Can't Lose Weight? Why Mainstream Medicine Doesn’t Work for Women—And What to Do About It | Dr. Kristen Coles | Work Like A Mother Podcast, Episode 38

In this episode of "Work Like a Mother," host Marina Tolentino sits down with Dr. Kristen Coles, a naturopathic doctor and acupuncturist, to explore holistic approaches to women's health. Dr. Coles discusses the importance of treating the whole person, addressing hormonal imbalances, and understanding the role of adrenal glands and cortisol in women’s well-being. She highlights the shortcomings of conventional medicine and offers practical strategies like fasting mimicking diets and establishing a supportive morning routine. With insights into perimenopause, menopause, and stress management, Dr. Coles provides listeners with actionable steps to reclaim their health and thrive at any stage of life through natural and integrative approaches.

Mentioned in this Episode
Pique: https://www.piquelife.com/products/bt-fountain

LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/products/lmnt-recharge-electrolyte-drink?variant=29460998651938

Yoga Nidra: https://music.apple.com/us/album/yoga-nidra-1/1473193822

Fasting Mimicking Diet lecture: https://youtu.be/QxSm_N2DqCA?si=TzmGjjhSTxah_f1F

ProLon: https://prolonlife.com/drcoles

Dr. Kristen Coles
http://www.drcoles.com/

Marina Tolentino
https://www.marinatolentino.com/
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Transcript

