I'm going to talk Pandemic...

I know, how dare I bring this back up.... aren't we over it? Truth is, I don't think that we have really talked enough about how stressfull and overwhelming those couple of years where, especially from the point of view of our health as women. We are all prettyy aware that stress, especially constant overwhelming stress is not that great for the body, but what was happening to women's bodies in perimenopause as they attempted to navigate the shit storm that was the pandemic? The lock downs homeschooling, job loss, and complete loss of self for many of us who had grown up thinking that we ARE our jobs and Careers. Not to mention all the unspoken battles we faced in our own homes, marriages, friend circles so much more (men, don't take offense, but as a women, I can't speak from YOUR perspective,,, I just don't have the balls to go there ...)

As we shifted out of the chaos I started to notice that many of us where still stuck in the survival mode, fight or flight, many women still felt lost, unsure and let's be honest, just not at all like ourselves. Many of us faced a whole new life, a restart, jumbled with aging parent care, young child care, personal sickness, sudden onset of perimenopause and hormone imbalance issues, postpartum, teen raising, the list of concerns I have heard from clients and friends has been endless. Then piled on top of all that MANY of us came SMACK face to face with all the inner child work, trauma healing and shadow work that was SCREAMING to be taken care of. When I say we were hit with it all, it's NOT an over exaggeration. I remember one girlfriend saying that the inner child work was literally staring her in the face every single day as she watched her son face many of the struggles she had as a child. So, fo many of us, there was a lot to tend to, and it wasn't just going to slink into the night quietly.

I have had opportunity to talk to many of my fellow late 30's to mid 40 girlfriends, and we seem to all feeling the same way, like life had run us the fuck over, and there was nothing left. I know for myself, I had become a ball of PTSD from my sons accident, and extreme anxiety, overwhelming me to the point of barely being able to function some days. For a good year it was all I could do to just make it through the day. I had no energy for extras, I disconnected from reality, family and friends. If it weren't for those couple people who showed up in my life and forced me out of the house, honestly I probably never would have never left. In 4 short months, despite "doing all the right things" the stress + perimenopausal changes + all the other crap I was stressing / worrying about hit me with 40 lbs of extra weight, adrenal shut down and a body stuck in a state of shock. I actually didn't face it for a good 6 months later tho. So my social media showed that I had it all together, because heaven forbid I, a strong business savy wife, mother, WOMAN admit that I was struggling. Family members and loved ones could not understand why I didn't seem to have time for them despite my best efforts to share that things were just "really stressful". I was actually very disconnected and because of this I couldn't get completely real with my life for MYSELF. So there was no way I was going to be able to express this to them. To them it looked like I was a complete liar and a disaster, someone who just kept using my "trauma" as an excuse not to be a part of their lives. It hurt a lot, because as a people pleaser I wanted nothing more than to keep the peace and make everyone else happy, but I couldn't. I literally didn't have the bandwidth. So I withdrew. I went inward. Actually a lot of my perimenopause ladies did the same. We disconnected from the pressures outside and went inward.

Turns out, getting inward was actually what I needed more than anything else. Being face to face with me and only me forced me to see what was really going on. My body had become a hormonally imbalanced clusterfuck, I was exhausted on so many levels - mind body and spirit, and I needed help. I needed clarity, I needed to feel like I wasn't the only 42 year old woman how felt like a complete failure after losing so much in the pandemic. I headed to the internet, I search out podcasts, social media pages, blogs..... anything that I could get that was talking about perimenopause, hormone issues, real women getting real with WHAT THE FUCK WAS HAPPENING to us all right now..... I found them, all over the place. I was jumping from resource to resource trying to find answers. The one thing almost all the podcasters had mentioned? Poor NUTRITION and HUGE STRESS as the major contributers to what they where all facing! Now obviously this massive shit storm on our lives was not going to just magically be fixed by eating an apple a day to keep the doctor away, or a 2 min meditation for stress,,,,, but the common theme was that ALL of us had neglected our health and depleted our resources so badly that we were NOT functioning. PERIOD! the overwhelming stress had affected our guts, so even if we were eating the right foods,,,, none of it was uptaking. In my case, I had not listened to my body when she asked for quiet gentle movement and light nourishing foods. I continued to work out HARD with big heavyweights, eat dense heavy meals while my body struggled to keep up. this resulted in the adrenal shutdown and weight gain. Even though on paper it looked like I was doing it all correctly, I was not doing it correctly for MY body at THAT TIME.

So, on went my research hat again, I started to study female hormone cycles more in depth. I came across a podcast that talked about how women should train and nourish their bodies according to their cycles, and how detrimental it was for us to follow those 8 weeks to a bikini programs. This podcast led me down a HUGE rabbit hole and I eventually got to seed cycling. I was like, WOW, this is literally the easiest way EVER to start to balance out my hormones. I started to use the principles to add the proper seed to my morning shakes at the propper times in my cycles. Within 4 months I noticed a HUGE shift in my periods. I have shared before, but they where lighter, shorter and more regularly scheduled. HALLELUJAH! What a huge win!! This led to trying the workouts for your cycle phases, which led to eating for my cycle phases, which led to me discovering EFT tapping and breathing for shock and stress release, which led to a deeper understanding of my body in her phases, ebbs and flows, which led to a deeper more loving and compassionate relationship with myself as a whole...... it really started working, I felt like I was finally healing! Here I am 42, and FINALLY having a normal period (huge, messy painful periods are NOT normal BTW), understanding my body and creating a better relationship with her. After seeing how crucial it really is to know and understand our cycles, I started to see that many others around me had no idea about any of this. This was why I wrote my first book, The 28 Day Strategy Cookbook. I wanted to give others a SIMPLE and easy to follow guide, something that would not overwhelm my already stressed out girlfriends, but would be a simple road map introducing them to the benefits of tracking and learning more about their own amazing bodies. I wanted EVERYONE to have access to this new relationship with self that I had discovered. It helped me TREMENDOUSLY to understand that I naturally have low times and raging energy times. It doesn't mean that I am falling off the wagon for taking a break in my menstration phase, it means I am listening to my body and meeting her where she is at. I want this for you, fellow burnt out momma, fellow girlfriend who's struggling, fellow partner who has lost your libibo.

The book makes it super simple. it is divided into the four phases of your cycle, it gives you a snap shot of what each phase is about, a couple great recipes, and a ton of resources at the back as well. This book can be your stepping stone to better understanding your cycle, your body and potentially help you create better balance.

The book will be release January 22 on Amazon. I can't wait for you to get a copy and start to see how amazing your body can be. In the meantime make sure you are a part of our Women's Holistic Health Community There we get to chat about all these struggles and changes openly, and I share with you daily tip on how to create wellness for your and your CYCLES.