Transformative Wellness and Hormone Health with Dee Davidson

Ever wondered how hormonal imbalances could be impacting your daily life? Join us on this episode of Empowered Within as I chat with Dee Davidson, a dedicated mother and wellness entrepreneur, who unpacks her transformative journey through painful periods, unexplained infertility, and successful IVF treatments. 

Dee’s candid sharing about her struggles with post-pregnancy weight gain and the revelation of insulin resistance will inspire you to take charge of your health. She's now a board-certified functional health practitioner specializing in hormone health, and she’s on a mission to empower women to reclaim their wellness and hormonal balance.

We challenge common misconceptions about women's health and aging, spotlighting the significance of proper nutrition and the myths surrounding menopause and fertility. Dee and I discuss how simple but mindful changes in diet and lifestyle can lead to profound improvements in hormonal health, debunking the idea that aging automatically means decline. We emphasize the importance of prioritizing self-care and rejecting harmful societal pressures, encouraging a shift towards honoring your health needs as a vital part of maintaining hormonal balance.

Discover the power of the Dutch test and holistic approaches to hormone testing in this enlightening episode. Dee explains how comprehensive assessments like the GI map gut stool test and hair tissue mineral analysis can uncover the root causes of hormone imbalances. We delve into the benefits of personalized, home-based lab tests and discuss how investing in your health can lead to better overall well-being, relationships, and quality of life. Tune in to learn how you can achieve optimal hormonal health and live a vibrant, empowered life.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:45

Welcome to Empowered Within, a soul-quenching, transformational podcast that will set your soul on fire. Through candid and inspiring conversations, leading experts, celebrities, healers and I share our journeys of how we've overcome challenges to living an empowered life from within. I'm your host, Jennifer Pilates. Welcome to another episode of Empowered Within. Hi there, and welcome to the show. I'm excited to have with us today our guest, Dee Davidson. She is a mother of two boys and an entrepreneur in the wellness industry. For over two decades, Dee Davidson has dedicated herself to empowering women to reclaim their health. Dee is a board-certified functional health practitioner specializing in hormone health. She is the host of the Confidently Balance your Hormones podcast and writes articles to provide actionable strategies for optimizing hormonal balance. She aspires to inspire women to unlock their potential and embrace their vibrant health. Welcome to the show, Dee.

Speaker 2: 1:53

Thank you so much.

Speaker 1: 1:54

Oh, I'm so happy to have you. So tell me how your journey began, because this is something that I feel isn't talked about enough Hormones and balancing and everything that women go through in life. I feel like it's just been pushed under the carpet for so long. So what really propelled you to take this actionable step into empowering women?

Speaker 2: 2:15

Great question and it goes way back before I even knew it was going to be relevant to where I'm at today. I've always had this hormone imbalance that I didn't really know was hormone imbalance. When I was in high school and started having periods, I had painful periods, I'd have vomiting, I'd have to be dismissed every month, but I just thought it was part of being a woman and everyone goes through it and you just deal with it. Fast forward to wanting to conceive I had been on birth control and I think you probably know they put you on birth control for a lot of reasons other than birth control. I had been on birth control since high school because of those painful periods, until my mid-30s when I decided, ok, yeah, like I'm ready to have a family now. My joke is always that we spend so much time some of us trying to prevent pregnancy and then you go to actually want to have a pregnancy and you're like, oh, I guess it's not that easy. So when I went to conceive I was having issues. You know. We did the standard weight a year and then I did IUI and actually had an ectopic pregnancy, lost a tube, and then at that point they said you're in your mid thirties, just go right to IVF, because you know I'm in Massachusetts and it's covered, thankfully. So I went through IVF, but what was really frustrating for me was that I was put in this category called unexplained infertility. The tests looked fine, even the dye test that they did on my other tube that showed no issues for myself or my partner at the time. And so I started to investigate who else is in this category and what might I have done to myself or what can I do to improve my chances. And what I started to find was that there wasn't a lot of information in regard to hormone health and the rise in infertility, especially in the United States. Out there and really fell in love with educating women about the process post going through that, because a lot of people knew my story and they were inspired just in my town and surrounding area and they would say, hey, talk to D Davidson, she's done a ton of research on infertility and hormones and I know you're trying because you know people don't tend to talk about it. But once you open that box up, it's like oh, I went through trouble too, or I went through IVF, or my sister had six miscarriages, so people were connecting me with other women that were struggling and I loved helping people. But I wasn't, you know, I wasn't certified or I didn't go to school for it or anything like that.

