Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome, my outside the box thinkers to the anti aging Unraveled Podcast, where I am your host, Dr. Lori Gerber. In this podcast, we will explore the fascinating world of personalized anti aging medicine that considers the whole person inside and out and how all systems are interconnected to each other. In today's world of modern medicine, we often find ourselves like just another number in a system that prioritizes quick fixes over sustainable and more natural solutions. Well, let's get ready for a paradigm shift in health and beauty. We look far beyond treating symptoms and aim to get to the root cause of our health and cosmetic issues. This podcast is your go to source for all things natural, outside the box and innovative in integrative medicine and cosmetic dermatology. So sit back, relax, and get ready to dive deep into the world of functional medicine and aesthetics. With me, Dr. Lori Gerber. Let's take a trip down the real skin revolution pathway together.
All right, everybody. Welcome back. This is Dr. Lori bringing you another episode of anti aging. Unraveled. This is part of our series of bringing on people in the integrative and wellness space. We're trying to really bring attention to this space and really bring it to the mainstream. And I think we're doing a good job internationally. Maybe not as well in the United States, truthfully, but I hope to be able to help to change that on integrative information, how you can take control of your own life, your own health. And really, I always say, like, take the bull by the horns and get some education and really find the help that you need to bring integrative medicine into your life on a regular basis. And there's lots of ways to do that. And I'm really glad to have Allison blade. And hopefully I said that right, allison.
I usually check that, but I didn't this morning. And she specializes in her subtitle is nutritional therapy, but she's got an incredible CV. So I'm going to go through a little bit for you guys. She is in the industry of wellness and health and wellness for 30 years, specializing in menopausal women's health. She runs her own nutritional therapy clinic. So she's bringing basically nutritional information to you over your Internet, like I love to say right in your screen on a regular basis to basically bring health to you, right where we know that it all starts in the gut. We know that our hormones are driven by what we eat, our exposures. So she's got her bachelor's of science from the esteemed University of West London. You guys don't know how esteemed it really is, but it is esteemed. I actually did look it up. I will not going to lie to you to make sure because I was like, wow, esteemed. But it's very prestigious. My husband used to play rugby, so I know a little bit about England foundational. Degree in chemistry, degree in biology, certificate in health and well being, cognitive behavioral coaching. So she could support you in every stretch of the imagination, really, beyond just nutritional. And she's a registered esthetician with a sadesco qualification, which is actually a really big deal, guys. She can basically treat any skin type, so if you want to take a trip over the pond, you can actually take advantage of her that way. But I think, more importantly, what we've found and you could probably attest to this as well, Allison, is that what we do on the inside reflects our outside, our aesthetic appearance. Even my aesthetic patients that are in all of my wellness programs, their Botox lasts longer. Their fillers do better, their regenerative procedures, PRP, anything that we're doing really just works better. So I encourage most of my aesthetic patients to take advantage of our integrative and wellness program. So that's a really long intro, but I'm really glad to have you there's. All these organizations she's a part of as well, guys. But I don't want to bore you, because I want you to hear about all of her cool background. She loves to cook. She loves recipes. She's a scuba diver, which I'll have to talk a little bit about golfer, hiker, beekeeper, and loves the outdoors. So, Allison, welcome.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: Oh, thank you, Laurie, for such a wonderful introduction. It's a real pleasure to be here today talking to you. So thank you for having me on your podcast.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: No problem. And I think for us, it's really just about finding people that mesh and that can bring this to the forefront of medicine in the US. I think we don't do a really good job of this. Like I said, in Europe, they tend to do a much better job at bringing this to the population and really at being accepted. But here it's really not. I would say we're kind of voodoo doctors at the best that we could call ourselves at this point. I know I'm not a voodoo doctor. I practice based on data and science and proven clinical results. So we're just really glad to have you. So I do have a laundry list of questions for her, you guys, but you know us, we'd love to talk freely, so if we get off track, I apologize, but we will do the best we can with not being tangential today. So a little bit about how you got into the industry, what you like to specialize in. I know you've been in the industry for a long time, for 30 years, double what I've been in at this point. So tell me a little bit about your path and how you ended up working in Menopause.