Ep. 85 - Combatting Heavy Periods, Painful Sex, Postpartum Issues and Hormone Imbalances with Katie Bressack
Katie Bressack is an award winning holistic nutritionist who specializes in women's hormonal health; such as painful periods, PCOS, heavy/irregular periods, amenorrhea and thyroid imbalances, post birth control, pre/postnatal and preparing for pregnancy. Katie also helps women transition through perimenopause and menopause.
Katie lives in Los Angeles with her husband Jim, their identical twin boys Brady and Devin and their dog, Piper.
Join Katie’s “Eat For Your Hormones” Group Program starting September 13, 2021 >> HERE
In this episode, Katie and I chat about...
Her journey getting pregnant at 40 with identical twins
How to address postpartum issues like painful sex, scar tissue, and weight gain
All about sugar cravings and regulating blood sugar in women and why it’s different than in men
Ways to combat heavy periods (hint: stress, sleep and food play a huge role)
How to eat for your hormones (timing and types of food matter) during each part of your cycle
How intermittent fasting affects women
Why sleep is the most important category for hormone regulation
How to track your blood sugar throughout the day and week
And the 3 categories you must have at every meal regardless if you’re trying lose weight or regulate your hormones
Follow Katie at
Website: www.katiebressack.com
IG: @katiebressack
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Ep. 85 - Katie Bressack Transcript
[00:00:00] Stephanie: Welcome back to mommy's on a call. I hope you all had a relaxing summer today. My second child, my three-year-old girl started preschool and I've definitely been having this moment of where did time go and stop growing up, but I'm also a little excited to be back in the office, recording and producing podcasts episodes for all of you mamas.
So today on the show to kick off, I call it season or year two. I'm bringing on Katie Bressack. Katie is a women's hormonal health expert and a holistic nutritionist after having my three kids and dealing with misdiagnosed PCOS to having an emergency surgery for ovarian tumors, I've been on a mission and journey to figure out what is wrong with me, but I realized that so many women out there are also experiencing different hormonal issues, whether it's PCOS, endometriosis, whether it's problems getting pregnant or having really bad postpartum or even periods.
For me after doing multiple different tests from peeing on a stick every day to blood work, I learned so much about the nuances of how my body was working postpartum and throughout my monthly cycle.
And so what it came down to was that I had a hormonal imbalance and my hormone health was just off and out of whack.
So in true Stephanie fashion, I went on a mission to find experts, to help me learn all about it. After doing a little research, I decided, I bet that you all want to hear from a hormonal expert just like Katie.
Besides all the amazing insights and tips she gives today. Katie is also running a five week group program called eat for your hormones, which starts next week on September 13th Katie's program will help you feel more energized, reduce bloating breakouts and cramps, eliminate sugar, cravings and PMs, and just help you feel not only more nourished and satisfied, but also hormonally balanced with diet and lifestyle shifts. I don't know about you, but after having kids, my hormones have just been all over the place. And so her bootcamp is an amazing reset.
If you want more information, just head over to the show notes for the link to her boot camp now onto the show and welcome back.
Welcome to mommy's on a call your sacred space to laugh, learn, and feel like a real grownup human for a hot minute. I'm Stephanie Uchima-Carney, a mom of three under six serial entrepreneur business, strategist, and donut connoisseur. Just trying to get through the day one cold cup of coffee at a time. I believe that with more intention, a positive mindset and self care, it is possible to thrive in motherhood business.
My mission is to uncover the daily rituals, life lessons, real life tactics, and favorite tools to inspire and empower you mommy, to get the most out of life every single unpredictable day. So grab your headphones, tell your kids you're on the potty and tune in weekly for some laughs knowledge bombs, and plenty of real talk with real moms and maybe a dad or two.
Welcome to the mommy pod.
Welcome back to mommy's on a call today. I'm excited to bring to you Katie Bressack. She's an award-winning holistic nutritionist who specializes in women's hormonal health and covers everything under the sun from painful and heavy irregular periods, PCOS, thyroid imbalances, birth control, pre postnatal, all the things relating to women's health and more.
She's also a new mama to identical twin boys, and I'm excited to bring her on today to talk all things. Women's hormones and health. So welcome, Katie.
[00:03:37] Katie: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.
[00:03:40] Stephanie: I'm excited to dive in on all of this, but before we get started, I want to ask what's your biggest mom win of the week?
[00:03:46] Katie: Oh, of the week. Oh my goodness. It's only Wednesday. I would say they're both. Both boys are starting to walk, so I feel like really navigating all of that and trying to kind of figure it out. How to be with mobile babies and getting new activities. I feel like maybe mom, when was just like more sensory stuff being outside now that they can walk being on the grass, being on the beach, like trying to kind of like have them in different places.
I don't know if that's a win, but that's been like something fun.
[00:04:15] Stephanie: Did you do anything for yourself this week too? That would be a win.
[00:04:18] Katie: Yes. I actually went to brunch and the beach on Sunday. I had a nice little day with two of my closest friends. I've known them for almost like 36 years. They were out here visiting.
So it was really good. Nice.
[00:04:32] Stephanie: Now that's a good mom. When getting time to yourself, just to give the audience a little bit of context, tell me about your family structure. You know, what does your relationship look like and how many kids and their ages.
[00:04:47] Katie: Funny story. My husband and I have actually known each other since the fourth grade we met in elementary school when he moved to the same town that I was in.
And I don't remember anything about fourth grade. Someone brought in a pair for show and tell, but our school photo there, both of us are on there. So it's kind of like funny. I feel like we should have used that for a wedding invitation, but we didn't. So we've known each other for a very, very long time.
