ALISA VITTI: Welcome everyone.
My name's Alisa Vitti.
I'm the author of "WomanCode."
And I'm really, really excited
to be here.
I'm in the midst of my
whirlwind book tour.
I just got back from London.
And I'm just excited about
sharing "WomanCode" with women
everywhere.
So I'm thrilled to be here
at Google, bringing
"WomanCode" to Google.
Very exciting.
For me, I never really
considered how important
hormones were and how hormones
affect everything until my
hormones stopped working
properly.
So I want your picture me as I
was a number of years back.
I was over 200 pounds.
I was covered face, chest, and
back, in extreme cystic acne.
I was exhausted.
I couldn't wake up
in the morning.
I couldn't go to
sleep at night.
It was a whole nightmare.
And I wasn't getting
my period, maybe
once or twice a year.
I was also at Johns Hopkins on
my way to becoming an OB/GYN
when all of the hormonal
stuff hit the fan.
And it was in that moment, where
I was faced with this
whole future of obesity,
diabetes, infertility, heart
disease, cancer, that I realized
that there was a
different path.
And in that moment with my
doctor, once we finally--
I was one night at the medical
library and researching a
little bit on what might I have,
because I had gone six
years without a diagnosis.
And I finally figured out what
it was that I had, which is a
condition called polycystic
ovarian syndrome.
How many of you know someone
with that disorder?
It's 1 out of 4 or 5 women
have that disease.
And it's a miscommunication
between the hypothalamus and
the pituitary gland
and the ovary.
And so you don't end up
ovulating or menstruating.
So I asked her, now what, now,
that we know what we do, after
we had our doctor's visit?
And she said, there's really
nothing that we can do.
But we can medicate you along
the way for all of those
problems that you'll
be having.
And I was a young woman.
And I thought to myself, do I
want to be on medication for
the rest of my life for heart
disease and high blood
pressure and diabetes
and infertility?
The medication roller coaster
seemed endless.
And that's when I decided to
throw myself into functional
medicine, because I had been
privy to some really cool
research at Hopkins about
nutritional genomics and
epigenetics.
Do you guys remember the
Human Genome Project?
And what came out of that was
a surprising discovery, that
there's this little
ghost protein that
wraps around your genes.
And there are only two factors
that influence its
construction or expansion, which
then causes genes to
express disease or health.
And it's food and lifestyle.
So, of course, it was very
exciting to think about if we
can manipulate gene expression
on that microscopic level with
food and lifestyle, what could
we do with food on a systemic
standpoint in the endocrine
system?
And so I began putting
my protocol together.
And I love especially sharing
about the skin.
Because so many people with
cystic acne, they end up
taking things like Accutane
and all of these things.
And I have not done
any of that.
And to have 60 pounds come off
of my body, to have my skin
clear up, to be able to be
having a period and ovulating
normally for over 12 years now,
it's really remarkable.
Because every time I go to the
gynecologist still, they're
like, do you really not
have PCOS anymore?
And they do all the
blood tests.
They check everything out.
They're like. wow, we just have
never thought that that
was possible.
So it's exciting that not only
do I share this work with
other women but also, I know
firsthand the power of using
food sequencing, which is the
crux of my protocol in terms
of correcting hormonal issues.
And this is why it's
so important.
Right now, unlike any other
time we've seen before in
women's health, we are
dealing with issues
at an epidemic rate.
Now, this number of 20 million
women suffering from menstrual
disorders, fertility issues,
libido issues, energy issues,
it's a low number.
In fact, when I talk to my
colleagues, they're always
encouraging me to double or
maybe triple the number.
But safe to say, that half of
the women who are struggling
are not talking about it.
So it's easily upwards
of 40 million women.
In 2009, we had almost $2
billion being spent on
assisted reproductive
technologies, like IVF.
How many of you know friends who
are doing the IVF roller
coaster and its multiple rounds
and it's failing?
And it's distressing, right?
And now there's some concern
about what are the long term
repercussions of so much
synthetic hormone stimulation
during the IVF process on your
overall health and well being.
So we're not having the results
that our bodies are
capable of.
We're designed to have
healthy periods.
We're designed to make
babies if we want to.
In fact, we're designed to have
a hotter sex drive as we
age, unlike men who peter
off, pun intended.
So we are supposed to be
fantastic all of our lives.
And there is just this
flood of issues.
And I think what's exciting
for me, because I've been
doing this for a long time.
I've had a center in the
city for over 10 years.
What's exciting is now that
it's more prominent in the
media, I love talking about
the Kardashian sisters,
because we have been with them
from their period problems to
their pregnancy problems to
their postpartum problems.
And it really puts a nice lens
on what so many women are
dealing with.
And everyone can identify with
one of the issues that these
women are going through.
So it brings up something
that's really, really
interesting.
So in 2009, the National
Institute of Health published
a very important body
of research.
And I wish I had t-shirts that
I could wear that said, I've
read the bio cycle study,
on the front, and on
the back, have you?
Because this is something
that's ground breaking
research for all women.
And this bio cycle study
basically with let us know
that if you have any sort of
menstrual disturbance in your
20s or 30s, something as simple
as PMS, something
that's the butt of our jokes.
Like, I'm just that way
half the month.
And it's just normal.
How many of us anticipate
that that's the case?
Yeah?
In fact, it can end up leading
to the big four disease of
inflammation in your post
menopausal years.
So something as harmless as we
jokingly think about PMS can
end up increasing our likelihood
for diabetes, heart
disease, cancer, and
Alzheimer's.
So to me, that is something that
I would want us to pay a
lot of attention to.
Because the great news is you
can completely change and
affect how your body's
performing from a hormonal
standpoint by using food.
So like I was saying, hormones
affect everything.
How many of you connect the
dots back to your hormones
when you have a flare up of
acne or constipation or
sleeplessness or your mood is
changing or the way you're
thinking about a project
is changing?
Maybe you've tied that back
to your hormones.
This is good.
This is good.
I'm going to give you
even more granular
level thinking on that.
The problem that we have in the
way that these issues are
being approached is that the
western medical model has us
treating symptoms.
And really, you should think
of that as spot treating.
You have a headache,
you take an Advil.
You have cramps, you take--
What do you guys take
for cramps?
Midol, Advil, whatever
you're taking.
You have acne.
You buy potions and lotions.
Maybe you try some internal
medicine.
And how many of you spend at
least $100 on supplements a
month, just trying things out?
OK.
All right.
How many of you are trying
supplements at all?
Yeah.
So we're always trying to spot
treat what is going on with
our hormones.
And really, when I dove into
the research that led me to
the protocol that I designed,
what I found from a functional
medicine standpoint was that we
actually have to treat the
root causes.
If we're going to allow the
body to heal itself and
resolve its issues on its own,
which is exactly what the
endocrine system is designed to
do, we have to address the
root causes.
And I want to go over
that with you today.
What are the functions of
the endocrine system?
How do you interact
with it with food?
So that whatever troubles you're
having, from PMS to
infertility to wanting to
preserve your fertility for
the next few years until you
meet your partner, the partner
of your dreams or
what have you.
I met mine at Google.
Isn't that funny?
AUDIENCE: Are you serious?
ALISA VITTI: He's
an ex-Googler.
So you want to be prepared for
that, hormonally speaking.
And so we can do that
using food.
What's really cool, and since
I'm at one of the coolest tech
companies here, I just wanted to
brag a little bit about my
tech company.
So I have been in clinical
practice, as I mentioned, for
over 10 years.
And about a year and a half ago,
I had a really exciting
conversation with a
couple of people.
And I shared with them this big
vision that I had, that
women's hormonal health needs
to be as prominent as
something like Weight Watchers,
for example.
We need to have a tool.
We need to have a system.
So I went ahead and built the
world's first online hormone
improvement platforms.
So think of it like Rosetta
Stone for your ovaries.
You can log in and
do the protocol.
Because I was having women
calling in from the UK, from
Australia, from South America,
from Europe and we needed a
way to serve all of them.
So it's really cool.
In the past two years, we've
seen so many women logging on
to the system from six
continents, really getting the
results that they want and all
through using the protocol.
So women who've had--
Emily, for example, this
one of our clients.
She was having two
periods a month.
Think about going on acting
calls and having
two periods a month.
That's a lot.
That's intense.
And to be able to resolve
that permanently with
changing her diet.
Or Lisa, who is someone
who I just adore.
Her first pregnancy was through
multiple rounds of
IVF, after which she was
suffering from severe
postpartum depression, weight
gain, and her underlying
hormonal issues magnified.
