People of Northwest Arkansas
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People of Northwest Arkansas
Navigating Hormones, Health, and the Power of Nutrition with Meg Green
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DISCLAIMER: This episode, we touch briefly on the topic on libido and hormones, therefore it might not be suitable for little ears. Meg Green, a registered dietitian with a focus on integrative and functional nutrition, joins us to unravel the complex interplay between hormones and health. Nutrition's powerful influence on hormonal health is more than just theory; it's a lifestyle for Meg and many others. We delve into how dietary choices, like the overlooked importance of protein and zinc, can impact everything from libido to mental clarity. Meg also candidly opens up about testosterone replacement therapy, breaking down the taboos and sharing how it's transformed her own life. Our conversation goes beyond diets, touching on matters of self-confidence and the psychological nuances of health.
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Hormones and Skincare for Women
Speaker 1We are here to talk with Meg Green , a registered dietitian , and she is an integrative and functional nutrition certified practitioner here in Northwest Arkansas , and so she works with women to harmonize hormones , support metabolism and optimize health , using food as medicine . Hey Meg , how are you today ?
Speaker 2I'm so excited to be here .
Speaker 1Oh good .
Speaker 3We are so excited to have you Good .
Speaker 2Any time to talk about women and health , I'm all in .
Speaker 1No , I'm into that too , because you specialize in hormones . Yes , and don't we need them ? Well , I feel like mine are just crazy all the time , and I have a nine-year-old Me too . Oh , you do too , yes . And she's a female and so oh , we should sidebar Nine going on 21 .
Speaker 2Same . All of this going on , I have to drunk elephant and needing a mini-fridge . I'm like I'm sorry , I guess I'm just a peasant I have to walk to my refrigerator if I need something cold .
Speaker 1I'm in an alternate universe right now , because my daughter for Christmas asked for a drunk elephant green backpack that is almost $500 and has all these things in it .
Speaker 3No .
Speaker 1And she . I should take a picture I'm going to email to you when I get home in a few hours , of all the drunk elephant that she has . And she asked me for a fridge . She looked . What's going on . I don't know who's the influencer . We need to cancel In order to be in music .
Speaker 2That's doing Quick . It needs to be quick . I mean , she was like yesterday we decorated for Christmas . Here I am , sweating , mess , you know , just arm shaking from moving boxes and she's like do you think we'd have time to go to Ulta ?
Speaker 1I'm just like this is my daughter .
Speaker 2What's your daughter's name ? That's what I want to do they need to be best friends .
Speaker 1So she's ninth grade , fourth , I'm sorry fourth Fourth grade Grade , nine years old . Yes , I think our daughters would be best friends . Sounds like it , because my daughter literally every day . When can we do a Sephora Hall ? When can we do an altar hall for ?
Speaker 4a yes day .
Speaker 1What yes day ? And then she'll say mom , I want to see your nighttime routine . I'm like no , I always do . Okay , I'm kidding , but she puts on like five different creams and I'm like honey , you're actually gonna cause a breakout because you're using to like there's too much , yes , not that liberal , okay , and that's expensive .
Speaker 2Yes , I have her scheduled for a facial , just so she will know how to use these products , what to do , because facial yes oh , who do you sending her to just a friend esthetician ? I was just like just meet with her and give her some tips because , yeah , it's starting to cause an issue . It's like it's because you're pot you could scrape off that's how hers .
Speaker 1At night , when I go to give her a kiss , I'm like , oh , that's sticky , like you've got a lot of cream on there .
Speaker 3I wish our listeners could see you . That's sticky . That's so what happens from eight to nine , because I'm an eight year old . It's gonna change ?
Speaker 1not in this place yet . Well , she gets frustrated because some of her friends are not into skincare yet .
Speaker 3Yep , that's what she'll say Okay , that's fair , that's fair them .
Speaker 1Get it then , but you know what they might be bad for each other . It's true because it is .
Speaker 2It's like she wake you . They just wake up one morning .
Speaker 1And that's how it was for me to , although maybe it's not so bad . That's what they're into , although I'm kind of sad it's expensive .
Speaker 2It's about to say yes , I mean , I don't even remember what I was into , but it wasn't the price point as well .
Speaker 1No , the other day she grabbed something from my like vanity and was like how much was this ? And I was like 15 bucks . She's like oh , that's really cheap . I'm like that is not really cheap by the way , sweetheart . You are just looking at my nice stuff and I started giving her samples or like ones that I didn't use . That's how she started to like nice stuff . Yes , never have done that . Yeah .