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: My story actually started when I was a teenager because I had acne. I had very bad skin, and it's hard enough being a teenager at the best of times, isn't it, without all of a sudden developing spots all over your face. And that really kind of even at that young age. It really led me wanting to know more what was going on. Why was I suddenly having all these spots? So that's where it triggered my interest in hormones, even at that age, because I started really reading and looking at things, how I could improve my skin, not just with taking medication, but maybe with lifestyle and nutrition. And that's really what led me into my first career as an esthetician, because I became very interested in the skin through the lifestyle adjustments that I made as a teenager and thought about what I ate, I really saw improvement in my skin. So I studied to be an esthetician. And then because of my interest in hormone, I naturally worked with women that had hormonal skin problems and that was perimenopausal women. And also teenagers, younger women as well, that were going through puberty very soon came to realize which you already have brought up, Laurie, that you can obviously work on the outside with aesthetic treatments, which are great, but you need that inside piece as well. You really need the nutritional side to glow, to have both glowing skin from the inside and from the out. And that's when I went back to university and studied nutritional science. And it's a great combination, having that knowledge of the skin and working with women that are suffering from skin problems. But now I work specifically with 40 plus women that are 40 plus that have all the menopausal symptoms. I work very individually with clients because one size doesn't fit all and we're all very different. But I want women to thrive because once we've gone through menopause, when we're in post menopause, that's a very long time, isn't it? Women, we're living much longer, could be 30 plus years of a woman's life, and we should feel and look fantastic.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: Yeah, we're kind of punished, right? We come into this world with all these lovely hormones, and then they strip them away, and then we're forced to live that way and not do anything about it.
We have to have children, bear the babies and then suffer without the hormones. And you're right. So I have patients all the time that struggle with the acne. I call it perioral acne or jawline and chin acne especially. They had it as a kid, and then they get older and they say, wow, it's back. That estrogen surplus, if you will, especially when you're going through early menopause, is like going through puberty all over again, right? So it can be really rough. One of the first things that you like to do with patients when they first come to you and just for our listeners, like, if someone was like, I just want to take one tidbit home, I'm breaking out. I'm perimenopausal usually. Right? That estrogen surge. Our bodies are going crazy. We're losing that little bit of progesterone. Maybe even our testosterone is declining already. Right? Where do you like to start? When you say nutritionally, I mean, I know where I like to start, so I'm kind of curious if it's the same.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: It's a great question because it's quite difficult to answer that. But I think if I had to just choose one thing, I would probably say for menopausal, women, that the one thing that I do where I can see the biggest result very quickly is working on managing blood sugar. So really reducing looking at what someone is eating, getting rid of all of the refined processed foods, getting them onto a whole foods diet. So eating real food, which will naturally help to balance your blood sugar, because blood sugar, when we have higher levels of blood sugar, when that is constantly a problem, it leads to a multitude of different symptoms. And it's been shown in research to really aggravate hot flushes, it causes outbreaks on the skin, the list goes on of how detrimental that is to our health. And also, women going through menopause are more susceptible to insulin resistance. And that is where your body doesn't utilize glucose or the energy in your system the way that it did. And again, that just leads to all these symptoms, including weight gain around the middle, hot flushes, again, the list goes on, doesn't it, for menopausal symptoms? So I think blood sugar balance would certainly be the first thing that I tackle with people to get rid of all the sugar that people eat. We just eat too much sugar, basically.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: 100%. I'm with you. I mean, between the sugar and sometimes I get a little bit more gut focus, but and the gluten inflammatory foods, dairy too, it's just anything that's pro inflammatory. And you're right. We often forget as physicians, even generic physicians that don't do this, that low progesterone is almost synonymous with insulin resistance. That's what it is. It's physiologic that our insulin doesn't work as well when we start going through menopause. Even I don't care what the numbers say, sometimes it's just whatever your baseline was, it's worse when you go through menopause, which makes it hard. It makes it very tough to lose weight. So tough to lose weight, tough for your skin, tough for bacterial overgrowth, you name it, it is a problem. So I'm with you lowering those sugars, getting that gluten out of our lives. I use a lot of supplementation, too. I don't know how much supplements you like to use, if you like to focus more on just whole eating, but I do find there's some really great natural things that stimulate insulin to work a little better. So I don't know if there's something that you like. I love bitter melon, love chromium.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: Chromium is wonderful. Yeah, I do absolutely use supplements. I think the first thing working as a nutritional therapist, I really try to get someone's diet in place, get them eating properly, and then the supplements are fantastic. And you really can work with people on certain areas and really focus and give them support with supplements. But just eating real food is a good place to start.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Yeah. How about food that's not contaminated too?