And she prepared her body for
the next conception using the
"WomanCode" protocol and was
able to get pregnant the first
time without IVF, no postpartum
depression.
The child actually has a
stronger immune system.
And her pregnancy was much
easier the second time around.
So all food, all food.
Oh yeah, I do have to brag one
more little thing about the
"Dr. Oz" show.
How many of you saw the
clip that I did
on "Dr. Oz?" Anyone?
Well, we will make it
available to you.
I made a little TV history,
actually recently.
This is all around
the book launch.
And what I did on the "Dr. Oz"
show was I wanted to share
with his audience, with
women everywhere--
You know how he did the
famous look before you
flush for your poop?
Remember that?
Remember?
I know.
I'm going to say lots of
bodily functions today.
Just bear with me.
I know it's lunch, but
we got to go with it.
I just thought, well, one of the
best ways for a woman to
gauge how she's doing hormonally
month over month is
to actually take a look at her
menses before she flushes.
Because the color and texture of
that will actually tell you
what's going on with your
estrogen, what's going on with
your progesterone.
And I will admit, you ladies
are faring much better than
the Londoners.
When I brought this up to the
London crew, they were like--
[GASPS]
ALISA VITTI: Oh my god.
She's talking about
menstrual blood.
That's horrible.
But it's so important to know
what the different colors and
textures are.
There are four key ones.
And I would love for you all
to go and check that
clip out and know.
And spread the word to your
friends, because not only in
the short term does it have
health implications, like for
example, if you have low
estrogen and your period looks
a little light and thin,
like strawberry jam.
Thinly spread strawberry jam
is how we simulated these
things on TV.
I used fruit juices on
little white dishes.
It was very cool.
We joke about that.
Like, oh, my period's so
light and lucky me.
But actually, you're now putting
your bone density at
risk, because estrogen protects
bone density.
That's in the short term.
In the long term, it has other
repercussions about the way
that your ovaries age, the way
that your body ages, and your
long term fertility.
So looking and checking
month over month.
And that's just one
of the four.
See now, aren't you curious
to know the other three?
I'm not going to tell you.
So the book just came out.
It's really exciting.
And I want to walk you through
it as a way of introducing you
to the protocol and how
your body works.
So let's start with
the first part.
The first part has to do with
unlocking your woman code.
Because there's this thing, if
there was a code inside of
your body that would give you
access to feeling good all
month, you'd want to crack
the code, yeah?
How many of you are computer
programmers in here?
Any hackers?
Ah, so hot.
Yes.
So I'm a biohacker.
I'm a hormone hacker.
That's what I do.
And I've figured out
how to do this.
I want teach you how to hack.
So here's the problem.
The problem with accessing the
code is that we're blocked in
a lot of ways.
And one of the first things
that you have to do in
establishing an environment
inside of your body where your
endocrine system can thrive is
that you need to remove what I
call flow blockers,
pun intended.
We want to restore flow, not
just your menstrual flow, but
also your whole hormonal
cascade.
As I like to say,
head to ovaries.
So the first problem is, how
many of you, if I asked you to
get up on the whiteboard right
now and draw me a 28 to 30 day
monthly cycle with all five
hormonal patterns, could do
that for me?
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
ALISA VITTI: Uh huh.
And?
And she doesn't know what
the fifth one is.
I know.
And don't worry.
It's kind of a loaded
question.
I teach doctors all the
time, surgeons.
And they can't do it either,
which says a lot.
So we don't know what's
going on.
And that's just on the
level of the period.
But we also don't know what the
parts are, what they're
doing, how your thyroid's
affected by, how much sodium
you're consuming during it.
We just don't know.
So that's part of the issue.
The other issue, as I mentioned
earlier, is this
paradigm in health care to
spot treat symptoms is
incorrect for systemic
health issues.
If it were just as simple as
your wrist was broken and they
put a cast on it, then
that would be great.
You can spot treat that issue.
But because we're talking about
all of these different
glands and all these different
hormones, we need a whole
system approach to
get it right.
And then the third thing--
And this is really where
you can get activated.
One of the chapters of the book
really goes into, so you
have a manual for this.--
Is removing endocrine
disruptors.
One of the reasons why we are
seeing women at epidemic rates
experience suffering around
these issues in their health
is because we are living in an
environment that is flooding
our bodies with something called
xenoestrogens, which is
just a fancy pants term for
synthetic estrogens, strange,
external estrogen.
And it adheres to our own
estrogen receptor sites.
And it starts to cause confusion
in the hormonal
conversation that our body's
trying to have and can make
you estrogen dominant, which
then causes all sorts of
problems around your cycle
and your fertility.
So what can we do?
First things first,
you have to choose
organic 80% of the time.
Notice, I'm not saying
100% of the time.
I'm just saying 80%.
Especially, when it
comes to fruits,
vegetables, and animal products.
These are just the biggest
offenders in terms of
endocrine disruption that you
could expose your body to.
And if you are trying to lose
weight, clear up your skin,
preserve your fertility for the
long term, fix PMS, get
rid of the annoying--
Just doing this alone will make
dramatic inroads into
that progress.
And then the second thing
that you need to do is--
And I give a giant
list in the book.
You have to look at the lotions
and potions you're
putting on your skin.
Your skin is your
largest organ.
It's also the largest organ
of elimination.
Anything that you put on your
skin, you better be willing to
take a tablespoon of
it and eat it.
That's always my litmus test.
Would I, if under duress,
eat this body lotion?
I know that sounds silly.
And I don't actually
eat my body lotion.
But if I needed to, I would
feel comfortable doing it
because it has three or four
ingredients in it, like olive
oil, Shea butter, vitamin E.
If you have something from,
I'm not going to name names,
fancy lingerie stores that
smell really perfumy and all of
that, and you're putting it
on your skin, there are so many
chemicals in that lotion
that are FDA known endocrine
disruptors that are ending up
in your bloodstream and messing
with that delicate
chemical conversation
of your hormones.
Really, really essential
you do an audit.
Just audit your medicine
cabinet, your bathroom
products, from your shampoo to
your make up to your lotion,
and see if there's a way for
you to start slowly.
Finish up what you've got.
Does not need to be extreme.
Finish up what you've
got and start to
slowly make some changes.
Let me assure you, 15 years ago,
Whole Foods did not have
the wide array that it does
today of fun products
that you can try.
But now, there are so many
fabulous skin care lines and
makeup lines and body care lines
that you can experience.
And you should.
You should give us a try.
I'm going to save questions
for the end.
Is that OK?
But write them down, because
I'm totally into it.
So what I want for you, I want
you to get into a state of
hormonal flow, where you are
in sync with your hormones
every day, where you know how
to manage your endocrine
balance on a regular basis.
So let's go into the protocol
and share with
you how that works.
And this is the second
part of my book and
accessing your code.
So the first piece of the
sequencing protocol, and I'm
just going to load them all
up for you, is blood sugar
stabilization.
And I'm going to go through each
one and share with you
some of the fun science behind
how this all works.
Because I think science
is really hot.
And the more I know about my
body, the better I'm able to
work with it.
And I feel like all of you smart
Google ladies are into
data and science.
Yes?
Not afraid?
Good.
So that's the first thing.
And it's so important because
of the nature of which the
endocrine system prefers
to operate.
And stabilization of blood sugar
is the first place you
have to go.
If you go anywhere else--
And this is one of the things
that I talk a lot
about in the book.
How many of you detox, have done
a cleanse, have done some
sort of juice madness?
That's great.
I'm drinking a green juice,
but I'm not on a cleanse.
I just like to alkalinize
my blood system.
It's so important to appreciate
that just doing a
detox doesn't actually
get your endocrine
system to work better.
It actually can make
you feel worse.
And it's because it's
out of order.
So second piece, all
of you mentioned
that you were exhausted.
And this is a state of
adrenal fatigue.
I'm going to show you what's
happening with your adrenal
gland in a moment, of why that's
happening to you and
what you can do to restore it.
One of the reasons why detoxing,
first, is a problem
for women who are dealing with
these issues is they are
typically all adrenally
fatigued.
You all have some experience of
inappropriate cortisol levels.
When you start doing cleanses,
extreme cleanses--
Like the worst offender, I
think, is the master cleanse,
because you're living on lemon
juice and cayenne pepper.
It's insane.
And you're not really eating.
You're further taxing adrenal
function, making all of the
problems more compounded.
Even though it might be trendy
and Gwyneth Paltrow's doing
it, and I love her, I just don't
want you to do it first.
