For any female, any age, this episode is for YOU! Monica Eva, a hormone nutritionist, shares her personal struggles with migraines and weight gain, that began at a very young age and went misdiagnosed for years. It wasn't until an instructor in college was sharing the symptoms of hormonal imbalance that Monika had a light bulb moment and was able to self-diagnose her health issues! This opened up her studies to the world of hormone nutrition and led her to specializing in educating and coaching women. She provides a clear explanation and plan of how to improve symptoms of hormonal imbalance while ultimately encouraging empowerment for all women, urging them to be proactive and take control of their wellness journey.
Have you ever felt unsettled with a diagnosis, thinking there must be something more? Monika knows this experience all too well. She shares stories of her own quests for answers when they didn't seem to come from traditional medicine which she then realized the importance of following her own intuition was the only answer she needed. Monika shares the incredible healing our bodies can experience when we provide it with natural, holistic needs such as proper nutrition, regular exercise and quality sleep. She outlines her Balance Body Method program, and how trusting your gut—both metaphorically and biologically—can lead to a higher level of health and happiness!
Join us a we share the steps to self-healing, the harmonious balance of hormones, and the proactive measures essential for women's health. If you have been dealing with health challenges related to hormones or perhaps you are unclear what might be the reason behind your low energy, weight gain and other symptoms, then allow Monika to be a beacon of hope. Listen in and be inspired to become a wellness warrior, while tuning into your body's incredible self-healing abilities and ultimately taking steps toward a vibrant, fulfilling life.
High quality, clean nutrition and beauty products: https://shellyjefferis.isagenix
Thank you for listening to the Words of Wellness podcast with Shelly Jefferis. I am honored and so grateful to have you here and it would mean the world to me if you could take a minute to follow, leave a 5-star review and share the podcast with anyone you love and anyone you feel could benefit from the message.
Thank you and God Bless! And remember to do something for yourself, for your wellness on this day!
For any female, any age, this episode is for YOU! Monica Eva, a hormone nutritionist, shares her personal struggles with migraines and weight gain, that began at a very young age and went misdiagnosed for years. It wasn't until an instructor in college was sharing the symptoms of hormonal imbalance that Monika had a light bulb moment and was able to self-diagnose her health issues! This opened up her studies to the world of hormone nutrition and led her to specializing in educating and coaching women. She provides a clear explanation and plan of how to improve symptoms of hormonal imbalance while ultimately encouraging empowerment for all women, urging them to be proactive and take control of their wellness journey.
Have you ever felt unsettled with a diagnosis, thinking there must be something more? Monika knows this experience all too well. She shares stories of her own quests for answers when they didn't seem to come from traditional medicine which she then realized the importance of following her own intuition was the only answer she needed. Monika shares the incredible healing our bodies can experience when we provide it with natural, holistic needs such as proper nutrition, regular exercise and quality sleep. She outlines her Balance Body Method program, and how trusting your gut—both metaphorically and biologically—can lead to a higher level of health and happiness!
Join us a we share the steps to self-healing, the harmonious balance of hormones, and the proactive measures essential for women's health. If you have been dealing with health challenges related to hormones or perhaps you are unclear what might be the reason behind your low energy, weight gain and other symptoms, then allow Monika to be a beacon of hope. Listen in and be inspired to become a wellness warrior, while tuning into your body's incredible self-healing abilities and ultimately taking steps toward a vibrant, fulfilling life.
High quality, clean nutrition and beauty products: https://shellyjefferis.isagenix
Thank you for listening to the Words of Wellness podcast with Shelly Jefferis. I am honored and so grateful to have you here and it would mean the world to me if you could take a minute to follow, leave a 5-star review and share the podcast with anyone you love and anyone you feel could benefit from the message.
Thank you and God Bless! And remember to do something for yourself, for your wellness on this day!
In Health, Shelly Jefferis
Speaker 1:
And the other thing that I'm going to say is that your body absolutely does have the ability to heal itself. It 1000% does. In fact, your body's number one job is to keep you alive and to keep you healthy. All it needs is a little bit of support for you to bring it into the state, into an environment where it's able to do so.
Speaker 2:
Do you get confused by all of the information that Babar does every day on ways to improve our overall health and our overall wellness? Do you often feel stuck, unmotivated or struggle to reach your wellness goals? Do you have questions as to what exercises you should be doing, what foods you should or should not be eating, how to improve your overall emotional and mental well-being? Hello everyone, I am so excited to welcome you to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelley Jeffries and I will be your host. My goal is to answer these questions and so much more to share tips, education and inspiration around all of the components of wellness through solo and guest episodes.