0:00

I see patients five days a week, so many patients every day. And when our body is, like, sort of working and we don't have a true disease, we are so lucky. I just would love to tell women, like, listen, what you have right now is still really good, and let's just love it. All right? Today I have someone super special, and actually, we just met for the first time last month in person. But Doctor Kristen Coles is someone who came to me highly referred. I mean, twelve out of ten stars, you can't even tell you. But Kristen Coles is a naturopathic doctor and an acupuncturist. She has the brain of a scientist and the heart of a healer, which we love. She's mom to a two and a half little girl and a one year old boy. And she treats everything, if you can think of it, from chronic and acute illness to patients who are simply interested in being proactive in their health, which is myself personally. It's for those high achievers who know we can do better, but we're just not sure what that next step is. She comes with a wealth of experience and knowledge in her field, and I got to say, a bedside manner unlike any other doctor I've ever seen. You made me feel like I wanted to cry because I just felt so seen and heard. Without further ado, welcome to the show, doctor Kristen. Thank you so much. I am so excited to be here. And one of my favorite things is to speak with you, speak with patients, speak with anybody, just to kind of share about the medicine and share about what I do and reach a bigger audience with these impactful things that can really help us shine in our life. No, 1000%. And honestly, when I'm speaking to you, your knowledge of things, you are not only wicked smart, but you get it as a woman, too. And so there's the scientific side, but then there's this personal side of I'm in the thick of it, too. I'm trying to figure this out, and this is what science tells me. Um, so we're going to do this. So, for someone who doesn't know, they've never seen a naturopathic doctor. They've only seen their PCp their whole life. What is a naturopathic doctor? And why would someone go to one? That's such a great question. Because there's so many people who have never heard of naturopathic medicine and a naturopathic doctor, which, um, our degree is an ND. So there's a mds, medical doctors, and then I would be called an ND naturopathic doctor, but similar in some of our aspects of training. So, you know, I had to do a complete undergrad, I had to do pre medical requisitions, and then I had to apply to naturopathic medical school, which is a four year medical school. The first two years are identical to our medical doctor conventional counterparts. So we're doing the same biochemistry, physiology, the same types of classes in the first two years, and then the second two years are very different, because when naturopathic doctors are sort of thinking about how we are applying medicine to our patients, we are utilizing therapies and treatments that are going to be geared more on the realm of herbal medicine. Nutraceuticals, which means vitamins, minerals, nutrition. We have some of the highest advanced degree training in nutrition and interactions between vitamins and drugs, herbs and drugs. Right. Because we have. So what we do is kind of in the world of integrative medicine. So we're kind of trying to integrate how we can use natural approaches into conventional medicine. And the reality is I have a lot of patients who are on medications and also on a lot of supplements and herbs, and we're combining them, and we have to understand what's safe to take together as well. And naturopathic doctors are the one doctors that are trained very specifically in understanding these types of nutrient herb drug interaction. So that's kind of a big key thing. And then there's the philosophy of our medicine. And really our philosophy is part of what defines us as well, because we have these five principles that are really important. It's first, do no harm, which that's the principle of all medicine. But then we have what's called the Wyss medicatrix, nature a, which translates to the healing power of nature. And that is an underlying philosophy that we really think about. And that goes to everything as to how do we allow a system, a body, to come back to healing whatever the body is experiencing, whatever has sort of pushed us out of what normal is. And let's just say we're in a disease state or we're in a pre disease state. We have to ask ourselves, like, what is the healing power that's innate within the body, but then also the healing power of nature? What can we use from nature to help us heal? So that's a really amazing philosophy, part of it. And so we have a few of those things that kind of create a training in medicine that's very different than conventional medicine. Yeah, and I think that's a great summary. Another way I think of it, too, is like, if you go to your PCP, they're treating the symptom, whereas you're actually asking, well, what's the cause of this? And, like, what is the whole person affected? How was their stress? How is their sleep? My doctor's not asking me any of those questions. They're just saying, you have a pain, I have a problem, like something to prescribe you, you know, and it's very much pharma driven. And I think, honestly, in the last decade, our generation, specifically, like, the millennials, are becoming more aware of this because of the Internet, of, like, how bad it is. All the research studies that pharmaceuticals are pushing out are internal studies that they've been paid for internally. So the trust factor is broken. Broken, right. And so we can come to someone like you who has an outside perspective to say, well, let's look at all the factors, you know, let's look at where this research is coming from. And I think that's what it is. We have to question everything and have this, like, round night of roundtable of nights to say, here's what you should consider. Did you think about this factor, too, instead of just being brainwashed by the media? And so that's been super empowering. Just to know, I have you in my back pocket now. When I have a question, I can email you really quickly and get an answer. So today I want to focus on women's health, because we are women, but our primary listener is us. She's 30 to 45 years old. She's hitting the peak of her career. She's making good money, but she knows she could be doing better on her health, and she just doesn't know what's next. Like, she feels like she's working out, she's eating relatively healthy. What kind of changes when we hit our thirties that we didn't have in our twenties, like, what was working before stops working all of a sudden, or just decreases what kind of changes in our body. Yeah, this era into your early forties and then, you know, mid forties and beyond, where we really start entering into what we would consider, like, perimenopause timeframe. There's some really key things that impact