Speaker 2: 4:47

I went on to have my son, who's now 14, through the blessing of IVF. It was one round Cause. Again, it wasn't the egg quality of the sperm quality of my body, I believe, was in a coma from being on birth control for so long. I didn't know what to do without it anymore. So once it got that jumpstart, I think it was like okay, this is how I'm supposed to work. And I went on to have my son, who's 12, you know, first time we tried, you know I conceived. So I really do attribute a lot of my struggle to being on birth control for so long.

Speaker 2: 5:20

But how I got here? Well, there's one more thing I have to mention is that after I had my second child, I was about 50 pounds heavier and I'm only five foot tall and I had always been fit. I was in the best shape of my life before I had my 14 year old it's not like I'm at the McDonald's drunk drive through or anything like that and I was really struggling and beating myself up as to why I had gained all this weight during my pregnancy. I remember my OB saying to me D, you're a small woman and your baby's probably going to be small six to seven pounds. So just remember anything over that you're going to be stuck with it. And I remember like literally almost crying, leaving the OB going well, it's not like I'm out eating again, drive through, or a gallon of ice cream every night, it's just was happening. And now, looking back, I understand that I'm prone to insulin resistance, genetically as well, and I had the gestational diabetes with my second child. So I had to understand hormones in regard to weight and how it affects our metabolism, insulin resistance, all of these facets.

Speaker 2: 6:25

So after going through all of that and having people constantly coming to me saying my friend so-and-so said to talk to you and what do you think about this and what do you think about eating this and am I doing the right thing, I decided to go back to school to be a health coach. I went to the IAN and then I got a certification in hormone health because I knew that's what I wanted to focus on, and I did that for a while and then I realized that sometimes we can do all the things. So if someone's listening and they're beating themselves up about, well, you know I'm not eating bad food and I am exercising and I'm trying to manage my stress and I'm doing meditation. Sometimes there are hidden stressors, such as your gut health. Maybe you don't have the right gut bacteria that helps you to regulate blood sugar, or you have a parasite, or your liver is not detoxing hormones and things like that. Sometimes there are those hidden stressors.

Speaker 2: 7:16

And so I realized that after just practicing foundational hormone health coaching and went back to school to be a board certified functional health practitioner, because I knew I needed the authority to order labs, because I would send my clients to the doctor and the doctor would say that's silly, you don't need that. Or your T3 looks fine. So you know, not even them. But the insurance wouldn't approve for them to run more labs, cause it's like if you pass this baseline, that's it, they don't look any further for them to run more labs, cause it's like if you pass the baseline, that's it, they don't look any further. So I said, hmm, how can I get my hands on these things? And so I went back to school, which was a it's a big thing for me. I'd been out for a long time and you know, get certified in all of that stuff, able to help people build self-treat protocols.

Speaker 2: 8:00

And here I am now with a booming practice and you know, it's funny, my partner, michael, he's very positive. I mean a very positive too, but he's really super positive. Oh my gosh, I'm so busy. There's so many people that are sick or suffering and he goes, or maybe there's just so many people that want to get healthy D and I'm like, oh, I like that Right, but the reality is right. Yeah, but the reality is there are so many sick people in our country and they're being gaslit by their doctor as to, your labs are normal or at maybe 50 in a couple of weeks. I'm hearing from people in my age range like they just tell me that, just accept it, I wish I had the. Their doctors say to them I wish I had the energy I had in my 30s. You're just not going to and I refuse to take that for an answer. I do believe that I'm living proof that you can maintain your weight, have energy, sleep, not have hot flashes, and all those good things everything that you're doing.

Speaker 1: 9:03

I love everything that you're standing for, because we have been gaslit, we continue to be gaslit, gaslit, you know. We're from our food to our clothing, to everything is affecting our hormones. And then you add in birth control right and then you add in. You know, it's just such this cycle that women get caught in. What do you think is some of the telltale signs of a woman who is having hormonal imbalances versus she might want to look at what she's eating.

Speaker 2: 9:37

Yeah, again, I take people through, I offer discovery calls and I take people through a series of questions, because what I have found is that many women have never even been educated on how their body works, how their hormones work, and so it's really hard to tell unless you have an evaluation with a professional and they ask you the questions as to what you're eating, how you're regulating your blood sugar, as to what's going on the plate together, the timing of your eating, what type of exercise you're doing, are you timing your cycle. So it can be kind of confusing to really know whether it's a hormone imbalance or if it's your foundational lifestyle things that are affecting your hormones, if that makes sense. So that's a really hard thing to do without getting to evaluate, without talking to someone personally. But again, the classic things hot flashes. You don't have to settle for hot flashes just because you're perimenopause, menopause, sleeping. Everyone deserves to have a good night's sleep and I am so proud. That's one of the things that, over and over again, six weeks in people working with me and they're like, oh my gosh, I don't wake up or I can fall asleep, because it has a lot to do with it's not so much hormones.