Yeah, we have a problem here, and it's actually, again, not as bad in Europe, but even our organic food here, it's not as highly regulated. I mean, anyone that's gone on a trip overseas and all of my friends can speak to this, they say when I eat bread there or pasta there doesn't bother me, but I come home and it bothers me. And it's the additives and the processing that happens here. So yeah, cooking, I mean, I hate to cook. Everyone that listens to my podcast knows I am not a chef.
But it is a huge part of lifestyle change to really get the clean ingredients, clean food, start making it for yourself and getting that sugar out of.
[00:11:51] Speaker B: The way to be difficult. I think I'm very realistic and realize that nobody has time. We're all stressed, aren't we? And we all never have time for ourselves anymore. So it's not that you all of a sudden have to become this spend hours in the kitchen every day. You can really eat healthily easily.
You have to plan a bit. You have to buy the foods and plan. But it doesn't have to be complicated.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: I mean, we have instacart.
What are the ingredients? It shows up on your doorstep, right? Yeah. I'm sure there's a delivery service similar, right?
Yes. It's a little surcharge, but that's the price that I pay for convenience and having it ready and available for me to make. So I'm with you. So let's talk a little bit about your mission. What are you trying to bring to, I guess, women? I think we have very similar missions. I was actually just reading your mission statement, but your core mission I have a very similar mission statement, so let's talk a little bit about what you want to bring to women. How do you want to empower them? What are you trying to achieve?
[00:12:54] Speaker B: My core mission as a nutritional therapist and a beauty therapist is to empower my clients, particularly women in midlife and menopause, and really giving them the tools and the knowledge for optimal health. And it's not just about health, is it? It's about giving them their confidence back, because I see with a lot of my clients, and I'm sure you do with yours, Laurie, is that something happens when you go through menopause that you suddenly start questioning yourself and you can really feel like you've lost the confidence. So really giving them the power back in their lives to feel great again. I do this by addressing underlying health issues with nutrition, supplementation, if necessary, lifestyle and mindset.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: I joke all the time that we lose our mojo.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: We do, totally, yeah.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: And you've been in practice 30 years, me for 15. When you see a woman who becomes your friend, you see her regularly. You see her every three months or so, and then all of a sudden, she's not who she used to be. She's not as vibrant, she's not as talkative. She's anxious, she can't sleep, she looks tired. You see these shifts in people, and you know that there's something going on. And you go to a traditional doctor, and the doctor just tells them, oh, your labs are fine. You're normal. But you see the changes in these even as a family practitioner when I was first out, you see these changes, and you can't fix them, you can't help them. We can. But in traditional medicine, we don't often have the tools. We don't have that toolkit. And giving women a toolkit to be able to feel good about themselves, lose weight, empower them to take control of their own destiny, if you will, I think is wonderful. I have a question. You might not have a good answer for this one. This is a little bit off the wall, but do you have anything that you use to stimulate testosterone? Is there anything you like, dietary wise to kind of get that mojo? If we're thinking, like, low libido, kind of not feeling good about yourself sexually, is there something that you like to use or do?
[00:14:54] Speaker B: It's difficult with testosterone because there isn't really. I mean, eating, as we were saying, eating a diet free of processed foods and having a lot of the wonderful healthy fats in your diets can help with hormone production in general, but there isn't one. When you look at research, magnesium is mentioned, and zinc for testosterone production. But I think it's difficult with nutrients to really you can't replace hormones by eating certain things, but you can give your body the nutrients that they need to produce these certain hormones. But testosterone, it's magnesium, zinc, making sure you're getting enough of the fatty, the wonderful omega three, and all the wonderful healthy fats. And also, I think there's C, buckthorn, omega seven. Now, we're not talking about testosterone, but we're talking about women, for want of a better word. As a woman, you feel everything kind of dries up, doesn't it? During menopause, all your mucous membranes become very dry. Omega seven has actually been shown it's called sea buckthorn to really help moisten our mucous membranes, like eyes, the mouth, the vagina. So that can help with things like vaginal dryness and areas like that. That's actually a great nutrient that not many people know about.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: I actually don't know about it either, to be honest. That was a good one for me, and I love my supplements. So I'm glad that you brought up the omegas, because I think that in medicine, and like I said, especially traditional medicine, we love to lower lipids, right? We're all about lowering cholesterol levels and go back to what the let's just say 80s, where low fat was the thing to do. Everything was low fat and high sugar, literally. And if you actually look at the American food pyramid, the starches were all at the bottom, is the biggest thing that we were supposed to eat and support our love, our American farmers. But sugar is the highest lobbying interest in our country. So when we look at these things, traditional medicine is telling us to lower lipids. And I'm not saying we shouldn't necessarily lower bad lipids, but when we lower all of our cholesterols, within about two years, most men and women start complaining of erectile dysfunction and or libido changes. So I'm a huge fan of whole fat, huge fan of omegas. I'm not saying again, eat everything fatty, guys, but whole milk, you're going to have milk, add it to there's no reason to use skim milk, there's no reason to use not real butter, these things that olive oils and everything else. Obviously, I don't want too much saturated fat, but these fats create hormones, and we can't always recreate hormones as we lose them, but we can definitely help to make what we still have capable or have capability to make. So I love that you said that. I mean, I agree with you. I think undereating fats is probably one of the biggest problems that people have, and they think low fat is healthy, and then it goes back to that low sugar, right?