I would say we became really good friends in high school. Came great friends in college. And he even dated one of my like good friends. And we were just, we've always been spent in each other's lives. And it was when we, he moved to New York. I was living in New York city after college. And he moved there from Boston.
And about a year after he moved, we got together and then everything just happened really fast. We always joke that like the hardest part of our relationship was finally deciding to be together and like all of those different, yeah. Changes. And I'm, I'm glad that we knew each other so well and then ended up being together because I feel like there's so many things that I wanted to do and really needed to figure out on my own.
Um, and I
[00:05:55] Stephanie: really want, so you weren't like high school sweethearts or anything were dated through that, like really awkward middle-school phase or something? No.
[00:06:03] Katie: You used to go to like, just together, like our first concert together was three 11, I think maybe like sophomore, junior year of high school, like.
You know, we
[00:06:10] Stephanie: did any of your friends think Katie's going to get together with him. Like they're going to be destined for each other.
[00:06:16] Katie: It's funny because the whole like high school college, I mean, there are a few drunken make outs in college. Like, let's be real here, but all of our friends were like, why are you not together?
Like, why are you dating all these other people that are totally wrong for you? But both of us just, we, you know, we were on a different journey and we were like best friends and people. Lots of there's sometimes some jealousy happening with some girlfriends, you know, being like who, who is this like, friend of yours?
And then we, so that long journey of getting together. And then like we got together and like within like nine months, we moved out to California. You know, it was just kind of like everything worked really well. Once we were together, got married and then it was a very long journey. Fertility journey for us had a few miscarriages and ended up finding out we were pregnant with identical twins when I was 40.
Was I 40 or 41? No, it's 48.
[00:07:09] Stephanie: I mean fertility or was this just natural? Identical twin IUI.
[00:07:14] Katie: Okay. Yeah, just cause we had some miscarriages and just trying to like kind of figure it out. And then I wasn't getting pregnant. It's a very long story, but I had a DNC procedure done. And then after that procedure had lots of painful sex and apparently there was like lots of scar tissue there.
And it took me a really long time to like find somebody who could actually like get up in there and actually get the scar tissue out. So in between kind of working with this practictioner yeah. Who's amazing by the way, her name is Erin. She does myo fascia release. Oh, some
[00:07:50] Stephanie: I was going to say that's amazing.
I did that with a pelvic floor therapist after my third. C-section I'm curious. Did she remove any scar tissue or did she just work on massage?
[00:08:00] Katie: She was. I feel like it was interesting because. It w it took a few sessions for her to like find it. And then when she found it, I was like, oh my God, like, that's it, this isn't, this is the sensation that I'm feeling.
And I feel like she must've just massaged it out or like, I don't know how you dissolve. I wish I knew more of the technical terms,
[00:08:23] Stephanie: because I felt like after three C-sections I have so much scar tissue with each of my C-sections. She actually removed some internally because she saw it. She was just like, uh, you have a lot of stuff here.
So my procedures took longer. She kind of cuts them out, but I feel like I felt that
[00:08:42] Katie: this was all like, okay,
[00:08:43] Stephanie: Yeah. Interesting. So does she like go up and I'm curious about this, cause I'm sure there's women out there who have this end. Like my doctor had told me, oh, it's like a hormone thing. It's like, you're low on estrogen.
Cause you're breastfeeding. So painful sex is like normal because you know, you're not producing the thing, but I'm like, no, I swear. I have something in there. Like it,
[00:09:05] Katie: it just. It was like, you know, we would be having sex and it would be fine. All of a sudden I was, he would move a little bit more and I'm like, oh my God, like that is so painful. And I, it wasn't before the procedure. Right. Like, I would say maybe like four or five weeks after the procedure, it started happening.
And I think that's honestly like, was the most frustrating, challenging moment because new doctor, every doctor was like, there's no such thing like that doesn't happen. I'm like, well, it was fine before. And they're like, oh, you're just stressed. Get drunk. And I'm like, no, that's not what's going on here.
Like, I know my body, like this is not happening. Yeah. And it was interesting because I did work with a pelvic floor physical therapist, but nobody was able to really get up in there. It was really deep.
[00:09:53] Stephanie: I'm curious, what do you like not Google or like what type of specialists do you go to see, to get something like this done?
[00:09:59] Katie: So it's really interesting because my best friend from home is trained in this. So it's myofascial release, but you need someone that is a women's health practitioner. And there's like a Facebook group. There's a very limited amount of women that are trained in this. And she was able to like find somebody here at practices.
[00:10:18] Stephanie: Yeah. Because people use myofacial release for like other things. Like they did it for my back for shoulders after breastfeeding, I, my back was messed up. So she would do things on my neck and like all that. But like to get up all in there, like, do you have, like, do you Google, like vagina, like massage?
[00:10:36] Katie: I feel like there's you have a database website somewhere?
Let me, let me see if I can find it. I'll ask my friend and maybe we can put it in the show notes for sure. It was life-changing. And I have talked about this with so many women, especially postpartum, right? I went to her postpartum. I also have been working with a pelvic floor, physical therapist with the scar tissue.
I also had a C-section because I was, she was telling me about how it can be a year or two after, you know, it can really affect your ovaries and your uterus. So she's been doing lots of cupping and deep massage, like it's, I feel like we had different term because it's not really, it doesn't feel like a massage, right.
Relaxing. But, you know, just helping my lower back and all of those different things where she was telling me too, that a lot of women get like back surgery when they're in their seventies or eighties, when it's actually like tight pelvic floor or like pelvic floor dysfunction from when they had children.
[00:11:37] Stephanie: Wow.