Because then in the third step
of the protocol, in the food
sequencing piece, we then do
focus in on metabolizing
toxins and eliminating
excess estrogen.
And we do that in a very safe
food based way that doesn't
cause you to feel any worse.
And the last piece, which is
my most exciting piece,
especially when it comes to
the world of work, is the
hormonal synchronization
piece.
How do you live in cyclical
harmony with the four distinct
hormonal shifts that you
experience in a 30 day period?
Because they are changing the
way you think, the way your
body wants to exercise, the
kind of sex you want to be
having, how much sleep you need,
what kinds of things
you're naturally going to want
to prioritize at work.
They're affecting all of that.
And knowing how to lean into
that makes you healthier in
the short term, and also
more successful in your
life in the long term.
And I'm 10 years into living
this life style.
So I can assure you, just last
year, launching this platform,
writing a book, planning my
wedding, getting married, and
looking and feeling great, all
of that is possible because I
live in this constant state
of forward vector motion.
What's really cool about your
cycle is that it's own form of
natural biotechnology.
And we'll learn more about
that as we go.
But let me introduce you to
one of my favorite people,
your endocrine system.
I have such a great relationship
with her.
She is extraordinary.
And I want you to get to
know her a little bit.
And this is just a very basic
rendering of how she operates.
And we're just going to
go through the parts.
You have in your midbrain,
hypothalamus
and pituitary gland.
Think of them like the person
who listens to the voice mail
and then the switchboard
operator.
Hypothalamus is listening,
scanning your bloodstream,
negative biofeedback, really
seeing what's the hormonal
status quo right now in real
time, all the time.
And the pituitary gland is
sending out messages to all
the other target glands of
the endocrine system.
Oh, we need more thyroid
hormone.
Oh, we need more adrenaline
or cortisol.
Oh, we need more of
this or that.
And that's your switchboard
operator.
Then you have your thyroid.
Then you have the adrenals,
the ovaries, the pancreas.
I include some other things
in here because, from a
functional medicine standpoint,
we also want to
consider how the body
is detoxifying.
So I include things like the
liver and the kidneys and the
heart, as well.
Because it's all about keeping
things moving.
So let's talk a little bit about
the first step of the
protocol and how your blood
sugar is operating.
So how many of you woke
up this morning and
had a cup of coffee?
And how many of you had that
cup of coffee with nothing
else, just for the first
hour and a half?
OK.
And how many of you had the cup
of coffee with something
like a carb, like, I don't
know, not a pop tart, but
something like that.
Like toast or banana.
AUDIENCE: Does fruit count?
ALISA VITTI: Yeah.
Fruit's got sugar, yup.
So basically, what ends up
happening to you is you wake
up in a state of hypoglycemia.
So let's just define
the terms.
There's hyperglycemia, too
much sugar in the blood.
Hypoglycemia, not enough
sugar in the blood.
You wake up in a state of
hypoglycemia because you've
slept for eight hours,
hopefully.
And you haven't eaten, unless
you're hooked up to an IV
feeding tube, which
you're not.
And so your blood sugar is
low when you wake up.
So if you put something that
has too much sugar in your
bloodstream in the morning,
your blood
sugar's going to spike.
And caffeine, and I ask about
the caffeine issue because
it's the one thing that you do
that changes your blood sugar
destiny the rest of the day.
If you do caffeine, here's
what caffeine does.
It indirectly has more sugar
secreted into the bloodstream.
Caffeine stimulates cortisol.
Cortisol, we'll learn in a
moment, talks to your fat
cells and has those fat cells
convert into glucose.
So indirectly, it gets your
blood sugar levels up.
It also stimulates adrenaline.
It actually prevents your body
from breaking adrenaline down,
is what caffeine does.
So you feel the effects
of it longer.
And that's why you feel
energized from coffee.
And I put major quotations
around that, because it's not
real energy.
It's just adrenaline that
you can't get rid of.
So now you're blood
sugar's up.
And no matter what you do the
rest of the day, if you've
done the caffeine the first
thing in the morning like
that, you will not get off
this roller coaster.
You will be chasing that first
high all day long.
So you'll crash midmorning.
And you'll feel like whoever is
having a birthday and the
cupcakes are around or whatever
it is, you're going
to have more carbs than
you would normally.
By lunch, you're going to
be doing the same thing.
You're going to over indulge.
And you're going to be beating
yourself up the whole time
thinking, where's
my willpower?
I told myself I was going
to be good today.
And there's no possible way.
The brain chemistry will
override you every time,
because the first thing the
endocrine system wants to
protect is not your period,
ironically.
It's the sugar that's available
to the brain, the
heart, and the muscle tissue.
If you do anything to mess
with the sugar that's
available for your brain, your
heart, and your muscle tissue,
you have no more say
in the matter.
Ghrelin will be secreted.
All sorts of neurotransmitters
will start to get in line to
make you crave sugar.
Because if you haven't put
enough in, the brain is going
to freak out.
And then all of a sudden, it's
going to try to bypass you.
Because clearly, you have no
idea what you're doing,
according to the brain.
So that's a typical profile
of what a lot of women are
experiencing.
And then even if you don't do
caffeine in the morning, or
you do it with food, or you
have, let's say, something
like half a bagel in the
morning, or a muffin, or
something that seems reasonable,
it's shooting up
your blood sugar level
no matter what.
And then you're going to have
insulin act on that.
It's going to drop your
blood sugar levels.
It's going to go all
over the place.
So you're finding yourself less
and less able to stay
away from those afternoon
cravings.
How many of you feel
like at 3:30 or 4
o'clock, you feel awesome?
OK.
Crickets.
So I did a little experiment.
I'm a researcher.
And so I sat in a Starbucks
for a couple of days.
And I sat there all day.
I was just working there.
And I just tracked
the patterns.
And my thesis was that we would
see spikes in traffic at
Starbucks during the times
where people are
stereotypically hypoglycemic,
which is midmorning and
midafternoon.
And let me tell you, the
zombielike march into a
Starbucks at 3:30, from 3:30
to 4:30, it is insane.
Don't even go to try and buy
coffee at that time.
You will wait for 25 minutes
to get a cup of coffee.
And it's not just the coffee.
Also then, oh well, this little
sweet thing only has
180 calories.
And that seems reasonable.
So you're having more sugar
than you would normally
because your body is
requesting it.
And so this is a big problem.
Also, any of you ever driving
in a car and see
someone with road rage?
Road rage is hypoglycemia.
That's all.
If you see someone with road
rage, or even on the subway,
give them a bar,
like a Larabar.
Just fix them right away.
What we want to see is blood
sugar that's hugging the
stasis line much more closely.
And you get there by modifying
concentrations of
macronutrients during breakfast,
lunch, and dinner.
And we help women figure out
what do they need in each
meal, based on their body's
response to carbohydrates,
proteins, fats, and
extreme sugars.
So how much can you tolerate?
How much can you tolerate such
that you're only undulating
around the line, versus
spiking and
dipping around the line?
And for someone who used to
struggle with weight as a
result of my hormonal issues,
just clearing this up alone
takes care of any sort of
stubborn weight issues that
you might be having.
So it's really, really exciting
to know that you can
just eat your way.
Eat to be thin, which
is really fun.
Because I like to eat.
Food is delicious.
If you don't get the blood
sugar right, it starts to
throw off that chemical
conversation
in a long term way.
So in the short term, we know
that it affects the brain, the
heart, and the muscle tissue,
and starts to have you secrete
all sorts of neurotransmitters
that get you excited to eat
sugar and zap your will power.
Will power doesn't really
exist in a neurochemical
standpoint.
So I don't really think
to try to use that.
I would rather you leverage your
hormones instead, because
they're much more powerful
than your
thoughts in a lot of ways.
But over time, if you continue
to have this blood sugar
roller coaster, it's going
to affect your liver.
It's going to affect your
pancreatic response.
It's going to affect
your thyroid.
It's going to affect
your adrenals.
And it's going to clog up the
pathways of elimination.
And I'm going to share
more about that now.
Of course, at the end of all of
this, how is it causing you
to pay attention to it?
Because you may not notice these
discrete symptoms of
your adrenals being off, or
your thyroid being off, or
things of this nature.
Although, in the book, I teach
you how to observe these
things in the body
in real time.
But how you'll notice it over
time is that all of a sudden,
your period will be funky.
You'll have a big
heavy period.
Or you'll have clots.
Or you'll have major cramping.
Or you'll have PMS that just
rocks you and takes you out of
your life for a day or two,
which is not normal.
And by the time you get to
observing a symptom like that,
do you appreciate, now, the
mountain of chemical imbalance
that has been persisting
for a period of time?
