I BLEED

In this episode, I meet with Stephanie Nehme , a registered clinical dietitian working with Aligned Health, with a scientific  and mindful approach to food to debunk myths about PMS weight gain and cravings and to understand how what we eat can contribute to a more positive experience with our cycle.

Stephanie is a Lebanese registered dietitian with 7 years of hands on experience in the clinical and hospital fields. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics from the Notre Dame University in Lebanon and joined Right Bite in April 2018.

Throughout her professional path, she had the opportunity to deal with diverse client cases and managed to improve their diet and physical activities while allowing them to acquire a positive mindset for a sustainable healthy lifestyle.

She added value to her organisations by prescribing meal plans and physical activity plans based on the patient’s medical, psychological and social factors; providing dedicated support for patients which have led to retention of loyal clients; collaborating with doctors to provide a sustainable medical nutrition therapy for patients; managing the clinics’ operations, writing diet manuals and presentations, as well as radio shows; supervising food production, distribution menu planning in the hospital.

Her areas of expertise are weight management, fitness, lifestyle improvement, metabolic syndrome, children/adolescent nutrition, pregnancy/breastfeeding and gastro-intestinal disorders.

Most importantly, she is a caring dietitian with a very encouraging and flexible approach. She believes in having a good relationship with food and one’s own body. Exercising is essential for her since it has protective and healing properties.

Stephanie maintains her knowledge by attending conferences. She consulted clients of different backgrounds since she worked in clinics within several Lebanese regions; besides being fluent in English, French and Arabic.

Between dancing, swimming, singing, acting, travelling and styling, Stephanie aims to live life fully. She most of all enjoys helping people bring the best out of themselves through a healthier lifestyle. She likes salads, yet she always finds true love in sushi and desserts. https://www.instagram.com/rightbite/ 

https://www.instagram.com/aligned.health/ 

https://www.instagram.com/steph.healthy.advice/

In this episode I speak to Jessie Madrigal about life with endometriosis, and her personal journey with that illness. 

Jess is  a lifestyle and women’s health columnist who also writes short stories and plays. She lives with endometriosis  and is an advocate of this excruciating illness, Most of her current work focuses on endometriosis and mental health. 

You can follow her on 

My website jessiewrites.com

My Instagram @onegirlinten

My twitter @missjesswrites

In this episode I speak to Line Tabet Masri and Rana Haddad the founders of Dawrati,  an NGO based in Lebanon who has a mission to end period poverty. 

While food boxes and essentials are being handed out, women’s needs are usually forgotten, and thanks to Dawrati 2500 period kits were handed to women who needed them

Dawrati is the arabic word for my menstrual cycle . It was established by Line Tabet Masri and Rana Haddad on the 4th of May 2020 with two key objectives

1. end period poverty by distributing a sanitary kit to girls and women in need. Each kit contains period pads, pantyliners and wipes for a duration of one month. We distribute via NGOs that are already on the ground distributing food boxes.

2. End the stigma that surrounds period and normalize the conversation around it. We were looking to hold workshops for that. But everything is on hold because of covid 19.  With their knowledge, experience and dedication Line and Rana are really pushing Dawrati. 

Since the Beirut explosion they distributed more than 2500 kits. And have now we partnered with Nana to distribute 2 million pads with the help of Beit el Baraka. 

You can follow them on instagram @https://www.instagram.com/dawrati.lb/ 

and you can help them by donating @ https://www.just-help.org/c/dawrati/

In this episode I speak to Gonzag Odero one of the founders of SafeGirl International.  A non profit organization in Kenya, which main mission is to produce and distribute washable sanitary pads and other related products to low income girls and young women, in order to release and free them and allow them to make wise choices and continue their education unhampered by basic necessity that should be available to them all the time.

You can help them raise funds by participating in the Gofundmepage

IG: https://www.instagram.com/safegirlinternational/

I believe a collective healing happens when people from that collective share their stories out loud, when the story no longer remains untold, hushed, and forgotten.

For many of the women I interviewed, no one had asked them about the story of their first period, it was a forgotten story one not to be brought up…

I was honoured to hear them tell their stories for the first time.

This collection of first period stories, I see it as a healing circle, but also as an archive of stories for those who have not yet stepped into their cycle.

There is a power and beauty in sharing our stories….

WANT TO SHARE YOU 1st PERIOD STORY?

Sharing connects us to each other, and has the power to bind us and heal us.

There are two way to go about it.

You can either send me a video of around 2-3min, looking straight into the camera and sharing your first period story.

Or you can send me a picture of you around the time you got you first period along with your written story.

www.i-bleed.com

I believe a collective healing happens when people from that collective share their stories out loud, when the story no longer remains untold, hushed, and forgotten.

For many of the women I interviewed, no one had asked them about the story of their first period, it was a forgotten story one not to be brought up…

I was honoured to hear them tell their stories for the first time.

This collection of first period stories, I see it as a healing circle, but also as an archive of stories for those who have not yet stepped into their cycle.

There is a power and beauty in sharing our stories….

WANT TO SHARE YOU 1st PERIOD STORY?

Sharing connects us to each other, and has the power to bind us and heal us.

There are two way to go about it.

You can either send me a video of around 2-3min, looking straight into the camera and sharing your first period story.

Or you can send me a picture of you around the time you got you first period along with your written story.

www.i-bleed.com

*** this interview is in Lebanese ***

Part of my journey involved me making peace with my mother and understanding how the relationship a mother has with her daughter can somehow influence the relationship the daughter has with her period. In this episode I meet with Stephanie Ghanem. Stephanie is a Lebanese clinical psychologist and psychotherapist based in Lebanon. We talk about the mother daughter relationship specifically within the Lebanese culture.

Stephanie Ghanem is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, working mainly with children, teenagers, couples and adults.  She is the founder and the president of MISHA a special need school with a unique approach based in Lebanon. Stephanie is also a writer, and contributes often in magazines on topics related to psychology, sociology and sexuality.

You can follow her on instagram or on facebook

I believe a collective healing happens when people from that collective share their stories out loud, when the story no longer remains untold, hushed, and forgotten.

For many of the women I interviewed, no one had asked them about the story of their first period, it was a forgotten story one not to be brought up…

I was honoured to hear them tell their stories for the first time.

This collection of first period stories, I see it as a healing circle, but also as an archive of stories for those who have not yet stepped into their cycle.

There is a power and beauty in sharing our stories….

WANT TO SHARE YOU 1st PERIOD STORY?

Sharing connects us to each other, and has the power to bind us and heal us.

There are two way to go about it.

You can either send me a video of around 2-3min, looking straight into the camera and sharing your first period story.

Or you can send me a picture of you around the time you got you first period along with your written story.

In this episode I meet Dr Gael Abou Ghannam, a Gynecologist, based in Beirut. She is also somehow ofan activist and a progressive thinker in woman’s health. I meet her in her cabinet, and we talk about how medicine deals with periods in today’s world, from the pill to medication to PMS.

Dr. Gaël Abou Ghannam is an obstetrician-gynecologist specialized in infertility and fertility preservation in adult and pediatric patients from the American University Beirut.

Follow Dr Gael on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.gael