[00:11:38] Katie: So it's interesting because we don't talk about this a lot. And like, when I was talking to my friends about like painful sex that nobody really was like, everyone was like, okay, like, unless you experienced something like that, because I was like, okay, like, is it like, cause the doctors really I'm like, it's not in my head.
I know it's not, but why does everyone think it's like in my
[00:11:57] Stephanie: head? Well, my doctor said it was like hormone related. And so you're the hormone specialist. I mean, and it
[00:12:03] Katie: could be right. Cause low estrogen. Right. It's there's, it's more vaginal dryness. Like your libido is really, really low. Like, yes, it could be that, but it could also be scar tissue.
[00:12:18] Stephanie: Yeah. So after that then, like you got pregnant.
[00:12:23] Katie: So literally I went to her three times the third time she, it was found it released it. And then we went to our friends what we, we did an IUI and then we went to her friend's wedding the next day and had sex. So like, we don't really know, like. If
[00:12:37] Stephanie: I get drunk and have sex.
[00:12:40] Katie: So like, we're like, was it the IUI or was it being at our friend's wedding? Like who knows? Right. We were just laughing about it because it was like instantaneous and being able to have sex again. And I'm just like, oh my God. Okay. Wow. And then getting pregnant and being so sick leg.
[00:12:56] Stephanie: Apparently you do like apply any of your stuff that you teach your clients to your own life when you were going through all of this, because we've studied it the whole time, and then now you get to live it.
[00:13:07] Katie: That's what's so ironic about it is that like every single thing that works for pretty much 99% of all the women I work with did not work on me. I was so sick. Apparently with twins, it's like triple the hormones. I hated all food. I had like visions of myself eating, like all these amazing foods throughout each trimester and like what I needed to add in.
And it was just survival and I, I, my. Jokes with me now, because I was like, literally I'm like, I feel like I'm force-feeding myself because nothing tasted good except eggs. And I really don't even like eggs. Like I'm not an egg person and all I could eat were eggs and the boys love eggs. That's with eggs.
They eat, they love them more than any food. So I'm just like, oh my God, it's probably all the eggs I ate when I was pregnant.
[00:14:01] Stephanie: It really does. So go to show like flavors. Like, I didn't believe that after I think my second kid, I was like, nah, I don't think so. But my third, I had Indian food. I never ate Indian food before because I don't like spice.
I ate it. And now my one-year-old love. Like Curry. It's so strange. She loves like butter chicken, and like the flavors of Indian spices. And I'm going, this is so weird. My other two kids won't even touch it, but I digress.
So your twins are now one years old. And did you , feel like you learned kind of more about what you do in terms of like helping your patients by like living through this pregnancy?
[00:14:36] Katie: Oh my God so much. I did not take this. I wore C-band like for the pretty much the whole like nine and a half months, I threw up on and off until I was about seven, seven and a half months pregnant. So I feel like I learned a lot because especially about like dental health when you're pregnant. So. If anyone's listening is pregnant and you're throwing up, do not brush your teeth after, because it's super acidic.
And then the toothpaste can cause your enamel to like break down. So I learned that. I don't know why. I it's just like when you throw up, right. You just. Brush your teeth. I know
[00:15:15] Stephanie: I did grow. Like it tastes gross. You want to like gargle and brush your
[00:15:18] Katie: teeth. I've learned a lot about kind of like dental care after the fact that I've been sharing with like some of my clients that are currently pregnant and not feeling well, but just kind of like really more, more empathy, more sympathy to, you know, just really being like, okay, Here's all the suggestions, but if you can only eat crackers, like just eat crackers, you know, when I feel like I was very kind to before, but it's more of a, a different conversation when you have with someone when you're like, can relate to like that feeling of.
Like, we just don't feel, feel good. Like it's like, and it's your whole body, you know, it's not like when you have a virus or a cold or something like that, like it's just like the smells like my husband would bring food home and I was like, you have to go outside. And he's like, you're going to make me eat outside.
I'm like, do not bring this food in the house. Like, I can't even smell it. You know, just kind of that whole, that whole kind of. Experience was definitely, definitely eye opening. Like I've always had a very strong sense of smell, but I was just like, I had to throw away some of his shampoo cause I was like, I can't smell.
[00:16:24] Stephanie: Oh my goodness. But things have now changed and shifted.
[00:16:28] Katie: Yes. He goes, yes. I feel fine. Now, you know, like postpartum was definitely interesting. I think that as a society in general, I feel like I was just talking to my friend about this, about. Having babies and birth and postpartum, I just feel like were like, oh, people do it every day.
Like you're going to be fine. And we really need to talk more about it and like share resources and talk about postpartum care with pelvic floor therapy or even just the idea of like, you're going to feel more anxious. Cause you. Have really, really low estrogen and that's totally hormonally common, you know?
Cause I was feeling super anxious after having the babies and just,
[00:17:14] Stephanie: it was in the middle of COVID too.
[00:17:16] Katie: Yeah. So, you know, double, the first kid will fail. Yeah. It was just like a lot. But then when your hormones are imbalanced, just because. Your estrogen and progesterone are so low, especially your estrogen.
You're going to feel everything so much deeper. So I think that was definitely like a surprise to me about how obviously I was not expecting COVID, you know, like I knew, and we had the babies on April 2nd. So it was like right at the height at the beginning, and nobody knew it was going on, but. I still didn't think that I was going to feel all of those feelings.
So that was definitely a surprise just because yeah. Yeah.
[00:18:01] Stephanie: Did you put on your like nutritionists, holistic, your health hat there and work with yourself? Or how did you manage that? Like, what are some things like people coming out, postpartum, feeling anxious, feeling, maybe postpartum depression or stuff and not realizing like, let's listen to our bodies.