Speaker 2Well , back in the day we had magazines where we could pull out the little samples and squeeze as much of that stuff on us .
Speaker 1She makes me play Sephora . She'll get all her stuff set up and then I have to be like . She'll be like okay , be like a , karen , or like B , like you have . She'll make my younger daughter be like the unruly kid and she has to like kick Me out of Sephora or something like I have to be a shopper .
Speaker 3Okay , I have a question about this . Yes , only so . Where do your kids land in your kid lineup , these two kids ? Yours is the first born right .
Speaker 2First born , first born , first born . Oh , my second is a boy , and he is all boy Well that kid jumping off things .
Speaker 1Mine is a girl , but Yesterday she , like my husband , was like hey , do you want to come outside and help me split wood ? And she was yeah , hold on , let me put on some lipstick . When it put on lipstick and a dress , came outside and literally split wood .
Speaker 3Julia , yeah , oh , my goodness that's the kind of kid she is , that that is our deal . Yet to a T and my daughter my eight year old is the second is the second born , yet youngest . We joke about how that one day we need to have another kid or adopt . We actually have considered adopting because it is just something that we've always wanted to do . But we joke about how she is the middle child .
Speaker 1We joke about all the time .
Speaker 3Oh , she is a middle child through and through . And we were talking to my sister-in-law , we said something about how we're kind of getting ready to to look into the adoption process , and I made the joke . I said , yeah , I go , because I've always seen Ardelia as the middle child , and my sister-in-law goes oh my gosh , me too . Oh , that's hilarious . I find that very interesting . So I think that she's always , you know , been just a very unique little person , so she's not hormonal yet .
Speaker 3No , I didn't say that Because my nine-year-old oh , I would say hormonal is for sure a thing in her little world and clothing shopping Like it just went from so fun .
Speaker 2I want to lose them in crossbody To yes everything that mom picks out . It's like mm-hmm oh .
Speaker 3God , no , yeah , I do a lot of shopping at Realonahs , I've done a lot of work for them and it used to be where I'd get all these really cutesy outfits and I'd bring them home and she'd excited , put on these dresses , twirl around , and then she started getting opinions and her favorite thing is she says I have an opinion . And she says it very very particularly Opinion , and so I've had to bring her with us .
Speaker 4I do .
Speaker 3I love her she is so fantastic . She has a lot of opinions and she is a character and entertaining and sensitive and loving I mean , she has all these amazing qualities about her . It's just fun to talk about some of them .
Speaker 3And so with the shopping thing , I had to take her and I would go through early before she got out of school and I'd pick out all the clothes that I was OK to let her have . And then she goes through them and she picks out what she wants and this last time she made three piles Her like , her , maybe pile . Her definitely yes pile . Or her absolutely yes pile . And her definitely no pile . And it is an experience and so hormones are real .
Speaker 3I mean we've even been starting to talk about going to buying a training bra for her and she's wearing deodorant already and I mean these are some really big things that you're trying to cross in these bridges , and so I think it'd be interesting we can start taking a little deep dive into what you do before we start talking a little bit more about hormones for our daughters and for us as grown women , because this is a very like , this is a hot Personal hot topic and it's also I mean , I've had a journey myself .
Speaker 2I'm really excited
Functional Nutrition and Hypothyroidism Journey
Speaker 2about Me too .
Speaker 3I want to hear a little bit about how you ended up in Northwest Arkansas , like , what brought you here ? Did you grow up here ? Are you transplant ?
Speaker 2Tell us a little bit about that journey . So I'm originally from Winn , arkansas small town .
Speaker 2It's now known because it was hit so hard by the tornadoes that came through in the spring and came to college up here , Left went to Memphis for my residency , graduate , internship and master's program and thought I was going to stay in Memphis . But my boyfriend at the time now husband was in Fayetteville and so we just met in the middle in Little Rock . And so that's where I first originally started and I worked in Peeds . I just wanted to do kids . My brain thinks in kids , I'm a hands-on learner . But once we wanted to have a family of our own , we decided let's leave , I want to just spend time with my kiddos .
Speaker 2And so shifted gears and started working with adults and I myself started feeling horrible after my second . The weight wasn't coming off , my energy levels , I thought I had narcolepsy . I could fall asleep anywhere at any time because I was so exhausted . Just random aches and pains , cramps , leg hurting all of the time . One eye , would it ? I mean twitch , you know just weird stuff that would happen . I had the eye twitch before . Yes , because you need more magnesium .
Speaker 1That's what it means .
