Curious Women

On this week's episode of Curious Women, Kylie & Meg are chatting it up with Dr. Sara Chong, a Functional Medicine Practitioner and Chiropractor with a wealth of training in lifestyle coaching and Korean whole foods nutrition. Dr. Sara's mission is to balance and modulate the foundational pillars of health by addressing the underlying root cause to chronic gut issues and restoring natural health and vitality. 

Today our hosts get to pick her brain about the relationship between food and culture and how we can connect with our roots through that approach. We also take a bit of a detour into discussing other related topics like different practitioner/patient dynamics, pros and cons of our medical system and easy beginning steps one can take to start connecting with their food!

You can connect with Dr. Sara on IG @drsarachong or schedule a free gut consult at www.drsarachong.com !

TLDL action steps for how to connect more with your food:

1. Research who lived on the land you now occupy and learn more about what foods they ate, what plants were most important to them and see if you can include more of those in your food preparation. Another way to do this is also to look into your own heritage and try some new dishes or foods that were staples in that culture.

2. To include more variety in your food, start even by substituting one item in a recipe you like (i.e. purple sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes or even yams)

3. If you're not sure what types of food you want to try, think about what type of cuisines you typically order out. Do you usually go for Indian? Italian? Moroccan? Look up an easy recipe to try and create on your own and see how it goes!

4. Remember that you as the patient know your body best. There are practitioners out there who will invite you to participate in your health journey. This might feel more supportive & collaborative for some people.

This week Kylie & Meg sit down with Lacey Dunn, a Functional Medicine Dietitian, who helps women reclaim their hormones and their health to become the boss of their own bodies! 

The girls get back to Thyroid basics and break down what it is, what it does, and what tests are important. Like much of Curious Women topics, this one is super complicated, so while they dive into some pretty science-y stuff in the beginning they wrap up at the end with some great suggestions on attainable places to start!

Lacey is the author of the new book, "The Women's Guide to Hormonal Harmony: How To Rebalance Your Hormones, Master Your Metabolism and Become the Boss of Your Own Body", where she helps women navigate their "hormonal symphony", healing their gut and more! It serves as a database to help women understand anything that impacts their overall health. Her book is available on Amazon & at Barnes & Noble or available on her website: https://upliftfitnutrition.com/book/

You can connect with her on IG @faithandfit , twitter @laceyadunn , or www.upliftfitnutrition.com 

She also has a new supplement line called NourishWell Nutrition, which are evidenced based and formulated by Lacey herself. They are also third party tested to ensure purity and safety! Coming soon @nourishwellnutrition on IG ; pre-launch for the supplements starts on 4/8 and the website will be: www.NourishWellco.com 

TLDL action steps for how to support your thyroid & adrenal systems:

1. Your TSH is not enough to fully assess your thyroid function. Lacey's ideal testing for thyroid would include: TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone), Free T3, Free T4 and thyroid antibodies (TPO & Tg Ab) + nutrients (Vitamin A, B vitamins, Vitamin E, zinc, selenium, magnesium) + Cortisol 

2. For many people (especially women), things you wouldn't suspect may be putting unnecessary stress on your body and messing with your hormones, so try to avoid these. These things include under-eating/over-exercising, fasting for too long, not getting enough sleep and even past traumas.

3. "If you have symptoms, you're stressed". If typical stress management tips don't work for you (like yoga & meditation), there are a ton of options for you, including "forced relaxation" techniques. 

This week, Meg and Kylie sat down with Dr. Rose Schlaff to talk all things breaking down the barriers to intimacy. 

Dr. Rose Schlaff is a sex/intimacy coach and pelvic floor physical therapist who has spent the last 5 years helping women and queer folks break down barriers to intimacy so they can feel confident, connected, and carefree in their relationships in and out of the bedroom.

In addition to her virtual sex/intimacy coaching practice, she is a guest lecturer for the University of Michigan’s Human Sexuality Certificate Program, San Diego State University’s Marriage and Family Therapy Program, and has had the opportunity to lecture internationally on the topic of sexual and pelvic health in Beijing, China.

To learn more, go to https://www.bewellwithrose.com/learn-more , check out Dr. Rose on instagram @bewellwithrose, or get in touch with Dr. Rose at [email protected].