What are some of the, maybe like things that they can do to change? Just like simple things. Cause we all know, like having a newborn, it's hard to. Pretty much anything. So what are simple things they can do to maybe regulate themselves? Yeah.
[00:18:31] Katie: So first I think it's important to like, be very kind to yourself like this whole unrealistic bounce back idea drives me insane.
And like, you know, I see a lot of people on Instagram sharing and all of our bodies are different, but I think it's like being kind and we need to eat. Like you do not want to be on a diet after having a baby. Like, we definitely need to replenish our body. It takes two to three years after having your baby for your body to really come back and really feel replenished nutrient wise.
But it's really important. Yeah. First six weeks, all postpartum, especially kind of that six week period, you know, making sure you're eating enough protein, getting enough healthy fats in your body. Lots of fiber, really easy to digest foods. So like you mentioned before, like lots of Curry is really good.
Lots of turmeric, but like soups and stews bone broth is amazing with the gelatin and the collagen in it, but really making sure you're eating enough. I think a lot of times we're busy, right? There's so many things going on, we're paying so much attention to the baby or babies that make having somebody feed you.
Like my husband's job. I was like, you just need to feed me because I was starving. Right. Like producing milk and all of that stuff too. But lots of easy to digest food, especially. Well, whether you've had a vaginal birth or a C-section right, like bowel movements being kind to that. Right. But easy cooked food that's easy to digest is helpful.
Lots of water, but in terms of hormonal balance, it's protein fats and fiber. Protein can be animal-based plant-based protein, the healthy fats, like lots of avocado, salmon walnuts, olive oil, coconut oil, butter, and just cooked vegetables. Like really trying not to eat like cold raw foods, but really warm nourishing foods as you're healing.
Right. And not trying to do too much. Right. Like in a way COVID was kind of nice because like we didn't go anywhere, got to really relax and lay in and just kind of really take care of myself.
[00:20:48] Stephanie: I mean, we all say like the fourth trimester. I mean, I had my baby in February, so right before it, and I always said like that fourth trimester, you're kind of in quarantine regardless because you know, you're waiting for the two months shots or you're, you know, there's all the things going on and you're like, I'm not going to go out.
I need to rest. I can't even drive if he had a C-section. And so I felt like. That was the blessing of COVID. It was like, well, it forced me not to do it, but same. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:21:14] Katie: I mean, he he's lonely cause like nobody loves to meet the babies and it was very, felt very bizarre, but it was also like we really bonded as a family unit and I think.
Has been really helpful to the babies and to our whole family. Just having, like, being able to bond really quickly as a family unit.
[00:21:34] Stephanie: I think what you said earlier about being kind is really important to yourself. Because a lot of times we feel like we're so focused on the baby. Like, am I breastfeed? Am I doing all of these things for them that we ignore the like inner triggers that are happening within ourselves?
Like, especially we forget, like you just went from being pregnant that took nine months to build a nine and a half 10, whatever, however long you are to having nothing. And that drop in hormones. Like I forgot about that. Like just the emotional roller coasters, if you're feeling certain ways, like knowing you're not crazy and it might not just be sleep deprivation, actually physical
[00:22:11] Katie: a hundred percent.
Like I was having like hot flashes and then I was freezing. Yeah. I got
[00:22:16] Stephanie: hives. Like I got postpartum hives and I'd never even heard of that before, but it was something to do again with hormones and had I known like how to regulate that. I think it would have been better, but I didn't know what to do at the time.
So
[00:22:30] Katie: I just kind of another thing too. I want to bring up because I experienced this postpartum thyroiditis. I have, I have hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's so a lot of women can have postpartum can have like. In balances. And if it's hard sometimes to be like, am I anxious? Cause I just had a baby or am I anxious?
Cause like my thyroid is really off. So I have a working with my endocrinologist, my whole pregnancy and then postpartum. But if you do not feel supported in your body or balanced in your body. And you really feel like something just isn't right? Like, go get your hormones tested, like your thyroid a hundred percent like a full thyroid panel, your vitamin D because if your vitamin D is really low, it can cause you to feel have mood swings, have a hard time sleeping anxiety.
So there's other things and like really talk to your doctor about that. And sometimes they just say, oh, you're a new mom. This isn't how you feel, but really listen to yourself and request additional testing because I had to change my thyroid medication. Oh my God. I was getting my blood drawn, I think like every six to eight weeks, because my thyroid, I kept going between hypo and hypo, hypo and hyperthyroidism.
And that can, that totally. It's like high and lows in your body. And it can be common. This postpartum Cyrus. Can happen. If you, even, if you haven't had, it's much more of a slimmer chance to happen, if you don't have.
[00:24:01] Stephanie: Exists.
[00:24:02] Katie: Yeah. Whether your thyroid, but it can happen to any woman postpartum just because you're depleting all of those nutrients and, and your hormones are all over the place.
[00:24:13] Stephanie: What's interesting. You said Hashimoto's cause I have a girlfriend who has Hashimoto's and she was trying to go kind of the natural route too. And I was wondering, has there been anything you've done changing in your diet and stuff that has really helped versus just taking more medication?
[00:24:31] Katie: Cutting out gluten was probably the hardest thing. Like I grew up on bread and crackers. Like I'm a carbolic. I love those types of carbs more than sugar, honestly. Like I always am like, are you a sugarholic or a carboholic? Like it's, I mean, it's the same thing, but I, that was definitely challenging to me, but I feel instantly I felt better.
It didn't, it helps keep my thyroid in check. I just don't produce enough thyroid. So. I haven't found like the magic holistic solution from my body, but you know, there's lots of herbs, lots of different supplements that can help, like B vitamins are really great. Your vitamin D. Stress. We totally underestimate how much stress we're actually under, because I feel like as women, we just do things.