women that do not impact men. And I love, you know, that we can say, like, women can do everything men can do, and that's great and all that, but actually, women do more than men do because we have these hormones that are of way more complicated than men. And so women are more complicated. And one of those things that really. It is one of those things that really puts us in a precarious position sometimes because I think many women are pushing out or delaying when they start their families. And many women, especially in our generation, are starting with careers and then building families in. And so there's some additional stressors that we are facing a little bit later on and that can come back to haunt us in our hormonal balance. And when I talk about hormonal balance for women, I'm really thinking about some key, I'm going to throw out some words here, endocrine system organs. And so we have things like our thyroid and we have things called our adrenal glands, and then we have our ovaries, which most women have heard of our ovaries. But these three endocrine organs make up what I call our hormonal trifecta. And the trifecta is going to be three things that always have to go together and always have to work together to make a perfect whole. That balance is what I kind of like to dig into in my patients when I'm talking about, like when I'm doing an intake and I'm asking a lot of different questions about certain symptoms, certain lifestyle things, certain components to what's in front of me and the woman in front of me, what's going on. And then that's what I'm digging into in my lab work as well. I do a lot of very precise lab work that I'm looking at to understand also these kinds of balances. But essentially what happens is, you know, we hit our twenties, we're probably having good energy, most of us. We should have really good energy in our twenties. We should have a lot of, you know, drive and the desire to be doing something in the world that's kind of common in the twenties. And we might be, you know, meeting future partners and figuring out our career or doing secondary schooling, right, getting advanced degrees or whatever it might be that's happening in our twenties. Hey ladies, real quick, if you are looking for a mentor, I just wanted to remind you that I offer mentorship to entrepreneurs. So if you're someone who has a never ending to do list and you're spiling out of control and feel like you're ahead, business doesn't have a track plan, I want to work with you every single week for a month at a time. It's super simple, but I come from over ten years of experience doing this myself and now I'm willing to give that information back to people. So I've mentored real estate agents, I've mentored wedding photographers, I've mentored other business owners, and they've come from a place of overwhelm, mostly, and they really just needed clarity and a couple of action steps to move the needle. And we've seen gigantom leaps and bounds in their business. Like, I can't even tell you. So if you're interested and you want to know what that looks like, I want you to go to marinatolentino.com, and there's a calendly link there to do a 15 minutes discovery call with me. Just to see if we're a good. Vibe check to make sure we're on the same page. And I would love to work with you one on one to really boost your business to the next level. Let's dive back in. And we also might be, you know, some. Some people. That's the timeframe when they're kind of burning the candle at both ends of right. They're going out at night, and they're waking up in the morning, and they're using alcohol and having caffeine and these things that our bodies seem to be fine with and we seem to be functioning okay. And then we kind of hit our thirties, and then we start to sort of notice, like, oh, like, now I'm having to, like, up my caffeine intake in the morning just to feel normal again, or like, my body just doesn't tolerate alcohol anymore. I hear that a lot. And sort of these things that start to happen in our thirties, and then we start to have more stressors, like, oh, we are, you know, having to deal with financing our life and maybe financing a family and starting a family. And there can be fertility things that come up, and all of these things become these stressors for us. And they are. They can be big, they can be small, but they can be sometimes chronic. And that type of ongoing little bits of stress really impact us and impact our hormone systems as a whole. And it can often be our mid thirties that women start to first notice that there's changes in their periods, or they might have been on birth control for many years and then go off birth control and realize, like, whoa, my periods are a little bit of a problem every month. And these are all small little signs that something is amiss in this hormonal trifecta. And a lot of times, it does go back to our adrenal glands and or our thyroid. But our adrenal glands are one of the biggest missed components when most of my patients go to maybe their PCP, rarely, rarely do I ever see a discussion about the adrenal glands or testing for the adrenal glands done on these women up to age 40. And that is a huge missing component. Yeah. Wow. So interesting, because that's. It's just not in our common conversation to think about our thyroid adrenal glands. Like. Like you said, people don't even know what they are, what they do. So you're just bringing light and awareness to that. So you can't just keep doing the same old thing. It's going to stop working at one point, or it's going to change. And then you have a baby, and then your body feels like it just got turned inside out, and you're like, I don't know what is happening anymore. So good. So, out of curiosity, I'm curious, like, what are you doing in your morning routine? What is, like, must do rituals. Even when you're traveling, you got to have these things. What are you doing? I think that some of the key things we can think about, I really like to try to keep it simple because one thing I know about my life, which got even more complicated when I had one kid, and then I had another one, like, 20 months later, so I did them really close together, but that's because I'm 40, and so I started having my babies when I was 37 and then 39. And so, you know, I think a lot of people probably have that experience as well. And I think some key things is, like, drink your water first thing in the morning, if that's what you can remember when you get up, if you can just drink water first before you. If you're a caffeine drinker, which I talk a lot about caffeine and kind of trying to pare that down and looking at the types of caffeine you're doing, because that impacts this adrenal gland system that I was talking about. But if you can start with water, and also if you can start with, like, electrolytes in your water, that is an amazing way to just kind of, like, start the day, because overnight we become