The Joyful Flamingo
The Joyful Flamingo Podcast guides and empowers women to tune into themselves and zoom in on their own well-being through laughter, connection, knowledge, and celebration! We’re here to create a tsunami of self-discovered, self-loved, and self-understood women who show up in this world unapologetically and joyfully so that we can pass the torch for generations to come! Join us to start leading your most vibrant, aligned and joyful life.
The Joyful Flamingo
What's Common vs What's Normal with Periods: A Chat with Naturopathic Dr. Jenna Priestap (MiniSeries Part B)
Emily chats with Naturopathic Dr. Jenna Priestap on all things periods! Dr. Jenna's practise focuses on maternal health and she is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to pain free periods and what you should and shouldn't be experiencing when it comes to your monthly bleed! She goes through sings that you need some help regulating your period, and tools like seed cycling, acupressure, and changes to your diet that can help you get on top of your hormones and have the healthiest menstrual cycle possible!
Connect with Dr. Jenna
Get her FREE 7 Day Period Pain Reducing Meal Plan
www.jennapriestap.com
IG HANDLE: @drjennapriestap
Time Stamps:
0:38 - Intro
1:20 - Review of the Pod
3:14 - Introducing Dr. Jenna
7:52 - What a period should actually look like with a healthy menstrual cycle
13:27 - The colour and consistency of blood that you should be looking for
17:30 - How diet affects our cycle and what we can eat for PAIN FREE periods
20:25 - How does our period change as we age?
23:47 - Seed cycling
28:31 - #tiredmomlife and why Dr. Jenna thinks it doesn't need to be the case
36:00 - How Dr. Jenna teaches her patients to incorporate acupressure to help with anxiety, overwhelm, and menstrual pain
40:46 - Outro and Recap
Connect with Emily:
On The Gram - @thejoyfulflamingo https://www.instagram.com/thejoyfulflamingo/
For Collaborations - thejoyfulflamingo@gmail.com
The Joyful Flamingo Podcast is produced by jpvoiceovers.
You can find them here : jpvoiceovers
*DISCLAIMER*
Just a reminder, that I am not a medical or psychological professional. Each one of my episodes has been inspired by my own experience and journey through life and is brought to you through my own opinions and my own lens. Any suggestions or advice offered here do not substitute proper conversations with your own healthcare professionals for either your physical or mental wellbeing.
Ever wondered what a normal period should look like? Not what's common, but what's normal. Today, our guest is a naturopathic doctor who explains just that,
the difference between what's common and what's normal. And her practice focuses on maternal health. She loves educating people on pain -free periods and how to thrive throughout your cycle.
From diet to acupressure, we're discussing things that you can easily do. do and things that are accessible for every woman to feel their best.
So keep on listening. Well, hey there friend and welcome to the joyful flamingo podcast. I'm your host Emily Schreiber and I am obsessed with empowering women to tune into themselves to zoom in on their own well -being.
And so in turn they can lead their most vibrant, aligned, aligned, and joyful lives. I wanna create a tsunami of self -discovered, self -loved,
and self -understood women to show up in this world unapologetically and joyfully, and to pass the torch on for generations to come. If any of that feels aligned with your vibe,
stick around. I'm so glad you're here. Now, let's go find our joy. Hey, hey, hey,
joyful flamingo flock. Happy Valentine's Day to you. It's the day of love and what better way to celebrate than showing yourself some love today by tuning into the show and by tuning into yourself.
We are back this week with part two of our mini series on the female cycle. And I am am so excited to chat with our guest on the pod today. But first,
a review from you lovely folk. This listener says, started listening to the joyful flamingo over the past month or so and it's speaking to me. Joyful to be part of the flock.
Easy listening, informative, makes you think and feel without ever sounding preachy. Emily is incredibly real. real. Oh, thank you so much for those kind words to that listener.
I'm always just so happy to hear different people's perspectives and what's resonating with them, what they love about the show. And I'm truly just so grateful. And I'm glad too that my intense nature sometimes and the parts of the episodes where I get heated and worked up about things are coming across in the right way and not sounding preachy.
So that is key because we really hear are a place of togetherness you know high school musical so much came out of that movie am I dating myself but Zach Efron I think it was him that sung most lyrics I think it was him that was in the movie maybe I'm like totally off right now but we're all in this together that's what they sing and they're so right and now you're welcome I've officially put that song into your
head for the rest of potentially the month But it's true. We're all in this together This is a place of collaboration of community of connection and the power in that alone is what can get us through it all So thank you.