[00:18:01] Speaker B: I grew up in that low fat era, and everything was just low fat. And now we've kind of turned round, haven't we? And research is saying, oh, well, hold on a minute, actually, that wasn't really very good for us. And we see that there's an obesity epidemic in the world, and everyone is suffering from chronic diseases, and a lot of it, I'm not saying it all is, but one of the factors in there is what we're eating and healthy fats. It's the sort of fat you eat. We need fat and it affects everything. We need it going back to skin health, we need it for brain health.
So healthy fats are great, and they also keep you feeling full for longer. If you're eating fat in your diet, you won't get these cravings the same 100%.
[00:18:52] Speaker A: There's one thing that you guys can take away from this conversation today, besides that you need to reach out to your resources, like us, to help you, is that, yeah, you need fat in your diet and you need less sugar in your diet. And I actually do optimized fat metabolism, which is we call it banting. It's like a South African way of eating. But I'm a big believer in a keto style lifestyle. Doesn't have to be completely keto, but low carb. You shouldn't be eating more than five to 10 grams of sugar per serving of anything, whether it's natural or not natural. And really just optimizing that fat intake, because you're right, you will feel fuller, your body will work. It's more energy. You literally can do a whole iron man, which we've done. I've done one full and a couple of halves on almond butter packets and using fat as fuel. You really don't need the sugar. Our body will make the sugar. It's not an essential nutrient. Right? Our body will break down anything it needs to to make sugar in the system. But it can't survive without fat. Fat intake is essential. Let's talk a little bit about your program, though. So I'm really excited to learn about your program. It sounds very similar to what I do. So I think there's a great synergy here. I can help you with the hormones and the gut and the immune stuff that you can't fix these people and then you can walk them through everything weekly because I don't have that patience. Guys, I love you. I love you all. But I like meeting about once a month. My nurses will usually do my diet patients about every two to three weeks. But let's talk a little bit about your five step menopause program. It's a pathway to help you break through. I think it's super interesting. I was just reading the steps and taking a little sneak peek. But tell us a little bit about it, how it works. Yeah.
[00:20:25] Speaker B: It's a twelve week program, and this has really been developed over many, many years with proven methods that I've seen with my clients. So it's taken many, many years to kind of build this, to gain this knowledge and see what works. And again, it's individually tailored depending on the client and their symptoms. But it's working on a five steps. So we have twelve weeks. I talk to my clients every week because we focus on different aspects every week. And then you get the support from me to really be able to do those things. Because that's the tricky thing, isn't it? Putting these things into place in your life. But the first step is really focusing on nourishing and nurturing your body, really looking at your diet and just getting a good realistic eating plan in place. Like I say, it doesn't have to be difficult.
