Transcript
Speaker: Hello, my fair ladies, and welcome back for what will be, for many of you, a mind-blowing episode of SheLived.
Speaker: My guest today is Nicole Bendaya, certified holistic nutritionist and menstrual health expert.
Speaker: Her work in cycle-based nutrition has been featured in Medium, Thrive Global, Shoutout LA, and Authority Magazine.
Speaker: As the founder of the SYNC Society and co-founder of SYNC Supplements, Nicole strives to educate, empower, and embolden the women in her community.
Speaker: Nicole, thank you so much for joining me here on SheLived all the way from Spain.
Speaker: Thank you for having me.
Speaker: I'm excited to chat today.
Speaker: So tell us a little bit about yourself and your path to the field of menstrual health.
Speaker: Yeah, I guess my path started when I was really young, honestly.
Speaker: I struggled with a lot of disordered eating and I was really obsessed with nutrition.
Speaker: And I went on birth control when I was about 16.
Speaker: So from the time that I had these reproductive hormones, I felt like I was on synthetic hormones and I was on birth control for about
Speaker: 10 years almost.
Speaker: And kind of approaching the latter years, I ended up having a lot of negative symptoms.
Speaker: And I went to go see four different doctors in three years.
Speaker: Each one of them dismissed me.
Speaker: I asked flat out if anything had to do with birth control.
Speaker: They said no.
Speaker: And I just felt really dismissed and alone.
Speaker: And I had this recurring thought of, I just don't know myself without synthetic hormones.
Speaker: And
Speaker: You know, I started going through my training to become a holistic nutritionist, and I started to understand how hormones impacted every aspect of your body from your physical appearance and your physical health to your emotional well-being, your mental health, brain fog, etc.
Speaker: And
Speaker: It just didn't make sense that I had all of these synthetic hormones and that wouldn't be the cause of this group of symptoms that seemed pretty random that I was experiencing.
Speaker: So I ended up going off of birth control.
Speaker: And I remember that last doctor's appointment.
Speaker: I, at that point, had switched to the IUD examiner.
Speaker: And, you know, I said that I was experiencing these symptoms and she fully dismissed me up until that last doctor's appointment.
Speaker: And so I'm really happy at that point.
Speaker: I had stuck to my guns because I hadn't in the past and I got it removed.
Speaker: I ended up fully going off of birth control.
Speaker: And then I started doing research.
Speaker: And through that research, I found every single one of my symptoms, either listed in tiny eight point font on that newspaper size pamphlet.
Speaker: Or in other studies that had linked and correlated these different symptoms with hormonal birth control.
Speaker: So that was definitely an aha moment that, you know, definitely shifted how I viewed...
Speaker: my health and my health care and the authority that I had over my own health care because I felt like that was taken away from me and I felt that I wasn't really given informed consent over my health.
Speaker: And so kept doing research, started doing research into my cycle and reproductive hormones because of course I haven't had a true menstrual cycle in almost 10 years.
Speaker: And I started to recognize that that was actually the first time that I found out there was four phases to my menstrual cycle.
Speaker: And I was honestly, I was so shocked because here I am thinking I'm, you know, a well-educated person going through their training in holistic nutrition.
Speaker: I was really into biohacking and nutrition for so long.
Speaker: And I was 23 or 24 by the time I found out that there was four phases to my menstrual cycle.
Speaker: And that was just such a shocker to me.
Speaker: So I ended up continuing to do research, started thinking about how, you know, these hormones are fluctuating in a predictable pattern throughout my cycle.
Speaker: And you should support them differently just based on what they are.
Speaker: So shouldn't that also go in the pattern that our
Speaker: our hormones go in our menstrual cycle.
Speaker: So I started doing that for myself.
Speaker: And then I found out that phase syncing or tailoring your nutrition to your cycle had already been a research thing or established thing.
Speaker: Um, so, um,
Speaker: That's kind of the journey that I got into it myself, but it wasn't until I was working as a nutrition and culinary director of a startup in Toronto, where I'm originally from, and that ended up being a pretty toxic environment, so I
Speaker: I wanted to go out on my own and I started to talk to a lot of people about menstrual health and what they knew.
Speaker: And it turned out that they also knew absolutely nothing about their reproductive health and their hormones and how that impacted them every day.
Speaker: So I ended up starting my own practice and it's been a really, really cool journey over the last, I think, two and a half years almost.
Speaker: And yeah, it's just been an incredible, incredible journey.
Speaker: You and I have very similar paths in that regard.
Speaker: I was 31 when I found out about menstrual cycle phases.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And ironically, it was a man who explained it to me.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: My first acupuncturist.
Speaker: That's wild.
Speaker: So what do you think are some of the most harmful like myths and programming about our periods?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I would say it's less about the myths, more about the silence.
Speaker: There's just nothing really spoken about.
Speaker: It's something that, I mean, the myth that PMS is normal or it just sucks to be a woman or it just sucks to have a period.
Speaker: And it's something I'm just going to have to deal with.
Speaker: I think that is absolutely absurd because it's really not.
Speaker: And I guess that would be a myth.
Speaker: But I think the programming that we've had is to just keep everything quiet and think that we are there and experiencing these things alone.
Speaker: And it's just part of our destiny as menstruating people.
Speaker: And, you know, that's really it's sad to think about, you know, how many women
Speaker: How many women have come to me, shared their experiences with me of them going to the doctor after having their period for six months straight and the doctor saying, oh, that's normal, or just go on birth control?