Thank you for another amazing review. We're so grateful for you And now it's time for the meat and potatoes today my friends or if you're a vegetarian Maybe it's the chickpeas or whatever is the main source of your meal I'm really excited excited to introduce to you my guest.
Dr. Jenna Priestap is a licensed naturopathic doctor who's extremely passionate about women's health and has a special interest in maternal health. She thrives on helping women optimize their bodies for seamless conception,
thriving during pregnancy, regaining confidence, energy, and self -love postpartum, as well as helping people to to regulate their periods, which is one of the reasons why she's showing up on the pod today.
You could say she's a uterus's best friend. Dr. Jenna believes that every woman should have a health expert to confidently turn to with any issue and receive unlimited support,
because let's face it, being a woman and /or mother is hard. And she hopes to be that person for all of us. So welcome, welcome to the pod. Dr. Jenna, we're thrilled to have you here today.
Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. Oh, goodness. Jenna and I met at a woman's retreat. Actually, the same retreat that I met Jake Lyski Willis, who was the parenting coach.
It was an amazing time for connection. And I made so many great, great connections and new friends there. And Jenna was one of those people that right away, I was like, ooh, her energy is good.
I need to know her. And funnily enough, I think it's because I think I'd really loved your outfit, something you were wearing. - Her pants. - Your pants, yes, they were like these awesome,
almost like hippie kind of bell -bottomed, but also like the print of them was just something really fantastic. And I remember thinking, yeah, I gotta know her. So anyways,
that's the sort of our love story. But can you start today by just... telling us a little bit more about who you are as a human overall? You know, on the joyful flamingo,
we always think it's really nice to get to know the guests a little bit before they start speaking to us about what we're actually talking about. I feel like it helps the listeners to connect a little bit more with who's talking.
So maybe like, do you have kids? Where do you live? The types of things you like to do in your spare time? Those types of things. If you can just give us a glimpse into who Jenna is, that would be great. great. Yes. So I'm Dr.
Jenna Priestette, naturopathic doctor. The formal part is I have a maternal health focused practice. I had my first baby during med school and that's where I really noticed the like missing link in maternal care.
You have a baby, everyone focuses on baby. Nobody cares about mom and it's like you're tired, all of these different things. And that's where I really noticed the missing link. care. And I was like, I'm going to fill that void.
But anyways, Jenna, I have three babies. I have two girls, a boy. And I just live outside of Cambridge in North Dumfries. I've got a dog,
two kittens, and then we're getting four chickens, which I'm very excited for. Oh, I love that. I'm all about gardening. And I really think in a past life, I was a farmer.
Because I just-- that's like my dream is to have my own little farm. And yeah, I'm just so excited to be on here. And even when it comes for moms, but even women in general,
like I remember always hearing how getting your period is like the worst thing ever. And being sort of that. But then I learned how your period is supposed to look and what's actually normal versus common.
And again, I've decided, especially having. two little girls, I'm like, I'm going to teach you what actually is supposed to be happening, not what's common, and that's also just flourished my practice big time.
Oh, I am so excited for the conversation today, because as you know, I think I explain this to you when, when I was reaching out about a collaboration, the month on the joyful flamingo in February, it's all based around women's cycles.
And the last episode, we really talked a lot about the first bleed stories that we have and that there's some shame or embarrassment. Even if there's not shame or embarrassment,
it's like this thing that was kind of hush hush. So we had a lot of people share their stories of their first experience of their first bleed, which I loved. It was so powerful. And then we talked about,
you know, what you're taught about menstruation as a young kid and what you're not. And so I love this. idea of the difference between what's common and what's normal.
Yeah, so I'm really excited to get into that because I do think there is definitely a lack of information, a lack of support surrounding all of it, especially when you're in your prime reproductive stages,
right? Can you tell us from your expertise what should a period actually look like? (laughs) healthy like a healthy menstrual cycle is is there a norm of what that should look like?