No hormonal symptom, from a
menstrual standpoint, a
fertility standpoint, low
energy, low sex drive, just
happens out of the blue.
Never.
Never.
Doesn't just happen to you.
It comes through improper
management of the food that's
affecting these things that
we're talking about in the
food sequencing that then causes
an environment for all
of this to start
to break down.
Make sense?
So let's look at the adrenals.
This is so much fun.
I love cross sections
of glands.
OK.
I'm such a science nerd.
But you wear cute
jewelry anyway.
It's fine.
So the adrenal gland,
so powerful,
located in your mid back.
Do you all know where your
adrenal glands are?
Now you do.
Over here.
Right here.
OK.
And they are nestled in
with the kidneys,
really powerful gland.
In fact, the inner most part,
the medulla, forms at the same
time in utero as the brain
and the spinal cord.
It's a primitive extension
of the brain, in fact.
The cortex, which is what we're
going to talk about, the
three outermost zones, are
essential for your life.
And unlike the brain, the
adrenal gland does not adapt.
Not happening.
Doesn't adapt to stress.
Doesn't adapt to your diet.
It does not like it if you do
things that make it unhappy.
And it will start to affect
you in very profound ways.
Now, I'm not going to get into
the zona glomerulosa,
fasciculata, all these wonderful
Latin names that
won't make any sense to you.
But what I am going to tell you
about is this relationship
between cortisol and DHEA.
So if you notice, the two
innermost zones, the
blue and the pink.
The blue is the zone that
produces cortisol.
The pink is the zone
that produces DHEA.
When you have stress, let's say,
you're on a deadline or
you're running late to an event
or something like that,
you get a little boost
of cortisol.
Why?
Why does this happen to us?
Well, cortisol has a special
relationship with your butt.
How many of you have a special
relationship with your butt?
Just your adrenal glands do.
So it talks to the fat cells
that are stored in whatever
body part that tends
to store your fat.
But for women, it's usually our
hips, butt, and thighs.
That's typically where
we tend to store fat.
And cortisol tells
those fat cells,
hey, something's happening.
We don't know what it
is, because it's
not the whole brain.
It's just a primitive part of
responding to external factors.
Can you please convert some
of that fat to glucose?
Because what is fat?
Fat is just long term
storage of sugar.
That's all that it is.
So cortisol reverses the
process, get's it into the
bloodstream.
And all of a sudden, you have
a little bit of extra energy
for the brain, the heart, and
the muscle tissue to respond
to the external stress.
Makes sense?
Now, that's cool once
in a blue moon.
That's cool if all of a sudden
you have to catch the train.
And if you don't catch the
train, you're going to miss
your plane.
And that's really great.
But it's not great if this is
happening to you all day long.
And here's why.
It has a suppressive
effect on DHEA.
The more cortisol that your
adrenal gland secretes, the
less DHEA you will produce.
And DHEA is the mother hormone
from which, for women, 90% of
your testosterone
is manufactured.
So any of you who are feeling
like you can't build up muscle
mass though you are working
out, you still
feel soft and flabby.
You go to flex and nothing's
there, but you've
been doing push ups.
Is that happening to people?
If you're all adrenally
fatigued, it is
happening to you.
If you feel like you just don't
have the same stamina
for running around and doing
things in your life, this is
what's happening.
Cortisol up, DHEA levels down.
If your sex response and drive
is kind of like, meh, this is
what's happening here.
And do you know what
I mean by, meh?
So what should it look like?
On a normal, healthy person
without any level of adrenal
fatigue, you get a nice surge of
cortisol in the morning to
wake you up.
How is it that we stay asleep
all night and then all of a
sudden, magically, in the
morning, we wake up?
It is not the alarm
clock people,
although that does help.
But if you want to do
an experiment--
I don't use an alarm clock.
I just tell myself before
I sleep what time I'd
like to wake up.
And then I just do.
Why?
That's a whole other
fun conversation.
But my adrenal glands support
the ability of my body to wake
up at the right time
in the morning.
Because again, cortisol
surging at this
time is doing what?
Talking to your long term sugar
storage, aka your fat,
getting some of that to convert
in to sugar to help
your brain, heart, muscle tissue
go through metabolic
changes to feel like
they can be awake.
That's what's happening
in the morning.
And then you get another
surge midday.
You get a little bit
in the afternoon.
And it starts to taper off
dramatically so that you can
wind down and go to sleep.
Now, how many of you feel like
when you wake up, you kind of
feel a little hung over, like
groggy, even though you have
not been drinking?
I know you're all not drinking
every night.
But you wake up and you're
like, oh god, help me.
This feeling, this is
a normal feeling.
We're all laughing.
OK, here's what's happening.
You're having adrenal fatigue.
So instead of having that nice
surge of cortisol helping you
wake up with joy and vigor in
the morning, which is how you
should feel--
Remember when you were a kid,
you were like, I'm up.
Somebody else wake up.
Oh my god.
That's how it should
be every day still.
But that's not happening.
Instead, we get not
enough cortisol
secreted in the morning.
We feel a little bit like
we're dragging.
Even though we're doing
caffeine, still we don't feel
the same surge of energy.
How many of you had the caffeine
this morning and felt
like you were five and it
was Christmas morning?
No, it is not giving you the
return on your investment that
you would like it to.
And then, you maybe
get a little bit
more around the midday.
But you start to get your big
surge in the afternoon, late
afternoon, evening, even
as late as 10 o'clock.
How many of you feel like
you're night owls?
And you wake up truly
after dinner.
And you're like gosh, I should
just do all my work in the
middle of the night.
That's super cool.
I'm not someone who's
a conformist.
I'm going to be in the
middle of the night
doing all my work.
No.
This is just an indication that
your adrenal glands are
not performing the way
that they should.
There are four different degrees
of adrenal fatigue.
This, I would say, is
about stage two.
Stage three and stage four
include other things like
major anxiety, response at
inappropriate times, even
panic attacks for no
appropriate reason.
That type of a thing can
accompany heart palpitations,
sweating, it gets much,
much worse.
And think about it.
We're talking about cortisol.
We're talking about
adrenaline.
We're talking about DHEA.
We're talking about this gland
that governs a lot of the
functions of your response.
And it's hard to pinpoint
because it can be lumped in.
The symptoms can be lumped
in with other things.
Because you'll feel
generally tired.
So maybe you'll think it's
a thyroid problem.
Or you'll have maybe
reduced immunity.
And you think, oh it's
just flu season.
But actually, when adrenal is
underperforming, you are much
more likely to catch
everybody's cold.
OK.
So there's all of this.
Poor digestion, improper
elimination, all of this can
be affected by adrenal
fatigue.
So it's really, really
important that we
get the hang of it.
And depression and anxiety,
such a big
problem for so many women.
We go through monthly bouts of
this if we're hormonally
imbalanced.
But with adrenal fatigue on
top of it, the issue is
compounded in multiples.
So if you're struggling with
a feeling of not feeling
yourself or feeling anxiety or
feeling continuous worrisome
thoughts, we should look at
what's happening with your
adrenals and eat for
adrenal happiness.
Third piece of the food
sequencing protocol has to do
with your pathways
of elimination.
And you have four of them.
And all them work in synergy
to help you break down
hormonal toxins, especially
estrogen.
Think about it this way.
Imagine if you were producing
adrenaline in the morning.
And then you weren't able to
break that down and get that
out of your body.
How would you feel?
You feel a little, all day.
You feel anxious.
And estrogen, this happens
to so many women.
You're producing estrogen
on a continuous basis.
That's your body's job.
Your ovaries are producing
estrogen.
This is what it's supposed
to be doing.
If you're not breaking that
down, estrogen's one of those
hormones that's like a
double edged sword.
Just the right amount makes you
look and feel fantastic.
Too much or too little is very
problematic in different ways.
So if you have too much estrogen
that's not breaking
down, this can cause all sorts
of problems in terms of your
hormonal health, from weight
gain to fibrocystic breasts to
increased risk for cancer to
PMS, endometriosis, fibroids,
ovarian cyst development,
all of this.
Very serious stuff.
And what's interesting when we
think about how they work
together is that--
And the reason why they're
organized in this way is
because this is decreasing
magnitude.
So the skin is your
largest organ.
That's why it's so important
that you make the choice not
to put things on your skin that
are going to already--
You're already dealing with
estrogen dominance because we
live in 2013.
And this is the state that the
environment is polluted with
so much xenoestrogen that
evidently fish, which develop
their gender outside of the
mother's reproductive system,
are all turning into female fish
in the rivers because a
lot of women are taking
birth control pills.