Day-to-day just because. We do. And then we're like, we look back, I'm like, oh my God. Like that was actually a lot in the day. So I think we underestimate that, that honestly is probably super, super challenging for me, but I've always like checking in like, okay, are you doing, are you doing too much? Like, are you feeling okay?
But I think the gluten really making sure I was getting enough protein, their thyroid like thrives off of proteins. Making sure I was getting enough healthy fat, and obviously supporting my digestion is also key. And your liver when you have a thyroid and anything with hormones, but especially like thyroid stuff.
[00:25:55] Stephanie: So I did dive a little bit into the period side of hormones because you know, now I'm like after being postpartum, I'm my period finally came back after not having periods in sweat, like 2017. I don't know. I think I've gone like four years without one, because I had two kids back to back and it is like, A disaster.
Like, I feel like it is just so heavy. It's, it's different than what it was before I had kids. And I'm wondering like, what is going on? And I guess women's bodies after they have a baby that like causes these changes. I hear my friends having shorter cycles, heavier your cycles, like all of these different things coming up.
And is there anything we can do in our lifestyle besides like reduce stress, like other foods to eat or things to do to kind of help with that? Irregularity is in our periods
[00:26:44] Katie: Totally. The first thing that you, that we all need to be mindful about is keeping our blood sugar balanced. Okay. So our blood sugar is so important.
It's really the most important part of our hormones. And there's evidence linking like blood sugar surges, lead to the insulin spikes, inflammation, hormonal problems. There's hundreds of hundreds of pages of evidence on this, right. Like I mentioned earlier, like a lot of us are not eating enough or we're not eating at like the right times.
So like intermittent fasting or the Bulletproof coffee diet. And like a lot of these quote-unquote diets out there are pretty much all I, it wasn't, so it's a long story, but basically, yeah. 2013, they were like, you need to do studies on women's health and include that within the bigger studies. But that's not even how many years is that.
That's not even 10 years. Like I'm
[00:27:39] Stephanie: trying to eight years, which is the exact conversation I had with my husband the other night when we were talking about different things. And I was telling him how interested I am and figuring out more about hormones and how my body's working, because. You know, I always say like, I feel off and I'm like, the only differentiator is like, I'm a female.
I had babies. I have hormones when you don't like you don't. So we were talking about that and we were talking about insulin and sugar and stuff, and I'm like, yeah, there's more to the puzzle. Like it has to match like your cycle and stuff. So I definitely want to hear more about that. So
[00:28:14] Katie: I'll, I'll share a little story and hopefully my sister-in-law's okay with me sharing this, but basically the, after their first baby, they're like my brother and sister-in-law were like, we're going to lose the baby weight.
So they decided to do the Bulletproof coffee. So my brother, they did it for a month. My brother, I think loss of God, I think he lost maybe like 15 pounds. My sister-in-law gained like 12 pounds. Yeah. So you can only imagine like the conversation, that house, right? Like we all know we've all been there. And then I was talking with them and I was like, listen, like men.
So men and women, we have a 24 hour circadian rhythm. Right. But men also have a 24 hour hormonal cycle. And women have anywhere from, I don't know, 24, 25 to like 28 to 35 hormonal cycle. Like every single day, our hormones are slightly different, which is actually the number one reason why lots of doctors won't even do hormone testing because we're like, oh, your hormones are different.
Every second. But we all have a day three, and we all have seven days before our expected period that we can test. So yes, your hormones are different every day, but you also only want to test on two days of your cycle to actually get more accurate results. But our hormones are different every single day.
So working with our bodies, right, working with the phases of our cycle, with our energy levels, we can actually feel a thousand times better. We can, if your goal is to lose weight, like they were doing that intermittent fasting coffee type situation, you can, but as women it's so important to keep our blood sugar balanced, because if your blood sugar, our blood sugar and our cortisol, which I call the bitchy bossy hormone, cortisol, the stress hormone, they mirror each other.
So when you wake up in the morning and you jump out of bed and you're running around and you feel like you're in a tizzy and you don't eat and you just pump your body up with coffee, right. You go from like zero to a hundred. Right. And you're up here all day. And then you, you feel like this. You're like you have the caffeine and then all of a sudden, you like, it drops your energy and you're like, oh, your body starts craving sugar.
So you bring it up again. Then it's like, I want the caffeine, you know, you're on this rollercoaster ride. And with that comes the stress. And so if your blood sugar is off your stress, your cortisol is going to be off and vice versa. So I always am asking my clients like what came first, like the sugar craving or the stress or the stress or the sugar craving.
And they're always together, which is awesome, but it's hard to kind of figure out like what's the root cause and what I see often postpartum, or just in women's health in general, or just with women, just trying to lose weight and eating less and working out more. But what that's doing, it's really disrupting our metabolism because with women, if we don't regulate our blood sugar and our cortisol is too high over time.
Too much cortisol. Right? You're you can see cortisol will steal from progesterone, which is the hormone that's like, has that calming effect in our body to keep us going. Right. So I know it's kind of like interesting. We're not getting chased by lions anymore. Right? So we
[00:31:35] Stephanie: have cortisol. They are getting chased by.
[00:31:38] Katie: Yes. And like what they're saying, the research, like just with our phones, like anytime it dings or rings, like our bodies have that same stress response. Cause we're like, Ooh, like we take kind of like a deep breath. Are you looking at your email? And then you're like, Ooh, do I want to like open this email?
Like, is this person going to be nice to be like, it has a similar stress response. So even though like, we might not be in less like fight or flight stage, we are in like chronic stress fight or flight, like with the little things that we're doing throughout the day. And if you don't not, if you don't have food in your body, Especially protein to kind of like keep protect your body from having that response of stress.