Speaker 2So I just treated myself as patient number one and because I couldn't get help anywhere , the doctor this is welcome to being a mom , it's just busy . This is hormones , this is life . I was like this is not living . This is like a shell of myself and I'm not enjoying this at all . And it was right when COVID hit .
Speaker 2So I decided to do a deep dive into functional nutrition and it took a little bit but I became the only integrative and functional nutrition certified practitioner in the state and I was like , if I'm having problems , wonder if anyone else is . And lo and behold , I mean I had no idea the way that women have suffered and just not listened to . Or you know , have I ever felt heard at a doctor's office ? I hear that every single day everything's normal , but I don't feel normal . And so I shifted gears and started working with women and doing a telehealth practice and just kind of started seeing patients up in Northwest Arkansas and it's just . I mean women everywhere just need that support and I do testing on them because traditional labs can show normal and they don't feel normal .
Speaker 1They do . I have hypothyroidism Me too , ok , and so a lot of times my labs , well , they don't always do the full panel unless you ask yeah , but a lot of times I swear to you the majority of the time they will always be normal , quote unquote . But oftentimes I don't Like I will . Often and I still have not gotten on top of this I still don't fully understand what to do at certain times because I swear I'll eat so nutritionally or , to my knowledge , okay , I'll eat , quote unquote , clean , which I don't really know . That means something different to a lot of different people . I'll try to cut out dairy gluten , all work out , and sometimes I still feel like I can't get like extra weight or energy , so I can totally relate to this .
Speaker 1Yeah , I'm super excited that you're here .
Speaker 2Well , and they'll throw me like oh , you take your thyroid .
Speaker 2Yes , I take levothyroxid or synthroid , yeah , and then come back in three months . They'll have a 15 minute talk with you , check your labs and send you on your way . It's a cyclic effect and so a lot of times with thyroid you know we need so much more nutrition support than what anybody , any of the doctors , are going to talk about . Right , the thyroid goes through so much selenium and magnesium all these different nutrients and our bodies are so smart , they prioritize . So if we are staying constantly stressed , which the body is going to be stressed when it's not getting everything that it needs , then it starts to take from other areas . And so now you know like our brain , our heart , our lungs , those are top priority . So we need areas that you know that might be deficient , and so they'll pull from those different areas to help those areas .
Speaker 2And now we have deficient areas and hormones are on the bottom of the list including hair and nails , which is why a lot of women will complain like my hair is falling out , my nails aren't growing . You know , with hypothyroidism , you can first look and see that their eyebrows are starting to thin on the ends . Like that's a telltale sign yeah , and so it's because we don't have those nutrients there to support the body functions that are needed for those types of things .
Speaker 1Yeah , and I find it actually very dodging . I've looked up the diet , I've seen books , but it's none of it's easy , like I can't just read something in a book and then you know what I'm saying . Yeah , it's not .
Speaker 2Well , as a dietician , it's confusing like no other , because when I first doing a deep dive for me , I mean , gluten was my love language , you know , like I love bread and cheese and all of those , I mean a charcuterie board is just something I love to dig into , oh yes , and so I was just very hesitant to just cut out gluten . But lo and behold , I had a nurse practitioner friend . I was like I need you to run labs on me . This is before . I was able to do all of that at the time , and so I didn't have hypothyroidism . I have autoimmune disease , hashimoto's , and most of the time , 85% of women diagnosed with hypothyroidism are actually Hashimoto's .
Speaker 1And it's treated completely different ?
Speaker 2Yeah , I've heard that . And so there's an autoimmune factor . So it's the thyroid not functioning the way it's supposed to because the body's attacking it . And so you have to remove certain culprits , and gluten They'll like . When you ingest gluten , the size of it is basically the same size and shape as your thyroid hormones and the things in your thyroid , so it attacks gluten more , the more that it's in the diet and it's going to attack your thyroid more . So your labs can be normal , you have normal hormones , but your symptoms are going to be exacerbated because it's under fire .
Speaker 1I've always heard that and I'm glad that you explained it that way . People have just told me well , I cut it out and I feel better now .
Speaker 2Yes , it's called molecular mimicry . It's just , your body can't tell the difference . Wow . And so once I started digging in , and once I had a true diagnosis , which I've been misdiagnosed for eight years , and that's kind of the average around seven to eight years that women go without the proper diagnosis . That's a long
Diet's Impact on Hormonal Health
Speaker 2time .
Speaker 2Yeah , just to have medication and just say , all right , you should be well on your way , so you don't take medicine for it . I do . I do take a thyroid . I mean my thyroid , you know peel that I take . I think I take MP thyroid .
