190 - HACK YOUR MINDSET TO TRANSFORM YOUR FITNESS GOALS

[Podcast with Bela Castro]

Women with PCOS tend to be very insulin resistant, which is why exercise is so such an important piece to healing PCOS.

Today we'll be talking about how mindset can help your wellness goals with Bela Castro, she is the founder and head trainer of B-FIT where she helps women to glow from the inside out. Bela explains how to reveal your inner motivation and how that can help you succeed in your health and fitness goals.

Listen in and learn:

How to build a healthy relationship with food & nourish your body

Ways to incorporate more raw unprocessed foods in your diet

Learn what your inner motivation is & how it can help you achieve your goals

What it means to achieve higher energetic vibrations through food

How to match your daily existence with the ideal version of you

Today we'll be talking about pathways to pregnancy with bestselling author, international speaker, acupuncturist, and high-performance coach Mary Wong.

Mary is the founder of Alive Holistic Health, which combines traditional Chinese medicine with Western science to nurture the body and soul. She has helped over 10,000 women in counting overcome infertility, PCOS, and other health challenges.

In her book - Pathways to Pregnancy - she explains the power of combining Western and Eastern medicine to improve your chances of having a baby. In her book she shares peoples real stories so that women can feel empowered, have hope, not feel alone, and not have shame on their journey towards motherhood.

In today's episode, Mary and Amy also share their personal stories about struggling with infertility, their journeys to motherhood, and overcoming the labels Doctors put on them.

Listen in and learn:

The positive effects acupuncture and herbal medicine have on fertility

How to let go of labels a Dr. may have put on you about your "infertility"

How to manage working while going through IVF

How to encourage a pregnancy and align yourself to create life

The connection a demanding job has on fertility and how to manage that stress

Dr. Dana Cohen is NYC's leading Holistic Doctor and has been on the leading edge of integrative and functional medicine for over two decades. She practices with an emphasis on the individual, understanding that no two patients are alike, and limits her patient's reliance on prescription medications by using diet, lifestyle changes, and nutritional supplementation.

Her recent book - Quench - explains the benefits of proper hydration and how it can dramatically affect your health, vitality, and overall quality of life. She explains the right way to hydrate and how to get the water you drink deep into your muscles, cells, and fascia (the connective tissue of your body), where it’s needed most.

It's important for women with PCOS to be hydrated. Water is a major component of every cell, tissue, and organ. It plays an important role in almost every bodily function. Increasing your water intake will also help both insoluble and soluble fiber do their job to avoid digestive distress, which is a common symptom of PCOS.

Listen in as we discuss:

How what you eat affects how you absorb water

Debunk myths about “getting enough water”

Benefits of salt for hydration

Tips for how to drink and absorb more water 

How micro-movements throughout the day keep you hydrated 

The many ways dehydration affects your mind and body

Dr. Felice Gersh is a ground-breaking thought leader in the field of PCOS. She is a multi award-winning physician with a dual board certification in OBGYN and Integrative Medicine. Dr. Gersh returns to the PCOS Diva podcast to discuss the pros and cons of a pharmaceutical drug called Semaglutide, also marketed under the name of Ozempic and Wegovy.

I've heard many women with PCOS talking recently about Semaglutide as a new "magic pill" for PCOS symptoms and weight loss. And that this pill it's not only being used by women with PCOS and type 2 diabetes but it's apparently the hot new weight loss drug celebrities are using in Hollywood.

In this podcast, Dr. Gersh explains how this so called "magic pill" (Semaglutide) is a chemical mimic of GLP-1 which your body naturally produces when everything is working right. GLP-1 helps to regulate your appetite and helps create energy by utilizing stored glycogen (a form of stored fat). In this podcast we discuss how a quick fix doesn't usually hold up long term.

Listen in as we discuss:

- Pros and cons of taking Semaglutide

- The concerning effects of getting off the drug

- Breaking down the study that "supports" the drug and how the study didn't include women with PCOS

- The importance of informed consent

- Natural ways to encourage your body to regulate your appetite to lose weight

Interview with Monique Rhodes, she is a master at teaching you how to calm your mind and live a happier life. Mental wellness is so important for women with PCOS because such a large majority of us are suffering with anxiety and depression and mood related disorders.

