In this episode, host Phylicia Pough and guest Leisha Drews dive deep into the causes of hormonal imbalance in women and its impact on mom burnout and energy levels.

Leisha shares valuable insights on the side effects of hormone imbalances, emphasizing the correlation between hormone balance and productivity in business and motherhood. She also highlights natural remedies for hormone imbalance in females and provides a quiz to identify the top three imbalances affecting individuals.

Furthermore, she explains the importance of understanding the menstrual cycle and how it affects cognitive function and energy, offering tips for aligning activities with different cycle phases to improve productivity.

Listeners looking for natural remedies and practical strategies for managing hormone imbalance and combating mom burnout will find valuable insights in this informative and empowering episode.

About Leisha

Leisha Drews is mom of three, RN, FDN-P and Holistic Hormone Coach and host of the Happily Hormonal Podcast. She brings a unique understanding of how our body systems work together and how stress on the body and mind impact overall health.

She believes that as women we can have it ALL when it comes to health and motherhood, and helping women restore energy, balance hormones and feel good in their bodies again is her passion.

Hormone balance doesn't have to be overwhelming, and she is here to empower women to understand & trust their bodies again to create change for generations to come.

LINKS & MENTIONS

• Take Leisha's free hormone quiz
• Listen to the Happily Hormonal Podcast
• Visit Leisha's Website
• Connect with Leisha on Instagram

RESOURCES

• The Mom CEO Suite Masterclass Collection https://www.themomceosuite.com/masterclass
• CRM: Dubsado - Get 20% off your 1st month (if paying monthly) or 1st year (if paying annually)
• Livestreaming: Streamyard - Get a $10 credit
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Connect with Phylicia

FB: Phylicia Pough

IG: @phyliciapough

Connect with The Mom CEO Suite

Website: themomceosuite.com

Instagram: @themomceosuite

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You are now tuned in to the mom CEO suite podcast.

I'm your host, Felicia, wife, mom, and

entrepreneur. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my mompreneur

journey along with strategies that will help you build your online

business operations in a sustainable way. The goal is

to help you build a business that fits into your lifestyle as a mom who

values putting family first. We will also hear the

experiences and expertise of other moms with service

based businesses. You'll get a peek into our journeys so you'll

know that you aren't alone. Motherhood gets hard.

Entrepreneurship gets hard. But together we can

do hard things. Welcome to the suite.

Hey friends, welcome to another episode. Thank you so much for being here. And

we have another guest. I'm super excited for this episode, a little selfishly,

because I am on, you know, my own wellness journey, and this is

going to be super informational for me. And I know for you as well.

So today our guest is Leisha Drews. She is a mama

three and RN FDMP and holistic

hormone coach and the host of the happily

hormonal podcast. She brings a unique understanding of how

our body systems work together and how stress on the

body and mind impact overall health. She

believes that as women, we can have it all when it comes to health and

motherhood and helping women restore energy, balance hormones and

feel good in their bodies again is her passion.

Doesn't have to be overwhelming, and she is here to empower women to

understand and trust their bodies again to create change

for generations to come. This is going to

be so amazing. Hi, Leisha. How are you? I'm so

good. So good. So glad to be here. Yes, very,

very excited. So, you know, we've read your bio, but tell us a little bit

more about you, your business, and what is life like for

you at this intersection of motherhood and entrepreneurship right

now? Yeah, so, you know, you can

write things down in a bio and kind of wrap it up in a pretty

package, but. What life looks like is I do

have three kiddos and a husband as well,

of course. And, um, I am not only working with

women on their hormones, which I love to do, but I also homeschool my kids

and I like to be outside and I like to, you know, be the fun

mom or recording this in the summer. So trying to do like all of those

things is truly a lot of things. so it can get busy. But

July, we're almost to July when we're recording this and July

is my slowdown season this year. I'm really

hoping anyway, it's my plan. So I'm really looking forward to,

just time outside with my kids and not having too many things on the

schedule. Hopefully we've got like, um, my daughter's in dance and we

did soccer and, you know, just like those things are off the calendar. So that's

kind of where we are right now in, um, Life and business, but

there's always plenty to fill up the calendar for sure.

There's always something to do when it comes to kids and family, right?