Speaker 2But I have to do a lot of other things too . You know , I'm I am gluten free . I started out dairy free . I went through a whole elimination diet because I was like , where am I going to feel better ? Yeah , but you don't have to eliminate all of those things and it shouldn't be confusing .
Speaker 2There's , you know , autoimmune diets out there and anti-inflammatory diets , and the goal is the same , but the foods that you have to take out are completely different . And so I was like , why ? Yeah , you know , and it's because everyone is so unique and it affects the body . And that's why I do testing on all of the women that I work with to see what's going on for them , so they don't have to go through those questions Like , should I take this out or not ? It's like , oh , we know the exact plan that we need to take and I think that's why the results are so powerful , because it takes the guess , workout and the confusing part of years of trying and we know how it is . When a friend says , hey , I did this and I feel better , we're immediately like all right .
Speaker 3Monday morning I'm starting this , I'm trying , yes , and but that's hard to say when somebody says I tried this and I did this and you're a different person . So that's true , having an opportunity to be tested , to find out what exactly you need to eliminate or add or change about your diet , or just the things that you're doing . It's going to be unique to each individual . How long were you doing elimination diet , like ? How long did it take you to kind of figure out your story ? Yeah , what was going on with your health .
Speaker 2Well , I went in , you know , head first Once I started to like feel a little bit better and when I would go talk to the doctor . I mean , I went to three different doctors . One , like I said , it's just part of life , it's hormones . And I walked into one doctor she's a female , she's a very busy clinic and she just looked at me and she said , oh , your BMIs above what it should be . So I'm going to write you a referral to a dietician .
Speaker 1Okay , Hold on . And I was like you didn't even read my paperwork Wait . I have actually heard now that BMI is not what it they used to really hold the BMI , but actually there's new research that shows that a lot of people above healthy , quote-unquote BMI are actually fine , correct If they could see my face now .
Speaker 2They could see the eyes rolling . Yeah , so I feel like they used to say that to me too , and we used to do standards for kids , like grade them basically in school on their report cards with BMI's , and it just caused a lot of emotional things that come up with it .
Speaker 1That's why I had to respond , because that's happened to me too and I'm like hold on .
Speaker 2Yes , I mean I just walked out I was like you haven't read my paperwork . Yeah , I am a dietician . That is not my concern today . My concern are the 25 other things that are going on in my body that I know myself . That's what I tell my clients . You have to advocate for yourself nowadays because no one knows you like you do Right , and you just have to try on providers like you would an outfit , because what fits you is not going to fit someone else and you want to feel heard , right , and you want that time , like my average time with clients . The first time is at least 90 minutes . Oh wow , and that's like , after we've talked for 30 minutes , 45 minutes . We communicate through messaging and stuff . I mean , they have things to share and I want to be the one that listens to them .
Speaker 1And you felt like you didn't hear that . So that was your second doctor , and then you saw a third .
Speaker 2Yes , that was just like oh , this is just how life is , that's what I've been told to yeah . To show hormones . This is just how life is this is just how it is when you have this stuff going on and I was like , oh my God .
Speaker 1No , I've also had doctors tell me that your diet has nothing to do with your thyroid .
Speaker 1Oh my God and the adjudice just kicked in no , I , literally multiple endocrinologists and I will not name names because I won't , but multiple ones across different cities have told me , because I've been like I've done some research about reversing the damage on your thyroid , which I did have one doctor , I will say , that told me to drink non-plordated water lots of different diet changes that could decrease the size of like nodules , which I've eliminated mine . It's awesome . But I've also been like okay , well , I've heard I can lower my dosage if I change my diet . And they're like no , it has nothing to do with that , it has nothing to do with the food . Because I thought did my eating habits in college cause thyroid disease ? Because I was so bad Ramen beer ? And they're like oh , no , it has nothing to do with food .
Speaker 2Yes , Well , our hormones are all closely connected , and that's another thing too . As moms , as you know , entrepreneurs and business women , and we run the households we wear so many hats and we also grew up in the land of snack . Well , debbie cake , you know it or not , little Debbie takes yes , and slim fast .
Speaker 2And so we were talked to about calories and all of those things and so restricted . And so , first of all , we grew up with a lack of nutrients to create hormones . You know , eggs have had a bad rap all of their lives and it was like oh , you can have one egg , no eggs are bad .
Speaker 2Oh , you can have the egg whites . Oh , you know what ? You can have only one egg yote a day . It's like , okay , we need that saturated fat to create hormones . You know , we've lathered up in sunscreen not that I'm anti sunscreen at all , but we lathered up so much that now , we know Dr that won't wear sunscreen If it's a low UV , if it's high .