It's an eating plan to promote hormonal balance to work and make you feel fantastic looking, working on gut health. So that's what we focus on on week one. So step one, step two is really looking at eliminating things. Maybe things that aren't doing you any favors. Maybe it could be things like gluten, it could be dairy, but it could also be lifestyle aspects that aren't making you feel well. So we really look at eliminating certain things. And then week three, which we haven't spoken about yet. But a huge part of my work is stress management because as we come into menopause, things become overwhelming. And if you're suffering from chronic stress on top of all these menopausal symptoms, life becomes quite, it doesn't become much fun anymore. So I do what I call my stress audit, where we sit down and we look at a day in your life and really look at ways that we can put things in to your day to help manage stress. Even if it's just 5 minutes in the morning, 5 minutes in the evening, something to manage that stress load. And then the fourth step is mindset really looking at we're very easy, aren't we, to talk negative, have this negative talk. And when we come into menopause, menopause unfortunately is shrouded by negativity, isn't it? We all talk about oh, it's the end and all these hormones we're not producing anymore and it's all doom and gloom. But I try to rephrase that and say this is at the next stage in your life. It's a natural transition, every woman goes through this. So really try to start looking at it in a more positive way because that will make you feel better. And then the fifth step is really getting all these things together into what I call my menopausal toolkit. So you can go away and you can carry on with all these plan and implement it at home in your own way, the way that works for you. But like I say, support is a very big thing in that program because that's what I find that my clients need the most, is just someone to talk to about how they're feeling and if something no, I couldn't do that. Can we find another way to do it? All of those things?
[00:23:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I think the negativity and not having somebody that can identify with you is huge.
Unfortunately. It's kind of like psychiatry in this country too. There's not enough people talking about mental health and there's not enough people talking about menopause or anthropods truthfully for that matter. I have a lot of male clients as well and I think a lot of this is extremely pertinent for them as well. Especially honestly dietary. As they get older and they start to gain belly fat and weight, their testosterone is levels decline too, and they start to feel like they're a shell of who they used to be. And no one talks about it. It's taboo. God forbid we say vaginal dryness or moist earlier. People get all freaked out, they're like whoa, we can't talk about that. But in truth, there's things that we could do about it, we can help. You doing this a long time. Obviously you have this program set up. The proof is in the pudding. I always say. You've created patients that are super happy and then you do some of your testing and your nutritional analysis too. And as they get that toolkit, they're able to go out on the world and feel good about themselves, which is great. And the nice thing is they don't necessarily need you all the time. I mean, we want them to need you, but they're able to cope without having to be connected to somebody. Like for me, most of the time they're connected to me for almost life, because we're doing hormones, we're doing balancing, we're doing things that they need me for that helps them, but they're connected to me for life. But you give them a suitcase to take with them and say, all right, here is your armament, and this is what you do when you are out of control and they can come back. So how many people do you have that come back that say, you know what, I was great for a couple of years and then whatever, I left my husband, or things that life changes? Usually.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I do. I mean, I've had clients with me, this is what I call my signature program, but I have other programs as well because I have clients that come to me that, for example, maybe have irritable bowel syndrome or they have gut issues, which again can happen during menopause. So they don't necessarily, even though they're in menopause or perimenopause, they've come to me to sort their IBS out or their gut issues. And these are clients, I mean, some clients I've had for many years, because it's an ongoing thing. It isn't something that just takes a month to correct and they want that person there to be able to talk to and get advice on. So. Yeah, I do. And it's so true what you said, Laurie, that women, when they've done the twelve weeks, they feel great and they go away and then maybe something happens in their life or something traumatic or just a change and they feel oh, I need to go back. I need to get some more advice. I need to kind of reset. So, yeah, I absolutely do have people that come back to me, but even ladies that I've worked with, we always keep in touch because you get quite involved when you're that close to somebody. I always want to know how they're getting on with their lives, et cetera.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: I used to call people patients, and now I kind of started moving towards clients because it sounds a little less formal to me. I don't know, because they really do become close to them. And I mean, I just had a patient come back yesterday that I hadn't seen probably in about six or seven years, whose husband recently passed away and she needed me to make her feel like herself again.
She was doing really well on her and she looked great. She was doing really well on her own, but she just needed the comfort of getting back to basics.
You can become part of their life, really. I always say they're our family. Once they're in our group and once they're in our system and we're treating them and we're talking to them, yeah, they're family. You can't get away from it just like this. Some we love, some drive us crazy, but still we love you all just like a sister. Sometimes we want to just flap you around because you made. A bad decision, but yeah, I think it's really important. What do you do for yourself?
We got to follow our own rules. Do you follow your own rules all the time? Do you have things that you do that are like following your I know I have a couple of things that I do that are basically practicing what I preach.