And business too, but when you have it all, it's like, there's always something to

do. Um, so let's dig in a little bit more into your

story. talk to us a little bit about what life was like for

you both prior to and after you

became intentional with hormone health and functional

nutrition. Yeah. So a little backstory on me

is that I started my Kind of like health

career in nursing. So right out of high school,

I, um, went into like a pre nursing program kind of like

right after my, my last year of high school, kind of tried that out. Wasn't

sure if I would like it and just went all in. I was like, I

do like this. This is what I want to do. Went to nursing school right

away. And I really went into it because I

wanted to help people and I wanted to help people with their health. And I

wanted to help them when they're sick and when they're hurting and all of those

things. And I spent between

while I was in nursing school, I started working in the hospital and, um, through

my years of working as a nurse, I spent about 10 years in the hospital.

And In those 10 years, that was when

I started having some hormone symptoms of my own or started to

recognize that some of the symptoms I had were hormone symptoms, had my first

baby, had my second baby, and really just started

to notice that there was

something different that I wanted to be able to

help my patients with. And I saw the same patients coming back again

and again. And I really was not able to help them like

get better in the ways that I wanted to. And I didn't have time to

really, you know, dig into like, what's going on in your lifestyle, what's going on

with your food, um, those types of things that I knew would be able to

help them. But that wasn't my role in the hospital.

And I didn't have a lot of resources. And I also just really didn't have

a lot of time with my patients besides like keeping them

alive, generally happy. And like

checking all the boxes that you have to check as a nurse. And so I

really started to just think about like, what, like, what can I

do that is going to be more nutrition focused, more,

you know, preventative. And as I started to transition into that,

I really learned that I love working with women. I love working

with moms specifically because of, you know, that last line of my

bio of like how we can change our health for generations. You can do that

by working with moms. Like that automatically impacts at

least one generation, or I mean, of course the mom and

then their kids, and then it might even impact their parents. And it's

definitely going to impact their grandkids. Like it just really

goes out from the woman and the mom and the household.

And so when you work with moms, you find that

hormones are a big part of this. And I think that hormones are so

just like under Underrated essentially,

or like a lot of us just kind of think like, uh, hormones, like they're

bad. They're annoying there, whatever, because it's like what we equate with

symptoms that are kind of negative. But when we

actually dig into hormones and what they do, like, hormones are what.

Allows us to create new life. Like

that's a mic drop right there. It's like, okay, like, why are we just like

hormones when it's like, this is what allows us to have babies. This was, this

is what allows humans to like, keep propagating in the

world. And so. When I really dove into hormones, I started to

understand that there was just so much that I hadn't even learned. And

even in nursing school, like even going through all of these anatomy classes and physiology

classes and like all the things that I did, I really still didn't even understand

my own cycle. I had irregular cycles. I thought it was pregnant every

single month. Like it was just a whole, whole mess. And so

to kind of like wrap up that question, what has changed for

me after Understanding hormones better

and starting to, um, you know, align my

life a little bit more with how my body was created and how my body

changes throughout the month as a woman who is cycling. Um,

it has given me so much more encouragement

about who I am as a woman and why that is so special and

why that, you know, Is a beautiful thing to be a woman and it's not

something that needs to be either, you know, kind of like shut

down or erased or just thought of

as like, not as good, which sometimes does happen in our culture,

but it's really something to celebrate and it's

something that. We can really change

the way we see ourselves when we understand how our bodies work. And we

don't just expect essentially to show up the same way that a man would

24, 7, because we're not the same. And that's a good thing.

Yeah. So you said a lot of good things and I want to kind of

go back a little bit because you didn't mention about how we have

this, you know, misconception about hormones or we automatically

think that they're negative. So can you give us like a high

level? I guess explanation of

hormones and how they work and then what does it mean for them

to be balanced? Okay. Yes. So I love this question.

So hormones essentially are just chemical

messengers in the body. And so they're little signalers that

say, Hey, this organ needs to do this thing,

this cell needs to do this thing. Um, and there

are many, many, many hormones in the body. Now, as

women, we typically think most about our sex

hormones. So estrogen and progesterone are ones that we

maybe know about. And those are the ones that are going to cause

our menstrual cycles to happen, cause us to ovulate, cause us to

bleed, cause us to be able to get pregnant.