That's ending up in
our water supply.
And there's chemicals
and pesticides.
It is happening.
So we are flooded with
too much estrogen.
And so we just don't want to put
any more on ourselves that
we don't have to.
The liver, I'm going to talk
about in a moment, but has a
special relationship with
your large intestine.
We're going to talk about
poop for one more time?
OK, you're cool?
You're cool with poop?
I'm so cool with it.
Here's the thing.
How many of you feel like you go
to the bathroom every day,
no problem?
Put your hands up.
Everybody keep your hands
up until this no
longer applies to you.
How many of you wake up and
go to the bathroom kind of
relatively before noon?
OK.
How many of you have that happen
within 90 minutes of
opening your eyeballs, have
a bowel movement?
90 minutes.
How many of you have that
within 20 minutes?
Great, awesome.
That's where you should be.
You wake up--
Oh wait, one last check.
You have that 20 minutes,
no caffeine.
Awesome.
Awesome.
OK good.
So how it should work is
eyeballs open, glass of water,
brush your teeth,
bowel movement.
20 minutes.
If that's not happening, you're
struggling with a level
of constipation.
And why that's important is it's
indicating now, if the
large intestine is the smallest
place that we have
elimination of estrogen, can
you imagine the backup that
it's going to cause in the
liver, in the lymphatic
system, on the skin?
Constipation, for sure, will
lead to skin problems.
And a lot of women are
struggling with rosacea and
eczema and acne.
And all of this is a sign that
the liver, the large
intestine, the lymph are
overloaded with toxins and
that you need to change, not
what you're putting on your
skin to spot treat the
eczema, the rosacea.
We talked about this.
No more spot treating.
We want to start cleaning
up liver,
large intestine function.
So let's look at the liver.
And I want to break down
the pathways of
elimination for you.
This is super cool because
this really shows the
importance of what
you're eating.
Your liver has these two phases
of detoxification.
The first phase, basically,
breaks your hormones down into
fat soluble, more toxic forms
of the hormone than it was
originally.
The second phase converts it
into a water soluble, less
toxic form that can leave your
body safely through the urine,
the sweat, the bowel movement.
So the skin, the lymphatic
system, the large intestine
are going to be the
transport systems
for this waste product.
What is required to be on tap in
your liver, stored in your
liver at all times are key
micronutrients to support in
phase one and phase two of
this detoxification.
So these are things like B
vitamins, vitamin C, selenium,
glutathione.
I want to focus in a little
bit on selenium and
glutathione because they're
kind of fun.
So how many of you remember the
whole story of the sperm
and the egg and when they come
together, it makes a
life, dah dah dah?
Do you know why that happens?
This is so cool.
This is a little off topic, but
everybody needs to know.
It's selenium and glutathione.
It actually is such
an important
chemical catalytic reaction.
Selenium is stored in the sperm
in high concentration.
Glutathione in the egg in
high concentration.
When they come together, it's
the selenium and the
glutathione that react in a
catalytic way that starts the
cell dividing.
Isn't that so amazing?
And it's because of what
you were eating.
You cannot supplement as
effectively the selenium and
glutathione versus other
supplements.
We know vitamin C supplements
are recognized by the body.
Glutathione, we haven't been
able to manufacture a
synthetic form that's
bioavailable.
You have to eat it.
And if it's not present in
adequate supply for your liver
and you're noticing little
breakouts, what's happening
with your egg quality?
So we're thinking about
preserving our fertility for
the long term.
We have to be thinking about all
the ways in which this is
interconnected?
Do you understand?
So how do we get glutathione?
How do we get selenium?
Selenium is easy.
Two to four Brazil nuts
a day, you're set.
That's rich supply
of selenium.
This is good for your partners,
if they're men.
And they're working on sperm
quality, motility, health,
whatever, great to have them
be eating Brazil nuts.
Glutathione, lucky us, is found
in any every organic,
raw fruit and vegetable.
It's in everything.
So if you were to have something
like one green juice
a day at any point, doesn't have
to be during a fast or
anything, or some steamed or
raw veggies, or some good
quality fruits, you're going
to be dosing yourself with
this essential micronutrient
that not only is talking about
preserving egg quality,
but also helping your
liver do its job.
Because if we don't have
adequate supply.--
Remember, in phase one, it
breaks the hormones down into
a more toxic form, that ends up
circulating in your body if
it's not broken down properly.
And it can make your liver
perform inappropriately and
have you store more sugar as fat
in the liver and not break
down hormones the way
that you want.
So it's so, so important to
eat for all these organs.
I know it might seem
overwhelming.
But trust me, it's so easy once
you put it all together.
So I want to go into the last
piece of the protocol here.
And then I'm going to open
it up to some questions.
The really interesting thing
that I found when I was doing
all of my research in functional
medicine and
nutritional genomics and
looking at all sorts of
interesting things like
chronobiology, which is the
study of the circadian patterns
of different organ
systems in the body, is that
I thought, wow, isn't it
interesting that no one is
looking at the pattern of the
menstrual cycle and mapping
food on to that?
Because we can map--
For example, the adrenals
really love salt in the
morning, really don't
like it at night.
They like potassium at night.
So drinking a little coconut
water at the end of the day
can be a way to help your
adrenals release and relax
from cortisol overdose.
So there's food that maps
onto our different
organ circadian patterns.
But no one was looking at
that for the cycles.
So this is my big contribution
is, how do we eat to be in
cyclical harmony?
Because the reality is--
And I want to break down, you
have these four phases, in
case you didn't know.
Because most of us know the
obvious one, the menses.
And we might know the
PMS, but we don't
know what that's called.
It's called the luteal phase.
But let's go in order.
Starts with the folicular
phase.
Eggs developing.
Multiple little cysts on
the level of the ovary.
Then you move into the
ovulatory phase.
One of the eggs leaves
the ovary.
Boom Boom.
And then we're in the
luteal phase.
There's two distinct parts of
the luteal phase, which I'll
show you in a moment.
And then, of course,
there's the menses.
Those are you four phases.
Happens to you whether you're
observing them or not.
But I'd like for you to be able
to start observing them
in real time.
Because most of us don't know.
How many of you know when
you're ovulating?
Yeah, 2% of you.
Most of us only know when we
start menstruating because we
can see it.
It's obvious.
And you need to get products.
And that's when we
pay attention.
But what's really cool is,
remember how I was going to
ask someone to come up
and draw this chart?
Here's the chart.
Five hormones.
The hormone that I don't have
present here just because we
like to layer it in after so you
can see these first four
is testosterone.
You have testosterone patterns
that fluctuate as well that
affect your stamina at the
gym, your sexual desire,
preferences, all of that,
throughout the month.
And they are absolutely
mapped onto the cycle.
Let's just break down the luteal
phase for a minute.
And I go into such granular
detail about all the little
parts of your cycle
in the book.
I cannot wait for you get
your hands on it.
But in the luteal phase,
you have two halves.
You have the build half, which
is indicated by the rise in
the purple and the green lines
on the chart from day, let's
say, 18 up to 24.
And this is both estrogen
and progesterone rising.
Why?
Estrogen's thickening the
lining of uterus.
Progesterone's holding
it in place.
Then if there is no conception,
what happens?
Both of these hormones
start to drop off.
And progesterone and estrogen
start to diminish.
And the lining is able
to leave the body.
And that's when menstruation
starts.
There are two distinct halves of
this because, I want you to
pay attention to how you feel.
Most women still feel
perfectly fine.
They still feel like they're in
their post ovulatory glow
the first half of the
luteal phase.
Their energy's good.
There's a little surge
of testosterone here.
So we're feeling energized and
able to do everything.
The second half of the month,
depending on how far apart
estrogen and progesterone are on
this chart from each other,
is the degree to which you
will suffer with PMS.
So for example, if estrogen was
very high and progesterone
was much lower than what you're
seeing here, then
you're going to have cramps
and bloating and breast
tenderness and mood swings
and all of that.
And if prior to that
progestorene levels are not
adequate, this is
where it becomes
difficult to even get pregnant.
So if you're thinking about
trying to make a baby, you
have to know where you are
hormonally in each phase of
your cycle so that you can do
that more successfully.
Now, here's where
it gets cool.
In the book, there are several
different charts that map out
for you each of these phases so
that you can start to plan
your food, your exercise, your
priorities, and your sex life
around where you
are hormonally.
Because these distinct hormonal
patterns, this is
happening to your brain.
Estrogen is flooding your
brain at different
times of the month.