Yes, there is and nine times out of 10 when I explain it, a lot of women are like, oh my gosh, so that doesn't happen. For example, your period should essentially just start you should know when it's coming essentially more so off of the date,
not because of this my rad of of crappy symptoms that happen. For example, there shouldn't be any pain. On a pain scale of zero to 10,
zero is no pain at all. 10 is the most. Your cramping should be at a maximum two. - And this is pre, like in the days leading up. - All of it, even while you're bleeding,
while you're bleeding, there shouldn't be pain. - Okay. - Yes, the amount of women, even right now listening to this. that are like, oh, they have to pop six Tylenols a day in order to get through it,
especially when you have little ones too. Like it's not just your pain you're dealing with. You still have to mom even though you're in pain, but that's not normal or like having to be curled up on the couch with a heating pad and stuff.
Your body is constantly giving you feedback and these are all signs that something is off. This isn't something you just have to deal with, but on the path of normal. as well, when it comes to regularity,
your cycle length goes from first day of bleed. That's your day one to the next cycle's first day of bleed. That should be 28 to 34 days. So you should be getting it once a month, essentially,
but 28 to 34 days. Like I said, no pain. You shouldn't be getting like diarrhea, constipation, headaches. Your flow should last four to seven days.
So that's active bleed. And then the other quantitative way we know if things are normal or not is when it comes to the amount of blood. Number wise,
there's 50 to 80 milliliters of blood that you should be passing. So it's like cool to know that information, but how do we apply that, right? Yeah. A regular pad or tampon holds five milliliters and the super holds 10.
10 so when you break that down you should be using between 10 to 16 regular powder tampons or five to eight supers which I've dealt with a lot of for an entire cycle the whole cycle yes okay okay and different menstrual cups tell the measurements so it's gonna depend on which one you're using and how much and for how consistently you should be emptying it and all of that.
But just to even give those numbers a lot of the time, that's the light bulb moment. I have women that come to me and they're soaking a super pad within two hours. And would you say that you hear more so people who are on the heavier bleed side than people who are on the lighter bleed side?
Like, do you have also on the other hand of that women coming to you and saying, oh, I don't even touch that type of blood coming out of me. Yeah. And usually it's more to do with spotting when it comes to the flow,
women will come to me where like they spot, spot, spot for like three days and then their flow starts, which also isn't normal and it's common, but it's not normal. And then, yeah, some women who actually like, we're a penny liner for like the whole time,
which then we want that lining, we want that endometrium to grow and be able to, even if you're not trying for a pregnancy. pregnancy, but we want it to be a good environment. Lush.
Lush. Perfect word. Yes. But yeah, we want it to be there and be good. And that's exactly what your bleed is going to tell you. So your menstrual cycle and how you bleed, we get into all the nitty -gritty details when we work together.
All of those characteristics tell me so much about your health. So now so many questions are popping to mind and they're not the ones that I wrote down, so I hope you're okay. with it. But like,
okay, first of all, in the first episode with this mini series, I talk a lot about the book that I've read that's called In the Flow. Have you read this book before? Oh, I haven't. Okay.
The reason I'm saying this is because you said day one of your bleed is your first day one of your cycle, right? However, in this book, it kind of flips that on its head and it says the start of your bleed is actually the.
the culmination of your hormonal cycle, everything that's happened in your hormonal cycle and then your bleed is the culmination of everything that's happened. So really we should start to think about the beginning of our cycle being our follicular phase rather than our menstrual phase.
So it's interesting because I had never heard of it described like that before I read this book and not that it's a medical statement that she's making. It's just her own opinion. I wondered what your thought was on that concept of it being a culmination of everything that happened in your body over the course of your cycle.
- Oh, totally, yeah. That's, and I even noticed like when I work with patients, we'll talk about what happened last month. 'Cause they'll be like, I don't know what's going on. My period started day 22 instead of 28,
for example. And then we're like, okay, hold on. Let's talk about what happened last month. month. And it turns out all four of their kids were sick. They had a very busy month, all that stuff. So it really is a culmination of what's going on,
or if this period was really painful compared to the last period. Okay, but it was Christmas time, which is very stressful, and they were eating a whole bunch of fruits that don't agree with their bodies, which is also something that we're going to get into.
So 100 % your period tells so much. about your body. Okay. So this is great segue into the next question that I had, which is, can you explain to us a little bit more about the color and the consistency of what a normal bleed should look like?
Yes. Okay. So consistency -wise, when it comes to like clotting, things like that, you want to be seeing ideally no clots, but maximum to like a dime sized.