Something that I think is really, really important to know, though, is

those hormones aren't just like their own little system over here that's

disconnected from everything else in the body. There are many

other hormones that interact with those hormones. So some of those are

going to be stress hormones from our adrenal glands. Some of those are going to

be thyroid hormones. Some of those are going to be hormones like insulin,

which relates to our blood sugar and our metabolism like hormones. All of those

things are actually working together and talking to each other. So we could look at

it like this is a room full of friends and these two

besties over here are estrogen and progesterone. And these two other besties over

here are like DHEA and cortisol, but like, they're all

part of the same group. They all know each other and they're all talking all

the time just because we like categorize them, that these two go

together, like they're all still. Working

together, essentially. And so when we're looking at hormones,

I think that it's really important to understand that

hormones are responding to what is happening in your

life, whether that's nutrients, whether that's stress, whether that's

environmental factors, whether that's you like having a baby or

having a You know, a house fire, or like, there's so many different

things that our hormones are responding to. And our brain is always telling

our hormones what to do. And so hormones are a really big

picture, but when we're talking about hormones in the context of women's health,

we primarily are looking at those estrogen and progesterone

hormones to kind of see what is normal and what is

not normal within the cycle, which I'll go into in a minute. Um, And

it really is helpful to note that just

estrogen and progesterone are like not doing their own thing. And so,

so much of the time when there are hormone symptoms, we get

told, Oh, just take some birth control because that will

balance. I'm using air quotes for those of you who can't see me, your estrogen

and progesterone. But the thing is, birth control actually

just gives you a very, very low dose, almost a menopausal dose

of those hormones to keep your brain from telling your

ovaries to ovulate. So essentially it kind of just shuts down that

system. It doesn't balance anything. It just turns it off.

But if you're having those hormone symptoms, there's something else in your

body that's making you feel better. Telling your brain,

it is not safe for you to ovulate well, or ovulate. It's not

safe for you to have balanced hormones. It's not safe for you to have a

baby right now. So I'm going to put up some red flags for

you. And, but instead of, you know, asking what are these red flags mean

so much of the time, we're just like, let's put the little red flags down

and tape them up and like, not look at them. And that's what happens with

breast control. So what I consider to be actually.

Normal in a cycle versus not normal. I'll go through that. Um,

so much of the time for women, we have hormone symptoms and just think

it's a normal part of being a woman because your sister has them, your mom

has them, your best friend has them. So that would be things like, um,

PMS mood swings. So feeling like moody, irritable,

anxious, depressed before your cycle, really any

time during your cycle, if it is a cyclical thing. So a lot of women

will have that like the week before their period. Sometimes it shows up around

ovulation to some women have it for three days. Some women have it for 12

days. Like that can be. a huge spectrum of symptoms

with PMS. Um, painful periods, heavy periods,

lots of cramping, fibroids, um, hormonal

acne, breast tenderness. All of those things are

symptoms and it's your body telling you something's going on here

that isn't allowing me to either make or detox hormones well. So

all of those things are very common, but I don't consider those to be normal.

What I would actually consider to be normal is just kind of like a Really

a little bit more of like a gentle shift throughout your cycle. And then you

have a period that shows up kind of without any drama, like

no mental drama, no physical drama. You can just keep living your life.

Maybe you're like a little, like a little more tired or like, Hey, I think

I'd like to take an app or I'd like to have a little time to

myself. But other than that, like you're not debilitated by

symptoms. That is so

interesting. Okay, so you mentioned previously the

red flags. So were all of those things that you just mentioned, those symptoms,

are those what you would consider red flags? Yeah, those are definitely some

of the most common ones. Okay, so now

when we see those red flags or for people who might have those

symptoms, right? I guess, how can

they get rid of them? Like, since it's not considered, you know, I'm air

quoting normal, how can they get rid of those?

Yeah. So that is what I work on all the time. So

I love this question and there's lots of different kind of

more root causes of these symptoms. But the two that I focus on

first in my programs are, are you making hormones? Well,

And are you detoxing hormones? Well, so if you're making hormones, well,

then you would be able to make enough estrogen that it's going to

not be too much, but be the right amount to cause you to ovulate

within the first, like 15, 16 days of your

cycle. And then you ovulate and you create progesterone, which

is your secondary Um, hormone in the menstrual cycle and you

create enough progesterone to keep that as the dominant hormone

for about another 14 days of your cycle. Numbers can vary a

little bit for people, but I want to see a luteal phase, a secondary

part of your cycle of about 14 days for optimal

metabolic health, um, thyroid health, and even ability to get

pregnant. So that would be like making hormones.