Progesterone, all of
these things are
changing your brain chemistry.
And it makes a lot of sense
that you would feel
differently week over week.
Because you know intuitively
that you already do.
How many of you, for example,
first half of the month you go
into a boot camp class at the
gym and you crush it?
You walk out of there
like, eye of
the tiger, it's awesome.
That happens.
Then same class, same you, same
Lululemon pants and you
go to the same thing two
weeks later, and
you're like, oh God.
Make it stop.
When is this class over?
And you're thinking
to yourself,
what's wrong with me?
It's not you.
It's Where you are
in your cycle.
And you're in the wrong class
for that time of your cycle.
In fact, if you're dealing with
adrenal issues and you
overdo it with the exercise at
different times of the month,
you can actually make yourself
gain weight.
How many of you have had any
girlfriends who've trained for
a marathon or triathlon and
they've put on 20 pounds from
doing that?
I see this all the time
in my practice.
This has to do with adrenal
fatigue, hormonal imbalance,
and overexercising at the
wrong time of the month.
It's amazing what you can do
with a lot less effort and
strain on the body if you lean
into your hormonal natural
rhythms that are happening.
So I wanted to give you a taste
of the priorities of how
your brain is shifting, your
neurochemical shifts, so that
you might start to apply those
in your work life.
Because my whole company runs
on this cycle, actually.
We call it a form of body
time management.
Again, it's a natural form of
biotechnology that's governing
the way your body performs, so
you might as well use it to
your benefit.
So during the follicular phase,
this is when the brain
is getting initial doses
of estrogen.
And your brain is
starting to--
Think of it like popcorn
of ideas.
You're like, oh, this would
be interesting to do.
Or this might be an interesting
way to tackle this
project that I want to
get done this month.
This is a great time during
your, let's say, month of
working to plan projects, to
map out your chart to do,
anything that you need to do to
set yourself up for success
for the month.
In the ovulatory phase, because
of the flood of
estrogen on the brain, you're
much more communicative and
social and magnetic
at this time.
This is a great time to work in
collaboration with people
in your team, to set up
strategic meetings, to ask for
a raise, to go on first dates
or second dates, or have
important conversations.
It would be easier for you
to do it at this time.
You can do it any time of
the month, of course.
But this is when you
will be most--
It will feel effortless
to you.
In the luteal phase, the effects
of progesterone and
estrogen on the brain in
conjunction have a getting
things done kind of an effect.
So I always tease women.
And I say, OK, remember how
you've told yourself to do
your laundry two weeks ago and
you just cannot get it done.
But then all of a sudden,
something happens.
You don't register as it moving
into your luteal phase.
And you just want to organize
your shoe closet and your
bills and do your accounting
and write thank
you letters to people.
And you're just banging things
out, getting things done, this
is naturally happening to you
in the luteal phase from a
neurochemical standpoint.
So lean into that.
If you have to get things done
on project basis anyway at
work, why not try to leave some
time in your schedule
during these weeks, these 10
days, to have project time.
Don't over schedule yourself.
Make sure you give yourself
three hours a day to get
things done and crank
things out.
You will feel so much
more on top of your
projects if you do this.
Then during menstruation, what's
happening to the brain
chemistry has you actually
having the maximum amount of
communication across the corpus
callosum, which is the
bundle of nerve fibers that
connect the right and the left
hemisphere of the brain.
So this means you're
synthesizing data from the
right and the left hemisphere
in ways that you don't the
rest of the month.
So this is actually a time to do
an evaluation, whether that
be evaluating people on your
team, if that's your role, or
evaluating your own project
performance that month, or
evaluating how you're
doing in your life.
Like, how's your relationship
going?
Are you really happy in
your relationship?
Or are you just tolerating it?
We all do that, unfortunately.
Are you really happy with what
you're doing in your job?
Are you moving forward the
way that you want to?
Now, think about a bicycle
versus someone walking.
Put two people on
the same path.
One's on a bike.
One's walking.
Who's going to get to the
finish line faster?
Bike rider, yes.
And has to do is forward vector
motion of the wheels.
So imagine just doing this for
one month, how much you would
get done, how far you
would accomplish,
what you need to do.
Then project that out
one quarter, half a
year, a whole year.
How much more progress you would
make by leveraging your
hormonal patterns versus
not working with them?
It is kind of like trying to
turn a television on with a
remote control that only
has one battery.
You wouldn't even dream of
having no TV turn on.
But we try, as women, to operate
not using this, not
using this technology that's
available to us that is having
a real influence on our brain
chemistry, our physical
sensations, our moods, our
energy, our stamina.
And because we're not using
it, we are inadvertently
working against it, from an
endocrine system standpoint.
And it's taxing our
hormonal function.
So we feel more adrenally
fatigued.
Our period problems
become amplified.
Women are dealing with premature
ovarian failure.
They're not getting pregnant.
Their sex drive is going away
in their early 30s.
Why is this?
It's not just the chemicals
in the food and in the
environment.
It also has to do with
how we're not
partnering with our bodies.
So, so important to think about
how you can get into
cyclical harmony.
In the last section of the
book, I talk all about
different-- my favorite foods.
And I just wanted to share some
of the favorite foods
that you can start taking away
from today to address some of
the issues that you might
be dealing with.
So if you're dealing with any
sort of PMS or period
problems, this would be the list
that I would give you to
start with, in addition to
taking on the food sequencing
that we talked about.
First thing that I could say,
the most important thing is to
eliminate soy products.
I have the word reduce
on the slide.
But I would highly encourage
you, if you're dealing with
fibroids, endometriosis, PCOS,
PMS, ovarian cysts, heavy
bleeding, to eliminate soy.
Soy has high concentrations of
estrogen, especially if it's
not organic GMO Free soy.
There was a study done in Brazil
on GMO soy and its
effects on both male
and female rats'
reproductive system.
Poor rats, they had to
eat all that soy.
And what they found was actually
that the GMO soy
changed the uterine structure
in the female rats, changed
the shape of the uterus
in the females.
And what's really exciting about
what's going on with the
whole genomic research and food,
we actually now can look
in a laboratory setting at your
biome, your human genome,
plant genomes, the food you're
eating, and the intestinal
microbiome that you have
and how they're
interacting with eachother.
They're changing each other.
These genes--
The vegetable that you ate
has genetic material.
It's mixing with yours.
And the bacteria that you have
in your gut is mixing with
your genes.
So you need to learn how to
partner with that whole
process, otherwise it's going
to run your life.
Definitely want to get
you more on kale.
Kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts,
broccoli, these
cruciferous vegetables contain
substances that help the body
break down estrogen.
They also are rich in magnesium
and calcium, which
helps during the PMS phase, if
you're struggling with that.
And then, of course, this is one
of my favorite juices for
women who are having
cycle issues.
And it's just a good cover for
blood building, for liver
detoxification, and
for circulation.
So you can get this recipe
and try it at home.
Make your own juice.
It's really, really great.
Let's say you are thinking about
having a child at some
point in the future.
And you'd like to preserve your
fertility, make sure your
egg quality is good, make sure
ovulation is strong.
These are some things
that you can try.
Turmeric has been shown to
improve the vascular
health of the ovary.
Cinammon actually reduces
insulin levels, which help
keep ovulation healthy.
Avocado, one of the studies I
cite in the book, avocado
should be a poster on every
IVF doctor's office.
Because we now know, lab tested,
women who go through
IVF and eat three avocados a
week versus women who don't
eat any avocados have a 3 and
1/2 greater successful outcome
with IVF than the women who were
not increasing levels of
essential fatty acids.
Why?
Hormones are all stabilized
in fat.
And women on our no fat, low fat
diets are doing ourselves
a huge disservice for hormonal
health and long term fertility
optimization by not eating
good sources of fat.
So each your avocadoes.
In terms of energy and sex
drive, a lot of this has to do
with your adrenal health.
So there are a couple of things
I would have you do
immediately.
Get off the caffeine, because we
know it over stimulates the
adrenal, not even, green tea,
not even decaf, nothing, for a
couple months.
By the way, the whole protocol
takes three months to do.
So don't think this has
to be a forever thing.
But if you want to get your body
kick started to healing,
give your body a break.
And the summertime is very
easy to go off caffeine
because it's hot.
You'll want colder things
anyway, so try it now.
Get on a B vitamin.
A B100 complex will contain
adequate levels of B12, B6,
and B5, which the adrenal
glands need to perform.
And I would say if you're really
struggling with adrenal
fatigue, and some of the things
I talked about with
weight and energy levels
resounded with you, I would
definitely exercise no more
than 20 minutes at
a time at the gym.
