is going to show that the if you take on one to two tasks at a time and work on mastering those before you try to do 10, you're going to be much more successful in the long run than if you try to do 10 things at once.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. And in the spirit of that we've talked about so many things on this episode that are such great takeaways and for you to implement one little thing at a time, to hopefully, you know, next time we have you on the podcast, everyone that's listening has seen an improvement in their health in one way or the other. But if they were to do two things between now and let's say, you know, a month from now, what are the two things again, we know that there's an individual approach, right? So it would depend on the person. But overall, what are the two that you're like, This is what I love to start with,

disconnect yourself from your phone more often. And, you know, definitely an hour before bed, put the electronics away, turn the TV off, journal, Read, Write whatever, um, and then eat 30 to 50 grams of protein three times a day, in your meals. It sounds like a lot, but it only sounds like a lot in comparison to what you may currently be eating right? So it's not in addition, it may be in replacement of some of the things that you're taking in. But you can make a significant difference in your hunger and your satiation, your hormone regulation, your sleep, your mood, all of that. So those are two huge things I would suggest people starting with from a general perspective,

I love that. Another thing that's been huge for me is always Association and community AI and being with people that are having conversations like this, that helped me understand how to get to where I want to go and care for myself, and you do such a good job bringing women together to just like be an individual, but also like improve your life along the way. Talk a little bit about some of the ways you do that through your programs and your retreats and how people can tap into this. Yeah.

So when you're working with us, we have a community aspect, no matter which way you're working with us. But everybody gets an individual approach where we're working on your individual body, your testing results, what you need, specifically your lifestyle. But we also bring in a community component. So we have community calls on a weekly basis, which at the root of it is really meant to give you the empowerment and the why behind your what you're doing so that you can sustain it for the long run, I tell all of our clients and like I don't want you to have to work with us forever to see results. I want you to know why you're doing what you're doing so that you can do it on your own. So that's one of the main community things that we bring in. But we also do breathwork often together, and we hope we're hosting a retreat coming this October that has a couple spaces left, but it's really about connecting with women and people who are in a similar place as you and can. It's the me too, right? Like I've been there too. And here's what I did for myself and, and having more of that intimate connection with other people while still also working with us behind the scenes individually on what you need. There's multiple ways that we incorporate that for people but community is huge. And I find that a lot of what people are missing and it can be really lonely. When you're in a journey of trying to shift your health and other people around you may not be doing the same. So it's nice to have that community piece of other people who are doing it with you so you don't feel so stuck. for a loan to

and so you have two free options for people that are ready to like learn a little bit more with you talk a little bit about your podcast, and also the offer that will link below that people can jump into.

Yeah, some of the things we touched on today, but we have a complete resource for you guys. It's a complete ebook with the 10 habits that we encourage you to nail down if you really want to feel good in your skin, we guide you through each one, why it plays a role. And then you can also have an option to go through a 10 day little video course with me taking you through deeper tips on what to do. So we'll have that linked in there for you guys. And then my podcast is called the power of a woman. It's a lot of me discussing certain health related topics. But I also bring in special guests who are women and have shown power in their life in some way, shape, or form, and can help be more of an inspiration story for you as well.

So good. And for those that are ready to dive deeper, they can connect with you on testing and your retreats and your programs. And we'll put all that down below. If you wanted to leave any last pieces of inspiration, advice, science and nutrition with our listeners, what would that be?

I think the biggest thing is to just not compare, it's so easy, you know, we see everybody's beginning of something and we see everybody's celebration at the end. But we don't see the work and the things that people are doing behind the scenes in the middle of it all. So I really, really want to encourage like, just don't compare what you're working on. Because you're probably in the messy middle. And it's messy for all of us, no matter what success you're seeing outwardly from someone, the behind the scenes and middle parts are very, very messy. So try not to compare where you are in your journey, your own health your own body to what somebody else is experiencing, because you don't know what is going to transpire for them that five to 10 years from now, you really have to stay tuned into what feels good to you. And that may not be what feels good to somebody else. And that's okay.

I love that. So if you want to hear more of that and follow all the great tips that Brooke has on Instagram, you can find her at Brooke Razi, and we'll put that below. But Brooke, what's something you're excited about right now, what's a goal that you have something that you're working towards?

Our retreat is what I'm excited about. It's the first time we've launched one. I did my own retreat this year. And I tried to cancel it four times before I went because I was so nervous about it. But it was life changing. And I will be the first to sign up anytime forward. So I'm super excited for our retreat that we have coming up this fall.

Awesome. And we'll put that below I can also advocate retreats are just one of their own. You can't really replace what comes out of those. So that's amazing. Brooke, thank you so much for being here. Always so much great information, wisdom. I love how you communicate. It breaks it down for people like me to truly understand. And thank you for being here. Thank you. Sometimes the smallest acts of love is all a mom needs to feel reinvigorated. If you can relate to that I feel so supported by your five star rating and written review. Take a moment and let me know what you thought about this episode.