Well, now if you're doing that, And your

cycle looks pretty good and you still have symptoms, then a lot of times we

need to look at detoxing hormones. Well, and

detoxing hormones is something that a lot of us are not doing very well

because our bodies can be pretty overburdened by all

of the things in our world that are not entirely

working for us. So that can be toxins in our environment that can

be toxins in food. It can be just like. Really not eating a

lot of nutrient dense foods, eating a lot of more just kind of like processed

foods that don't have a lot of nutrients in them. Um, not having

balanced blood sugar, that can be a really big one. And this is not just

like diabetes level. It's like just, you know, having these

crashes throughout the day. Um, but all of those things impair

detoxification because the liver gets overburdened and that's one of the

big factors for detoxification. So kind of, that's kind of the

baseline of like, What I like to figure out first is, you know, where's

the problem? Is it both of these places, which often it is? And if so,

then I really focus on, are you getting the

ingredients that you need to make hormones? Well, so that's going to be

really good nourishment. It's going to be consistency with your

food. Blood sugar balance, um,

moving your body, getting sunshine, like some of those things that sound

basic, but also like as a mom and a business owner, are you doing it?

Like maybe not so much. Um, so that's, that's what I

look at to make hormones well. And a lot of those things are going to

be similar to detox hormones. Well, and then we kind of like get a little

more in the weeds there, but really it does come down to

those two things to start with. And if you're listening and you're like, okay.

This is a lot. I do have a quiz that will help you

just kind of like get through the weeds a little bit and figure out which

of the top three hormone imbalances is likely affecting you most.

And then I'll send you a private podcast playlist that

will kind of like give you more information about that hormone imbalance. So you can

be like, okay, like I'm, you know. Coming through the clouds a little bit. I

kind of understand like a little more what I could do, that kind of thing.

And that's why it's broken down into those three.

Perfect. So we'll definitely link that quiz in the show description. So you

guys can access that. Um, You said some of the

things you mentioned sounded basic, right? And you know, it

does. We hear it all the time. Go, go outside, get some sunshine, eat

right. But like you said, are we really doing these things? and so you

mentioned nourishment, right? And a lot of times when I'm

scrolling in mom communities or just on social media, I'm

always seeing that moms are burnt out, they're

tired, they don't Um, but they want

to have the energy, right? But then I also see, you know,

not in a judgmental way, but you know, I, I see the coffees with

the creamer and the sugar and maybe some things that are

not healthy. So what are some

easy nourishment shifts that moms can make?

Um, just to have more energy and kind of move away from that state of

being burned out. Yeah. So I always like to focus

on first, like, what can we put in versus what can we take out?

Because I think with diet culture and just like, as women, we're just

so, we're just so easy to go to the, like,

okay, I have to cut sugar, cut carbs, cut dairy, cut like whatever.

And just like, right, cut it all out and then you're left with

and you have this like time frame. You're like, I'm gonna do it 30 days.

I'm gonna do it 90 days, whatever that is. And then you're left with like,

okay, but then like, what do I eat? And then you're just eating like carrots

and chicken and they get really tired of that really fast. And then you're like,

nevermind. This is terrible. And I don't even feel better because. I'm

starving, right? So what I actually see so much of the

time, like, yes, maybe, maybe it is too much sugar. Maybe it is too much

coffee. Um, maybe it's too much fried food, too much fast food,

processed food. Like none of those things are great. And

I like to focus on one thing at a time for us, busy mamas. And

the first thing that I always like to look at is you. Are you eating

breakfast within 30 to 60 minutes of waking up in the morning?

Even if you don't have the appetite for this, if you don't have the appetite,

it's likely because you've trained your body not to have the appetite for that.

Um, and that is a sign of stress hormones in the body. It's a sign

of probably like lower thyroid hormone. Um, and one of the ways you

can get your appetite back, I'll just throw this in really quick. If you've been

intermittent fasting or accidentally, just not really eating breakfast, cause it's

easier. As soon as you wake up in the morning, don't look at your

phone, don't put on your glasses or your contacts, walk

outside and just look at wherever the area of the sun coming

up would be. Whether it's past the time that the sun has come up,

maybe it's just a little bit before if it's like pitch black, this, you just

wait a minute till the light starts to happen. But just giving your brain

that really slow burst of light versus like.