Speaker 2:
With 35 plus years as a health and wellness professional, a retired college professor, a speaker and a multi-passionate entrepreneur, I certainly have lots to share. However, my biggest goal and inspiration in doing this podcast is to share the wellness stories of others with you, to bring in guests who can share their journey so that we can all learn together while making an impact on the health, the wellness and lives of all of you, our listeners. The ultimate hope is that you leave today with even just one nugget that can enhance the quality of your life, and that you will. We all will, now and into the future, live our best quality of lives, full of energy, happiness and joy. Now let's dive into our message for today.
Speaker 2:
Hello everyone, and welcome to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelley Jeffries and I am here today with an awesome guest who is going to provide us, especially women, with lots of excellent information. So if you might be feeling a little low in energy, or maybe you're struggling with losing a little bit of weight and you might be going through that time of life that we love to call menopause, then she is your gal. So I'm very excited for what we are all going to learn today, and welcome to the show, Monica.
Speaker 1:
Hi Shelley, Thank you so much for having me here. I'm so excited for us to talk about all the things.
Speaker 2:
I am so excited and this has been on our. We've been talking about this for a really long time, haven't we?
Speaker 1:
We really have, and I'm happy that it's finally like come to fruition. Yes, me too me too.
Speaker 2:
So I know you offer so much value and we were just talking about this and you offer so much in social media and your programs, and I just know that our listeners are going to learn a lot. Today, at least, you know some nugget and tidbit of information that they can apply to their lives and help maybe ease some of what they might be going through. For those who might be going through menopause, I'll just put it that way I'm already past it, but I wish I would have known you back then. But that's okay, I know you now and we can share all the information with our listeners. I would love to know how you got involved, because I feel like we've talked about this, but I would love to hear this and to share with our listeners what got you on this journey to really specialize in this field.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely. So. You know, it's really my own hormone journey, my own health journey, actually, I should say that brought me to where I am today. So I wasn't always a hormone nutritionist. I didn't really know much about hormones or anything like that. In fact I was just always very health conscious. So you know, I ate really healthy. I exercised.
Speaker 1:
Growing up I actually struggled with losing weight. I always thought of myself as like the bigger girl and the group of friends, and so losing weight was very, very challenging for me. And as I got a little bit older, I started caring more about what I ate and exercising and things definitely improved. But it was really in university when I had gained some weight, because you know, you're eating all the junk food, you are super stressed out, you're like studying this, that and the other, but really what started happening was I started suffering from migraines, and these migraines would happen very often, like too often.
Speaker 1:
Every other day I was battling with a migraine, and so I remember going to see my family doctor letting her know hey, I'm going, I'm struggling with these migraines, I want to make sure it's not something more serious, like your mind just goes to crazy stuff like a brain tumor or something, and she basically prescribed me with antidepressants, and I knew that something was weird about that.
Speaker 1:
But you know, being I was probably I was very young, so I was about it was my first year of undergrad, so I was about 18 years old, and so I did take the antidepressants for about one to two months, thinking that my doctor had not to say she didn't have my best interest, but thinking that this would relieve my migraines. And when I didn't, I knew that something was not right, like the antidepressant actually made me feel weird. I don't know how else to explain it, other than I just didn't feel like myself, probably because I didn't need the antidepressant. I wasn't depressed, I was just struggling with migraines and the migraines still persisted. Anyways, that made me find a holistic nutritionist who basically switched up my diet altogether. I realized that the healthy foods I was eating were actually very inflammatory. They weren't. They were just marketed as healthy, but they were not healthy by any means, and so I ended up switching out my entire diet and literally within two weeks of working with her and making this switch, my migraines disappeared.
Speaker 2:
Wow.
Speaker 1:
And so my mind was blown. So I was sold into holistic nutrition just from the get go. I was like this is how I want to live the rest of my life. So that's really what started. My like fueled my passion for holistic health and holistic nutrition. And then, you know, fast forward.