[00:28:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I do. And I know it sounds really corny, doesn't it, saying, oh, I practice what I preach. But I actually do because I truly, really believe in this way of life and integrated health and holistic health. I do truly believe that because I've seen how it works. Yeah, I mean, I'm very obviously very good about what I eat, but I'm human. It's quite interesting when people find out you're a nutritional therapist, they just think, oh, when you go around to dinner parties, for example, and they think, oh, no, Alison's coming. Oh, what are we going to don't they think, oh, I can't possibly produce a sugary dessert or something, but I eat a Whole Foods based diet. I'm very aware of hydration. I make sure I drink adequate amounts of water. And being an esthetician, I have a very good skincare routine. So I use good products on my skin daily to really protect my skin and to moisturize my skin. I'm a big fan, actually, of I have to think what you call them in the US. Linseeds menopause. So that's probably one of my things that I eat daily, is just a tablespoon of crushed linseeds because they can be very beneficial for I'm in perimenopause myself. Not only is the fiber there, but the phytoestrogens. So they're really great and just really eating half my plate. Vegetables, protein and healthy fats. Exactly. As you were saying, Laurie. I don't eat too many carbohydrates. I've got nothing against carbohydrates, but as we age, as women, we really don't need to eat as many carbohydrates. Focus on your vegetables, protein and fat and not so many starchy vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, like your broccoli's, cauliflower, all of those things. And one thing I do do, which I'm very lucky, I live in front of a lake, so I do the cold water swimming, especially because it gets very cold here in the winter and they cut a hole in the ice. So I go down there and dip myself in there because it's extremely invigorating, even though I suppose I'm quite used to it now. I've done it so much. But it really makes you feel very awake when you've done it, by stopping it.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: Yeah, it's very tough to stop doing. Yeah, we have a cold plunge, and I was doing it through the summer. Now I just don't have it in me yet. I'll get our first day of like 20 something degree morning. So we'll get there, but I found of my patients that are good about doing it regularly, their brain needs it. They have a very tough time not doing it after they've started and kept being consistent and having the health benefits are definitely there's definitely a lot of good data on the health benefits of cold plunge and brown fat and all that stuff. But yeah, for me it's willpower. When I'm doing it, I'm great. When I'm not doing it, I get out of my habit. But a lot of people love it, so that's really interesting. So you go outside in the cold and jump in an ice cold lake.
[00:31:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I know, it sounds very horrific, doesn't it? But it is true what you say, because once you start doing it because it makes you feel so good, it is quite addictive. Yeah.
[00:31:25] Speaker A: Let's do a little bit of these clients. I actually want to give you a couple of examples, if you don't mind that you had the success stories. I really love stories. I think my patients really like to hear anecdotal information of how it helps people. They love my case reviews when I do case review podcasts. So we have a couple of clients here that are success stories. And I think just if you guys can just think about how one this might be you. If it's mood, if it's anxiety, if it's weight gain, if it's insomnia, and it doesn't have to be all or nothing, if it's brain fog, just think about how this might apply to you and we can help bring those techniques. Because if you could think about feeling better, half the battle, right? If you just know that it worked for somebody else.
[00:32:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I have so many wonderful it's so rewarding to see someone thrive and really change their health around. And there's so many examples. But one lady in particular was a very busy professional. The top of her career, 50s, had a lot going on at home as well and she was suffering from very severe menopausal symptoms. And I think the stress in her life wasn't helping because she had so much going on in there and the ones that she found that were the most debilitating was mood swings and that irritability, just all of a sudden feeling very irritable for no reason. And also she'd gained a lot of weight, particularly around the middle area. So when she came to me, these were her main goals. So we sat down, talked through everything, came up with a plan, really personalizing the nutrition pacifically to her and working on stress because she was very stressed. She was really suffering from chronic stress, looking at just small things that she could incorporate into her life. And I remember with this lady, because she was so busy, we actually managed to get her to block out time in her schedule to do stress reduction techniques. It wasn't like an hour. I think she was putting 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening to start with. But when it was in a schedule she would actually do it rather than just saying, oh, I'll do it. And that worked wonders, really for her. And then really looking at because she was so overwhelmed, really working on her mindset and really trying to calm things down. Reduced carbohydrates, reducing her carb. She was very much because she was so busy, she was eating a lot of processed foods for ease, really, because she didn't have time to cook. But really working on that, finding ways that she could eat healthily, cutting down her carbs. And she just naturally started to lose weight because she just kind of got rid of all of the sugary processed foods. And then with the stress reduction, because stress is cortisol, the stress hormones, fat storing, isn't it? If you're very stressed all the time, it's virtually impossible to lose weight. So once we got that in hand, she just started to lose weight, started to feel more energetic. And because of that, that triggered her even more to want to make more changes because she saw that the difference in that and just drinking like she wasn't drinking any water in the day because she had so much to do. So it really doesn't have to be huge things that you put in place. But it really did make a difference to that lady. And she's thriving today. I still have contact with her. She's managed to keep all the weight off. And yeah, she's really doing well.