Speaker: With friends of mine in debilitating pain that they faint and are taken to the hospital because their periods are so painful and the only...
Speaker: quote unquote remedy that they're given is go on birth control.
Speaker: And, you know, I've thankfully been able to help many women experience pain-free periods and to manage these menstrual related issues.
Speaker: But it is just that thought of, it's just, it's just what we have to go through.
Speaker: Sucks to be.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And that's the same thing, like you said, as teenagers, it's just what you do.
Speaker: Birth control has become like a sort of rite of passage.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And if it's not the birth control, I remember one of my friends, his little sister is eight years younger than us.
Speaker: And when she was going through puberty, we were pretty young at this point.
Speaker: And
Speaker: he would come to me and he'd be like, Nicole, I don't understand what's going on with her.
Speaker: She's going crazy.
Speaker: She isn't herself.
Speaker: She's snapping at everybody.
Speaker: This isn't her.
Speaker: I don't understand what's going on.
Speaker: And I turned to him and I'm just like, listen, she doesn't know what's going on.
Speaker: So you're definitely not going to know what's going on.
Speaker: And that's such a core memory of mine because I wish so much that
Speaker: I had this information that I do now to be able to be like, hey, let me support you in this.
Speaker: And she doesn't have to feel so alone and distraught about what's happening and not in control of her body and not in control of her mind because these things.
Speaker: this is hormones that it's affecting her and hey this is this is how it's affecting her and this is what you can do about it and you know just that thing of we're not given the tools and the resources and the legitimate knowledge and the research scientifically backed information that there is to help ourselves and help the women and menstruating people around us
Speaker: Yeah, for our generation, I feel like for women, birth control is a lot like student loans.
Speaker: It was just what you did without any information and you were just wrecking the rest of your life.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: Signing your life away, you know, in the same way, both equally destructive.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: And we're not given any other options.
Speaker: You know, I guess if we're going to compare it to student loans, which I think that's, I've never heard that.
Speaker: And that's a really interesting comparison.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But it's like, yeah, you could work these extra jobs or get these grants or get these loans and be able to pay off school just the same as you can focus on your nutrition and certain supplements and adding and avoiding certain foods into your diet and lifestyle changes that can totally alter how you experience life.
Speaker: And not just that, the fact that we are not taught and told that we can only actually get pregnant for about six days of the month.
Speaker: And if you truly understand your body and track your biomarkers that you can actually identify when you're fertile and avoid pregnancy without the needs for synthetic hormones,
Speaker: And that is also so mind-blowing to me that we're not told about that.
Speaker: And I think a lot of it is not only, of course, the pharmaceutical companies that don't want us to know because they want us to be on birth control and et cetera.
Speaker: And then we're also, again, not giving the authority over our body because, hey, teenagers are too irresponsible to use this type of birth control.
Speaker: or teenagers will just, you know, and even as you become an adult, yes, it takes a little bit more consideration and consistency and responsibility to avoid pregnancy naturally, but we're not given those choices.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So before we dive into the whole concept of phases, can you talk a little bit about how our menstrual cycle is actually an indicator of overall health?
Speaker: Yeah, it's our fifth vital sign.
Speaker: It tells us so much about our overall health and is such a great way to really connect to your body and really understand your overall health.
Speaker: So it kind of works bilaterally and bidirectionally because our health impacts our menstrual cycle and our menstrual cycle impacts our health, etc.
Speaker: So
Speaker: If we're able to really view and track our cycle, we can use those different biomarkers, which are physical signs that our body gives us, to understand how our hormones were the previous cycle and up to three cycles prior.
Speaker: So
Speaker: If you think about just your period, because that is a visual representation, right?
Speaker: That's why we call it the menstrual cycle instead of the ovulation cycle, which it technically should be called because ovulation is really the peak event in your cycle.
Speaker: But menstruation is that visual sign.
Speaker: And if you think about it, menstruation reflects the hormonal levels of your previous cycle.
Speaker: So if
Speaker: Throughout your previous cycle as the endometrium, so the lining of your uterus is being built up and having these granular structures and blood vessels, et cetera.
Speaker: And then-
Speaker: once your hormones dip back again and you have a period, that release of that built up endometrium can tell you a lot about the hormonal activity.
Speaker: So is it really heavy bleeding?
Speaker: Is it blood clots?
Speaker: What color is it?
Speaker: Is there pain associated?
Speaker: Do you have other symptoms that go along with it?
Speaker: There's five different types of PMS that each have their own
Speaker: potential causes and natural protocols to help them.
Speaker: And one of the biggest, for sure, one of the biggest myths is that PMS is normal because it's definitely not.
Speaker: But for instance, with painful periods, that could be excess prostaglandins and inflammation and could be due to your lifestyle and or what you're eating.
Speaker: Food sensitivities can reflect it massively.
Speaker: And if you think about the duration of your cycle, right, do you have delayed ovulation that causes a longer cycle?
Speaker: What is delaying it, right?
Speaker: Is it stress?
Speaker: Is it not prioritizing sleep?
Speaker: Again, is it going back to your diet?
Speaker: And
Speaker: I think just in terms of overall health, a really important thing to understand is that your body is really this orchestra of all of these different systems, right?
Speaker: It's not individual.
Speaker: Your brain is connected to your gut, is connected to your reproductive hormones, etc.
Speaker: So when we, I think a lot of us maybe view health in a way that's very separated or individualistic.