Speaker 1:
I'm in my early or mid to yeah, early to mid twenties, graduated and working a full-time job. You know, having a very like, working in a very, very big law firm, lots of things going on, and all of a sudden I'm hit with so much fatigue. Like I can't even explain to you what I experienced, other than waking up in the morning was such a struggle. Getting out of bed was torturous, like as soon as I got out of bed I was already counting down the hours. When can I get back to bed? Like I just wanted to sleep, and so you know you can't really do that when you're trying to, like, climb the corporate ladder and build a career for yourself. So once again went back to my doctor and there were no answers for me. They basically told me that everything was fine. I had all my like, I had everything tested, hormones included, and I was like, and they basically just said that there's nothing wrong with you. But on top of the fatigue, the migraines started to come back. Except this time they were different. The migraines were kind of like with my cycle, so it was the first week of my bleed. I would get these migraines and they would take me out for three, four days every single month. I started gaining all this weight even though I was exercising like a mad woman. I would go to the gym every single day and the weight just kept piling on. And so it wasn't until I enrolled in holistic nutrition school because I was so convinced that there had to have been something that I like missing with my food, with my nutrition. Like I know, I can heal this.
Speaker 1:
And I enrolled in holistic nutrition school, and it wasn't until I took this one course where the instructor was listing out all these different symptoms and I was like, oh my gosh, I have all of them. And that's when it really dawned on me that, oh my gosh, it in fact was my hormones, and the hormone testing I had done by my doctor was completely incomplete. So they basically just skimmed the surface on hormones Given my age, nobody checked like estrogen and progesterone and testosterone and DHEA. None of that was looked at, and all they really looked at was TSH, which is like one small marker that gives us insight into what's going on with your thyroid, but it doesn't give us the full picture, and so I didn't know this, I had no idea. And then I realized, like nobody even tested my cortisol, and so that kind of brought me down the rabbit hole of looking into hormones.
Speaker 1:
And that's when I went down the path of becoming a holistic health practitioner, a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, and really specializing in hormone health and gut health, and so fast forward. All of that. I ended up running functional testing on myself, seeing that I was completely burnt out. My cortisol was so dysregulated, my thyroid was sluggish, I had low progesterone estrogen dominance going on, just like hormones were tanked across the board, and I was able to rebalance all of this and by the end of it I regained my energy. I lost 30 pounds, maybe even a little bit more than 30 pounds, after about like six months of just digging into this and really healing my body. I've been migraine free ever since.
Speaker 2:
Wow, what a journey. That's amazing. What age were you when you were able to have the testing done? That was much more invasive, so that you could figure all this out, because early on, like you said, it makes so much sense. When we're younger, they're not testing us as much, or they're not testing all the different hormones because they don't really think about that at that point in time, right yeah absolutely, I was actually in my late twenties, wow yeah.
Speaker 1:
So it was about like three to four years after seeing the doctor. Because the thing is is you trust your doctor, you trust that when you go in and complain about symptoms, if your doctor tells you it's not your hormones, you trust that it's not your hormones. But what we don't often realize is the testing that our doctor runs is very different from functional testing. It's very different, right, it's very different. It's not complete testing. The labs have different ranges than what optimal ranges are, right. And so this is exactly what happened here like my TSH, which is thyroid stimulating hormone, it was something like 3.6, like 3.6 or 3.7, I can't remember exactly now, but it was like high 3. Something. And in my doctor's eyes she claimed that this was normal, it was within the lab ranges.
Speaker 1:
Most labs go up to 5.0, but optimally we want that thyroid stimulating hormone not to exceed 2.0. The moment it goes over 2.0, it's like you start getting those symptoms of like a more sluggish metabolism. Basically, right, yeah, so basically what I'm saying is that there's a difference between lab ranges and optimal ranges. Lab ranges are really a reflection of a greater population that's being tested, and so if you think about who are the people that are often going to get tested, they're the people that don't feel good, they're the people with all the symptoms, whereas when we look at optimal ranges, this is based off the people that feel optimal. So the ranges do matter. Sure that you're having complete testing that's done to give us a complete picture of what's happening in your body. We also have to make sure that the ranges that we're referencing are also optimal.
Speaker 2:
So it's amazing to me because you experience not just having one or two hormones off. Everything was out of balance for you. And I don't know, because I'm not familiar with it, I don't know how common that is, but it makes me think. How many women are going around going what's wrong with me and not realizing that this is the cause, especially if they're young, like and it makes sense, like with you and your 20s? We wouldn't think in our 20s that our hormones are affecting us in that way, right, but the thing is, like you know, there's so like cortisol is such a sensitive hormone in women.