Whoa, my phone like this is super bright. It's two o'clock in the afternoon that

just sets off like panic alarms in your head because you're like, like, you

know, it's not two in the afternoon in your brain, but like the subconscious does

not know that to go outside, spend three minutes, five minutes,

breathe for a second, take your baby outside. If they woke you up, whatever

you need to do. Um, and just let your brain turn on

with the outside light and you'll be amazed how fast your

appetite comes back because it's a slow wake up.

Um, with that being said, going back to breakfast within 30 to

60 minutes of waking up in the morning is ideal because that will tell your

body essentially. It is safe. There's food here.

Everything's okay. Um, you don't have to run on stress

hormones because essentially what I see a lot of, especially business women

doing is you wake up, you've got all the things to do

running around. You're going to drink some coffee to get yourself going.

And that coffee stimulates stress hormones like cortisol. Just

spikes. Those right up can decrease your appetite for a couple of

hours. But all you're doing is running on these stress hormones to

artificially keep your blood sugar propped up instead of giving your body something to

actually go on. So I like to use the analogy that it's like getting in

your car and just like hitting the gas, but your tank is empty and you're

expecting like to be able to go and keep going. But if you put some

gas in the tank, you're going to be able to go a lot further versus

just like two minutes down the road and then you crash. So. that

breakfast. I like to look at it and I want it to be real food.

So real food doesn't look to me like a pop tart or a

donut or something like that. Like, I think we all know that, but also.

Sometimes it happens. Um, but something that has protein, I

really love 25 plus grams of protein in a

breakfast. Um, and some carbohydrates to match

essentially. And so I love things like sweet

potatoes, fruit. Potatoes,

um, a whole grain, something like that for your carbs. And then for

protein, like a real meat, a real egg,

something like that. That's just like real food, basic. And

if that means you need to prep boiled eggs at the beginning of the week,

do that. Like it can still be easy. Um, it can be Greek

yogurt. It can be something like that, but something with. A really

solid start to your day and taking a few minutes to eat that.

Hopefully not while you're running around in circles is just truly a game

changer when it comes to energy, because you start your day off with

something solid and then eating consistently throughout your day,

about every three to four hours is usually pretty good for people. If your blood

sugar is not super high. and balance and always eating carbs and protein

together. I cannot tell you the difference that makes in your hormones because your blood

sugar starts to be balanced. And with hormones, we're always

looking for safety in the body because like

your body is working for you at all times. And with sex

hormones, especially. You're, you're essentially looking at

like, does my body have the resources that it needs to make a

baby? And if you're running around like crazy and you're stressed out all

the time and you're not eating and you're drinking a ton of coffee, your body

is going to be like red flags everywhere. No babies for you.

Right. And I say that, like, I don't mean specifically, like you will not

be able to have a baby. Sometimes that is the case, unfortunately,

but it's like, let's, you know, let's try not to right now because it seems

like this isn't safe. It seems like she doesn't have everything that she needs. And

so to have balanced hormones, we want to just continually give our

body signals of safety throughout the day. And that's where nourishment comes in.

And nourishment isn't just food. There is so much more to it, but that's where

I like to start. And then I also just want to throw in one other

quick thing for moms, especially minerals are so

important. Um, and minerals get

depleted with stress. So hello to all of us. And then

also with having babies. So when we have babies,

we lose minerals because we're giving it to the babies,

beautiful, you know, we need to do that. But we also need to make

sure that those are being replenished. And so actually making sure that you're not

just guzzling water that's plain all the time and that you're getting like some

electrolytes or some minerals in it, or you're doing something like an adrenal

cocktail. You can Google that and get a recipe. Those things can be really game

changing for energy as well.

Wow, this is so good. You've given us so much information. Like I know y'all

are going to have to pause right now, go back, rewind, take some notes,

decide what you need to do. What's your first step going to be? Um, now

I know you work with women and moms, um, to do this one on

one, but do you have like other resources if there's somebody that's kind of just

starting this journey and they just want to like research and they want to dive

into all of the things, do you have resources that you share as

well? Yeah, absolutely. So on my podcast, I

have, I think I'm at like 150 episodes, something like that, where I'm talking about

this all the time. So that's a deep dive. That'll take you a minute. If

you want to just go there, that's obviously free. Um, if you're like, I

want a little more of a specific, like, just give me some real tips.