But a lot of people do have bigger clots. And I'm not talking about just your first bleed postpartum. That's a little different. You don't want to be having tunicized clots the whole time.
That's again, a sign potentially of estrogen dominance, which is something we can talk about later. And then also though, when it's really like scant and very light, then that could be a sign that it's a sign that it's a sign that it's a sign that it's a sign that it's a sign that it's a sign that it's a sign that it's a sign that it's a sign that it's a sign that it's a sign that it's a sign that it's a sign
that. you aren't really making that lining. Now that can play into things like too much inflammation, too much stress, not enough calories. What you want though,
to kind of keep it easy, when we talk about color, you want it to the more so be a nice plain red. I have a shirt here that's red, but I know this is-- - They can't see that yet.
What about like the word crimson? - Yeah. or is that too bright? No, crimson wise would work. Like you don't want it to be dark purple, for example.
We're talking about dark purple and pink. We want it to be a nice red. Like when people think of painting their nails red. Yeah, between a strawberry and a light red,
like a more red cherry compared to the dark purple cherries. Yes, it does. That's what we're talking about. what you want to be looking for. Okay. So she just gave us a lot of great tips.
She talked about the amount of blood that we should be seeing the color that it should look like and the consistency of it, which we did discuss in the last episode that all of those things are telltale signs of other things that maybe need some attention,
right? And that's why her overall practice of being a naturopathic doctor and being able to help you in all of of those areas is so helpful. So on top of all of the PMS symptoms that we were kind of talking about,
like the cramping and the the moods and those types of things, should your menstrual pain be something that also comes along with any poor sleep, any anxiety? Like are those types of things normal for us to experience at that time of the month or not?
So, and this is the end of this video. kind of where it comes into play of like, yeah, common versus normal. So before your period, you can get a little more anxious.
And this is where, because your progesterone, this is your luteal phase, your progesterone should be higher. And progesterone is more of your like, I call it the cool vibes hormone. You're supposed to be more chill.
If you are more anxious or having sleep issues before your period, that can be a sign. sign that your progesterone is dysregulated and more likely less than it needs to be.
When your progesterone is lower, then you're gonna get more things of anxiety or sleep when it comes to what's causing low progesterone. Progesterone and cortisol actually come from the same parent hormone.
So if you're very stressed out, your body is gonna be pumping production towards cortisol 'cause it's gonna be... be thinking survival over procreation. And that's another thing where I'm talking to what happened last month,
all of a sudden you're anxious before your period or all of a sudden you can't sleep before your period. What happened this whole past month? Now it can still happen a bit because we want that progesterone drop to be what triggers the lining shedding.
So what is your period to start? So let's start with your period. So let's start with your period. a little bit of anxiety or maybe the night before you have your period, you have a little bit of a crappy sleep, okay, but this should not be something that is keeping you away from work,
interrupting your relationships, interrupting your sleep so much that now you can't function the next day, things like that. It should be very, very, very mild. - If you're saying that there can be hormones that are dysregulated and we want to try it out.
and balance those so that we're experiencing the best thriving cycle that we can, diet, I assume, plays a large role in that, right? So can you explain to us how diet affects your cycle also in regards to the symptoms that we're experiencing?
And if there are certain foods that we should be eating to help manage menstrual cramps and help manage what it feels like when you do have your period. Totally. And this is something I love to talk about.
So yeah, when it comes to, especially if you have a very painful period cramps as well as getting what I call the period poops, say if you get diarrhea with your cycle, what this is telling me is actually that you have a higher level of what's called prostaglandins.
Now we like prostaglandins because this is what causes your your uterus to contract in order to be able to get the flow going, however, it's a dose -dependent reaction.
So if we have too many prostaglandins, well, then boom, we're getting super strong contractions, more strong pranks, but also they work on surrounding tissues, which is your colon.
So then that's also starting this movie is therefore giving you diarrhea, the period poops. Well, where do we get prostaglandins from? This is more omega -6 fatty acids,
which is from diet. So it all starts to come full circle in that you really want to be focusing on avoiding the inflammatory foods.
Optimally, this is like dairy gluten sugar as well as like fast food. They are just so loaded in Omega sixes. - Any sort of processed foods. - Exactly,
which is exactly what you crave before your period. - Right, duh, 'cause of course that's gonna happen, yeah. - Exactly, exactly. So you wanna avoid those things, but what you wanna focus on is more the Omega threes.