Monique has worked with some of the most well known spiritual teachers of our time like Dalai Lama, Thich Naht Hahn, Ekhart Tolle and Pema Chödrön. She is on a mission to help people who think they can't meditate, she created The 10 Minute Mind meditation course which is used at over 70 universities and colleges.

In this podcast Monique explains ways meditation can lead you to happiness and gives mediation tips for people who think they can't mediate.

Listen in as we discuss:

- How to take expectations off yourself while meditating

- Why meditation is the answer to a lot of our problems

- The steps you can take right now to create a life of happiness

- How not to suppress negative emotions and deal with them as they come

- Ways meditation can have a positive ripple effect in your life

- How to get rid of harsh beliefs we may have about ourselves that no longer serve us

Women with PCOS often struggle with excess hair growth. Many women have tried different hair removal techniques from electrolysis, at-home lasers, waxing, or threading.

I came across a product that is a natural at-home option for hair removal and I am delighted to share it with you on today’s podcast. I speak with Salome Sallehy, the founder and president of Sugar Sugar Wax. She shares all the benefits of sugar waxing and how it can really help women with PCOS. This hair removal technique is really new to me, but I've tried it out and I'm so impressed with the results.

Listen in as we discuss:

- What is sugaring

- Why is it a great hair removal method for women with PCOS

- Step by step instructions on how to use Sugar Sugar Wax

- When the best time to wax is based on the different hair growth phases

- Hair positivity – empowering women to not feel shame around body hair

Vitex, also called "chaste tree", is a plant used in many herbal supplements for hormonal symptoms, including PCOS. There is a lot of conflicting information regarding Vitex in the PCOS community.

In today’s podcast, I speak with Jillian Bar-av, a Registered Herbalist and Licensed Nutritionist. We discuss the pros and cons of taking Vitex and where the confusion around taking Vitex for PCOS comes from.

Join us as we chat about the following:

- Vitex effects on reproductive health

- Myths about Vitex raising Luteinizing Hormone

- What type of PCOS works best with Vitex

- Herbs to help with stress and anxiety

We are designed for and motivated to seek happiness. However, to be motivated but not trained can be frustrating. Sherry Fernandez Stirling uses a unique blend of memoir, sound principles, and practical tools to help you make progress toward your infinite potential and with it, happiness. Life Mastery includes training and systems necessary to reach goals and develop habits needed for success in every area of life, including:

Better Relationships

A Healthier Body

Sounder Finances

Spiritual Peace

Fun and Passion

Discussion with Dr. Jennifer Mayes about her fantastic healing success using the PCOS Diva Jumpstart program & Meal Plans. 

Jennifer is a Professor of English at a community college in Tennessee. She began her journey with PCOS at a very young age. 

Besides being an advocate for health and continuing to research and live with PCOS, she also has a YouTube channel, Magical Muses & Monthly Musings, dedicated to her love for makeup and skincare supportive of a PCOS-friendly lifestyle. 

She documents her journey with health on her Instagram, jenniferhealthwarrior, and she and her husband, Alex, love to travel and explore new cultures and foods that broaden her understanding of what living with PCOS really means for women everywhere.  

Tune in as we discuss:

- The negative effects of birth control and mainstream medications on her health

- Why Weight Watchers didn’t work for her - long term

- Why the PCOS Diva Jumpstart worked for her

- Her journey from 269 to 121 pounds

- Listening to subtle body cues

- Anxiety management

- Mindset factors for success

With Over 10 years of struggling to manage her PCOS and being dependent on pills and being disappointed with the phrase that “lifestyle change is the only solution that can help” - Nidhi Singh took control of her health. With PCOS and periods being a taboo subject in India, she felt a dire need to normalize the conversation about PCOS. She realized the lived experiences could truly help women and can be a powerful tool to find reliable resources and build a trusted community.

PCOS Club India is now India’s largest PCOS-focused community.

Join us as we chat about the following:

- The global perspective -  how different cultures play a role in PCOS inheritance & the genetic piece that is often overlooked

- The lack of reproductive health options for Indian women

- Ayurvedic solutions: eat for your dosha, gut healing, popular Indian herbs and spices