Speaker 1:
So cortisol is a stress hormone. We don't even realize how much stress our bodies go through, right. So even like in my 20s, like you know, I hadn't. There was no pregnancy, I didn't deliver a child or anything like that. Usually, like cortisol, will tank after childbirth. It's just something that happens, and this is why it's so important that women who, after having a baby, really do things to support their hormones and when they don't, it can trickle down years later into menopause, where all these other symptoms hit them.
Speaker 1:
But there could be other stressors, like the foods that you eat, gut imbalances that's one thing that I didn't mention. But I also ran some gut health tests on myself and it came back that I did have imbalanced gut bacteria. There was a leaky gut I was dealing with, right. So there was a lot of inflammation in my body and so, like there's just a lot to cover. But basically it was just all of these different things contributed to stress in my body which caused this cortisol to be dysregulated.
Speaker 1:
And you know what's really funny, shelley, like I recently went to the doctor with my mom just because I felt like she needed an advocate for herself because she was going through some of her own stuff. And so my mom she is in her 60s and her family doctor after my mom brought up these different concerns that she has. And when I said to the doctor, like, do you think it's worth us testing her hormones? Like I feel like some of the things she might be experiencing could be like related to hormones and we're talking things like fatigue and feeling sleepy during the day and you know more so, like blood sugar issues, this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:
And you know what the doctor said to me. She said she asked my mom and she said you know how long has it been since you've been in menopause? And she gave the answer she's like no, it's not your hormones. It's been like too many years have gone by for it to be related to hormones.
Speaker 1:
And I thought so I was too young for it to be my hormones, and now my mom is basically like the doctor, saying she's too old, wow. And so it really brought a lot of perspective for me, where just a lot of doctors are not trained to test hormones, to speak to hormonal issues, and I kind of pressed this doctor a little bit further. Like I felt like you know, really being that advocate voice for my mom, and she basically just said to me, like well, dealing with hormones is outside of my scope of practice. Well, at least she admitted that, right, right, but not until I had pressed her. And so it really comes down to like you being this advocate for yourself, like you really need to know what you're asking for, because if you don't, this is where things kind of slip through the cracks.
Speaker 2:
It's such a great, great point and you have to be and thankfully you were there with your mom, to be that for sure. It kind of reminds me of the topic of nutrition in which you are. You know you are well versed in that as well. When it comes to doctors, I hear this very frequently, that it's not their fault, they're just they don't get that much time in training and education in that area, so they're not going to be as educated, and that's just the way it is right. It's just not a huge part of their, of their education. So same thing here they're just not getting enough, unless they're they've put in the effort like you have to get that training, get that education, otherwise they just don't have it.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely. And I used to get so furious, Like when I went through my own health journey and my hormone balancing journey I was so angry with doctors because, you know, it wasn't just one doctor I saw I like hopped around from doctor to doctor, specialist to specialist, like even naturopaths and naturopaths Nobody could figure this out, Nobody was running tests and you know, I definitely think things have changed a lot since then, but really it wasn't until I realized that it's just this is not your doctor's backyard Dealing with hormones, dealing with nutrition, like exactly to what you just said. This is not something that they've been trained in and, to be quite honest with you, it's not even saying that they have a solution for. So if you tell your doctor, oh, I got some functional testing done and my cortisol is dysregulated, there isn't a prescription pill out there that can regulate your cortisol for you. Therefore, your doctor doesn't have a solution, so why on earth would they be testing for this?
Speaker 2:
That makes so much sense, because what are they going to do with the results?
Speaker 1:
Nothing, there's nothing, there's no prescription for it, right this? Is nutrition, lifestyle supplements, things like herbs, really shine, but that's not something your doctors trained in, and I think for a long time I couldn't wrap my head around it until you're in it. You're like I see it Like I see it now. It's like we just need to share this information with women so that they stop relying so heavily on their doctors for answers that they just don't have.
Speaker 2:
Right. It makes me think. A few months ago, my sister she's about three and a half years younger than I am and she asked me. She says, Shelly, I've been meaning to ask you, what did you do for menopause, to help you through menopause? And I was like nothing. So it's like you're saying it's the lifestyle, it's nutrition, right, and when I was with my nurse practitioner doctor recently, I was sharing this with her and she says, yes, it's your lifestyle and I'm so grateful for that because I don't know anything different like this last decade.