So this is gonna be healthy fats. This is more like fish, avocado, olive oil, things of that nature. So what I... have actually put together that I can share with your listeners is a period pain reducing meal plan.
It's all laid out for you and it's easy to make. Everything can be made super quick because I have like moms in mind. You don't have time to be in the kitchen for 30 hours. You can follow that meal plan and it gives you an idea as to what sort of things you should be eating in order to empower yourself around your period.
It's not something that you just have to deal with. You have have control over your health. You have control over your menstrual cycle. And it really does start with diet. Okay, so amazing.
We'll put that in the show notes for all of you guys to check out. And you just click the link and I'll walk you through how to get the freebie that she's offering. But I feel like I'm maybe in this stage. So I'm very interested to hear what you have to say.
But how does your period change as you get older and have a I don't want to say traumatic because it's also beautiful, but on your body,
very intense things like giving birth, for example, I'm 36 almost and my period does look different than it did five years ago. So is that normal? And how should it change as we grow older and experience other things like birth?
When it comes to is the change normal, it can be as long as it's within the parameters that I explained earlier. So it would still be between 28 to 34 days,
you should still be passing the same amount of blood, things of that nature. What I tend to see is that PMS gets worse, anxiety and sleeping beforehand gets worse. And then there's also more pain associated.
This is usually within the first couple years postpartum. These are the more common things that I see change, does not mean that it's normal. What it is, and what I always say is that it's feedback.
Your body is telling you that things are changing. When it comes to basically the lack of sleep, anxiety, things of that nature, and PMS being more prominent,
like mood changes, what usually is the issue. Now that you have little ones around, you're not just thinking of yourself. And what tends to happen is mom's needs get to the back burner.
So you're not eating as well. So yeah, you are eating more of those processed foods that increase pain that we talked about. You're dealing with these little ones. Well, your body doesn't know the difference between a perceived threat.
Like, oh, my toddler's running around with scissors, for example. example, and an actual threat, which is like someone chasing after you. It's not actually-- That's where, like, stress is happening in your body,
and you're-- yeah, okay. Exactly. So then that's gonna skyrocket your cortisol, and cortisol and progesterone come from the same parent hormone. So if you are living in more of a stressed -out environment,
whether you perceive it or not, your cortisol is gonna be higher. So again, your body is going to be shunting everything towards survival over procreation.
So that's going to be lowering your progesterone potentially, therefore, increasing your anxiety, reducing your sleep quality before your period. You can also then start to spot randomly before your period.
On the other hand, as well, when I see more like breast tenderness, head flow before your period, now this can be more of an estrogen dominance picture. So there's two things that I always like to investigate when this happens,
when you're having more of a heavier flow, if you're having more breast tenderness and pain in general and stuff. One thing is we always wanna check your iron because when your iron is low,
this can contribute to a heavier bleed, than a heavier bleed. is going to lower your iron further and then you get stuck in this cycle. And you just created a human,
whether it was six weeks ago or five years ago, if nothing's been corrected, you are still living in a suboptimal level of your iron stores. And this can be contributing to a lower level of iron,
therefore, heavier bleed. Talking about the house of what we can actually. then therefore do, we talked about diet and how that can help us regulate our period,
help us with our menstrual cramping, help us with the symptoms of that. Can you touch on seed cycling, which some of our listeners may have heard before, some of them be like, "What the heck is that? I don't know what that is." Can you explain to us what it is and then how to use it properly to regulate your period?
I guess specifically after giving birth, but but you know, a lot of, we have a lot of age ranges on here of, you know, I think our youngest listener, according to my stats, if you're all truthful on your profiles is 18.
And then the highest is like in their seventies. Can you kind of give us a brief lowdown on how we can use seed cycling basically for the masses? Totally.
Okay. So seed cycling is something that I love because it is safe, easy. and cheap. It's accessible for everybody. Basically, what seed cycling is, is you change the types of seeds that you're eating,
depending on your cycle. So for the first two weeks of your cycle, your follicular phase, this is where you have pumpkin seed and flax seed. These are important because for the follicular phase,
this is when estrogen is queen. We want her to be... thriving, her to be high. That way you can get all of the things necessary for your follicular phase going. Now flaxseed and pumpkin seed actually have what's called phytoestrogenic effects.