Um, a couple of the things that I just said, I would definitely start with,

but I have a mini course called the restored mini course

that is on my website, but I'll make sure to give you the link for

the show notes as well. And that is just a. Podcast

mini course, where I will go through blood sugar balance with you even more in

depth, blood sugar balance and minerals, which is always where I start. So that would

be a super good resource. If you're like, I just want to like have it

in one place. I want some bite sized things to start with. Um, that mini

course would be really great. And then also, like I mentioned in the, in a

little, a little while ago, the quiz will give you some resources to

start with as well. So those are all.

Um,

and that is going to be, you know, kind of like the

step by step so that you can really walk through and fix

things like low energy, painful periods, PMS. Um,

but like I said, that any of the other things are a great place to

start 1st, awesome. And again, we are going to link all of

that. I'm going to be clicking those links. I definitely want that.

Private podcast. Um, so let's shift gears a little bit. We've talked

about, you know, the nourishment piece a little bit.

I feel like we could just keep talking about that, but I want to talk

about cycle syncing a little bit So when we're talking about

hormone balance, like how does that correlate to

your capacity in business and motherhood? And just how can you use your

cycle? Um, being aware of your cycle to be more just

productive in general. Yeah, so I think number one,

if you've been listening and you're like, okay, I do have hormone symptoms. I

am feeling really exhausted. I'm feeling burnout. And I have, you know, some

PMS or some bad periods or things like that. Just

knowing that your capacity will

be less if your body is in that, you know, stressed state,

essentially, and doesn't have those signals of safety. One thing. You know, I

talk about the basics essentially of like, let's

make sure you've got your energy back and your periods aren't knocking you out. And

you're not grumpy a whole week out of the month and just like, not yourself.

Like those are life changing in and of themselves. But like, once those symptoms start

to go away and you kind of are like, Oh, I remember who I was.

It's really amazing how your capacity increases. And so that's

really where like, You know, that's the real thing that I love helping women with

is like, you know, feeling good enough that you're like, here I am

again. And I remember what I love. And I remember the mom I want to

be. And I remember how to like pour into my business or whatever else I'm

passionate about. It's really amazing. So even just,

you know, starting to nourish your body will increase your capacity, but

kind of as a cherry on top, I, I love cycle sinking because I'm like

a hormone nerd over here. But also I don't, um,

I don't think that cycle syncing needs to be like the first step

because it can feel a little, like a little bit of like a to

do list of things to do. But I think that awareness of your cycle

is very helpful. So I'm going to do a quick little overview of what

happens in your cycle again with estrogen and progesterone and what that does to your

brain. So you can kind of be thinking through like, Oh, I do notice this

throughout my month. And like, I could change how I'm doing things a little bit

to make this better. So when you start your period, the first day of your

period is the first day of your cycle. And that is when estrogen and

progesterone are at their lowest level. So they've dropped off just before this

happens to create that bleed essentially. So it's almost like

when those hormones drop off, your body says, okay, I can bleed. I can shed

this lining. I don't need it anymore. There's no more progesterone. There's no

baby. So during that first week of

your cycle, essentially, estrogen and progesterone are low and you're

bleeding and that causes more of a connection between the

right and the left sides of your brain, which means that you are

more equipped essentially to plan

and to analyze so you might have a little bit lower social energy,

lower physical energy, But your brain works really uniquely in

that phase to be able to plan or analyze. So, you know, you can

take it from there as far as like, what does that look like in your

motherhood? What does that look like in your business? But we do a lot of

planning and we do a lot of analyzing in whatever roles we're in. And so

it could be meal planning. It could be content planning. It could be budgeting. Like

any of those things, um, is a really great time to do that in the

first few days of your cycle. And then as we move into week two

of your cycle, that's called your follicular phase and estrogen

starts to rise and it kind of rises gently for a few days. And then

it really sharply rises because it triggers other hormones to make

ovulation happen. And so when estrogen rises to its

highest peak, um, those few days of high

estrogen are your most fertile days of the month. And this is the time

of your cycle where you are most magnetic and

creative, often have really high social energy, um,

might be kind of like more of your social butterfly era of your

cycle. And this is where it's really great

to do things like collaboration, just in your personal

life, great time for date night. Great time for kids, birthday

parties, like whatever that looks like where you're like, I really want to be on.

I really want to enjoy this. Um, the follicular phase is

really good for that. Um, it's also really great in your business for all the

things, whether that's like collaboration or a launch or content

creation. And you can't fit everything in this week of your month. And

that is okay. But especially for something like a launch or like a

lot of content creation, it might really help you to plan it in this phase.