[00:34:53] Speaker A: We underestimate the value of cortisol. I mean, cortisol and stress reduction is huge and there's only so much that I can do on a monthly basis or even bimonthly basis about talking to people about stress reduction, we do try to do. Obviously, meditation is proven. I mean, we know this in Eastern medicine, there's tons and tons of data, but we know that it regulates cortisol levels. Just getting people to actually do it right is key. There's actually some really cool data too, on something called brain tap, which is like a red blue light. I don't know if you've seen that. It's a series of patterns with the meditation talk through, it's an app, but it goes over your ears and on your eyes. So it actually goes through acoustically and so you have the waves acoustically and it goes through your eyelids. Usually really neat, but we know that pattern vibration and meditation with the red and blue light helps too. But again, it's blocking it out. It's taking those minutes. I'm one of those people. If I don't block it into my schedule, it doesn't happen. I'm a list schedule girl.
I don't get stressed, actually. I mean, maybe physiologically I do in my blood, but I don't ever feel really overwhelmed. And that's just my biology and my hormones. Sure, give me a year or two. Maybe my progesterone goes down. I'll be reaching out for my weekly sessions. But yeah, I feel like stress and fat, whether too high or too low, either you're adrenally overdriven or you're suppressed and it's gone and you have none left. Either way, you're not losing weight. So yeah. What do you do for stress relief? What's your go to?
[00:36:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I like time on my own, just kind of retreating.
Don't get me wrong, I'm very social, but I need sometimes if I'm feeling stressed and I've had a really busy day, I just really love to just sit somewhere in the house on my own and maybe read a book or just sit there. You don't actually have to do anything. It's just nice to sit there and just relax.
I go running as well. I find running, for me is a great way exercise is a great way of relieving stress for me. And also I do meditation. If I'm being honest. I like meditation, but I've never managed to master meditation for hours on end. I don't know why that is, because I do truly believe in it. Sometimes in the morning, I'll do 10 minutes or 15 minutes meditation, and I see how that helps, but I find it difficult to do it for longer.
[00:37:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I think most people in this world would find it difficult to do it for longer. I mean, there's so much going on, and to take longer sometimes isn't even a part of realistic incorporation. I really think 10 minutes a day, at least according to the literature, is enough. Even 10 minutes twice a day, at least as far as what I've seen, I haven't looked that recently, but it's enough. It's just that brain quiet. I'm with you, though. Running used to do it for me. I can't run right now. Surgery is coming soon. But running was my head space clearing, and I didn't find that till my 30s. Truthfully, I wasn't a runner as a younger person. But it's great. I like actually swimming does it for me, too. If I can zone out and do a really long, beautiful swim, preferably not in ice cold water, but I prefer to wear a wetsuit, like a really nice swim. Like we have, like, Lake Placid in New York in the summer or something, just a beautiful swim is really nice.
[00:38:16] Speaker B: I'm zone out, but isn't it movement? I think moving our bodies, whether it's running, swimming or whatever, walking, it's stress relief. Exercise is such a great way for stress relief.
[00:38:31] Speaker A: All right, I know we only got like a minute or two left because I know I have stuff coming up, so let's talk about you. I like to call these my secret questions. What is your favorite book?
[00:38:41] Speaker B: Yeah, favorite book? All I do is read. There's so many things to read. But one book that I read that I love, which I'm sure you've probably read as well, is The Oestrogen Matters. That is such a great book. Really going through exactly why we need oestrogen. And it's a very important hormone. It talks a fair bit about hormone replacement therapy. And it's a great book. Love it.
[00:39:04] Speaker A: I would say for a long time that was so taboo. That's why I really like I actually do know the book and I really like that it's making estrogen not scary. Right.
It talks about all hormone replacement, but estrogen isn't scary. We talk about HRT and the hormone replacement studies and they were so flawed and just doesn't get enough attention that there's ways to safely replace hormones. So I do like and then what's going on in your body, too, which it makes the book awesome. All right, so favorite movie?