Speaker 2: 10:45

Hormones are great marketing but I tell people, hormones are your check engine light as to what is off balance. Look under the hood and really take a closer look at what's off balance. So when we start eating enough calories, women don't eat enough calories. They don't eat enough protein. They don't eat greens enough protein, they don't eat greens. They don't. They're not. They're skipping lunches. They're eating in the car, they're just taking a bar. All of these things quickly. Once someone really brings that to your awareness and you start to change some of those things, your hormones, they start to calm down and balance out because you're doing your part in showing up and really understanding what's fueling your hormones. But all of those things the weight if you go into the gym and you feel like you're eating healthy and you're still seeing the scale go up or it's not going down, if you are having the sweats, you're having the even brain fog and attention issues those are all signs of hormone imbalance.

Speaker 2: 13:01

Painful periods are not normal. So accepting that I have heavy periods or painful periods, that's not normal. That's all hormone imbalance. Pms on steroids I think that society, that's so disheartening my people go. What do you want? Your period? That's not normal. You can feel happy. I'm here to tell you I still cycle at you know, uh, going to be 50. And I don't feel like my mood is totally crazy around my period. That's not normal. Those are all symptoms of hormone imbalance.

Speaker 1: 13:29

I love that you shared all that because I feel it's going to resonate with so many different people who go oh, that's me, oh, that's me. I have to tell you I was thinking of you. Yesterday I came across this video of a woman and she was talking about how and I wanted to get your opinion on this how truly women, when their hormones are in balance and they take care of themselves, can truly still be fertile into their 50s, 60s and 70s.

Speaker 2: 13:52

Totally.

Speaker 1: 13:53

Or absolutely supposed to be, and so it was like this book of a video and then more that I was reading and I was like, oh my gosh. And then, of course, they're referencing back in the Bible and I thought, well, that's a valid point. And then I thought for so long it feels like to me. Maybe you can remember, like maybe 10, 9, 10 years ago, there was this period of five years where there were women from like 48 to 50 plus who were having kids, like crazy.

Speaker 2: 14:21

Oh, totally. And then?

Speaker 1: 14:22

all of a sudden nothing. And there's this matrix of, oh no, like you're old at 40. And I'm like, I'm like you, I'm 50. And I feel better now than I did when I was in my 30s. Yes, so is that your philosophy too, that absolutely you should, like I, look at women and go. You should want to have a period, and as long as possible, and live and be fertile, whether or not you want to have children or not. But, you know, do you feel and believe in that possibility as well?

Speaker 2: 14:51

Oh, definitely. You know my dad is. He's an oops baby, but his mom was 52 when she had him and his oldest sibling is 20 years older than him. But back then they weren't using birth control, right, and I do believe that. Yeah, like a lot of my friends, they haven't had their period for a few years now. Are they going through it now? Are they complaining of all of these things?

Speaker 2: 15:15

I'm like I feel great, but it is really understanding because there's so much information and people just accepting. Like I went to lunch with a friend yesterday and she said, oh, I'm so discouraged, I'm gaining all this weight, but I know it's menopause and it's like that's kind of almost the. We just accept it. Like no, no, it's not just menopause. Like you can look at things and really learn, educate yourself, so that you don't have to accept that Of course your hormones are changing, but we can change with our hormones. You know you might not be able to do those bootcamp classes anymore. It is a mindset shift of what we thought was so great for our body. Maybe at this stage of life it's not so great for your body.

Speaker 1: 15:56

Right, being able to work and be flexible, and that all comes down, in some respects as well, to mindset and not only educating, but shifting that mindset to, I almost feel like honoring yourself more. I feel like for so long it was you know, give to everyone else. And then when you're like 80, why don't you take a break?

Speaker 2: 16:17

You know and.

Speaker 1: 16:17

I feel like we're on this cusp I don't know if you feel it as well where women are really like, no, like. I think I'm going to do me now and I'm going to do me first and really mean it, whereas for years it just we weren't brought up that way.