Speaker: And I think that comes a lot from how our healthcare system views our health because we h ave a gastroenterologist, we have gastroenterologist.
Speaker: We have all these different doctors for different parts of our body, but what happens when we bring that all together and how that can really impact it?
Speaker: So I think it's really important to note that everything kind of works in conjunction.
Speaker: Your whole body is one big system made up of all these different systems.
Speaker: But yeah, your menstrual cycle can tell you a lot about your overall health if you're experiencing certain symptoms and
Speaker: The colors and textures of your flow, et cetera, can really reflect how you've been living over the previous cycle and up to three cycles prior.
Speaker: And when it comes to overall health with the menstrual cycle, what I see a lot is what I deal with here at home with my husband.
Speaker: So he's got all these supplements and everything downstairs and they're all full of chemicals.
Speaker: And I said, you know, you ever think maybe you're, you know, taking too much of this stuff?
Speaker: Because the problem is I care about his health.
Speaker: He cares about how much he can lift.
Speaker: And there's that disconnect.
Speaker: And what I see a lot for women, this has to do with fertility.
Speaker: They care about just being able to have kids rather than their overall health.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or, or how they look over their overall health.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: I think that is something that – that's really what got me into nutrition and everything else was I cared so much more about how I looked rather than how I felt.
Speaker: And I see a lot in, I think, especially our generation with diet culture and over-exercise and under-exercise and all of these different things and all of the supplements and –
Speaker: And beauty products, that has a massive impact on our hormonal health, which we can definitely get into.
Speaker: But yeah, I always say, especially when we're considering weight loss, because I think weight loss and fat loss is a massive impact.
Speaker: why women end up coming into the health and nutrition, viewing it.
Speaker: And I always say that weight loss can be a side effect of living a holistically well life, but it should not be your primary goal.
Speaker: I could not agree more with that.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yeah, because also, you know, if you have PCOS, which is polycystic ovary syndrome, it's very difficult to lose weight.
Speaker: And when many women go to the doctor, they're told, hey, if you want to deal with your PCOS, either go on birth control or lose weight.
Speaker: So what they'll end up doing is over-exercise, under-eat.
Speaker: And what that ends up doing is actually causing them to have exasperated symptoms of PCOS because of the stress that that puts on their body.
Speaker: So not only do they have much worse symptoms, but their body is
Speaker: really holds on to the fat that they have, especially around like that tire around the hips.
Speaker: And then they feel like it might be something on them.
Speaker: I'm not working hard enough.
Speaker: I'm too lazy.
Speaker: I'm too this.
Speaker: I'm not enough of that.
Speaker: And it's really the opposite.
Speaker: And, you know, women with hormonal imbalances, PCOS have about twice as likely the occurrence of anxiety and depression.
Speaker: and how that can impact you.
Speaker: And I think it's really just important that we stop caring so much about the surface level things and just exist in a healthy manner.
Speaker: And I think the basis of that is really rooted in education and knowing what is good for you and good for your specific body and really tapping in and tuning into your own body and trusting your body.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: So what are these four phases of our menstrual cycle and what happens during them?
Speaker: Yeah, I'll give a quick overview.
Speaker: So your cycle goes from the first day of your period to the first day of your next period, and that's a full cycle.
Speaker: And that should be between 24 and 36 days.
Speaker: If it's anything above and below that's starting to signify that something's askew in the body and needs attention brought forward to it.
Speaker: I'm so glad you said that because so many doctors say, oh, 28 days, 28 days.
Speaker: I've never heard as much as 36.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's probably going to be a lot of myths dispelled in here.
Speaker: I've never had a 28 day period in my life.
Speaker: Um, my cycle is sorry, not a 20 day period, a 28 day cycle.
Speaker: My cycle is always between 32 and 34 days.
Speaker: It's also okay if it, if it, um, is a couple of days earlier or late within two days, that's, that's normal.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: But our cycle starts with our menstrual phase or the period, the one we all know and love.
Speaker: And that is when our hormones are at their lowest and our body is shedding the endometrium.
Speaker: So that is you're actually bleeding.
Speaker: That's when you have your period.
Speaker: And that should be between three and seven days.
Speaker: Again, anything below or above is starting to signify that something's askew in the body.
Speaker: And then after our period, we have our follicular phase and that is when estrogen is rising and an egg follicle, which are these sacs in the ovaries that house our egg, those are growing and it's producing estrogen.
Speaker: And then as that reaches maturity,
Speaker: The estrogen peaks and we release a hormone called luteinizing hormone from the pituitary gland in the brain and that triggers ovulation.
Speaker: So for phase thinking purposes, we consider the ovulatory phase the few days before and few days after ovulation.
Speaker: And ovulation is really that key event in the cycle.
Speaker: That is when the egg has fully matured and it's actually been released from the follicle in the ovary.
Speaker: And it's interesting because the egg only survives for about 12 to 24 hours, which is interesting.
Speaker: And our hormones actually fluctuate between 30 and 50% in and around ovulation.
Speaker: So again, really the peak event in our cycle.
Speaker: So of course the ovulatory phase is that phase that surrounds ovulation.
Speaker: And then after our ovulatory phase comes the luteal phase.
Speaker: And this is when that follicle that wants to house the egg turns into what's called the corpus luteum and begins to produce progesterone, which is our dominant hormone in the latter half of our cycle.