Speaker 1UV .
Speaker 2they will low UV no vitamin D is not only a vitamin , it's a hormone and it's a staple to creating our cholesterol . Cholesterol is also the same to make our hormones , and so we just we just didn't have the support going in at all . Not at all .
Speaker 2And we were just we were told to restrict , restrict . So our bodies just didn't have those nutrients . That stressed our bodies out , and so our cortisol , which is our stress hormone , is so closely related to our thyroid and also our estrogen progesterone . I mean I work with women with PCOS , endometriosis , all kinds of stuff , and it's just closely tied together . But that stress hormone , our adrenal glands , when they don't have what's needed , the brain feels that way , you know , like it's . We're under stress so much so it puts us in this sympathetic nervous system where we're constantly in , you know , fight or flight mode . Our bodies have to have a higher energy level . We breathe more , we utilize so much more so it just depletes a lot of things .
Speaker 2I do yoga as well . I'm a yoga instructor but I don't teach so much . But I use the breath work with all of my clients because we have to get into that parasympathetic nervous system , that rest digest mode . Because so many women are , we just stay in that other , that frantic mode all the time .
Speaker 1Okay , so , playing off of that , what is one thing you would recommend to ? Let's just say , our listeners are in that same boat . What's one thing they could do in their day with maybe their diet , because you know we're all in a rush , or going to practices or going . What's one like really practical change or thing that we could all do , all learn to do ?
Speaker 2It's great to start your morning not with just coffee , oh my gosh , the barista this morning told me that I'm trying not to drink coffee when I first wake up .
Speaker 2Coffee , I mean , I know that coffee is a staple for a lot of folks , but we need some kind of nutrients to go in with it , and a lot of women don't get enough protein . So I always tell people to think in protein , whether it is an egg or just a handful of you know , like almonds , something to jump start the body to stabilize blood sugar . So many people are running around you know , with insulin resistance .
Speaker 2And when we have that caffeine going in first thing in the morning , we usually think , okay , hey , we've got this energy for a short , short burst , but that caffeine lasts for another six to eight hours and that's when it starts to die down , which usually a hit around that window of 3pm . Well , that's the same time that we are have our cortisol naturally lowers and our blood sugars are dropping from lunch , and so it's this trifecta crash . And you talk to women . In most of the time they'll say mid afternoon I'm toast , I have no energy , I'm done by three o'clock and it's . We've caused a lot of this . And so don't forget to eat Like you have to . You have to eat throughout the day to get the fuel for the body to function the way that it's supposed to .
Speaker 1I like that advice . That's good advice because , at least for me , because I'm one of those that starts with caffeine I usually don't eat breakfast or sometimes lunch . It just depends and I think , okay , that's good , I'm like fasting , right , but then I get like midday or late day that I want to like snack . Yes , maybe I don't make the best and I get that question too , like when should ?
Speaker 2what about fasting , meg ? What do you think about fasting ? Fasting has a time and place , for sure . But if your hormones are already out of whack and you start fasting , guess what happens ? That stresses the body , it drives the cortisol higher , and most women are already in like stage two or three of adrenal insufficiency , and so you don't have enough cortisol as it is . So when you don't have enough cortisol , guess what happens ? The body starts to steal from the precursors of progesterone and testosterone . So now we have no libido , we can't gain muscle , and our estrogen to progesterone ratios are skewed .
Speaker 1Okay , wait you , you have said a word now that has piqued , my interest , lobito .
Speaker 3Yes , I knew you're gonna hang on to that . I think that it's so true , though I mean , okay , I've been pretty quiet for through all of this partially , because it is a subject it's emotional .
Speaker 3This is a hard subject and I'm and it's the timing of you coming on to the show is just very fascinating in my own personal life and I'm not going to dive too deep into that . But I have some health things going on and I have my PCP , just decided to step out of the medical field and there are just a lot of things that are going on . I had a high school friend who just died of a heart attack at 46 . So there are all these things that are happening and so it's kind of creating an emotional response .
Speaker 3I'm trying not to say too much to the topic and pipe in too much , but I think that it applies to all these areas of our life . And so , coming back to this whole thing of Lobito , I have so many friends growing up in a just a Christian environment , going to Christian university , because you don't talk about sex , a lot you don't talk about . You know , growing up in purity culture , it's not something that we talk about in healthy ways and in open and healthy ways , and I want to talk about that . It's okay , but it's okay we should . It's okay to like checks , sex . It's okay to like sex , sex . It's okay to want to have sex .