Speaker 2: 16:32

That was not true, it's true, and I think it's shifting, but there's still. There's still a lot of women who are, you know, because of where we've come in society, we've become empowered, which is a great thing, right, but there's a lot more women executives, women working outside the house, their kids are doing five different activities now, all of these things they're keeping up with the Joneses, social media, all of that that at the same time. Although I think women might want to, they don't want to feel guilty or they don't want to feel like, well, my neighbor is doing all of these things. I have to keep up.

Speaker 2: 17:07

There's still a lot of women that are struggling with that and I and they want like a, they want me to do labs, or they want a special supplement, cortisol supplement or something that's going to solve all of that. And, at the end of the day, the things that really help are looking yourself in the mirror and really asking yourself honestly, like where do I need to make changes? Because your body I'm sure you've heard of the book the Body Keeps Score Like it keeps score. You can't lie to the body, you can't trick the body. There's no supplementing your way out of certain situations.

Speaker 1: 17:41

Absolutely, I 100% agree. So when we're looking at D Davidson, talk to me about the difference between who you are, what you do in your programs, versus a nutritionist or a dietician, or even just a nurse practitioner. Not just a nurse practitioner, but going to the GP, so to speak.

Speaker 2: 18:00

Sure.

Speaker 1: 18:00

Everyone gets that aspect of you.

Speaker 2: 18:02

That's a great question. Everyone's different. So I don't want to generalize either and say every GP or every nutritionist does X, y and Z, and I know that people have multiple certifications and things like that. But I'll give you the example. I had a discovery call this morning with a young girl I'm going to guess she's in her thirties, she's young with a young girl I'm going to guess she's in her thirties, she's young and she has had these issues and been working with a functional medicine doctor.

Speaker 2: 18:28

Okay, so I'm not a doctor and sometimes people will think, because it says functional medicine in front of it, that it's different than going to your GP. Right? Well, it's different in the way that they will prescribe more supplements and natural things over medications like prescriptions. They still do prescribe medications as well, but they're also chasing symptoms as opposed to looking at the whole picture. So when I describe what I do, I tell people I don't treat the paper. When you go to a doctor or even a nutritionist, they're going to give you a piece of paper that says follow this, right, I don't treat the paper, I treat the person. So I have an extensive intake where I want to know your whole life history, maybe even before that in utero, what was going on? What's your mom's history? Because all of that is passed on to in our DNA, to who we are today, and even though you think, oh, that happened when I was three, that could have still been stored in your body or manifested in your health at 40, 50, 60. So I look at the big picture how did you get to where you are today? And then I don't treat the paper meaning.

Speaker 2: 19:36

Yes, we might do functional labs and I use those as a tool to correlate and play detective with what your symptoms are. But what I do is I really get people to dive in deep to mind body, spirit. So we take, yes, physical and science is great, but we have to also talk about stored emotions, traumas, and people go out of traumas. But then once we start talking they realize, oh, I do have some things that I didn't process or need to process, and then I can refer them out to someone else. But we have to look at the whole body. People treat the mind out here, the body here. It's all interconnected. So that is really what's different about myself. Or a nutritionist will tell you more how to heal your body with nutrition. But you can eat all the healthy food. We see a lot of people that look really healthy, but if I were to run labs on them, their labs, their hormones, would maybe say something else. Same thing with going to a nurse practitioner or something like that they're constantly looking at.

Speaker 2: 20:41

Let me just fix this one piece of you where I'm helping people heal as a whole, and that's why my business is called Confidently Love Yourself, because I feel that if you don't have that self-love we have to really work on that before everything else Then it's really hard for you to show up for yourself every day and make the choices that are going to help you heal Eating the good foods, not skipping meals, drinking enough water or to get an exercise. If you don't have that self-love which is a big thing for women you can't really become whole. You have to really find out why. When did this start? Why do I not love myself? I'm a big affirmation person and I'll have women go to the mirror and speak to themselves and look themselves in the eye, and women will tell me like I wash my hands and don't even look in the mirror, which is so disheartening.

Speaker 1: 21:34

It really is. I love your whole spectrum approach, body, mind, and I think that's so important. Again, it's something that was sort of shelved for years and years and years, why everyone was in the hustle and forgot about just flowing and living and being and love and just loving yourself and loving life and being alive right.

Speaker 1: 21:57

And actually living, not existing, when you talk about. I love that you talk about functional labs. I've been obsessed with my hormones since I was in my. I also had a lot of friends surrounding me who were lots of different practitioners, so I got in like just because of them, which was amazing. So I was like OCD tracking and then I stopped tracking for a while and I thought I should really like check in, and so I really want you to share the really fundamental aspects of the functional labs that you're talking about and do you when people are working with you. Is that something like they do once a year, twice a year? What are you thinking, particularly, you know, in their forties, fifties.