dehydrated, and it's just because we're sleeping. For however long we're sleeping, we're not drinking, we're not hydrating. And our body does a lot of detox at night. Right. That's when our body should clean out the old stuff and regenerate. And so we want to make sure that we flush that out. So, you know, optimal is have a big glass of water, maybe add some electrolytes. And then, you know, I'm hoping most of my patients start every day with a really good bowel movement. I mean, I know you probably weren't thinking we would talk about that, but I talk about with my patients all the time. It's like, we should start the day and we should eliminate. And then I think that depending on an individual's level of daily ongoing stress, if you have a moment in the morning to set whatever you can for your day, whether it's two to five minutes to set an intention or just gratitude journal really quick or to just take a few minutes to breathe and remember why you're here on this earth and what are you trying to do? It makes a big difference for the rest of your day just to have a moment to say, like, okay, in, like, 30 seconds, two kids are going to be awake and it's going to be pandemonium. And I won't have another moment for myself until maybe I'm in the car and I've dropped off my babies and I'm like, five minutes in between drop off and work. Right. But if you can just start your day just with a little bit of that, I think that's great. And then, you know, right now I don't get the luxury to exercise right in the morning anymore. I used to have. I have a peloton. I'm a big peloton fan. But I'm not always getting to that because of just babies in life and things. But I think those are some really key things to start with. Yeah. And I can say in the early years because I feel like I just got out of it. My little one's four, and then I've got a nine year old. It's so hard to do the morning routine sometimes because usually they're waking up before you get up. So you wake up with them and then you're like, I didn't even get five minutes. Like, I'm automatically changing a diaper doing this or whatever. And you're like, could I just get five minutes? So that's where I had to learn to lean on my partner and say, hey, I need, like, ten minutes of alone time. I'm going to lock the door. Can you just, like, keep them in the living room for me? But if you don't ask, you're not going to get it. And I would find myself so frazzled and, like, this resentment building up. My husband doesn't get it. Right. You just got to ask for it. So that's one little bit of advice. You mentioned electrolytes. What do you use for electrolytes? Do you have a favorite brand or like, what do you like over the other ones? You know, I do have a favorite brand right now. I have a few favorite ones that I'll recommend to patients. You know, I think the. I like the Picu life. They have a really nice skin electrolyte one. The lmnt one is great. I'm not too picky. You can also just add some, like, lemon to your water and a pinch of salt. And that's, like, nice way to do it as well. Okay, easy. Um, I feel, like, not to hate on anybody, but, like, I see liquid, liquid iv at Costco all the time, and I feel like I actually get bloated when I have that one. And so I am always looking at, like, what are the other brands out there to see? Can I feel better on something else? So that's a good tidbit. Just like, keep trying other things, too, and look at the ingredients. Um, yeah, the liquid iv one just has a little bit more sugar. Sugar. Okay. That's probably why it tastes so good, though. That makes sense. I want to talk about perimenopause and menopause, because this is, like, coming. If you're not already in it, it's coming for everybody. Um, can you define what they are? What are the differences? Sure. Let's just start with menopause. That one's really clear. Okay. Menopause is one year with no period. Okay? And it is the year 2024. We are recording this podcast, and we are still unable to scientifically pinpoint when a woman will enter menopause. Okay? So it's one of those things where women will come in to me, they might be 52, and they said, well, I had my last period six months ago. I'm in menopause. I said, nope, you will not hit menopause until that clock hits one year. And some women can go eight months and be like, oh, my God, I had another period. I say the clock starts again. So menopause one year after your final period, and then your menopause. So perimenopause is a little loose because it just means any timeframe leading up to menopause when hormones and periods are shifting. Hey, I'm sorry to interrupt, and I hope you're enjoying this episode of the work like my mother podcast real quick. I just want to remind you guys, if you are worried about missing an episode, you don't have to worry anymore, because we are creating a weekly email that's going to go out automatically every single time there's a brand new episode. And this email is going to have everything you need to know about this week's featured guests. It's going to have all of the links and the resources that we're going to talk about in this episode so you don't have to go around and fumble through the show notes. But it's gonna be served in your inbox every single week. So if you guys want that access, be sure to click below one time in the show notes today, sign up for that email and then you'll never have to worry about it in the future. And bonus, if you really love this, we'd love it. If you share this with a friend, give us a review on whatever platform you're listening to, and we'll continue to bring new episodes and new information that's gonna help you level up your life every single week. Got it? So if is there any big symptoms you would other see, like lack of sleep or the hot sweat? What are you seeing? Yeah. Yes. And I will say there is a lab test, like a blood test that can be done to help us understand where on the progression somebody is. Because I do have women who come to me who have been on birth control till age 50, and they just are like, I have no idea where. And so, you know, there are some blood tests that can help us understand, like, where someone is. But the true definition is just that one year. But perimenopause is often a time of upheaval for women within symptoms. A lot of times we start to see, I'm going to talk again about these adrenal glands, and maybe in a minute I should explain the adrenal glands. Actually, I'm going to do that now. So the adrenal glands are these endocrine organs. They sit on top of our kidneys. So we have two of them, and they make a very important hormone called cortisol. Now, people have probably heard of cortisol. Usually when I say cortisol, people think, oh, stress. And yes, that's an appropriate way to think about it in a sort of superficial aspect. But cortisol is actually a very important hormone, and it is a circadian hormone, so it's like the opposite of melatonin. So cortisol should