Speaker 1It's okay to have these things To eat for more Lobito .
Speaker 3And to eat for me , lobito , yeah , but here's the thing is as I've gotten older , I've surrounded myself with friends who are open to these conversations , who want to have these conversations .
Speaker 1That would be you too , over here .
Speaker 3Yeah , absolutely . She is one of those people and my group of girlfriends . But for so many years , and even as women , after having children and having conversations with other women and just so many women who are like I , just I have no interest in sex .
Speaker 2And I'm like what ? Most of the time ? It's because it does they don't have all of the sensations that are needed , right , whether it is emotional or physical . You know , like it's because our bodies change and it's due to the fact that , I mean , we do go through hormonal changes as we age . But you know , a guy's hormonal cycle is every 24 hours . Every 24 hours they go through a full hormonal cycle .
Speaker 1Really .
Speaker 2Whereas females before menopause it's 28 days .
Speaker 1What ? Well , yeah , yeah , yeah , 28 days . Yes , I can see that for a man .
Speaker 3Where did that 28 days come from ?
Speaker 1I know .
Speaker 3I'm like a read 24 hours versus 28 days , wow , no wonder why , our world is so different and why we're so different and why our marriages struggle and why all of these things are happening .
Speaker 2Or I hear all of the time my husband and I , we can start a diet together and then you know , by the end of the week he'll lose weight , he'll lose weight . He's down 10 pounds , whereas I'm up three . Nothing makes me angrier than that .
Speaker 1Yes , oh look at my pounds and I'm like oh , I accidentally mistaken my jeans for yours . I was like oh , those are mine . Oh , my God , what . Right , you lost all this weight Right , okay , so important question what can we eat to increase libido ?
Speaker 2First of all , you got to get your protein in , and zinc is really needed .
Speaker 4So zinc comes down , hold on yeah .
Speaker 2So zinc comes from any kind
Nutrition and Women's Health
Speaker 2of animal proteins . But those vegans that are out there , they're like hold on . What do I need to do ? Yep , we need , you know , your nuts and seeds . That's where it's easy to remember . Your nuts are going to give you help with your libido .
Speaker 1Eat a lot of nuts , yep , if you want to . I love this , I love this so much so yeah .
Speaker 2But for women , of course , we think of testosterone as libido . But women get the benefit of metabolism and our brain fog and focus from our testosterone . So when we feel like squirrel , those moments , that can be because our testosterone is not where it needs to be . We start losing testosterone at the age of 30 and it's very rapid . Men have been getting testosterone replacement for so long and it's still kind of taboo for women to go into a doctor's office and to say I think I need some testosterone . I mean it's just like no , yeah , I mean more and more are starting to open their eyes to it and there's different types . There's oral and creams and all kinds of things .
Speaker 2But it's a game changer for a lot of folks . But to eat to support that , and we definitely need more zinc and protein . But you also can just start to build more lean muscle , the more lean muscle you can . However , because we are in a state of adrenal insufficiency or our cortisol is not what it needs to be , it's hard to be able to gain lean muscle because we're staying in that stressed out phase .
Speaker 3Interesting . That's really interesting , I think , because this is people of Northwest Arkansas and we are getting pretty technical and clinical here .
Speaker 4I have a personal question for you , maybe and you don't have to answer if you don't want to .
Speaker 3As you started this journey , has this increased your libido and has it improved your sex life ?
Speaker 2with your husband Absolutely Game changer , because , first of all , whenever I was first trying to dig around , there was not much happening , but I also was a zombie of myself in all states . I was so tired , my body ached . That's just not something that's on the forefront of your mind most of the time , correct , and you don't feel like yourself , and that's what I hear , I mean the number one thing . I just want to feel like myself again . I don't . My confidence is gone . That's the number one complaint for women and that I work with and it's like okay , what can I like your cup ? What can we do to build your confidence back up ? Is we have to start getting some small little wins happening , whether it is trying foods that you like or hey , I'm not crashing in the afternoons or I don't have these cravings , I'm energized and like hey , yeah , things are in motion , we're getting things flowing again .
Speaker 3So crazy to think about the culmination of all those things we are as women . We are struggling with body image and we are confidence is down because of that , and our confidence is down because we're not eating the right things and we're getting tired and we're having brain fog , and so it's like I'm not in a mood for sexy time , and so there's that element . And then you add the like emotional element onto it of like well , can you please woo me ?
Speaker 4over here .
