I remember when every day was a struggle for me. I did the things I needed to do and thought that was just the way it felt to be a working mom. I didn’t even realize how tired I was until I wasn’t, but I’m glad that I found my way through to where I am now. If you are struggling with your energy, I want you to know that you aren’t alone. I hear this all the time from the women I work with. It’s easy to chalk it up to “regular” life or age and think that’s just the way you have to feel. It doesn’t have to be that way though.

“We absolutely have within each of us the power to prevent or significantly decrease our risk for the majority of the top killers and contributors to disability in the world.” Oof, isn’t that a powerful statement? It’s from a podcast I listened to this week with Dr. Austin Perlmutter, MD that got so many wheels spinning in my brain. Read on to see two main points from it that stood out to me.

I love when my own health journey leads to me learning something that also helps me better help my patients. Here's one accidental discovery that has made a big difference in my energy and quality of life, and that I now also often consider for patients.

This week I will discuss Ozempic and the other similar drugs in its class and the part they play in insulin regulation. I will discuss how it works, the pros and cons, and what I believe is essential to do along with it if someone makes an informed choice to take it.

Part 2 in our series on insulin resistance is focused on providing you with natural approaches to help prevent and treat insulin resistance. In this blog, I break down recommendations into 3 parts

Are you frustrated with how your body is not changing (or moving in the opposite direction you want it to) despite your best attempts to live a healthy lifestyle? You aren’t alone. It is one of the most common concerns I hear from the women I work with. And despite what you may have been told, the successful solution is not to just eat less and exercise more.

Healthy eating is so confusing, isn’t it? You can find conflicting information for just about everything. There is no one size fits all approach that works for absolutely everyone, but there are some general guidelines I teach that are an effective framework to determine what works best for you. Let’s take a look at them…

One of the main concerns that patients come to see me for help with is hormonal symptoms related to either peri-menopause or menopause. They may experience a wide variety of symptoms including: difficult sleeping, weight gain, hot flashes, extended PMS symptoms, changes in bleeding, night sweats. vaginal dryness, hair loss, memory difficulties, fatigue and/or decreased sex drive. That doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, does it? No wonder a lot of the women are also experiencing mood changes! The good news is that it doesn’t have to be a rough transition - there are lots of options that can help to make it much smoother. That’s the focus of what I do.

I know firsthand what it’s like to feel tired all the time, and how life-changing it is to correct it. In January of 2021, I had routine blood work done. My doctor called me shortly after and asked me how I was functioning. It turns out that my iron markers were REALLY low… I check them with most of my patients, and I had never seen someone as low as I was! In fact my hemoglobin (the protein that carries the iron and oxygen) was half of what it should be. Normally that only happens when someone is undergoing cancer treatment or is really sick.

Are you struggling with poor sleep? If the answer is yes, then reply back so we can chat about the best way to help you change that sooner rather than later. A good night’s sleep can really be a life changer as it allows you to recharge and have the energy to do all that you want to during the day. You deserve to feel that way.

How often in life have you done things because you felt like you “should” and not because you really wanted to? Sure, sometimes that is necessary… like making dinner for your family when you would rather be relaxing on the couch. But what about the majority of the time? If you find yourself frequently saying yes because you think that’s what other people want or expect from you, then that is a perfect recipe for unhappiness and burnout. I know I was definitely there in the past. I feel like it’s only in the last couple of years that I have become better at saying no more often and tuning in to what I want and need. It can be a tough transition - if you are used to always thinking about others, then it can take some time to even know what it is that you really want.

My goal is to help you build muscle so you can be stronger in your daily life and to rev up your metabolism so you can be leaner and healthier. That takes time. You don’t build muscle overnight or even in a week. As that shift starts happening, you may see little or no change in your weight, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t still a lot of change happening.

Now why the heck would you want to do intermittent fasting? There are so many health benefits! A major one is that it helps to make you more metabolically flexible. Many people spend most of their time burning mainly sugar (or carbohydrates) for energy and then the extra gets stored as fat. When you go for longer periods of time without eating (ie when you fast), your body will switch to burning fat as a fuel source.

It is 100% true that your collagen production decreases with age, starting in your 30’s, but increasingly so as you get closer to menopause and beyond. The loss of collagen has an effect on your skin and joints. Collagen is kind of like the springs in your mattress. That’s why as we lose it, we get more wrinkles and fine lines. Collagen is also an important component of your joints and helps keep them springy.

As I type this, my family and I are getting ready to take a road trip to Washington, DC for the kids’ March Break. We have always wanted to go there, and now that the kids are old enough to appreciate the history and the museums (it also helps that they are free… travelling with 6 of us is not cheap!), we decided this is the year! I often hear that it’s challenging to figure out how to eat healthy when you are eating away from home, so I thought it might be helpful to share what I do. There are actually lots of good options that make it possible to keep your wellness goals on track while you are exploring somewhere away from home or eating out to give yourself a break from cooking.

You can’t afford not to put in the time to take care of yourself. It’s so easy for us to prioritize taking care of everyone and everything else. If we don’t take care of ourselves though, then in the best case scenario we will find ourselves going through the motions but feeling exhausted, or in the worst case, we will find ourselves in a position where we can’t take care of anyone. We don’t want to wait until we are sick before we start taking the steps to be healthy.

As your hormones change with peri/menopause, your body starts to break down muscle at an increasing rate. Muscle is very metabolically active, so less muscle means a slower metabolism, more inflammation, more insulin resistance, lower bone density, and less strength. This has a huge impact on your ability to stay healthy and active as you age. It’s also why so many women I talk to are frustrated because they find themselves gaining weight despite their best efforts to change that.

The good news is that this isn’t just something we have to accept as part of aging. We have the power to change that trajectory with what we eat and how we exercise. When you build your muscle, you will speed up your metabolism, reduce inflammation, improve insulin sensitivity, increase bone density, and get stronger!!

Many people spend the majority of their time in sugar burning, and that has many negative health consequences including poorer sleep quality, higher blood sugar levels, weight gain, and increased inflammation. But with a few changes, you can be on the path to better health, no matter your age.

I never played on a sports team in elementary or high school. I grew up thinking of myself as the smart kid (as seen here!), but not the athletic kid. I’ve been working to change that story in my adult years, even though it still replays at times.

We may not be able to make more time, but we do have choices about what we say yes to and how we choose to spend the time we do have.