Speaker: And at the beginning of the luteal phase, we usually feel really good.
Speaker: And progesterone has this awesome calming effect in the body and
Speaker: But if the egg isn't fertilized, nearing the end of the luteal phase, progesterone starts to drop and estrogen as well starts to drop and that allows a new cycle to begin.
Speaker: So that will trigger a new cycle to begin.
Speaker: So that's where we're seeing a lot of PMS symptoms in that three to five days leading up to our next period.
Speaker: And that often is caused by an imbalance between estrogen and progesterone.
Speaker: And it's really cool.
Speaker: We can get into kind of the balance of estrogen and progesterone and how important that is because they really work together to balance each other out in the body.
Speaker: And that's another reason why ovulation is so important because without ovulation, we don't produce progesterone.
Speaker: I think it's so important to understand these phases, not just for our physical health, but for our emotional health too.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I know that before I understood this, and even after, especially during ovulation, it would make me feel like less of a woman.
Speaker: when I was being told, oh, you should feel your best at ovulation.
Speaker: This is when you should be out and you should, you know, want to have sex and feel fertile and feel glowy and amazing.
Speaker: And for the longest time, I used to feel like I had the flu every time.
Speaker: And it made me feel, you know, just less of a woman in that way because my body wasn't behaving the way it was supposed to, but I didn't know why.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: And I'm, I'm very fortunate now to work strictly with a naturopathic doctor who is very well versed in women's reproductive health.
Speaker: Amazing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But that's another indication of your cycle being an indicator of your overall health.
Speaker: You know, we should be feeling glowy and gray around ovulation.
Speaker: You know, that should be the best phase in our cycle.
Speaker: So if you're not feeling that way, why are you not feeling that way?
Speaker: You know, why are you having negative symptoms?
Speaker: We weren't created to experience a lot of negative symptoms.
Speaker: Like we weren't created to suffer.
Speaker: You know, we were created to live a balanced and flowing life.
Speaker: And I think that's another really important thing to mention of the flow with our flow.
Speaker: You know, having.
Speaker: But it is true.
Speaker: You know, we live in a society that is so based upon the male hormones of, you know, our circadian rhythm, which both men and women have.
Speaker: of the sleep-wake cycle.
Speaker: So we have most energy in the morning and then by the evening it should dwindle out.
Speaker: Of course, that's disrupted by a lot of other things too, but that's another story.
Speaker: But testosterone stays pretty relatively stable throughout the whole month.
Speaker: And we have this predictable pattern of
Speaker: that is fluctuating throughout the month and impacts every aspect of ourselves.
Speaker: Not only does it impact us physically, emotionally, our brain actually changes throughout our menstrual cycle.
Speaker: There's been studies that show that the gray matter within the hippocampus and amygdala actually change throughout the cycle, which is
Speaker: crazy to think about, but you have better verbal fluency at some points in your cycle.
Speaker: So if you're able to understand that, not only can you leverage it, leverage each phase for the benefits that each phase has to really improve your overall life, improve
Speaker: connection and intimacy and productivity, et cetera.
Speaker: But just the ability to give ourselves grace is so impactful.
Speaker: Just the ability to say, hey, maybe this isn't actually my thought.
Speaker: Maybe this is my hormones and my serotonin levels are really low right now.
Speaker: And it's really incredible just to
Speaker: start to understand why we act and react in some ways and when we actually go with our cycle, how impactful that can be.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So that way we don't have to feel like a Kathy cartoon when we want to have some chocolate.
Speaker: We can just have some chocolate.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And when I was younger, I had really bad hormonal fluctuations that really impacted me emotionally.
Speaker: And I have PMS type A, which is anxiety.
Speaker: And that really impacted me because I'd feel great.
Speaker: I have this one story that I always tell of, I was in a relationship a few years back and we were struggling a little bit.
Speaker: But for about two weeks, we were doing really, really well.
Speaker: And I didn't have all these intrusive thoughts.
Speaker: And we were doing so well.
Speaker: And then all of a sudden, it was like I hit a wall.
Speaker: And these negative thoughts were just flooding me.
Speaker: So I ended up journaling.
Speaker: And then I was like, hmm, I flipped back 30 days before.
Speaker: And the exact same sentence was written.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: It was the exact same sentence.
Speaker: So, so that allowed me to take a step back and be like, oh, okay.
Speaker: I'm in my luteal phase.
Speaker: I usually get really insecure.
Speaker: I might get a little bit more paranoid.
Speaker: I might get a little bit more anxious and need a little bit more attention during this phase.
Speaker: So not only can I now kind of separate myself from understanding that that, that might not be my true feelings, but
Speaker: But I can also communicate that to my partner and be like, hey, I'm in my luteal phase right now and I need a little bit more reassurance or I need a little bit more attachment or whatever it is.
Speaker: And I think that that is a great way not only to boost confidence in yourself, but also with your relationships and family and colleagues, et cetera.
Speaker: A thousand percent.
Speaker: So you mentioned anxiety as one of the four types of PMS.
Speaker: This is also the first I'm hearing of this, so I'm super excited.
Speaker: I'm like, oh, which one am I?
Speaker: So what are the other four types?
Speaker: Yeah, so there's five different types of PMS.
Speaker: The first one is anxiety, which is mood swings, irritability,
Speaker: anxious tendencies, et cetera.
Speaker: Then we have PMS type C, which is cravings, and that's often associated with simple carbohydrate cravings.