You can download Dr. Rose's FREE guide to talking sex at www.bewellwithrose.com/talk

Actionable steps for this episode:

Today Kylie & Meg are learning how we can actually balance our hormones by focusing on building muscle! Lauren Papanos talks us through the science behind supporting muscle growth and what exactly it has to do with balancing our hormones. Lauren is a Functional Medicine Registered Dietitian and owner of Functional Fueling Nutrition (FFN), Lauren Papanos. FFN offers private coaching, the Strength in Hormones Collective and functional lab testing. Lauren is a licensed Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics through the Commission on Dietetic Registration. She holds both her bachelor's and master's degrees in Nutritional Sciences. Lauren works with women to get to the root cause of their health issues and help them heal using natural approaches. She specializes in: PCOS, amenorrhea, thyroid conditions, and exercise performance. You can learn more about FFN at www.functionalfueling.com.

Make sure to check out Lauren's program Strength in Hormones, the only live program on how to sustainably lose body fat and build strength while improving your hormone health. Without calorie counting, hours spent in the gym, or taking hundreds of supplements. See more here: https://functionalfueling.thinkific.com/bundles/strength-in-hormones 

TLDL action steps for how to balance your hormones by building strength:

1. Work on your "metabolic flexibility" by implementing a balanced overnight fast. Lauren generally recommends a 12-14 hour overnight fast to allow your body enough rest

2. Identify "Tell-tale" signs of hormone imbalance: mid-afternoon energy crash, sleeping issues, fatigue, gut problems, skin/hair/nails problems

3. Focus on nourishment vs restriction: eat foods you like but make sure you are also getting the basic 3 "PPF" as Lauren calls it

4. Eat ENOUGH!

5. Build muscle by including strength training into your workouts (and no, it DOESN'T mean you'll get "big and bulky")

In this episode, Kylie & Meg chat with Registered Dietitian, Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner and Reiki Master, Eleni Ottalagana. Eleni has a private practice called Women’s Nutrition Clinic, where she specializes in women’s health and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). More specifically, she supports women who want to make nutrition & lifestyle changes using holistic, integrative and functional nutrition approaches.

Eleni is passionate about shifting health care for women and works to empower females when it comes to advocating for their health.

In today's episode, we ask Eleni all the questions including:

Or, if you want to cut right to the chase and know what Eleni's top tips for managing PCOS naturally are, her suggestions are to start with:

If you want more specifics on these action tips or want to work with Eleni, here's how you can find her online:

https://womensnutritionclinic.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/WomensNutritionClinic

https://womensnutritionclinic.com/schedule-a-consultation-with-eleni/

https://www.instagram.com/pcos.dietitian/ 

Hello to all and welcome to the Curious Women Podcast, where we have chats about women’s health to teach you what you didn’t know, you didn’t know.

On the very first intro episode of the Curious Women Podcast (CWP), hosts Meg & Kylie take you on a little journey into their lives, what they do and why they are SO DARN EXCITED to start this podcast.

We are two "curious women" who will be asking questions to various industry experts in an interview style format about things you didn't know you didn't know so YOU can feel empowered to participate in your health care.

Meg: a NYC-turned-Hawai'i transplant is a Functional Registered Dietitian who specializes in nutrition for acne & skin health. She currently has a virtual private practice helping women get clear skin naturally. https://www.acnenutritionist.com

Kylie: a DC/Maine-based Functional Registered Dietitian who specializes in gut health & autoimmune diseases. She currently also has a private practice where she helps clients navigate their way to a healthier body & happier gut. https://www.stratanutrition.com/

Episodes will be released weekly. Each episode will feature an expert in that topic along with some regular segments ("What Are We Drinking?" and "Health WTF Moments"). 

"What Are We Drinking" is when we'll share our beverages of choice while we record the podcast episodes. Whether it's your daily reminder to hydrate, an invitation to make a fancy drink for yourself while you listen to our episodes or just something that makes you laugh- we're here for it. Share your fancy drink recipes with us via email at [email protected]

"Health WTF Moments": have you ever had a health-related experience that just makes you think, "WTF?" Each week we'll be sharing Health WTF Moments from our own lives, our clients lives, our special guests and even you! Send us your Health WTF moments at [email protected]