Speaker 2:
It was about 10 years ago that I made a shift in my nutrition and, honestly, I had such a mild thank goodness, a mild bout of menopause, just some hot flashes here and there. And, like I was showing with you earlier, the physical therapist I was talking to yesterday, she was shocked that I hadn't been on any hormones. She was shocked. I was like no, I haven't taken anything, you know. So I was kind of surprised that she was. She was so surprised by that. Like it seems to be like a common thing that women are prescribed and I don't know, I mean, I believe it, it's there's a time and place for it, but you can do so much by what you are teaching as far as just the lifestyle and the nutrition in what you're fueling your body with, and that's so, so important. And, like you're saying, so much of the time we go to the doctor, they might not have the solution, but they're going to give this medication to us or this prescription, just like what you experienced. I mean antidepressants why on earth?
Speaker 1:
Well, I'll tell you, like the number one or number two, like the top two ways that doctors deal with hormone imbalances in women is antidepressants and I see a lot of this in women who are in that perimenopausal, like even menopausal, state, as well as birth control pill. I have clients who are in their 40s, like who fully entered perimenopause, whose doctors are putting them on the birth control pill as a way to manage their hormones. Wow, so I mean this just goes to show you that there isn't a solution and they're kind of there's not much that they're working with. But when you don't know any better, right Cause it's not these women's faults Like you're going to your doctor, you fully trust that what they're doing for you is actually good for you. It's you know. A lot of times people are like, why don't I want to go against what the doctor says? The doctor knows best. But I think this is very evident that sometimes they just don't know.
Speaker 2:
They sometimes don't know best. And it goes back to you talking about being an advocate. It is so important to encourage women and men anybody to speak up and to be that advocate. And I just think that if there's one ounce of hesitancy about a prescription or a diagnosis or what have you, we have to follow that and see what is actually beneath that and what is actually going on, because it's so easy to just go ahead with, be agreeable to what they're sharing, because they're the doctor right. So we look at them as they're knowing everything and they don't. They don't and that's not even a bash on doctors whatsoever, it's just there's no way for them to have all the information and have all the answers, especially in a topic like this. That's just out of their scope of practice.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's so true.
Speaker 2:
So what would you recommend? Just some steps, I guess, for any of our listeners who might be having some symptoms and experiencing kind of like what you went through, or maybe they just have a symptom here or there. What are some of the top tips that you recommend to just to kind of start on the journey to getting some relief?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, absolutely so. I'm all about having like sustainable, long-term foundational habits. I call them foundational habits because, regardless of if you're on a prescription or not, if you're on hormone replacement therapy or not, it's like you need to have these foundations down pat in order for everything else to be optimal and even for like the hormone replacement let's say, therapy to work as well. Number one is dial in on your nutrition. I am all about anti-inflammatory approach to nutrition, something that's whole foods based, and I don't mean going and shopping at full whole foods, I mean eating like single ingredient foods, lots of produce. So fruits, vegetables. Center your meals around protein and fiber, like those should be. Protein and fiber should be the key players on your plate and the rest is just extra right. So it's not about restrictive dieting or. A lot of women come to me and they're like I'm intermittent fasting and I only have like a five hour window, like I don't recommend that. I'm all about balance and moderation. If you feel good only eating six hours out of the day and that's working for you, then don't change that. But if you're a woman who's like looking to start a new journey, don't start with that right. Focus on eating your breakfast, lunch, dinner very balanced meals. Protein, fiber. Forward lots of produce. Stick to single ingredient ingredients. Step away from the processed food. The junk food Doesn't mean you can't have I don't know your favorite donut, or like a piece of, or like I don't know what I'm trying to say, like a piece of cake or like some chips. It's so true. Yeah, right, like it's not gonna kill you, it's not gonna make or break your journey, but if that's what you're eating to replace meals, then that's a problem, right? So that's number one is make sure nutrition is very anti-inflammatory, make sure you're hydrated.
Speaker 1:
The amount of people not just women, but people walking around super dehydrated is wild. One of my Pilates instructors always says like 99% of your problems can be solved with just by drinking some water, and I think it's so true. It's so true. So drink your water, because it really like it's not even just about hydrating, like your skin and all this stuff. It really like your body runs on a little bit of water, or actually on a lot of water, not just a little bit, and so we want to make sure that those processes are flowing through, moving very efficiently, and water is going to make sure that that happens.