After that, you're burning
your adrenal reserve.
And you're causing more
spikes in cortisol.
And you're making the
problem worse.
So this will, of course,
continue to keep you in that
vicious cycle of low energy.
And when there's no energy,
there is no
reserve for sex drive.
So if you want to bring sexy
back, it's not Justin
Timberlake.
It's B vitamins.
Although, he's so cute.
Connect with us.
We are a whole community of
women who are living in the
WomanCode way.
We are all in flow with
our hormonal health.
Find us on Facebook.
There's a weekly video
series that we
have that's me talking.
So if you enjoyed me talking,
you'll see more of me.
And they're all under
five minutes.
And it's really about how can
you be troubleshooting in real
time all the issues that
you're dealing with?
And connect with us.
I want to hear how
you're doing.
So I want to open it up to you,
little ovary town hall.
What are some questions
that you have?
What are some things that you
heard that you have some
deeper dive desires around?
And how can I support
your cycle, your
fertility, your sex drive?
Lay it on me girls.
Yes.
AUDIENCE: So you mentioned with
the different parts of
your cycle that there are things
that you should focus
on more, because [INAUDIBLE]
when your cycles are.
What would say if you had to
schedule yourself with some
kind of medical procedure
or surgery or something?
Where in your cycle would
you have to do that?
ALISA VITTI: Depends
on the procedure.
But ideally around the ovulation
time, where you have
a little bit extra
testosterone.
So a little bit more stamina
and energy to
bounce back more quickly.
And also because as you lead
up to menstruation--
How many of you have ever gone
to the dentist right before
your period and notice that your
gums bleed a lot more?
You have more of that potential
for happening.
So you have more bleeding
happening, less coagulation,
leading up to that.
So I would schedule it more
towards the first half of the
month if you can.
Great question.
Yes?
AUDIENCE: So I've heard
two things.
The one, that cortisol,
it increases that.
It makes that deposit.
But it seems like in this case,
it actually signals the
burning of fat.
And I also heard that caffeine
helps stimulate metabolism.
And both of those things seem
like they conflict?
ALISA VITTI: Yes.
AUDIENCE: So what are your
thoughts on that?
ALISA VITTI: It brings up
an important point.
Every magazine you read every
month, isn't it annoying?
There's like do this.
Now, do this.
And by the way, we're just
saying do the opposite of what
we said last month.
So this is some of the things
that this makes me feel
reminded of.
But when we're talking about a
woman who's struggling with
menstrual issues, fertility
issues, low energy, low libido
issues, adrenal fatigue
is happening.
Period pun intended.
So we know that for woman who
has got these issues that
caffeine is going to have an
adverse effect on her.
It's not going to stimulate
her metabolism.
In fact, how it works on the
blood sugar level is cortisol
is going to get the fat out from
the fat stores into the
bloodstream.
But then the pancreas is going
to be hyper responsive,
secrete lots of insulin
to try to restore it.
So that's how indirectly you
end up with more fatty
deposits, because you have too
much cortisol being produced.
So again, because caffeine is
triggering that for women who
are adrenally fatigued and who
are struggling with these
issues, it causes a vicious
cycle from an endocrine
function standpoint.
Now, for some people who,
let's say, are in their
perimenopausal years, post
menopausal years, caffeine can
be a beneficial tool.
But for a lot of women who are
in their reproductive years, I
don't find this to
be great advice.
And unfortunately, a lot of--
And I was on the "Dr. Oz"
show and all of this.
A lot of these shows are
being watched by women
who are over 50.
And so a lot of the topics are
being geared towards that
demographic, which is great.
They need support too.
But I'm really interested in
women who are still in their
reproductive years.
Because what you do in your 20s
and 30s will completely
dictate your hormonal destiny,
your whole entire health
destiny in your 40s, 50s,
and 60s and beyond.
So I want to take your period
seriously for sure.
More questions.
Great question.
You had a question.
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
Well, one of them you answered,
because I was going
to ask you about selenium.
ALISA VITTI: Good.
AUDIENCE: The other one was
about what we put on our skin.
ALISA VITTI: Yes.
AUDIENCE: So spray tans, those
are all chemicals.
ALISA VITTI: Oh.
AUDIENCE: Right?
ALISA VITTI: Great question.
No one has asked me that
question before.
AUDIENCE: I'm trying to stay
out of the sun and
be good to my skin.
I wear SPF 50 on my face
every day now.
ALISA VITTI: Great.
AUDIENCE: But I don't like
looking pale in the summer.
So I've been doing the
occasional spray tan here and
there, even thought I know
that's probably great either.
ALISA VITTI: Yeah.
Here would be my
recommendation.
If you really are limiting it to
two months out of the year,
I would say that's OK.
I personally would never put
that chemical on my skin, any
kind of self tanner--
AUDIENCE: OK.
It's a self tanning lotion.
ALISA VITTI: Just because
it affects melatonin.
That's how it works.
And melatonin's a really
powerful hormone.
In fact, it's so powerful that
you cannot get it without a
prescription outside
of this country.
In Europe, if you want to take
melatonin to help you with
your sleep, you have to have
a doctor write you a
prescription for it.
Here, we just go buy it.
And we take massive
doses of this.
That's a whole other
conversation.
But I would not use that.
However, if you are going to use
it, and that's a personal
choice, again, I'm only asking
you to be good on protocol 80%
of the time.
Because if you have an
environment where 80% of the
time you're strengthening your
endocrine response, the 20% of
your life where you make choices
like you're going to
have a night of drinking, you're
going to have the spray
tan, you're going to have
whatever food on vacation
you're going to have,
your body can
bounce back from that.
Any ratio different than that,
like 70%, 60% on, your body
can't respond as quickly.
And you start to get into
symptoms much, much faster.
So make choices.
If you're rest of you is
hormonally golden, fabulous,
you're humming along and
everything's great, then two
months of--
I would rather you do the self
tanner, just because I would
rather you not risk the aerosol
exposure of the whole
way that that's delivered.
You're breathing it in.
It's a whole other thing.
I would rather you
do spray tan.
AUDIENCE: You would
rather, which one?
ALISA VITTI: I'm sorry.
Self tanner cream, than
the spray tan.
And I would also rather you do
it small amounts of the year.
AUDIENCE: OK.
And then what about--
I've heard that there's organic
spray tan out there.
Have you heard of it?
ALISA VITTI: I haven't
heard of it.
But I would check out self
tanners at Whole Foods.
I haven't looked, because I
prefer to glow in the dark.
And I don't tan at all.
But check it out and see.
Certainly, the organic self
tanners are going to have the
surrounding cocktail, the
recipe, the lotion is not
going to have parabens and
petrolatum and other chemicals
that are known endocrine
disrupters.
So if it does exist,
100,000%, do that.
Yeah.
Great question.
Yes.
AUDIENCE: A lot of what you
talked about assumes that
you're not regulating your
cycle with birth control
pills, right?
So you mention00
ALISA VITTI: Not true,
but go ahead.
Keep going.
AUDIENCE: Oh.
My question is, what if
you're on the pill?
And you touched upon in
the beginning about
going off the pill.
I'm curious what your
thougts are.
ALISA VITTI: Yes.
Lots of conversation. about
the pill in the book.
And I can go on and on and on.
But essentially, you're still
having hormonal cycles if
you're on the pill.
If you're having symptoms, and
many women do still have
symptoms of hormonal issues on
the pill, and if you have
adrenal fatigue, and if you're
constipated, and you're having
other things going on, and
you're on the pill, the best
thing for you to do is to start
getting on the protocol.
Because if you then identify or
if you now realize that you
have an underlying hormonal
imbalance for which you
decided to take the pill.
And the pill for these issues
that we're talking about,
think of it like putting
masking tape over the
indicator light on your car.
It's blinking at you to try to
get you to pay attention.
Change the oil, something's
wrong, refill at the next
station, something like that.
And being on the pill prevents
you from really paying
attention in real time.
But if over time, the symptoms
start building and it's
undeniable that you have some
hormonal stuff that needs
addressed, get on protocol.
And then you can work
with your doctor.
We have so many women who do
this, who then end up taking a
little birth control
pill vacation.
You do the protocol
for three months.
Then you take three months off
the pill and reassess, how is
your hormonal performance?
Are you now healthy and
hormonally balanced?
If so, your choice.
Go back on the pill,
no problem.
If you get off the pill and
you're still struggling with
symptoms, there's more work for
you to do nutritionally,
maybe another month or two.