It really can cause lots of long-term hormonal imbalances, but a lot of times what happens is it can affect our thyroid. It can cause our body to like steal from our progesterone and then we become estrogen dominant, which is going back to your original question. About the heavier periods, the cramping, the mood swings, so right shirt, blood sugar, and balance, stress, and balance.
Stealing from progesterone becoming more estrogen dominant. Excess estrogen in our system will lead to longer, maybe heavier, more painful periods.
[00:32:59] Stephanie: Okay. And like endometriosis or fibroids. I have friends who are like getting more fibroids now.
[00:33:05] Katie: Yeah. Um, so we need, we need estrogen, right? But we don't want excess estrogen.
And we want a good ratio between estrogen and progesterone, especially as we age and we go through perimenopause, it can be a very easy transition if we really focus on keeping our hormones as balanced as possible. And honestly, the best thing to do is to eat within like 45 minutes or an hour of waking up.
Women don't eat breakfast.
[00:33:36] Stephanie: Thinking about my morning, I had coffee, I put collagen protein in there and I had, you know, some cinnamon in it, but I didn't eat until like 10:00 AM. And I had been up since six 30. So that's a lot. I was also trying to do intermittent fasting, and then I realized intermittent fasting doesn't really work for women very well.
I didn't think it hasn't helped me, I guess, benefit in, especially certain times in my cycle. Sometimes it makes me so exhausted or just feel so crappy.
[00:34:06] Katie: Yeah. Especially postpartum. So as we transition through perimenopause at whatever point that is. It may or may not be helpful, but there's lots of, there's deeper things that we want to look at first.
But what I just suggest is we've got to look at your sleep. Like, are you sleeping through the night? Are you waking up a few times at night? Are you having a hard time falling asleep? Because a lot of times, if you wake up throughout the night, it could be that your adrenals aren't supported and that you're literally waking up because your body's like, I need to eat again.
You could do like, just stop eating by seven o'clock at night, right. And give your body time. But if you sleep eight hours and you stop eating by seven, right. That's and you wake up and you eat by 7:00 AM. That's enough time to give your body that like it needs. But if you're not sleeping, you don't even, you probably need to eat like some sort of protein before you go to bed, just to keep your adrenal supported for short term.
And then kind of like figure out all the other things. So we have to look at it very holistically and all of us are very different. So what, what I, what I do for myself might not work the best for you and vice versa, but that's why like, just taking a closer look, but Mo if you're craving sugar, low energy, like you just feel moody.
Just have something with protein, first thing in the morning, like even just having like a scoop of almond butter, but you always want to have water, food, and then coffee. You really try hard not to have coffee and empty stomach because it's adrenaline. Right. And it's going to pump the cortisol. And then a lot of times there's studies too, that show that caffeine from coffee can stain a woman's body for up to 24 hours.
So even if you only have that one cup of coffee in the morning and you're having a hard time sleeping, it could be the coffee and the sugar cravings after dinner. Go all the way back to what you had for, for breakfast and how you actually broke your fast. And did you get enough protein in there?
[00:36:12] Stephanie: Yeah.
Makes a lot of sense. Are there ways that we can regulate our blood sugar throughout the day without using one of those like new contraptions? Like I've seen all these new, like devices that are like monitor your blood sugar all day. You like wear it and it like tested and stuff. What are things we can do to just naturally try and regulate our blood sugar, because how do we know?
Like when it's too high, too low, if we're not monitoring the
[00:36:35] Katie: numbers easiest way, is, are you feeling hangry? You feel hangry, you've already passed the point. Right? So it's really like looking at a week, like track in an unkind way, just like, kind of like write down what you're eating. And how you feel every day.
Like how's your sleep, how's your digestion, your cravings. And notice if you are feeling hangry, because then we probably need to actually eat meals. Right. And making sure that they have the eating for your hormones combination, which is protein, fats and fiber at every single meal and, and snacks too.
Right. So a lot of times people are like, oh, I eat like six small meals a day. I'm like, but what are you eating? And most of the times it's cars. Right. It's like fast-burning
[00:37:23] Stephanie: apart where it just like peaks your sugar and then yeah,
[00:37:28] Katie: like with a lot of women are grab and go
[00:37:31] Stephanie: or eating off their kids' plates or so
[00:37:34] Katie: it's like really making sure I don't maybe it's meal prepping, maybe it's doing a meal delivery service.
Maybe it's just like, okay, you just add more nuts and seeds. To something, or like you grab a handful of cashews, if you, if you're not able to like eat lunch right. When you really want to, but it's really about proteins, fats and fiber. And if you feel like hangry or super hungry, if you're not sleeping well, moody.
As women, we know when we're moody. Like, I definitely was like that on Sunday and I'm like, oh, did I not eat enough today? But a lot of times we think that we, a lot of women just reduce their calorie intake. And if we're not eating enough, that's actually not supporting our hormones as well, either.
[00:38:22] Stephanie: So, and that's for weight loss, like people are like, oh, I'm just going to cut back or count my calories, but that's not necessarily the best for you.
Yeah. So are there different, like if you're trying to lose weight versus you're trying to feel better, have more regular cycles versus you're trying to get pregnant or manage your hormones for fertility, right. Do you do different things? Like, do you eat differently? Do you change the way you do stuff to regulate those hormones?
[00:38:51] Katie: it totally depends on like, what's going on like internally a little bit, because oftentimes though I do see like a good to go say it again, but like I'm oftentimes in all of those scenarios where women are not eating enough. Okay. If you're not eating enough, your body will not lose weight. If your estrogen is too low.