[00:39:32] Speaker B: Your favorite movie? Braveheart need to be.
I must have seen it about four or five times, I think. It's such a wonderful movie. And I'm half Scottish as a there's that connection as well.
[00:39:52] Speaker A: Just picture Mel Gibson right now. It's pretty funny. It's a little stereotypical.
The fact that you're Scottish makes it better, I suppose.
How about secret addiction?
[00:40:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I must say my secret addiction is golf, which always makes me smile because it's probably one of the sports that is just horrendous. You never really think that you're ever going to be any good at it, no matter how much you train and no matter how much you play. So my addiction really is if my husband or someone's looking for me say, where's Alison gone? You'll normally find me on the driving range trying to improve my swing.
[00:40:32] Speaker A: Now, is there beer involved?
[00:40:34] Speaker B: Unfortunately not, but maybe that would improve my swing.
[00:40:38] Speaker A: I'm looking for some from Know. This is like secret bad nutritional thing for Allison. I tried golf. Not for me. I've tried it a couple of times now. Even as an adult, I was actually very good as a child and I took lessons and maybe when I'm older, we'll see. It was too slow. It was too slow and too time consuming, I guess. Nine holes. All right, fine. But 18 just took too long.
[00:41:02] Speaker B: It's very time consuming. It is very addictive because I like to be good at everything. And it's one of these things that you think, well, I am going to master this. Just give me some more time. Even though you do improve, I think it's basically a lifetime project goal. You have to realize that you're never actually really ever going to be that good at it.
[00:41:24] Speaker A: Back onto the women's PGA.
I didn't ask you before, but what do you have a favorite artist or song? Like a musician?
[00:41:35] Speaker B: Yeah. What do I like? For me, my music taste is very varied. I love, like, Spanish guitar music, especially. I'm in the kitchen cooking. I'm a bit of a rock girl as well.
In my youth, I liked all like Def Leopard and Motorhead and all of those groups. But now I tend to listen more to guitar, like classical music now piano and Beethoven and all of those. But I'm very my music selection is very varied. I can't say that I have one favorite. I like all many different sorts of music, depending on what mood I'm in.
[00:42:11] Speaker A: That sounds good. I've tried classical, too. Again, if I'm walking like I'm cooking, fine. I can do it. I'm sitting. It puts me right to sleep. It's like a lullaby. So even in the car, I need something that's going to keep me up a little bit.
[00:42:25] Speaker B: Yeah, send you to sleep.
[00:42:27] Speaker A: Maybe some classic rock. I like my rock too. All right, so how can we get on your schedule, Ms. Allison? What can we do to take advantage of your services?
[00:42:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, the easiest way really, to contact me and to find out more about me is to look at my website, which is Alisonblard.com. That's Bladh. And on my website, you can find all the links to I'm on virtually all social media platforms if you just search for Alice and Blard. On my website as well, there's a resources page, so there's lots of free downloads. There ebooks with recipe ideas for all different menopausal issues, really giving you ideas of the foods that you should be eating. So if any of your listeners want to download those, please feel free, perfect.
[00:43:13] Speaker A: And obviously follow you on social media, because I know your social media is very strong, so been following you along, and that way we can kind of share tips together too. I'm really excited for you guys to meet Alison. Listen, I think that there's a way for all of us to provide services and work together. I encourage you guys to go on, look at her stuff, get her nutritional information, download some recipes. If you want to send me some free samples when you cook them, that would be amazing.
I will download them too. I will make an attempt. Maybe I'll actually go on Zoom and show you guys me making one of her recipes. I might do that for you. We'll see. My husband is away right now, so I do have some more time on my hands. I have to cook for one, so we just got to downsize them a little bit. But I'm really excited for you guys to meet her, take advantage of all that she has to offer. And like I said, the nutritional advice, we do our best with kind of helping you avoid certain things. But I love her program with the steps. I think it's extremely important to have someone to meet with regularly to talk you through these things. So thank you. I appreciate it. And as always, this will be posted on our podcast channel. And actually, I think it'll be posted on our YouTube as well, so they'll all be up there, and we will tag Allison, and she'll be putting them on her things as well, so you guys can look for her stuff on Facebook and Instagram and whatever else social media you guys decide to jump onto. So thank you all for joining us. And, Allison, thank you so much.
[00:44:36] Speaker B: Well, thank you.