Speaker: Yeah, we're familiar with that one.
Speaker: And that one is also often associated with headaches and fatigue and some dizziness and confusion, stuff like that.
Speaker: And then there's PMS type D, which is depression, again, with the confusion and could be hypersomnia or insomnia.
Speaker: And then there is PMS type W or type H, depending on who you ask.
Speaker: So it's water retention or hyperhydration.
Speaker: And this comes with the bloating, weight gain, tender breasts, swelling of the extremities, as well as just general emotional upset.
Speaker: And then you have PMS type P, which is kind of all of the other symptoms of pain and painful periods.
Speaker: back pain, nausea, cramps, et cetera.
Speaker: Yeah, it's going to take me a while to parse all that.
Speaker: Got different types going at different times.
Speaker: And that's the thing.
Speaker: A lot of us have one or two dominant types.
Speaker: So about 70% of those who experience PMS, which is about 80 to 90% of women with natural cycles.
Speaker: So about 70% have anxiety and about 70% have water retention as well.
Speaker: But then for some of the other ones, it lowers a little bit as well.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So everybody listening, click off the Enneagram.
Speaker: That can wait.
Speaker: This is more important.
Speaker: Figure out your PMS type.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So now let's get into endocrine disruptors.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: There's lots of them.
Speaker: Oh, yes.
Speaker: Do tell.
Speaker: So endocrine disruptors are things that impact your hormones, right?
Speaker: And a lot of the endocrine disrupting chemicals that we see are due to what's called xenoestrogens, which are compounds that mimic estrogen in the body but have a really inflammatory response.
Speaker: And kind of mess with our estrogen and with our hormones.
Speaker: So again, it's seen a lot in the industrial process.
Speaker: And I also want to separate this from phytoestrogens, which are in things like soy, and those have gotten a really bad rap.
Speaker: but those can actually be really beneficial to maintaining and regulating hormonal imbalance.
Speaker: So just want to separate that.
Speaker: We're really focused on xenoestrogens, which, you know, that can come in the form of synthetic fragrances are some of the major ones.
Speaker: So many of our products have synthetic fragrances in them and those are messing with our hormones.
Speaker: And that is, you know, our beauty products, our household cleaning products, our laundry detergent, you know, air freshener, things like that that really impact hormones.
Speaker: Also plastics and, you know, especially if you heat plastics.
Speaker: So using Tupperware and putting hot food into Tupperware.
Speaker: or microwaving it is really, really bad for your hormones.
Speaker: Aluminum cans are also lined with plastic that can leach into beverages or canned food, et cetera, that we really want to avoid.
Speaker: And these are just compounds that can really disrupt our hormones and
Speaker: If we are flooded with them, then we also, a lot of people I see it, you know, they are like, I'm doing everything right.
Speaker: I'm eating healthy.
Speaker: I'm working out.
Speaker: I'm prioritizing sleep.
Speaker: Why are my hormones still so messed up?
Speaker: I'm really suffering from PMS and my cycle's really off.
Speaker: take a look at your homes, take a look at your household, take a look at the products that you use.
Speaker: Pesticides as well are huge endocrine disruptors.
Speaker: So if you are in the States and Canada, there is the website ewg.org, I think environmentalworkinggroup.org, and they have a list of Dirty Dozen
Speaker: and the Clean 15.
Speaker: So the Dirty Dozen is the food, the produce that contains the most pesticides even after it's been washed, cut, cooked, etc.
Speaker: And then the Clean 15 is the ones that don't contain as many chemicals that we're consuming.
Speaker: So we really want to, the Dirty Dozen try to buy organic and the Clean 15 is totally cool to buy conventional.
Speaker: But that's a great resource as well to avoid a lot of pesticides and things that can harm our health.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's really helpful for saving money too because, as you know, organic food can get crazy.
Speaker: And it's good to know what we need to buy organic versus what we could if we wanted to.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: We don't have to spend that extra few dollars on organic onions.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: And I've noticed for sure every part of my body is affected by my cycle.
Speaker: Skin, hair.
Speaker: Right now, like my hair, I actually blow dried it this morning.
Speaker: I used a round brush for the first time in my life being a big girl.
Speaker: But man, last week, there was a day I looked like a witch where my hair was just so porous.
Speaker: I'm like, where's my broomstick?
Speaker: Because like I look like it's Halloween.
Speaker: So just oily versus dry skin and digestion.
Speaker: And like you said, the cycle tracking, it helps us so much to find those patterns.
Speaker: And then it just, over time, it just becomes a part of our everyday awareness.
Speaker: A hundred percent.
Speaker: And I love that you said that because-
Speaker: I know I come onto a lot of podcasts and I just spit information and I just keep rambling on because I tend to do that.
Speaker: But I know that it can seem overwhelming if this is the first time you're hearing about it because you're like, oh my goodness, this affects every aspect of me and it affects how I should work out and how I should clean my house and how I should – all of these different things.
Speaker: And I know that it can seem really overwhelming, but you're so right in the effect of –
Speaker: If you just start like being aware of it, it starts to become so easy to understand.
Speaker: And you're just like, oh, that makes so much sense.
Speaker: And it clicks in and it ends up being really, really beneficial to your overall life.
Speaker: And what I love to do is...
Speaker: I call it stacking.
Speaker: So you're really just stacking.
Speaker: You have the foundations of nutrition and fitness, et cetera, and just start stacking small things.