Or too high, right. It's really hard to lose weight. So, and, or fertility and or postpartum, like anything in general, like a lot of the times it's just getting the right foods and nutrients in your body, really focusing on sleep as much as you can. But I feel like sleep has kind of been put on the back burner and it's really one of the top priorities. And I know I'm speaking to a lot of new moms, but like, it really is important. And like for myself, I have an alarm on my phone that goes off at nine it's like, reminds me to like, just go to bed.
[00:39:48] Stephanie: Like, I'm curious, what is your sleep schedule? Like, do you have a wind down routine? How long do you sleep?
And when do you wake up in the morning?
[00:39:57] Katie: So we, I am very grateful because we, yeah. I think God, no one in this house was a morning person. So we, we, we did baby wise and I don't know, I have no idea if it, why our babies love to sleep, but they, they like to go to bed at six 30 and they wake up around like 7 45, 8.
I know it's insane. I'm jealous. I think it helps that they're together. Like I really do. Like, I think that when they wake up, they have each other and they talk and they play and they're probably up before, like we actually hear them. So I on a good day, on a day where I feel like I'm really being mindful, I put myself to bed by nine o'clock, but then I write in my gratitude journal.
Like I read romance novels before I go to bed because it's like the only way my brain like turns off at night and I try to be sleeping by like 10, 10 30 at the latest on a, on like a night where I like really. Listening to my internal cues. Right. I do know, like on the weekend I'll go to bed a little bit later and I do not feel better on the weekends.
I always feel like off. So that's something I'm trying to be more mindful about because I need a lot of sleep. Most women do. Right. But I've always been like an eight hour. Minimum sleeper. I've never been able to get by with like seven, seven and a half or anything less than that,
[00:41:28] Stephanie: even now as a mom?
[00:41:29] Katie: Yes.
Especially now. Like I know if I don't, cause I was postpartum after I stopped like breastfeeding, I was, I had, my hormones were. Super off, like, cause the estrogen was so low and I was having horrible sleeping and I was definitely like, not myself. And I could feel that my energy was shifting and being with the babies.
So it's like, I know that for me to be able to show up for the way that I want to in my family and my business, like sleep is, has to be a priority. And I love Netflix. I love TV. So that's what usually keeps me up at
[00:42:02] Stephanie: night, which apparently the blue light is terrible for you. But. I still can't get out of looking
[00:42:07] Katie: at my phone.
What I it's going to cause may, may was mental health awareness month. And I was really being more mindful about my relationship with my phone. So I was putting my phone in my office at seven, uh, shutting the door, trying not to look at it again. So. Not being on social media as much, you know, re signing out of email at the end of the day.
So I, I feel like that went away postpartum because I was just like up randomly and like trying to connect and like talk to people. So I've been really trying to kind of like wheel it in and kind of really be more mindful because the phone honestly puts me in the worst mood.
[00:42:46] Stephanie: Yeah. He
[00:42:47] Katie: happy. So I'm like, why am I addicted to this thing?
It doesn't do anything.
[00:42:52] Stephanie: What is your morning look like when you wake up?
[00:42:55] Katie: So I wake up, I always start with just some deep breathing and I, my body, my back hurts so bad. The babies are like, they're both probably like 22, 23 pounds now. So I have to do stretches in the morning in my bed. I'll do child's pose like cat and cow.
Like I just stretch my body out. I, my wrist has been bothering me. I feel like so
[00:43:16] Stephanie: old, like just dealing exactly the same. Don't worry. Like it's totally normal.
[00:43:21] Katie: Yeah. So I do stretches so that I don't hurt myself. And then I usually, you know, go to the bathroom and then we'll go get the babies, feed them, try to go for a walk with them in the morning just to kind of be outside because sunlight is really helpful.
If you look at the sun, as soon as you wake up, if you can even just open your blinds and just look at this. It can help reset circadian rhythms and really help you get a better night's sleep. So I try to like, just get some fresh air, get outside. It helps. It helps the boys too. I feel like it kind of puts them in like a really good mood for the day.
And then it depends on when my first meeting is. And then what's
[00:43:59] Stephanie: your kind of like food, I guess also in the morning, like what do you do? Do you drink the glass of water? Do you, what's your routine in the
[00:44:06] Katie: morning? Lots of water. I've been on an oatmeal kick. I have not been able to like eat eggs. Yes. The boys, the boys love them.
So I usually do overnight oats. I make like a big batch of them and they put collagen in there and chia seeds, Coke, full fat coconut. Yeah. And I make a big back, so I can just like, take what I want every morning. I add like almond butter and cashews and sunflower seeds to count nibs, which is pure chocolate.
Real chocolate. There's no sugar in it, but it helps with like that chocolate fix more water. Sometimes I'll have bone broth in the morning cause it's been kind of like overcast here. So it feels nice to have something warm
[00:44:44] Stephanie: I go for the warm glass of coffee, which I probably need to shift.
[00:44:49] Katie: But just having the water and the food and then the coffee, like we, you will have way more energy if you're hydrated. And if you have food than if you just keep drinking coffee,
I guarantee it. I promise.
[00:45:04] Stephanie: And then I was going to ask, like, you had twins, you had twins at the age of 40 and you already have an established business and a practice and all of this.
How has that shifted kind of your whole work? Quote balance or how have you been easing back into things? Yeah,
[00:45:20] Katie: so I feel like I have really healthy boundaries now. I feel like before I would just work all the time and, you know, fit people in at their convenience. And, you know, I still try to do that, but I have like really healthy boundaries.
Days that I see clients days that I'm like working on marketing and kind of doing different things. So I feel like I've been able to be mindful of how much time I have, how much energy I have and also giving myself enough downtime to, you know, I take a lunch break for two hours. And so the boys are awake at the same time, you know, trying to kind of like schedule before.