Speaker 3Look , there's so the recipe for getting a woman in the mood . It's a lot .
Speaker 1It's a lot . I'll tell you my husband's recipe you want to know .
Speaker 3Yeah , I want to know your recipe .
Speaker 1He's really good at this Champagne and lobster or champagne , and whatever he cooks . So , I always know when you start to walk in the house and the whiffs of home cooking and a bottle , and he'll just bring me a glass of wine wherever I'm at At the house . I'm like I know what's going on here . I see what you're doing . I don't need to eat nutritious food , I just need the bubbles .
Speaker 3So it's not that . So Elliot isn't trying to woo you with a back rub Way to go , Elliot .
Speaker 1He didn't do that . He didn't do that too . He usually just brings a nice bottle of wine . I'm like , okay , all right , I see where this is going . But no , I think it's important because there's some nights you're like I'm just so tired after you get the kids down , after you've done all the things . Sometimes you're like you know what I'm ? Just I'm tapped out .
Speaker 2You're tapped out mentally , physically , everything . And for women , the confidence level you know , like if they put on a pair of pants and they don't feel comfortable , it's like , oh my gosh , how did I let myself get to this situation ? Or that's a negative self-talk , and it's the exact same stressor as if you were in a car accident . Whoa , women get hit constantly with these hard , hard stressors because of , like I mean , what we talked about earlier the way that society affects what is going on you think you should look to .
Speaker 1Really , I think the guys are just happy you're there , True .
Speaker 3It doesn't matter what you look , you're just willing . They rarely care , you know , especially as you get older . They rarely care .
Speaker 2Oh I know they're just like , they're ready we can have sex . What ?
Speaker 3Are you serious , oh ?
Speaker 1my gosh , I know . Okay , I have to ask you this . I just watched a documentary about blue zones in the world . Those are okay , you know where people live over 100 and a big or like a common food that they're eating . Are these yams , wild yams , purple yams , like ? What's up with these yams ? I mean , what's going on ? Do I need to like bulk , buy these ? Well ?
Speaker 2I will stand up . This could be a whole nother conversation and it's a good piece to kind of add in . Like local farmers . But you know , our soil is depleted of nutrients . So if we ate an orange now , we would have to the same orange that our grandparents ate . We'd have to eat eight of those to get the nutrition profile the same . So our foods aren't giving us what we truly need due to the fact of how everything is just kind of grown . So in these areas the food is nutritious .
Speaker 1Yeah , so what do you do then ? Here Do you try to shop like organic farms , local farms when do you think I do ? I ?
Speaker 2get . Well , I get , of course , like 100% grass fed beef . Okay , I do eat meat , I do eat meat , but I want those Omega-3s , we want those anti-inflammatory foods over just our processed inflammatory foods . And if you go and you go to the grocery store and you just get ground beef , a lot of times that cow , even if it says grass fed , you want it to say 100% grass fed or 100% grass finished , because that cow can go and eat a little bit of the grass , how it's naturally supposed to , but then towards the end of its life they'll bulk that up . They get grains . Well , that stresses the cow out . That's not what they're intended to eat . And so guess what happens when they get stressed out , their cortisol levels go up . So now we're consuming these products that have higher cortisol levels , which affect ours , and so we just want pure , simple foods , like I'd create meal plans for all of my clients , and the recipes are always plain and simple real foods , but nothing that you can't find . It's not like tofu smoothie blends every single day . Real things .
Speaker 1Do you create plans for ? Okay , my oldest daughter's a vegetarian and I've had her tested her irons good , but I still worry too much process you create plans for vegan vegetarian ?
Speaker 2Yes , I have people that have so many different food sensitivities , food allergies , and so I mean I have some that are just like 13 plus different foods that we have to remove and still have to meet their nutritional demands , not only for just functions but to feel optimal . And that's what I always tell the women that I work with we don't want you to just have normal labs , we want you to feel optimal and thrive , like that's what we're designed to do .
Speaker 2And a lot of times we need that extra support If we can't get it through food . Sometimes we'll do supplementation , you know , like add in a multibotamin or a fish oil or things like that . But we you know we can try and use as much food as possible for thyroid . You know we need a lot of selenium and you can do four Brazil nuts and get the DRF or selenium doing that instead . Of taking a supplement needed with selenium .
Speaker 3That's wild . Tell us a little bit about your experience , from where you used to be to where you are now , and maybe even some of the clients that you've had the opportunity to work with , that you've seen drastic changes in their lives because of the work they're doing .