It helps to modulate whether you have too high of estrogen, more of the extra dominant estrogen dominance picture, or too low of estrogen. It can actually end up helping your levels.
We also like it because there are are omega -3 fatty acids in it. So omega -3 fatty acids are like the backbone to a lot of your hormones. If your body doesn't have the building blocks that it needs,
then it can't be making these hormones that you need. And then the other part of it is they have fiber. And with estrogen specifically, when we want to detoxify our estrogen levels,
we do that through poop. So if you... you actually aren't pooping daily, what can happen is that estrogen is reabsorbed, therefore it's gonna throw off your estrogen levels more.
So if you're more constipated and noticing that you're having the heavier flow, tender breasts, more of the estrogen dominance picture, then your gut is actually something that we should be looking at. Anyway,
so that's what the first half of your cycle is. And what you do is you grind them up. You don't have to grind them up. to have them full because then you're actually missing out on the phytoestrogenic effect. Even if you're chewing it?
Yeah, I don't. Yeah, okay. The reason I ask is because I eat a lot of pumpkin seeds, but I generally like sprinkle them on some peanut butter and toast and then like chew that.
So am I not getting the full effect if I'm doing that? You're probably getting some. I just like to keep it straight. straight in that, let's just grind them all and then that way it's done.
The other thing too is you don't wanna buy pre -ground flax seeds because they go rancid quickly. So what I always get people to do is to only make as much as you need for that cycle.
So if you have any sort of grinder, you can do that. And it's like two tablespoons of the mixture a day. You can have it in smoothies, you can have it on a stir fry. Some people just don't like it. do it straight up and just chomper down,
drink some water, and you chase it with something good. Exactly, exactly. And then for the second half of your cycle, you switch to doing the same thing, but with sesame seed and sunflower seed.
Now, the reason why we like these is because they have more phytoprogesteroinic effects, and progesterone is what's queen, the second half of your cycle. cycle so we really want to encourage those high progesterone levels and it's same thing too in that they also have fiber as well as they have the fatty acids to help with your hormone building.
I also love that it's accessible because we also talked a lot on the last episode about period poverty in general whether that being lack of access to menstrual products but also lack of access to education around how to thrive during our cycles and so the fact that that if you gave us is both not necessarily a financial limitation for people because it's cheap,
it's full access, and that it's easy to do too, right? Like it's not something that seems overwhelming as another thing to do on our to -do list. It can just be as simple as,
what did you say, two tablespoons? - Two tablespoons, yes. Okay,
so let's transition to this tired mom life, this lack of energy, the hashtag that's all over, which is tired mom, which first of all, I hate that it's always tired mom and not tired dad.
So I'm just going to say that out loud. But also, do you feel like it's normal? Should this be the case? Where should our energy levels be? And if they're not there,
what could maybe be the underlying cause of that? And how does it relate to to our cycles? So this is something that I feel so passionate about, because this is exactly what triggered everything for me.
And that it was after my second daughter was born, and I was still in like the throes of writing medical licensing exams and stuff. But yeah, I went to my doctor and I was like, like, I don't know what's going on. I'm so tired.
My mood is everywhere. I just don't feel like me. This is so weird. And he literally told me, and I have a good doctor. He said, welcome to motherhood. And I was just like,
no, no, sir. I am a very stubborn person. And I was like, I will not live my life this way. And I started to see very much so just in society.
And I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started
to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very
much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very much so I started to see very just funny. It's like, oh, tired mom life. And it becomes an echo chamber where everyone just almost likes to talk about how tired they are. But in reality, it shouldn't be this way.
It's unfortunate in that it's the way that society is pushing it. And also the poor care that happens for moms, the lack of maternal care that's there that ends up perpetuating this.
Anyways, when it comes to energy you should still have the energy to be able to be the present mom that you want to be while also being able to do the things that set your soul on fire so the women that I tend to work with they not only want to be the best moms that they can be with stable mood and high energy but they also run their own podcast their entrepreneurs they are CEOs and things like that and that
is exactly how every mom should feel regardless of if you don't want the CEO life, but you want to have like a thriving garden, things like that. If you want to quantify it,
what I always say is on a scale of zero to 10, zero is no energy at all, 10 is the most, you should be at a minimum on average at a six. If you're at a six or below,
again, feedback, your body is telling you something is off. what this could be, and especially when it comes to how soon or how recent, did you have your little one? Because we tend to completely turn a blind eye to how much it takes to create a human.