If you notice, Hey, sometimes I'm really good at this. And sometimes I just want

to lay on the floor and never want to do it again. You might just

check in with your cycle because it could have something to do with that. So

once you do ovulate, you switch over into your

luteal phase. And it's kind of like, I kind of like to split it into

two separate weeks because the luteal phase is when progesterone

is dominant and Usually feels a little bit

different in the 1st week in the 2nd week. So that 1st week is

usually a pretty stable week where you might still have pretty good social

energy. A really good time for communication. Um,

it's a really good time for again, like, collaboration. And I kind of think

of it as like a. Just kind of stable, steady

phase in your cycle where you can just check things off the list. So it

might even be the phase where you're like most true to yourself at that

point, or it's like, okay, this is just me, not super up high, just like

regular me. This is where I can get things done. You can look back at

what have you planned? What did you, you know, collaborate on in your follicular phase?

And like, what do I need to check off the list this week? Typically physically,

this is a pretty good week of the cycle. Yeah. Feel pretty good in general.

This is probably the week with the least symptoms typically. Um,

and then when we move into the last week of your cycle, progesterone is

still supposed to be dominant as long as you're detoxing well.

Um, but there is a little bit of a rise of estrogen and then both

of the hormones drop off at the end of the week. And so for a

lot of women, again, this isn't. Technically good and

normal, but a lot of women are like, okay, my energy is not so great

this week. My mood's not so great. Um, but even if that's not you and

you're feeling pretty good, usually that social and mental energy

will kind of taper at the very end of the week, the last couple of

days. But this is a really great time in your cycle again, to be kind

of like wrapping things up, almost like a nesting phase where it's like, okay, I

want to clean the house. I want to clean out my business. Want to clean

out the inbox. Want to like, you know, kind of just like wrap things up

in my month. Um, this is also, I've talked to so many business

owners who agree with this, but this is also a phase of your cycle where

either like, um, comparison fatigue or like imposter syndrome can

come in. And especially those last couple of days, I

cannot tell you how many women I've talked to who are like, Well, this happens

to me every month where I'm like, nevermind, nothing's working.

I'm going to quit. Like, this is the worst thing I've ever done. And then

like two days later, they're fine again. Um, and I've definitely experienced that

myself. So just knowing, like, if that's you and you're thinking like, Oh man,

that has happened to me. Maybe again, just check in with your cycle

and notice where that's showing up. Because if it is your

cycle, you can still listen and you can still think maybe there are

things I want to change, but also like I know I'll feel better in a

couple of days. So maybe I don't actually make the decision to like shut things

down in this phase. So I really like to think of the cycle

as more of like, kind of like a container where it's like,

where am I best at things? And where can I fit those things in,

you know, realistically, and then also not just, you know, a black and white of

like, I can only create content one week of the month, or I can only

plan one week of the month. That's not true. But you may be best at

those things in certain weeks.

That was such a good breakdown. And I know as I was listening

before I, you know, became aware of the different phases in

my cycle and all that I wouldn't notice that I just felt

different throughout the month or, you know, a certain week I would be tired and

I'm like, Oh, my period just came on. That's why I was tired. It was

always like an afterthought and I never was proactive in understanding,

you know, my body and all the things that was going on. And. I just

think that was so funny though, which is not funny, but very interesting what you

said about how during the last few days, when you're

about to go into your cycle, you're feeling this imposter syndrome and

like everything is over. And then next week you're like, Oh,

everything is fine because I've definitely felt that as well. It's like, Oh, the

world's not ending. It's, it's all okay. Sometimes you

never really understand why you just think it's, uh, Part of life or

whatever, but understanding that it's a part of your hormones and all of those

things, it really helps you to be able to, just

be better prepared and be more intentional

about your actions. And I really love that. Um, and I love how, in the

beginning, when you started this, you said that the work that you're doing.

It's really when you're working with moms, it can affect

generations. And I think that's so powerful because once you know

it, of course, you're going to pass it down to your children. and then you

just have more aware individuals. Um,

there's a whole lot that can be said about this topic and, you know.