naturally spike between six to 08: 21:52

00 a.m. in the morning. It should wake us up, and it should wake us up without an alarm clock. It should wake us up with energy, it should stimulate a bowel movement, it should stimulate an appetite, and it should make us feel all systems go ready for the day. Got it. Those are some really big questions I ask women like, are you getting all of those happening in the morning? And if not, then we're going to talk more about your adrenal system. I do a lot of testing for cortisol. There's ways that we can test it because like I said, it's a circadian hormone, so we can test it very easily in like urine and blood, saliva as well. And so that system, if it is in a good place, it will be one of the biggest things that allows us to have an easier perimenopause and menopause transition. Okay. When it is not in a good place, meaning we have been under chronic stress for many years, of our thirties and forties. It is going to be the system that depletes first as our female hormones start to change. And the reason is that our female hormones, when I speak of female hormones, I'm talking about specifically estrogen and progesterone. The way that our hormones are made in our body is very interesting because we can actually take cortisol, that adrenal hormone, to make more progesterone, and we can take progesterone to make more cortisol. So when we are under a lot of stress and we start to deplete the cortisol, we can start stealing progesterone. And as we steal progesterone, that will make our perimenopause and female hormone symptoms worse. So that's when we start to get issues with sleep. Most of the time, what I first start to see is either there's going to be difficulty falling asleep or there's going to be difficulty staying asleep where women just pass out

like it's 08: 24:07

00 I cannot physically keep my eyes open any longer,

pass out. But then one to 03: 24:10

00 a.m. bing, wide awake, cannot go back to sleep, takes 2 hours, like in and out of sleep, really poor sleep, and then they just have to

wake up at 05: 24:21

00 a.m. and they're feeling just like totally exhausted. So that's a really common sign of sort of perimenopause, but also like an adrenal component to that. And the reasons for that is that often cortisol is spiking too early. Instead of spiking between