Like, baby gets everything baby needs at the detriment to mom. And then you have the baby, you bleed for another six weeks, and you're expected to be right back at it.
with no real care, which doesn't make sense. So the one thing I always do, we run blood work because all of this isn't in your head. And that's something that I just wanna yell from the rooftops.
This isn't just in your head, just because you chose to be a mom doesn't mean you have to live this way. There are physiological reasons for why you're feeling this way. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna run some blood work.
What we run is we wanna check it out. it's called a complete blood count. This tells me about your red blood cells. Is there an anemic picture, which would be more lower red blood cells? You think about it,
you lose a lot of blood creating a human, then you lose more blood, and then if your period starts, you're losing more blood, anemia can actually be correlated to higher risk of having postpartum mood disorders.
Also, just in general, having depression and more anxiety. all of these things aren't attributed to motherhood. They're the nutrient depletion that is a result of having a baby a lot at the time.
So things that I'd want to check, complete blood count, then we want to check your iron, because again, this has to do with the blood levels. Your vitamin B12, this has to do with blood levels.
Vitamin D, so vitamin D is extremely important for energy. It's very important for mood, for immunity. People who are constantly sick, like, yes, you have all of the exposures due to your toddler being around.
However, your body should be able to handle these exposures. So we want to look at your vitamin D levels and make sure that those are in the optimal range. Also, it could be thyroid. And then the other thing is going to be for your blood sugar.
So we want blood sugar bound throughout the day. What we want to check though is your fast. insulin and your fasting glucose, so we can get something called your HOMA IR scale.
And this lets me know how insulin sensitive you are, because if your body isn't actually able to process your sugars properly, they're going to be all over the map. Also,
if you're not eating properly, your mood and your energy levels follow your blood sugar. If you eat a chocolate bar because you're stressed out or anything. like that, then yeah, it gives you an instant hit of energy.
But 30 minutes later, you feel even more tired and now you're irritable. If your body isn't able to process those sugars properly, then that's a sign that something else is off. And again, all of this kind of ties into,
there are physiological reasons for this. It's not just in your head. And therefore, all of this to say the tired mom life thing is stupid. (laughing) So and it all it all stems from the blood work that you take that and then you get the full picture.
So I would assume with your individualized care, you then take a look at that blood work, you see where the gaps are what needs to be worked on. And then you propose things that each person can actually do,
whether that be diet, maybe supplements. I don't know if that's something that you sometimes suggest as well in order to get them back to feeling the way that they should be. - Yes, exactly. It's the blood work as well as we do like a whole 60 minute assessment.
We just sit down and go through everything that's going on with you. Because then that way it gives me a bird's eye view as to what's happening with the woman in front of me. And we work together. I prefer it to be more of a partnership.
I'm not the type of doctor that's like, you need to take XYZ and if you don't, tough. I'm more so like, hey, let's talk about this. - Yes. I really think this is where we need to clean up your diet as well as taking these supplements to optimize your levels.
What do you think? When we work in more of a partnership, there's better adherence, meaning that you're going to stick to the suggestions and then we can facilitate such faster results.
Progress. Yeah. This is a great transition into talking a little bit more about your practice and how it works. Are you? strictly virtual or do you have an in -person,
you're strictly virtual? Yeah, right now I'm strictly virtual. So it's nice I can work with women all throughout Ontario as well as outside of Ontario. It all depends on the regulation of your state,
province, country, but I always encourage people to DM me and then we can talk about what's going on and where you're located so we can talk about our options. And then in terms of coverage,
it would fall under the realm of naturopathy. Like if they have coverage for that, they have coverage for you. Exactly. Yep. I'm a licensed naturopathy doctor in Ontario and the virtual visits are covered the same as in -person visits.
So you can get the top notch care from the comfort of your home without having to wrangle anybody outside because we all know. that loud and clear.
Okay. So lastly, what I'd love to leave our listeners off with is I saw Jenna do this on her Instagram a few months ago and I was like,
ooh, I want to know more about that. And I think our listeners will too. And she calls it acupressure and how incorporating acupressure can be helpful for mamas that are feeling better.
that overwhelmed that anxiety and even maybe severe pain during their cycles. Can you explain a little bit, maybe just a tiny snippet because they can then go to, I know you have resources on your Instagram page for them to go and look at,
but maybe just like a tiny snippet of the best acupressure point that you know of that can help females in like a very overwhelming circumstance regulate themselves to help them get through to the next moment.