The health of America and all those things, but I

think having this positive, influence and

encouragement and information about how our bodies work and how we

can be our best selves. I just think it's super amazing. And

so I want to thank you for coming on and sharing all of your

knowledge and wisdom. And so I guess to wrap up, of course, let people

know how they can reach you. But for somebody who is just

starting this journey, we know that you have The resources and all

that, but is there anything in terms of like mindset that

you would give for somebody who was just starting this journey and wanting to be

better with their hormone health? Yeah,

absolutely. So two things, one would be the first

one would be. Perfectionism is not going to work

in this journey because it's just going to hold you back to be

honest. And I think as women, like we have all been there, we're all

there, you know, it's, it's hard to let that go when

it's like, okay, I'm going to fix my hormones. I have to do every single

thing that I possibly could do to make this work. And then

we are like, Well, it's not working fast enough. I still had a

symptom. I, you know, I'm burnt out on all of these

things that I'm trying to do. So really, what I see is for my

most successful clients and students is just

commitment truly. And like, you know what? I'm going to work with my

body. I'm not going to keep working against it. Um,

and I'm just going to like really get consistent with this one thing until I'm

really good at it. And then I'm going to move on to the next thing.

That is what I find to be so helpful. And so I would really say,

you know, some of the tips that I gave earlier about like breakfast and starting

to just pay attention. Are you eating carbs and proteins together? And how many meals

are you eating? Processed food that will make a huge difference. And you just

need to, you know, Be honest with yourself about where you are

and then just start making little changes without without that. Um,

like, on and off the wagon mentality of, like, oh, well, I ate a French

fry. So might as well eat 2 pizzas for dinner, right? Like, it's so easy

to get there. But, like, where did we get that idea? Because apparently we

all have it, but it's like. It doesn't even make sense, really, where

it's like, okay, like, no, you ate one french fry. Cool. Like

french fries are fine sometimes. And if then you eat

two pizzas, like, then you've probably done, I was going to say done some damage,

maybe not necessarily done some damage, but like, you're not moving in the direction you

want to move necessarily. Um, and.

Giving yourself that grace. And just truly, I think the second mindset

thing would be just really understanding that your body is working for

you and you're not working against your body. So even when you feel bad,

even when you have these symptoms and you're like, I hear women say, like, my

body hates me or, you know, like, I just have to like fight

myself. Right. I have to like fight off this way or have to like restrict

and like beat myself into submission. It's like, But is that

working? Like, would we want, would we ever look at our daughters and

say, like, talk to ourselves that way? Like, no, we wouldn't.

And we would hide that from our daughters, to be honest, if we're talking to

ourselves that way, because we would never want them to feel that way. And so

really treating your body, like you would want to treat someone you love

is a completely different concept, I think, than a lot of the times how we're

treating our bodies. And it really allows for that grace where

You don't necessarily have to be so black and white. So on or off the

wagon. And I think so many of us are afraid to get there because

we think we'll just go totally off the rails. And in my experience, it's really

the opposite. When you give yourself that grace to trust what you're doing and to

trust your body. Then it becomes this like slow and

steady movement in the right direction. So I think those are the most important things

for a mindset. That's so good and

relatable. So I'm doing like, I'm detoxing from sugar

out of my diet. And I definitely have had those moments where it's like,

I can't eat a cookies. If I eat a cookie, I'm going to eat the

whole pack of cookies or just stuff my face with the whole tub

of ice cream. So it's definitely helpful

to have that mindset encouragement to know that it's not like black and

white. It's not. Like this all or nothing thing. and just being,

being kind to yourself and your body, I think it's helpful as well.

So Leisha, thank you so much for coming on and let people know how they

can connect with you. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.

So my favorite place to hang out is my podcast, the happily hormonal

podcast. So if you're a podcast listener listening to this podcast,

That's the place for you to come. Hang out with me. You can find me

on Instagram. I am less active there, but I do answer my

idea. And so if you want to chat, that's a great place to chat. Um,

it's at Leisha Drews. And then my website is leishadrews.

com. And like I said, we'll link everything in the show notes, but if you

go to my website, you'll or my Instagram, you'll find the quiz and that will

lead you to the mini course and all of those other resources. So,

um, you'll be able to find everything really easily there.

Awesome. Awesome. And you know, like we've been saying, it will be linked in the

show description. So go ahead, click those links, get the information and the

resources that you need. Again, Leisha, thank you so much for coming

on and we will see you all in the next episode.

Thank you for listening to the Mom CEO Suite Podcast. If

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