six to 08: 24:39

00 a.m. because of the stress we're under, it spikes between

one to 03: 24:43

00 a.m. and then it wakes us up and our body thinks we're going to start our day and we really should not. So those are some key things. Sleep issues start to happen. We can also just on. This can be a little more subtle for women, but sometimes women will start to notice that their ability to tolerate stress is gone. Like, they're just like, I don't know what it is. I cannot stand my kids. I cannot stand my husband. Like, well, I can stand them. I love them, but I'm, like, snapping at them. I'm just intolerable, and I don't want to be that way, but I can't control myself, and I don't know what's going on. And again, that sort of can be an early sign that things are shifting. And then, of course, there's the things that are very apparent where periods can start to come earlier. That's really common. Like, instead of a 28 day cycle, women start to have, like, a 25 day cycle. And that's an early sign that progesterone levels are dropping. We can also have heavier periods or lighter periods. It's actually all kinds of things can happen with the periods. There's also night sweats. Those happen a little bit later on in the picture, though, that's going to be more when estrogen levels start dropping. And so that's something where we're going to see that closer to the actual menopause. Okay, super helpful. And I think it's just awareness and understanding, like, what feels normal to me. And then when something's not normal, is this a red flag? Is it my surroundings and my lifestyle? Or is it something internally going on and just being cognizant of that? Because so much of us, we're just go, go, go, go. And we're kind of, like, chronic stressed because we're such high producers that we're just. We don't know how to turn off. And we turn off, we get more stressed because we're resting, but we should be doing something else. There's, like, this juxtaposition we're trying to find. Um, so that's great. Great tips to just kind of plant seeds of, is this normal, or is this a little bit off? And should I get this checked out? Um, I want to kind of transition into weight loss a little bit because I feel like it's a buzzword, right? Well, it's always a buzzword. People are always talking about weight loss, but do something. And I feel like we just got to kind of beat a dead horse. It's been out there in the news, but some people are saying it's cool still, and some people are saying, absolutely not. What is your take on it? So these GLP one type medications. They've been around a long time and they are originally diabetes medications, but the research does show that there's additional extra benefits. So the weight loss arena. Yes, there's going to even be. You'll start to see some of these drugs are going to have secondary uses in the world of addiction, which is very interesting because they also can help reduce addiction and cravings. That's part of the weight loss thing, is that how it works in some of the brain receptors is that it's going to reduce cravings and addiction. So even like addiction to tobacco and alcohol. So these are very interesting medications. And I'm going to say that we're going to keep hearing more about them over the next few years. We'll hear more and more about them because they are peptides. And peptides are really interesting therapeutic drugs and targets. I will say that there is appropriate use for them in certain arenas if you're a woman who has struggled with something called PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome for your life. These types of medications are also being used in the PCOS arena because part of the PCOS situation is insulin resistance. And that's part of the issues with fertility is the high blood sugar levels that are part of the PCOS picture impact the ovarian function. So, you know, I'm not opposed to these drugs blanket statement. I think there's nuances and there are uses for them that I think are impactful. And I'm curious to see where we go with this because medically they have some good uses. Now, am I going to use them for somebody who just wants to lose that extra five to ten pounds? No, never. First line. Because there's a lot of other things I'm going to talk about. And those things are going to be optimizing your GI function, optimizing your hormone balance, making sure that you've had a very thorough workup in your full thyroid and your nutrient levels and things like that. But they have a use. Okay. And I think the thing I'm hearing now is like some of the side effects and the people who have gone off it and gotten back on it, and it's like this hamster wheel. And those are the people that I feel like they shouldn't be on it anyways. They're getting it black market sometimes, which is just like also scary and terrifying. But I feel like it's on the climb still. We haven't seen the peak of the trend. And so it's awareness again. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, I think it's also an awareness in how people are being prescribed this. And I have prescribed this drug, but if and when I do it is a 45 minutes visit, conversation, education with my patients. And that's, you know, one other thing that we didn't really touch on with naturopathic medicine is that the amount of time that I spend with my patients is much more than you're going to experience with a PCP or your conventional medicine doctor. My appointments are 45 to 60 minutes, typically. And when it comes to these types of medications, there's a lot to discuss because they're not something you just go on for six months and then you can easily get off of. It's usually a one to two year commitment if we're looking for some really specific changes, because part of what we're doing is we're trying to change what's called a set point of the body. And let's just say it's taken you five to ten years to get to whatever weight you are, which let's just say it's a high bmi weight. So that means overweight or obese, it's probably taken you some time to get there, which means your body has readjusted to that as its set point. Meaning these are my patients who come in who are at a high bmi overweight. And they say, I mean, listen, doc, I've been. For six months, I've been, like, cutting carbs and I've been exercising, but nothing has changed. Ding ding. That tells me that the set point of the body has changed from where it used to be for them. And so that means we actually do have to bring a lot of other things on board to work on changing a set point. But a set point, just so you guys know who are listening, set points can take one to two years to change. So I would say, you know, if you have started some good things and you're not seeing results, like, listen, that might be because of a set point thing, and it may take longer, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't do those really good things for your health. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And it wasn't until I met with you that you mentioned the metabolic set point, because I didn't even know that was the thing or that it could change after pregnancy and all of that. And I think lifestyle is huge. It's a holistic look at your lifestyle. Right? So keep doing the things that are working. But there are some ways to kind of manipulate that set point again. And so one of the things you brought up was a fast mimicking diet, can you explain what that is and what that does? Yes. So, fasting mimicking diets, I love these. And the one that's most well known on the market, brand name is called prolon. And if anybody's interested, I have a deep dive lecture on my YouTube channel. It's like an hour and maybe a little bit lecture where you can learn a lot more about it. But fasting mimicking diets are a specific type of a diet that lasts five days and you're eating like medical grade food. This is created for you, and what it allows is it allows your body to enter into a fasting state. You're still eating and you're still adding in the important nutrients so that you don't start to lose your lean muscle mass. And a lot of fasting fads do put us, as women at risk of losing our lean muscle mass. And honestly, that's the last thing we want to lose when we're trying to lose weight. And often it's the first thing we lose if we don't do it right. So the fasting mimicking diet, though, it has a metabolic impact, which is really powerful. And so oftentimes I'm going to use this way before I'm going to something like semaglutide or ozempic, which is like few and far between. Anyway, I'm going to be using this and talking about this with my patients. I've done it myself, like, many times before my pregnancies. And I'm actually, I was just telling a patient a few days ago in clinic, like, I'm just chomping at the bit to get back to this, but I've been pregnant and breastfeeding and pregnant and breastfeeding for like the last. Yeah, three, four years, I don't know. Anyway. But it's a great protocol to change a few things in your body. It's going to change your glucose, insulin levels, so very good for anything like pre diabetes or diabetes or any trending upward. It's going to lower cholesterol, it's going to help reset and retarget the mechanisms that detox and react sort of regenerate. It's going to also activate stem cells, and stem cells are powerful cells that as we age, we don't get them to come out of hiding as much anymore. But this fasting mimicking diet has been shown time and time again to allow your stem cells to come out from sort of their resting state and regenerate and rebuild, like rebuild your liver, rebuild your kidneys, rebuild your brain. So we're using this also a lot of times, um, very specifically for, like, dementia. We're using it in cancer, um, autoimmune. There's some very good studies on it and autoimmune. So really a very cool thing. Awesome. Yeah. And I will definitely link below the YouTube video links. People can go watch that. And I think another reminder, as I was watching that video is just like, our body needs a reset every now and then. If we just, like, keep using it like this engine, it's going to eventually fizzle out or have some broken parts. And so if we're constantly feeding it all the time and doing all these things, like, when are your organs getting a break? They're not, you know? Yeah. And a lot of people come to me and say, like, I want to detox. And I think there's this, like, like, fad for people to talk about, like, detox. And I don't think the average public really understands what detox is. And so I'm more of a fan of, like, regenerate, not detox, because honestly, there's. Yes, we're swimming in a pool of chemicals all the time. Our body is doing its own job with detox. But really what we want to consider is we want to consider just giving all systems a break, not giving a ton of herbs that are going to be laxatives or that are going to make your liver work harder. It's more like give everything a break and allow regeneration, allow a new, healthy cell to build. And that's what this really does. So I'm a big fan of doing this. Like, sometimes I will prescribe it very specifically, like, once a month for three months in a row if I'm trying to, like, treat something very specific. But a lot of times I'm recommending, like, four times a year, once every three months, do a five day prolonged fasting mimicking diet, or maybe just twice a year, every six months. You know, everybody's a little different on how they respond to it. For some people, it's really hard. For some people, like me, I just love it. Everybody has it sort of different relationship with it. No, I love that. It's kind of like spoiling your internals for a week. You know, they're getting a refresh and a reboot, which is really good. That's great. Okay, so what else was I going to ask you about this? Is there any factors that you see constantly from women that you're like, I wish you would just stop doing this one thing or do less of this one thing? Is there anything kind of sabotaging their weight loss journey? You know, I think the mental game is a big deal. I see patients five days a week, so many patients every day. And, you know, when our body is, like, sort of working and we don't have a true disease, we are so lucky. There are just like, I mean, the realm of sort of disease and things that I see. I just would love to tell women, like, listen, yes, I know there's things we hate about our body and we hate about our looks or we just can't, like, get over. And I have them too, and they bother me, too, but I just try to retrain and just say, like, today I am healthy. I don't have xyz diseases. I don't have, you know, a, something that's really going to impact me right now. It doesn't mean I won't one day. But you know what? Right now I am healthy. My body works. My legs move. I can lift my babies. I have love in my heart. I can, you know, like, that is a gift. It's a gift. And if we can just lean into more of, like, the positive and just, you know, whatever it is, just say, you know, we can either hate it forever or we can just lean into it and do what we can to be our healthiest self. And so I really am like, I just am, like, I wish we could all have a little bit more self love just because aging is really hard and we're going to get to a certain age and we're just going to look back and be like, God, that was nothing back then. And I just am really, like, a big fan of being, like, what you have right now is still really good and let's just love it. And then, yes, we can always, all of us, make a better decision on our next meal or we can make a better decision for exercise tonight or tomorrow. But, like, in this moment, like, let's not hate on ourselves so much. Yeah, that's so good. That's definitely a clip we're going to cut. And I think you kind of mentioned this, too. But, like, the gratitude aspect is like, I get to go to the gym. I get to get on the floor with my kids today. You know, like, all the things we take for granted is just so good. On the pre show form, I had asked you, what does self care mean to you and how do you practice it? And one of the things you mentioned, you're doing like, a check in all the time of, like, how am I feeling? So when you're, what do you feel for or look for. How do you know when you're starting to get out of balance and what do you do? Yeah, I start to get just a little spacey. Right. So things I tend to. So a lot of women I see are either going to tend towards, like, the anxiety end of the spectrum or, like, the low mood depression. I am one who just tends to the, like, the high anxiety. So I'll start to, like, spin out. So there's, like, too many thoughts. There's too many things that I'm, like, trying. Like, I'm dropping things. Like, literally dropping things. Not just figuratively dropping things, but that's, like, that's the physical manifestation of what is also figuratively happening is you're, like, holding your baby, you're holding the other baby, and you're trying to, like, this morning, like, trying to, like, shake my drink, my, like, little, you know, mix up drink. And then the top wasn't on and it goes everywhere, and you're just like, oh, my gosh. Okay. There's a little too much happening in my head. Like, that's the sign. Like, for me, it's like, dropping things. It's like, okay, what's happening? Yeah. Okay. And then what are you doing to kind of rebalance or recenter awareness? And then, you know, I am really into yoga Nidrade, and I don't know if you've ever heard of it. I'm talking to patients about it all the time, and a lot of people haven't heard of it. I know a lot of people know about yoga. Yoga nidra is a relaxation hypnosis form of yoga. Not really true hypnosis, but it puts you into this relaxed, hypnotic state. And you can do it. There's an eleven minute version, which I'm like, we have eleven minutes. Yes. You might feel like you don't, but we have eleven minutes and we can all push record, Spotify. Apple music, my favorite album, is on both of them. We can put it in the show notes and you just. You sit or you lay in shavasana, which shavasana is just laying down, and you can close your eyes. And it starts with a progressive relaxation, and then it