Speaker: So start tracking your cycle and then start incorporating a few foods for each phase of your cycle and then start looking at your house and all of these kinds of things and take it step by step.
Speaker: You know, we have the average person or the average woman will have about 451 menstrual cycles in their life spanning 38.5 years.
Speaker: So that's a lot.
Speaker: That's a long time, right?
Speaker: And if this is the first time you're hearing it and you still have 5, 10, 15 years to go with the cycle, start now and then those cycles in the future won't be as difficult.
Speaker: And as we age and as all these things accumulate, you're going to end up being better in the future and
Speaker: and feeling healthier and having an easier transition through menopause.
Speaker: And it's just, yeah, it's really...
Speaker: important to kind of start and just take those little tidbits at first.
Speaker: And then once you do become, start to become interested, either find, you know, myself or another practitioner that you trust that you want to learn from, if you want to learn all at once, um, or have just like little incorporate things into your, into your daily structure and your daily life.
Speaker: And you'll start to recognize how much of your life is impacted, impacted by your cycle and how much,
Speaker: grace and, and authority and control over your body and understanding of your body that you'll end up feeling once you have this knowledge.
Speaker: That number 451 cycles, that really puts it into perspective.
Speaker: And the way you explained it, my brain keeps making like the money connection of, Oh, it's like saving for retirement.
Speaker: Start early.
Speaker: You know, totally.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A hundred percent.
Speaker: And it is really important.
Speaker: I understand that it can be a little bit overwhelming, but once you know, you know, and, and once you start to feel in tune, like you said, it can be as simple of tuning into your cycle and tracking your cycle and you'll start to recognize all of these patterns in yourself.
Speaker: And then you can connect those patterns to your hormones and to the reasons that you're doing them.
Speaker: And then you're like, oh, I don't really like that I have PMS type A and I have anxiety.
Speaker: So like, what can I do?
Speaker: Oh, maybe I should increase some B6 into my diet.
Speaker: Maybe I should start with adaptogens or whatever it is that can really benefit you.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So now let's get into your bread and butter.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: I can't help myself.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: How do you at the Sync Society Academy go about using nutrition to treat these menstrual cycle issues and just overall menstrual health?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So we have our flagship program, which is the Get Synced program.
Speaker: And in this one, it's pretty much what I was just saying.
Speaker: It teaches you the basics of nutrition and fitness because I think it's really important that you understand nutrition.
Speaker: a little bit, at least have the foundations of nutrition and fitness so that you understand why you're doing what you're doing, because I think that's the only way to create sustainable change.
Speaker: And then it builds on that teaching you about your cycle, and then it breaks down each phase and nutrition, fitness, relationship advice, lifestyle advice, and career for each phase of your cycle.
Speaker: And there's also a module in it to help you identify any hormonal imbalances that you may have so that you can start addressing that.
Speaker: So you have a more regular cycle and can really live in tune with it.
Speaker: And why I ended up going into digital education and why I think that that is so powerful and that the Sync Society is so beneficial is because I was working in one-on-ones and working directly with clients for a while.
Speaker: I was excited because I was able to help you in the current situation that you had, but I didn't feel like in the time we had, I was able to give you the knowledge to be able to help yourself in all the situations that might come about in the future.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: If we have those 451 cycles, 38.5 years, that's a lot of time that life can really impact your cycle.
Speaker: So I wanted to create this program database resource to be able to teach you how to do it and then always have something to go back to if anything does arise in the future because life happens, right?
Speaker: You have a big move, you lose your job,
Speaker: you move cities, you just get older, you have mold in your house, whatever it is.
Speaker: And to have a resource to come back to, to be like, okay, this is what I need to do to get healthy.
Speaker: And then this is how I can live in tune with my cycle.
Speaker: So
Speaker: That's really what the Get Synced program is all about.
Speaker: And then we also have three additional courses, which is the Ditch Birth Control Strategy.
Speaker: So that's how to, my six-step strategy to effectively and safely get off of hormonal birth control and how you can do it without experiencing a bunch of negative symptoms.
Speaker: And then we also have the Understanding PCOS and the Understanding Endometriosis courses, which are, of course, how to understand and manage those
Speaker: conditions naturally.
Speaker: And then I also do workshops teaching people how to naturally avoid pregnancy without the use of birth control.
Speaker: And I work one-on-ones.
Speaker: What I really like about your approach is that you understand that every female body is different.
Speaker: Like a few years ago, th is is maybe back in like, I don't know, what is it?
Speaker: It's 2023.
Speaker: This was like 2018, 2019.
Speaker: I had read a book about cycle-based nutrition and I was like, oh my God, this is the answer.
Speaker: This is going to be great.
Speaker: But in this book, the author was very much of the mind.
Speaker: This is how every woman should eat at all.
Speaker: All times.
Speaker: And it did not work well for me at all.
Speaker: I ended up getting worse for a little while because she took that one size fits all approach.
Speaker: And I also at the time yet didn't yet know that I had lupus.
Speaker: So I think your approach is much better in that way because you do incorporate those differences.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that that's, and going back to it of the root being education, you know, if situations do arise, then you're able to like bring attention to it and really understand it.
Speaker: And that's why I think it's so important to build that foundation.
Speaker: And, you know, I've, I've done a lot of programs and seen a lot of things that have just been like, Hey, do this and feel better.
Speaker: Like, here's
Speaker: a single, you know, what you can do for the next six months and you'll feel better.