Speaker 1:
So you have to be very well hydrated and then also sleep, prioritize sleep, like I cannot stress that enough. We tend to be this culture where we think that we are all like superheroes and we only need like five, six hours of sleep. We need more than that, right, and I find that sometimes men can sleep less hours than women and then there's studies out there that prove that women need a little bit longer sleep than men. But really you want to get to bed as close to 10pm as possible and you want to wake up as close to six as possible, so you want to stick to that 10pm to 6am like sleep time. Obviously this is going to differ in people, but I always say in bed before 11 is like the max I love that I did that timeframe exactly last night and it just it felt great today.
Speaker 2:
And I I'm not always asleep by 10. Sometimes it's closer to 11, but I am such a stickler about my sleep. Also, I am pretty much on the money. Seven to eight hours of sleep a night is what I'm getting and I, you know again, like nothing's perfect. It's not every single night, but the majority of the nights. That's what I get. And the other thing that's really great, I'll wake up. It's just so funny. It reminds me back when we had we were waking up with our kids in the night and when they would sleep to the night it was like, oh my gosh, they slept in the night their nights. I'll wake up like that. If I haven't had to get up and use the restroom, I'm like I'll wake up, rested, I go. Oh my gosh, I didn't have to get up in the night. It's just so funny. It's like I'm reliving it now in my fifties, you know. But the sleep is like you're saying is so critical. Sleep is so critical.
Speaker 1:
And you know, for every hour of sleep you get before midnight, it actually counts as two hours of sleep for your body. Wow, if you're someone who's staying up till midnight or even past midnight because you're like, well, kids are asleep, or you know, I finally have the TV to myself, let me catch up on. Like some Netflix shows, you're loot, you're missing out on, like the highest quality sleep, cutting into that deep sleep. And the thing is is we sometimes think like, oh, whatever, I'll sleep tomorrow. Like your body can't really make up that lost sleep. It needs that sleep. When you go to bed, that's when the body goes to work, so you need to sleep.
Speaker 1:
And then the other thing is movement, moving your body. Right, if we think about, like you know, stagnancy in the body, that's what breeds disease. There's a lot of illnesses and sicknesses and even like hormone imbalances that start to happen when the body is stagnant. Right, we can think about this like a pond of water, that when that water doesn't move, what happens to it? It gets really gross and icky and mosquitoes and all that stuff. But if we look at something like a river that's constantly flowing, it's always clean water. Our body is the exact same. It needs that movement.
Speaker 2:
That's such a great way to put it, and I love how everything is so interconnected, like as you're, as I'm listening to you, I recently did an episode about stress and just five simple steps to manage stress, and very much, so much what you're saying. You know the nutrition, the sleep, the exercise. So it all goes so hand in hand in all areas of our health, which is amazing, because if you think about Approaching this in that manner and knowing that you're going to get so many benefits, maybe it's not just within the hormones, but with everything in your overall health and just how you're feeling in your overall wellness. It's really amazing. The body is amazing when it's, when it's treated in the right way, right.
Speaker 1:
And I always say, you know, like focusing on hormones, focusing on the things that are going to help your hormones, you're really focusing on everything, because your hormones run the show in your body. They're chemical messengers that send signals from every from one cell to another. They dictate what's going on in your body. So you know, I mean I always just get very excited when women are like I want to do something about my hormones, I want to start a hormone balancing journey, because it's like it's not just about your hormones, it's like this is going to impact everything for you, everything from your health to your energy, to your metabolism, to your mood, to the way that you show up in your life.
Speaker 2:
It's interesting. My daughter actually was going through some hormone testing and it's so interesting because she's in her 20s, just like when you were experiencing it, and she even made the comment not that long ago that it's a topic that we're not taught, Like we don't learn about our hormones and what all this means and how they're all connected and what are the side effects if they're not regulated and working correctly. And I didn't really think about it till she said that and I'm like you're so right. I don't remember ever really in detail and I mean I've learned some basics through my schooling and I've taught health, but not in any real detail when it comes to hormone health, and so this is just fascinating to me and I feel like it is such an important topic and I love that you're bringing it to light, not just for those of us who have experienced menopause and beyond, but for the younger women. It's something I would have never really thought until my daughter started bringing it up and having some testing done herself.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's just so important and this is why, like I always say, you want to like breeze through menopause, right? So, for those of you who maybe have daughters, that you're like, oh man, my daughter eats whatever she wants, does whatever she wants because she feels fine. It's like prep your body now. Like I wish that you know I knew more. I wish I knew now, right, I'm sorry, I wish that I knew then what I know now, because everything would have been so different for me. I don't think I would have struggled for as long as I did. But it really does come down to understanding what's happening in your body and the thing is is like it can feel overwhelming, but when you put yourself in the right room with the right person who can teach this to you and just basically show you like this is what's going on with your body, this is how we pull you out of this state, this is how we support hormones, just, it becomes so easy, like you learn how to support your body for the rest of your life.