Time changes. I'm sure it will be changing soon, but I'm just, I feel like I just have way more healthy boundaries. And like, if someone cancels on me last minute, like it's like, well, maybe one time if there was an emergency, but really just being more mindful about my time, I think has been like really important and helpful.
And I think it's good for all of us to be able to do that. Like if I. Have that example, then it also helps a mom as well being like, oh yeah. Like I also, having more boundaries would also help me. So I think it's like, we're all learning from each other.
[00:46:33] Stephanie: Yeah. Well, on that note, I wanted to wrap up by asking what is your mom's super power that you gained once you became a mom that makes you better at business or life.
So like, for example, you just shifted and you said like I better boundaries, but is there another superpower that you gained that you didn't have before?
[00:46:51] Katie: Ooh. That's a really interesting question. Let me think about that. I feel like I've always been intuitive, but I feel like I've definitely am way more intuitive and like, I can really tap into energy in a different way.
I, I don't know. I've always been able to kind of like hear things that people are not saying, but I feel like it's even stronger now than it was before. So I feel like my intuition has definitely become stronger.
[00:47:17] Stephanie: It's your mom's sense? Your deep seated, like yeah, mom tuition.
[00:47:22] Katie: It's really interesting. Yeah.
And I feel like I also, I've always done this and like, my husband's like, you should not do this, but I always know when, like, people are pregnant around me and I've said things. I'm like, oh my God, are you pregnant? When, like, you know, you should not say that, but it's like a kid, maybe
[00:47:40] Stephanie: your hormones. Do you like sense those changes in their pregnancy hormones?
And I,
[00:47:45] Katie: I would say nine out of 10 times, I know what my clients are having as what sex too. And I'm not saying like, I'm some sort of like, I dunno, like, but it's interesting because a client that I thought was having a boy emailed me this morning, she's like, you were right. It's a boy. So I think it's more like what they're craving when they're pregnant.
And I'm like, oh yeah. Like when women crave this sometimes, and it's not obviously a hundred percent accurate, but I don't know. I feel like there's like this deeper sense of mom intuition or just intuition in general, even with the boys, like I can pick up on their energy and just kind of tell like what might be going on.
But I think, I think it's helpful for me because. Can pause. Like I been just giving myself like moments of like being able to pause. Not just like, go, go, go. Because I've been really good about boundaries, which is not, I don't think it's easy for anybody to have strong boundaries, but for me it's like the only thing that I can do is have like very healthy boundaries.
[00:48:42] Stephanie: Well, that's good. I mean, I'm with twins. I think you need, in order to be able to do
[00:48:46] Katie: it, number one goal when they were born is like, obviously love them and feed them, but like, We've got to sleep, train these babies
[00:48:54] Stephanie: and get them on the same schedule because with twins, I mean, one could be sleeping. One could be not one could be it's it's uh, yeah,
[00:49:00] Katie: yeah.
Do everything together. They're going to be best friends because
[00:49:06] Stephanie: they're like, they have
[00:49:06] Katie: no choice. Well, we do everything together. They, everything is together. They would go to bed. They wake up at the same time. But I think because of COVID and my husband now working from home. We were able to like have these routines, because if it wasn't, we would be going out and going different places and their naps would not be obviously as consistent.
So I think that's a difference. And I'm curious, like what the research will show in a few years with like COVID babies and like,
[00:49:36] Stephanie: Yeah, I feel like I was gonna say my second child, she was always in a car seat because I was always toting the first one around. And so every one of her naps was like in a car seat, in the stroller or whatnot.
My third born in COVID. She literally has like, never had a nap that wasn't in her crib, like her actual crib. Like finally, when we started traveling, like she slept in a pack and play, but I mean, she's never not been in a bed. And then I noticed the difference in separation anxiety. My husband says that no, all our kids had it, but I feel like she's way more into the, because she's only seen like us, her siblings, like the grandparents, like she hasn't been out.
So I feel like her separation anxiety is a lot worse than my first two, but we'll see.
[00:50:23] Katie: Yeah. When does that even start? Like how old.
[00:50:26] Stephanie: She's turning 16 months tomorrow. So I think it started around 15 ish months. I feel like it's been recent. It's like a recent transition. So I think like 16 to 18 months is kind of like peak separation anxiety time.
So you're, you're just, yeah, it'll
[00:50:42] Katie: be interesting. It'll be interesting to see like, I didn't know,
[00:50:47] Stephanie: which is why my back hurts so much right now. I went through a phase where I could actually put her down, but now she literally like crawl, like, wants to crawl back in me. And so I put her in, like in a wrap the other day, I was like, you haven't worn this wrap since you were like five months old.
And I put her in a solely baby wrap and I was like, I'm done. Like, I couldn't even put her in an ergo. I was like, you're going in like the womb rep, because I need you restrained. Yeah, so, but anyway, I digress, but so where can we find you online? You can find me
[00:51:18] Katie: everywhere just at Katie Breslin. It's B R E S S a C K.
And it's just Katie with an E. So you can find me Instagram, mostly Facebook. That's my website.
[00:51:29] Stephanie: Well, awesome. Thank you so much for joining today. I appreciate it
[00:51:33] Katie: for having me. It was so wonderful.
[00:51:35] Stephanie: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of mommy's on a call. Your support means the absolute world to me. You can find the show notes for this episode and others. Over at mommy's on a call.com. And if you enjoyed this episode or have gotten value from the podcast, I would be so grateful if you could head on over to apple podcasts and leave a rating and review so that we can reach and empower more moms all over the world together.
Thank you so much again, mommy pod, and I will see you here next time.