Speaker: But if you don't tell me why I'm doing something, I'm not going to do it or I'm not going to continue to do it.
Speaker: And if you don't tell me why, then I can't adjust how I may do it.
Speaker: So I think the educational aspect comes down to, you know, when you know why you're going to do certain things, you're going to understand that it will impact you positively during certain times or, you
Speaker: like in your case, you have to navigate it through the lens of having lupus, you know, or through the lens of having PCOS or through the lens of XYZ.
Speaker: And then once you have that base lens and that rooted foundation in nutrition, health, fitness, your cycle, then once you manage a lot of those things, you can go on to phase syncing and tailoring your nutrition and lifestyle, um,
Speaker: through the lens of whatever you're dealing with.
Speaker: So can you give us a few quick examples of nutrition potentially like quickly impacting our cycles, like the big stuff like gluten or sugar?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So if, first of all, gut health is so important and a healthy gut is really resilient to a lot of things.
Speaker: So that's something to really deeply understand is a lot of food sensitivities, a lot of inflammation, a lot of et cetera is rooted in your gut health.
Speaker: So that is also really important to focus on and repairing gut health so that we are able to sustain more because things like gluten, for instance, can be really detrimental if we have an intolerance to it or if we build an intolerance to it.
Speaker: But for most people don't necessarily have a, don't have celiac disease, which is the actual like allergic reaction pretty much to gluten.
Speaker: We just have an intolerance to it because we've either eaten too much of it or our gut health isn't strong enough to deal with it.
Speaker: So if you find that you do have a gluten intolerance, maybe take some time to
Speaker: focus on your gut health and repair your gut health and see if that changes it.
Speaker: Cause that definitely happened to me during COVID.
Speaker: I was definitely in that bread making saga that everybody else was.
Speaker: It was great.
Speaker: Um, but I was definitely making bread on a very regular basis and was only eating bread for quite some time.
Speaker: Um, I ended up getting really bad acne, which I never had.
Speaker: And, you know, because it was during COVID and just life happens.
Speaker: So sometimes we don't treat ourselves the way that we should treat ourselves.
Speaker: And that's okay sometimes, just as long as we have the knowledge and the tools to get out of it a little bit faster and not spend as much time in those low spaces.
Speaker: But I ended up doing a gut health repair and now I can eat bread without having to deal with the acne that is associated with it.
Speaker: But aside from that,
Speaker: If you have really painful periods, red meat and dairy can be really impactful.
Speaker: So trying to avoid red meat and dairy, especially approaching your cycle and just limiting it.
Speaker: I'm not necessarily villainizing it, even though about
Speaker: 65% of the population is lactose intolerant after the age of three.
Speaker: So that's just something to take into consideration as well.
Speaker: But, you know, going a little bit more plant-based is really beneficial.
Speaker: Eating a variety of foods, a variety of plant-based fibers.
Speaker: One of the kind of best tips that I can give is eat 30 different types of plant-based fibers throughout the week.
Speaker: So
Speaker: That seems like a lot, but it's really only about five a day and that can go into one smoothie.
Speaker: And plant-based fiber is really anything plant-based.
Speaker: So, you know, your fruits, your vegetables, legumes, seeds, nuts, et cetera.
Speaker: And the reason why we do that is because we have tons of gut bacteria that love to eat the fibers from different plants and different types of bacteria like to eat different types of fiber from different types of plants and
Speaker: So you really want to feed that to your bacteria because we love our bacteria in our gut.
Speaker: As long as it's not opportunistic gut bacteria, which a lot of people have issues with, again, going back to repairing your gut health, but your overall health is so impacted by all of these bacteria in your gut.
Speaker: So treat them nicely.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: So as we've talked about, most women have gone through life just grinning and bearing it with their periods.
Speaker: Can you tell us what could our life look like?
Speaker: with a healthy menstrual cycle.
Speaker: What can it look like?
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: It's actually incredible when you experience it.
Speaker: And I love when my clients tell me all of these different things and different small little tidbits because it is in the small things.
Speaker: Of course, not suffering from just, let's point blank, not suffering is
Speaker: is amazing.
Speaker: It would be great not to suffer.
Speaker: So just feeling like having consistent energy, having a relatively stable mood.
Speaker: And even when our mood isn't stable, understanding what that means and understanding the differences in it.
Speaker: And, you know, going back to something that you had said earlier of
Speaker: during your ovulatory phase, it's this time that you should be amazing and feeling great and all of these things.
Speaker: And I think that our follicular and ovulatory phase gets put on this pedestal and our luteal phase and our menstrual phase just gets left in the dust and is like, oh, well, those are just two weeks that we're going to have to get through so that we can experience this great time.
Speaker: But if we really tap into it, we can leverage our strengths during each of the phases to really improve our overall life.
Speaker: And one of my favorite ways to live in tune with my cycle is in my career and in my relationships.
Speaker: So
Speaker: My menstrual phase, even if you have a totally healthy cycle and don't experience any symptoms and it's easy for you to get through, your menstrual phase is a reminder to reflect on your previous cycle.
Speaker: So it's a time to go introspective and really look at your previous cycle and take a beat and slow down a little bit and really recognize like,
Speaker: hey, what can I do better in my next cycle?
Speaker: Looking back without judgment, what can I adjust and what do I want to leave in my previous cycle to bring on to the next?
Speaker: And for me, in my luteal phase, I use this time.
Speaker: I don't have as much creativity.