Speaker 2:
And that's I mean right there, that's what we want, that is exactly what we want. And I love, Monica, how you you just explain everything so clearly and in a simple manner and you have the answers. You know you can direct people and what they need to do to help them in these different areas, whatever it might be that they're experiencing. And I just love that you offer some testing, right, some hormone testing.
Speaker 1:
I do so. I have a program, the balance body method, where we run full functional testing. So it includes the Dutch hormone panel. So that's the Dutch test, it's dried urine test, comprehensive hormone test. And then we also do a GI map which tests for gut imbalances. So it tests your stool for gut imbalances. So we kind of pair all of that in a three month program, because it's not just about getting tested, it's also knowing what to do with the test results and implementing protocols, because that's what's going to bring about change.
Speaker 2:
Yes, 100% right. You get the results. And then now, what? What do we do from those Exactly? So, for whoever would like to know more about this and take this testing with you, what's the best way to reach out to you?
Speaker 1:
Yes, you can even come find me on Instagram set Monica Eva. I think you'll drop that maybe in the show notes for everyone here. Yes, monica with a K, or just send me an email. So just visit the website wwwmonicaevacom and we can connect that way.
Speaker 2:
I love it. I want to be conscientious of your time and our listeners time, but this has been such a valuable informational session with you. I just appreciate you so much and thank you so much for sharing. I just really so appreciate you. Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2:
I love learning this because this is, again, this is not my area of expertise, so I will be absolutely sending people to you that anyone that comes to me about hormone health and whoever might be having issues, because, again, it's so easy to beat ourselves up and not know and go. Why am I feeling this? Why? Why am I so tired? Why am I gaining weight and I can't lose it? Why? Why? Rather than you are just there to say I think I have the answers and it sounds like most of the time you will, and much of the time it is related to our hormones and the imbalance of them, and it's a huge, important topic. So I'm just so grateful to you and any last minute tips or words of advice that you want to share with everyone before we close here.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. So just trust yourself and trust your gut. If you feel like something is not right and you've gone to your doctor and you're not getting the answers you want, get a second opinion, ask questions, ask why, why not this? Why isn't it my hormones? Don't be afraid to put your doctor kind of on the spot, kind of in this hot seat where it's like I just want a further explanation why it isn't this. Show me on the piece of paper what results are you looking at? Because once you start doing that, your doctor will probably just say you know what. This is outside of my scope of practice and you won't be under the false impression that you've had all this testing done. And the other thing that I'm going to say is that your body absolutely does have the ability to heal itself. It 1000% does. In fact, your body's number one job is to keep you alive and to keep you healthy. All it needs is a little bit of support for you to bring it into the state, into an environment where it's able to do so.
Speaker 2:
And that's so, so true. What a wonderful way to end. We beat our bodies up and we there's such miraculous beings and so many things we can do to help us live our best lives and thrive and feel our best, and you are helping women do that and I just thank you. Thank you for all that you're doing, and I would love to continue this conversation. We'll have to, I'll have to have you on again, for sure.
Speaker 1:
I love that. I think we should totally do a part two.
Speaker 2:
I think we need to absolutely do a part, for sure, for sure and yes, we will absolutely schedule that. So, thank you so much, monica. I just really appreciate you and thank you everyone for listening and have a wonderful rest of your day and, as always, take some time for you, take some time to do something for your wellness and for any women out there who might be struggling or maybe you think you might be having some challenges with your hormones. Definitely reach out to Monica, as you can hear what she's sharing today. She can absolutely help you. So have a great rest of the week, everyone, and we will see you next time.
Speaker 2:
Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope you gained value and enjoyed our time together as much as I did, and if you know someone who could benefit from today's episode, I would love and appreciate it if you could share with a friend or rate and review words of wellness so that more can hear this message. I love and appreciate you all. Thank you for listening and if you have any questions or topics you would like me to share in future episodes, please don't hesitate to reach out to me through my contact information that is shared in the show notes below. Again, thank you for tuning in to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries and I encourage you to do something for you, for your wellness, on this day. Until next time, I hope you all have a healthy, happy and blessed week. Thank you.