- Yeah, there's a couple that come to mind. And yeah, the reason I like acupressure is because it's obviously free. You're literally just holding on to these different points on your body. So it's very accessible. One that I love and I use a lot for like postpartum anxiety or just really overwhelming in general.
It's called Shen Men. It's in your ear. So I'm trying to think because they're gonna be listening to this, is how to describe it. it if you feel the cave on the inner part of your ear at the top at the top there's the cave in between if you go from your eardrum and go straight up there's going to be a little bit of a cave I have a reel on this actually so yeah this would be good even if you reach out I can
just send you the reel and explain it but it's on your ear and you hold that point and that's going to help to ground you and bring you back into your body, bring you back into the moment.
Because again, that's where regulating your stress, regulating that cortisol is then going to play into. If the dog is barking, you're burning dinner, all of a sudden,
all four of your kids need you at once. That is a stress. Yes. It not only brings you back into your body for in that moment, but then how we talked about if your cord is also too high,
well, then yeah, you're going to have more anxiety before your period, trouble sleeping, things of that nature. I always recommend like at least 30 seconds, but really as long as you need can really help to regulate you.
Another one that's good for pain, and this is might be a little easier to explain is like the fat pad in between your thumb and your index finger. finger. If you just squeeze that area,
it's called LI4. If you ever want to look it up, but this point is really good for like more headaches and pain. So like cramping as well, holding this spot. And is there a difference between you administering the acupressure yourself versus somebody else doing it?
Does it matter? Is it more helpful if you've got your partner doing it for you? Do you think you get more of the pressure from somebody else doing it? Or do you think it's equally as helpful when you're doing it yourself?
Everybody's different. So it's going to depend on your preference when it comes to that. Maybe if you are feeling anxious, it might feel better to have someone else do it. Cause then you get that like supported feeling as well. Um,
whereas for me, I'm like, stop touching me. Yeah, exactly. I need a second for myself. Yeah. Exactly. So then in that case, it'd be better for you to do. it yourself. Right. Or you can kind of gauge how much pressure you really need as well.
Okay. Okay. That's awesome. Well, you know, thank you. We're going to leave it there today because there's so many bits of information that people can chomp off and chew right now. And I think that the acupressure thing is very interesting.
So if you have more interest in learning more about that, go to her Instagram page because she's just like she said, she's got some reels that explain the different points that you can be touching on your body and be giving yourself acupressure to help you.
I just really want to thank you for your time and for your energy and she, you guys can't see her. You will when you go and look at her, but she's got the most beautiful smile. It's so inviting and I,
you're welcome, no, I really just, I, I love connecting with other women who are really truly truly at the core of genuinely wanting to help other women,
no matter what. And I really do feel that from you. So thank you so much for your time today. And I'm excited to see all of the stuff that you send me. I'll put it in the show notes so that they can see, but go and check her out and figure out a way to connect or work with Dr.
Jenna, because I think it will be very, very beneficial for each and every one of you. So thank you. Oh, thank you. And I think it's beautiful. This podcast that you've put together, clearly you at your core love to help women as well.
I look forward to connecting with all the different listeners and we can work together. You're now officially part of our joyful Flamingo flock, and we love to have you here. I love it.
Thank you so much. You're welcome. Don't you just love when you meet someone that has so much knowledge and shares it in such a beautiful and giving way?
Dr. Jenna is a rare find and I'm so thrilled we were able to have her on the show. I love that she talked about the difference between what's common and what's normal for our periods and actually gave us ideas of what we can do to improve how we feel that are both accessible and easy.
The seven day guide for eating she gave us, the seed cycling explanation and the acupressure. There are so many tidbits that I'll be holding onto for a while and I know you will too. Be sure to peep the show notes for more information and how to connect with Jenna.
And that really concludes part two of our mini series this month on the female cycle. Be sure to tune in next week for part three. As always, I'm so incredible.
grateful for every single one of you. Thank you for being part of our joyful flamingo flock. Until next time. brought to you through my own opinions and lens.
Any suggestions or advice offered here do not substitute proper conversations with your own health care professionals for either your physical or mental well -being.