Speaker: I don't have as much social stamina.
Speaker: So I'm probably going to say no to
Speaker: events that I don't need to go to or lunches that I don't need to go to because I need to slow down a little bit in myself and avoid burning out like that.
Speaker: And that's a great time for more administrative tasks and tidying up the home.
Speaker: And I know that a lot of people don't have full control over their schedules.
Speaker: And I'm not necessarily saying like, of course, as an entrepreneur to tailor your business to your cycle is incredible.
Speaker: It is so beneficial, you know, write emails during your ovulatory phase and do more administrative tasks and take care of the taxes during your luteal phase.
Speaker: or whatever it is, but a lot of us don't have full control over our schedules.
Speaker: But just understanding your strengths and weaknesses during each phase, you can take the time away from work to better prepare.
Speaker: If you have to make a decision during your luteal phase and you know you're not great at making decisions during your luteal phase, is there something that you can do in your follicular ovulatory phase to help make that decision easier?
Speaker: or is there some tasks that you can do during that phase to allow you to be able to take more rest and recovery in your later luteal or menstrual phase?
Speaker: Or does it just mean that when you come home from work, instead of going out to a party, you're going to say no to that invitation and instead take an Epsom salt bath and sit in your bathtub for an hour and give yourself self-care.
Speaker: And that's the way that you avoid burning out.
Speaker: I've totally done that.
Speaker: I'm like, I can't pee full anymore.
Speaker: I want my Kindle and my tub.
Speaker: That was me this weekend.
Speaker: So we've covered a lot of heavy topics here.
Speaker: So I want to lighten things up a little here to wrap it up.
Speaker: Nicole, tell us, what is your biggest pet peeve?
Speaker: Oh.
Speaker: Is this in reference to anything?
Speaker: Anything at all.
Speaker: My biggest pet peeve is noises that I can't necessarily identify or just like consistent noises.
Speaker: So I have like a hypersensitivity to sound.
Speaker: So if there's like a buzzing and I don't know where it's coming from, it will drive me absolutely crazy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There is one thing that I don't like telling people about because sometimes they end up doing it just to get under my skin because just thinking about it is making the back of my...
Speaker: people who like pick their nails and click that sound of clicking nails is my biggest it's nails on a chalkboard for me and like if we're out my sister does it all the time so I just put my hand on her leg and she'll immediately stop and she'll be like sorry because she knows but if like I'm on the subway and I hear it I will get up and I will walk away
Speaker: I understand.
Speaker: The nail thing is grounds for divorce in my house.
Speaker: I totally get it.
Speaker: I'm a little neurodivergent.
Speaker: So the sounds are definitely something that get into, they burrow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What is your favorite movie?
Speaker: My favorite movie is a movie called Ill Manners.
Speaker: It is, it's produced by, his name is, his stage name, I guess is Plan B. And he is a UK rapper, artist, producer, movie producer, et cetera.
Speaker: And I saw this movie at TIFF in 2011 and it's a really heavy movie.
Speaker: So be careful, but it's about a borough in the UK and Australia.
Speaker: kind of the street life, but it's really intense.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: If you could have one actual superpower, what would it be?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So it's the ability to fill.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So it's, you have the ability to fill anything.
Speaker: So if someone's annoying you, you just continue to fill up their bladder and they have to pee constantly.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: If you're low on cash, then you just fill up your bank account.
Speaker: If you're thirsty, you fill up your cup.
Speaker: So I think this one is really ideal.
Speaker: That is amazing.
Speaker: And you have definitely given that thought.
Speaker: Like you didn't just come up with that.
Speaker: I think I heard it sometime like 15, 20 years ago, but it's always stuck with me, especially because of the bladder thing.
Speaker: Because I'm very, like, non-confrontational and I don't actually want to harm anybody.
Speaker: But just those nuisances I think are so funny.
Speaker: I can think about that the next time I'm like in an obnoxious situation, like just forcing someone to have to be.
Speaker: That's amazing.
Speaker: Just constantly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's really uncomfortable.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So tell everyone where they can find and work with you, because I definitely think we're going to have some women hopefully chomping at the bit to fix their cycles and get healthy out there.
Speaker: I hope so.
Speaker: So I can be found on Instagram or TikTok at Nicole Bendayan.
Speaker: And I know that might be difficult to spell, so hopefully it'll be in show notes.
Speaker: And then, or just search holistic menstrual health and I should come up.
Speaker: You can also go to the Sync Society Academy, sorry, the Sync Society.com is the online learning platform or getsynced.com is for our supplements.
Speaker: Nicole, thank you so, so much.
Speaker: This was an incredible conversation.
Speaker: I can't wait to dig more into some of the stuff we covered today.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Thank you for having me.
Speaker: And that was my conversation with holistic nutritionist, Nicole Bendayan.
Speaker: You'll find all of her links in the show notes.
Speaker: I'd love to hear your feedback on today's episode.
Speaker: So come share your thoughts on Instagram at Krista H. Des or email me at Krista at KristaHernandez.com.
Speaker: And check out my website where you can get my free weekly sanity planner, a task manager tailored to the challenges you face with chronic illness.
Speaker: It'll help you prioritize your to-do list and be more efficient with your most precious resources, time and energy.
Speaker: So go to kristahernandez.com and get your free weekly sanity planner today.
Speaker: Your body will thank you tomorrow.
Speaker: Thanks for joining me here on SheLived.
Speaker: See you next time.