Speaker 2Well , right before we popped on I got a message from a client that she just hit her . She's under 200 pounds for the first time since 200, .
Speaker 4I mean 2012 .
Speaker 2Wow , and that was a big goal for her , and so I had another lady that shared , you know , and it's of course , weight is sometimes a factor for women .
Speaker 2That's what they want to work towards , but it's not the lone factor . They always come to me like I don't feel like myself , my confidence is down , I'm not sleeping well . You know , if you're not sleeping well , you have GI issues , hair's not growing . All of those are signs and symptoms that , hey , you need to talk to someone . But then the weight is always a big perk , and so it's when they feel good and then their body's actually shape is changing . I mean , it's a big talk about confidence booster . You know they're feeling good and their body's working as a machine is what it's going on .
Speaker 2It's working as the way it's supposed to Wow .
Speaker 2But yeah , I mean you hear all of these women that I work with . They're just powerful . They put into motion what we talk about in our sessions . You know they do the work , whether it's changing up the foods , taking what they need to , waking up at certain times , exercising . We'll do testing on women to see what type of exercise is best , what time of day is best to get the . I have some that kill it in the gym and they don't have any results . Well , guess what ? Their hormones are out of whack , so they're not gonna get those results .
Speaker 2And they're also doing the wrong type of exercises . They need to be lifting instead of cardio or you know like they need to get in a bloody studio . That's what I've had to do , and then it's a game changer .
Speaker 1I've had to switch to weights and I was always like a cardio , a runner , yes , and a yoga too . But after a labral hip tear , my orthopedic surgeon was like I'm not gonna operate on you , but you need to lift weights . That's how you're gonna stay healthy and at your age 38 , it's time to start building muscle . That's what's important for you now your boost in your testosterone , your walk . Yes , that's what he said yeah . And then walking .
Speaker 2Yes , most people can walk and it does . You don't have to go for 30 minutes . You know an hour . You can go and have a five minute walk all throughout the day , a couple of times and it adds up so walking is something that a lot of people can get out and do .
Speaker 1So let's outside of your work what do ? You like to do ? You live in North of Arkansas . I know a lot of people like to bike or hike . What do you like to do in your free time outside of ?
Speaker 2nutrition . We love being on the water , like paddle boarding is one of my favorites . I did a yoga paddle board class .
Speaker 1So hard . It is so hard Just to stand . I tried to do a headstand .
Speaker 3I was like just standing Headstand on a paddle board . Yeah , I'll send it to you , oh yeah .
Speaker 2It's crazy but it's so refreshing because I mean I fall in the water 100% of the time but I do love that . But I love to cook . My grandmothers both were strong cooks and so I watch them cook and do all of those types of things and I mean I'm a moms and my kids are really cool . I know we were talking about kiddos beforehand , but I like to be around my kids and you know my girlfriend Tom is important . So reading just the typical stuff .
Speaker 1So we have to wrap up now , but I wanna talk about your socials . Where can people find you if they want to check , cause you do a lot of videos on your social ? Yes , hotness , express , all of the time on those videos . Yeah , no , I love it . So tell us where we can find cause your social is a great place to find like tips and then to contact you if they wanna .
Speaker 2Yes , I share a lot of recipes , just things that you can start doing any and every day just to kind of help with hormones in general . But you can follow me at MeggreenRD on Instagram , facebook , my websites meggreenrdcom . You can email me at Meg at meggreenrdcom , and I always tell people the first step is just to say hey , let's set up a call and we can just kind of build a generalized plan Whether we work together or not . I'm gonna offer you some tips and suggestions just to kind of get you going , and if we feel like we're a good fit for each other , then we will work closely with each other for at least four to five months and we see each other almost every week . We have interactions frequently and so I really hold my clients to a standard of supporting them and knowing that I'm there at any moment that they need .
Speaker 1That's like the highest form of self care . I think I love that Well thank you for coming on today . Oh my gosh , thanks for having me , you learned so much , I seriously think we can have you on multi-ethic .
Speaker 3We can talk about a lot of things .
Speaker 1Yeah , oh , yes , yes , well , we appreciate it . Thank you , meg . Thanks guys , All right , yes , hey , thanks so much for listening today . If you like what you heard , please consider subscribing to the podcast so you never miss an episode . You can also follow us on Instagram at peopleofnwa . Thanks so much .
Speaker 4People of Northwest Arkansas with the two Danielle's produced by me . Rock Short of Civil Republic Productions . Please rate , review and like us on any podcast platform where you listen . For more information about today's guests and the show , please check the show notes . Thanks for listening .