But it is so essential in your
20s and 30s to resolve those
issues now.
Because what I don't want to see
is what I see often, far
too often at my center.
Women who've been on the pill
for 15, 20 years with hormonal
imbalances from their teens and
early 20s, fibroids, endo,
cramps, whatever,
PCOS, even PMS.
And then they find
their partner.
They want to have a baby.
They're pushing 40.
And now, all of a sudden,
you go off the pill.
And you have a reduced
amount of time to
correct these issues.
And your stress levels are
high because you feel the
pressure of all that.
So don't do that to yourself,
meaning you now have some
important information that I
know isn't being discussed on
a regular basis unless
I'm here.
And I'm happy to be here.
But share it with your
girlfriends.
Hand them a copy of the book.
Let them know, hey, this is
really, really important that
you understand and appreciate
what your period is actually
telling you now about your
fertility in the future.
Yes.
AUDIENCE: So going back, instead
of having coffee and
the bagel in the morning--
ALISA VITTI: Is this what
you have for breakfast?
AUDIENCE: No.
Actually, I was eating dinner
foods for breakfast.
ALISA VITTI: Dinner foods
for breakfast are ideal.
AUDIENCE: Yeah, I was eating
salty stuff or
leftovers from dinner.
So what do you recommend eating
then first thing in the
morning to set yourself
off right?
ALISA VITTI: Depends on your
body's metabolism.
That's why step one of our
process on the online platform
is metabolic testing, so that
you know exactly what your
body needs, carbohydrates, fats,
proteins, sugar in the
morning, salt.
And you know what works for
you and what doesn't work.
We also teach you how to track
which foods are working for
you best and which are not.
So we do all sorts of fun
food experiments.
But ideally, and it changes week
over week where you are
in the cycle.
And I lay this all out for you
how you can start your own
experiment on your own at home,
based on where you are
in your cycle, what kinds of
breakfasts, lunches, and
dinners you would have,
hormonally optimizing yourself.
More questions.
I'll take two more
before we wrap.
You have a question.
You've been looking at
me soulfully all day.
Tell me.
AUDIENCE: I'm curious to know
what you use on your skin.
ALISA VITTI: Yes.
I just did a vlog about
is talking about
clearing up the skin.
And we got, I don't know, a
zillion comments about, oh my
god, what products do you use.
I didn't realize my skin
was that gorgeous.
Thank you.
And having been a former acne
sufferer, it's valuable to
just continuously get
that feedback.
Because when you've had acne,
you're never quite sure if
your skin looks good anymore.
But now, after so many years, I
think I'm getting the memo,
All I use on my skin, for
real, I use two things.
I use an alpha hydroxy acid
twice a week at night.
I use something by
Earth Science.
It's called AB glycolic
or hydroxy or
something like that.
I buy it at Whole Foods.
Very gentle.
Twice a week, that's it.
I just wash my face at night.
Other than that, I don't put
anything else on it.
Maybe sometimes a little witch
hazel in the summer if I feel
particularly oily.
I am Mediterranean, so
I self lubricate.
And then for moisturizer, the
only thing that I use is pure
aloe vera gel, which you buy
in the sun care section at
Whole Foods.
It's a little tube.
I buy two a year.
They each cost $4.00.
That's it.
Aloe vera gel is amazing.
IT's anti-inflammatory.
It's antiwrinkle.
It's natural cell turnover.
And it's fantastic,
shrinks the pores.
You don't need to get
sucked into--
Once you know how food works in
the body, all the marketing
about lotions and potions, you
kind of look at it like,
that's not true.
None of that's actually true,
what you're saying.
The simpler, the more direct
the ingredient, the better.
AUDIENCE: Makeup remover.
ALISA VITTI: Makeup remover.
What am I using?
Oh yes, I think it's another
Earth Science, natural, like a
lotion, very gentle.
Makeup, I use mineral makeup
at Whole Foods or Aveda
mineral makeup.
I use natural mascara.
I think the brand is called
Gabriel, things like that.
Jane Iredale makeup, amazing.
Lots of great organic
make up now.
And there's a great website you
can go to check that out,
Green Beauty, I think
it's called.
AUDIENCE: Is Bare Minerals
actually minerals?
It's actually good
for your skin.
You can sleep in it and
all that stuff.
ALISA VITTI: Bare Minerals has
some chemicals in it that are
endocrine disruptive.
So that's why you should
check the ingredients.
You want mineral make
up that is without
all of those chemicals.
So that's why some of the ones
at Whole Foods are better.
I think one is called
Mineral Fusion.
Yeah.
You use that one?
AUDIENCE: I've used it before.
ALISA VITTI: Yeah.
It's good.
It's really good.
AUDIENCE: What about
sunscreen?
ALISA VITTI: I use Alba
Botanical sun screen.
This is so much fun.
I am a product lover.
So I should do a whole
thing on products.
Alba Botanical, I use
their SPF 50 face.
And then they have a really
yummy enzyme pineapple.
So while your sun tanning,
you're also exfoliating dead
skin, which builds up in copious
quantities while
you're exposing yourself
to the sun.
AUDIENCE: Do you wear
that every day.
ALISA VITTI: I don't wear
sunscreen every day,
personally.
And I don't spend a lot of
time out in the sun.
And if I do, if I know I'm going
to be in the sun a lot,
I either wear a hat.
Or I do put some sunscreen
on my face.
But I try not to do it.
But I think that's been
a good thing.
Because people on this book tour
have been like, how old
are you again?
And certainly, it's a
combination of, obviously,
what I'm eating and my hormonal
health, but also how
we take care of our skin.
AUDIENCE: What about
insect repellents?
ALISA VITTI: Oh my god,
don't use it.
No, no, no.
AUDIENCE: I kind of can't
live without it.
ALISA VITTI: No.
Yes you can.
All you need to do is take 200
milligrams of vitamin B1.
Changes the scent
of your skin.
Mosquitoes won't even
know you're there.
AUDIENCE: B1 or D1?
ALISA VITTI: B. B as in boy.
B1.
AUDIENCE: Take it every day?
ALISA VITTI: No, just take it
an hour or two before you're
going to go out outside where
the mosquitoes are going to
eat you alive.
AUDIENCE: Take how much?
ALISA VITTI: 200.
AUDIENCE: And so if I'm
travelling somewhere,--
ALISA VITTI: B vitamins.
AUDIENCE: --just take
it once a day?
ALISA VITTI: No, take it before
you're going to be out
where you're exposed a lot.
So typically, mosquitoes are
not out all day long.
They're only out at night when
it starts to get cooler.
Just pay attention to where your
trouble zones are and try
it around there.
The stuff in bug spray is
endocrine disruptive on a
major, major scale.
So you don't want to be spraying
that on yourself or
on children.
Don't spray it on your kids.
One last question, then
we're going to wrap.
Yes.
AUDIENCE: So related to
the B supplements.
I kind of get this feeling
sometimes that we weren't
designed to have to
take supplements.
ALISA VITTI: You're right.
AUDIENCE: So, with things like
the B vitamins, what kind of
foods can we get those
quantities of B vitamins?
ALISA VITTI: Complex
carbohydrates.
Complex carbohydrates, eggs,
and animal protein contain
massive quantities
of B vitamins.
And so again, if you're someone
who is-- and we didn't
talk about all the fad diets
that are out there, vegan,
paleo, fresh airaterian,
whatever you're doing, I am
not dogmatic about food.
To me, it's not so much about
the trend or a theory.
I'm only interested in what is
the actual response that this
food is creating in the body.
And then I want to put that food
in based on if my body
needs that.
So for example, if you're
struggling to have cycles at
all and you're vegan, it might
be really great if you were to
introduce organic pasture fed
egg yolks into your diet.
Why?
They boost levels of
progesterone in the body,
which you might need to get
your cycle back on track.
And other B vitamins
do other things.
And I can go on and on.
But you have to be willing to
eat everything in the right
quantity for you.
And for women especially, I
can't drive the healthy fats
idea home enough.
And eating more fat will
actually, if you're dealing
with all these hormonal
problems, help you lose weight
faster, for sure.
I'm so glad to have met you.
I'm happy to sign
some books now.
And I would love to stay
connected to you.
We have free resources
for you.
In fact, as a special thank you
for those who chose not to
shop today and to come to this,
I would love to give to
all of you a free 30
minute consult with
one of our Flo coaches.
So if there's any further
questions that you have, you
can certainly get
those answered.
And I'll just need is
your email address.
And we'll get you set up.
Thank you so much
for listening,
for your great questions.