ends with almost this, like, hypnosis, where it takes your brain on a little journey so that you kind of forget where you are and what's happening. And then you drift off into, like, a parasympathetic or I alpha state, and then eleven minutes and you're like, oh, refresh. And you could do it first thing in the morning. You could do it in the middle of your day. You could do it before bed. You could do it when you wake up at one in the morning. It's great. Oh, that sounds so good. It reminds me, there's a studio in Kailua, I think that does sound healing like that. And it's like, pretty quick. You'll do a regular yoga flow, but then it's a 15 minutes, like, ritual, I guess, where you're just laying there listening, and you totally do tune out of the world. And then all of a sudden, they chime a bell and you're like, oh, where was I for the last ten minutes? It's amazing. And you just feel so refreshed. And like, I walked out of there with a smile. I was like, oh, this is great. Like, I need to do this often. So good reminder. So definitely we'll drop that link because I would love to hear the audio on that last question on this, but what are your holy grails as far as tools, tech, anything that keeps you going and is indispensable for your work? I'm obsessed with my aura ring. O u r a. Probably lots of you have heard of them. Ah, yay. I have been a user since 2018. So, so many years. I've gone through three of them, not because they are bad, but just because that's, they're tiny and it's good technology and just need updates. But I love it because it allows me to really understand how these systems of my body are doing. So there's markers on there that tell me about my nervous system. There's markers on there that can tell me how my adrenals are doing. There are markers on there that obviously tell you, like, deep sleep. I'm very into deep sleep. That's a huge thing. I could have an entire podcast about deep sleep, and it will. This is the best sleep monitor on the market for truly registering deep sleep levels. And it just really is a great way to gauge, over time, some of the changes maybe you're trying to implement or to see if changes happening in your life or for the detriment for you. And then I look at my patients aura data all the time. Yeah. Okay, cool. So I'll definitely show you next time. I see you because we're going to. Look at it, because it's like you're gamifying it. You're like, can I beat my sleep score from last night? How do I get into bed earlier tonight? You know, it's fun. That's right. I know. It's such a good. And it's not really just about sleep, although it. That's the big part. But I mean, the other fact that it does something called HRV, heart rate variability index, a lot of my patients don't know what that is. HRV reading on there is telling me how healthy your nervous system is. So I'm hoping for an average HIV for my patients, like 40 to 50 or higher. Okay. And so that's like, if anybody's using an oura ring and has never looked at their HRV, for instance, like, you can look at your hiv and understand now that like, oh, that's the nervous system. And the more healthy and like, able to reach a relaxed state, your nervous system is, the higher that number is going to be. Cool. See, that's fun facts. Yeah. Okay, so what's next for you? And can any woman in the US work with you or only on Oahu? So I am in the midst of pivoting my private practice. I have lived here in Honolulu, Hawaii for going on twelve years and been practicing medicine here. And my family and I are moving off island in a few weeks, actually. And we will be on mainland USA and I will have a virtual telemedicine practice, which means anyone can find me and book with me and become a patient. I have a website, I have Instagram. You guys can find me in any of those places. You can join my newsletter and on my website, I will have a book now option or a way to reach me. And I think we can put all of that in the show notes in terms of where you can find me. And if you're curious to work with me, I'm super happy to see anyone. Yeah. No, I'm so excited for you because literally there's no limits. Now you're on the Internet, which is the best thing you're anywhere. Okay. What's one thing you want someone to take action on the today? Like, if they could do anything, what do you want them to do? Drink more water and eat your broccoli. Oh, broccoli. That's a good one. Broccoli is super good for your hormones and it's a very nutrient dense food. And when I tell patients, like, if I have patients whose diet is really bad, and we're just trying to work on the diet before I even tell them to cut anything out, my recommendation is one cup of broccoli a day. You can buy it organic, frozen, keep it in your freezer. All you have to do is warm it up in a saucepan. You don't have to cut it, you don't have to chop it. You don't have to know how to steam it. Just frozen organic broccoli. Warm it up. One cup a day. Wow. Okay, we're going to do it. That's awesome. And then every episode, I end with a fun rapid fire. So what is your Starbucks order? And knowing that you don't probably have caffeine, I'm curious what this is. You know, I will have caffeine, especially now as a mom, honestly, I'll have a little bit. But I'm matcha. I love the health benefits of matcha. Super high antioxidant. It has the l theanine, so it doesn't give you that, like, ditter, that, like, I'm. I'm a slow caffeine metabolizer. That's a whole nother discussion. But I cannot, like, do high caffeine or it really just, like, puts me through the roof. But the l theanine and matcha is, like, a calming aspect. So I'll do a matcha. That's cool. How do you take it? With regular milk or what's it like? Oh, almond milk. Okay. Easy. Yeah. Unsweetened? Yep. Unless I'm at home. Usually I make my own at home. I like the Piku brand, and I just mix it with water and a little bit of almond milk and local honey. Yay. That's how I make mine at home, too. Okay. If it's last minute, last minute, what do you make for dinner? Usually frozen broccoli and some type of meat. Easy. Okay, cool. Um, do you have a favorite? Go to department of target or a favorite designer there? Used to maybe once upon a time. Uh, right now it's the kids section. I guess that's I literally, the last few times I've been to target, it's been to get diapers. And I bought a 4 July outfit for my daughter. There you go. I'm sorry. That's boring. No, that's. That's real life. That's honesty. What's a book or a podcast you'd recommend to the audience and why? Oh, you know, I am a big fan of autobiographies of women. I feel like we, as women, there's so much to learn from women who have come before us. And I like books about women written by women. I like movies about women written by women. I hate movies about women written by men. And honestly, once you start putting this in your head, within the first five minutes of a movie, I can always tell this, this woman was written by a man. Anyway, that's one of my things that really gets me, but, okay. So, yeah, autobiographies of women. Okay. We'll definitely check that out. TikTok or Instagram? Instagram. Okay. And then where can people find you online? You can find me on Instagram, and that's sort of the main social that I have the time for, which I really don't have the time for it anyway, but I am. That's where you can find most. Yes. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. I know you're a busy, busy woman. I'm so excited for all the things you have coming up in your future. Like, I think 2024 is your year. You're just going to explode when you get and establish your new home and all those things. And really, I just want other women to question, like, be curious about your health, be curious about your future so that we can age with grace and just live our life to the fullest. That's honestly, like, the biggest thing and have more time with our families. So I really appreciate you. I'm excited to continue working with you, and we'll see you soon. Yeah, thanks for having me. Thanks for the conversation, and I hope everybody gets a lot out of it. Yeah, thank you.