Speaker 2: 22:41

Mm-hmm, that's a great question. So, fundamentally, when people come to me thinking particularly, you know, in their 40s, 50s and so on, that's a great question. So, fundamentally, when people come to me, they're usually coming to me because they suspect hormone imbalance and everyone wants me to run a Dutch hormone test. I'm sure you've probably had one done yourself or know what that is. But a Dutch hormone test? I just want to explain first that it's a lot different than when you go to your OB or your GP and they draw blood and say, oh yeah, your estrogen is fine. When you do that at the doctor's office, they're just looking to see what the level in your blood of that hormone is. When you do a Dutch test, it's urine or saliva or both. We look at what's bioavailable, because if you have the hormone in your blood but it's not excreting to your organs for energy and to do what it's supposed to do, it's useless. We don't care that it's just in your blood. So we look to see what is actually bioavailable and we look at the bigger picture of your hormones, the parent hormones, all of that. Cortisol very important because cortisol runs the show. It can be great when you are under stress, but if you're constantly running in front of your flight, forget it. It's going to tank all of your hormones, kill your gut and your immune system and it's just a vicious cycle.

Speaker 2: 23:51

The Dutch test I never run alone, so I know a lot of practitioners again will run things to. I hate to say this, but sometimes they just money talks. That the girl that I talked to this morning was really disheartening. I say sometimes labs are. I compare them to like Apple. When you buy an Apple phone, like if you get a Dutch test, they kind of tell you what it costs. So don't be afraid to ask another practitioner what a Dutch test costs, because some practitioners aren't as transparent and they mark things up. So the Dutch test, for example, is three or $400, depending if you want the advanced one. And this gal this morning told me that her practitioner that she'd been working with for two years charged her $670 for it. So sometimes that will be happening. So do your research too. When you're looking at labs you can go right on the website and see, like, what does a Dutch test cost? Be educate yourself, because I hate seeing that.

Speaker 2: 24:44

But I will never just run a Dutch test. Going back to transparency, because my clients mean more to me than just an evaluation or running a test or getting some money out of you, and my feeling is that the Dutch test will tell us, yes, where the hormone imbalances are, but we're still left with the question of why, but why? So then what are you going to do with that? Give someone some DIM to lower their estrogen or a cortisol management? We're still not getting to the root cause or really healing at that root cause level. So typically with the Dutch at minimum, I have people do a gi map, which is a gut stool test. I'm a believer that I don't think you really need to do the hormone test every year, unless you're on supplements that are playing around with your hormones. Then you definitely need to be checking in. Don't just go four years taking dim and never check in on your hormones. But if you're not doing any of that stuff and you feel like you've balanced your hormones and you feel good, that should be the measurement of whether you need that test.

Speaker 2: 25:44

Again, the gut test is a little bit different. Our gut is everything. 70% of your immune system is there. The test will tell us an indication of how your gallbladder is breaking down fat so many people before they even realize that they're going to have gallbladder problems. They see that they're not breaking down on fat and it gives them an opportunity to do a gallbladder cleanser or things like that. It looks at liver markers. A lot of hormone issues are related to liver because liver it clears hormones and detoxifies and binds excess hormones and if your liver is not working properly, your hormones are going to be crazy. So it looks at that.

Speaker 2: 26:19

Looks at do you have the right bacteria in your gut? It's great to take a probiotic, but if it's not actually seeding and you don't have the right environment for it, you're wasting your money. You're just pooping the stuff out. So you're looking at do I have the right good bacteria? Do I have opportunistic overgrowths? Do I have parasites or worms? All these crazy things.

Speaker 2: 26:39

And then one thing I find a lot of just men and women and kids in this country have is leaky gut. So leaky gut is oh, that's just. That's not only going to mess up your hormones, going to mess up your immune system, create food sensitivities, a lot of inflammation, so we can see how sealed up is your gut because it's. If it's compromised and stuff's oozing into your blood stream, you're just waiting for autoimmune or a disease to come along. That's going to knock you off your feet. So the gut test I think every person should have every single year, because we travel, we're exposed to different stressors, we're outside barefoot, you're picking things up, no matter whether you want to or not. So that one I always test every year. Those are two that go hand in hand.

Speaker 2: 27:26

And then and the third that I really love running is a hair tissue mineral analysis. A lot of women are deficient in minerals, and men but they take them like a multivitamin right, and they're just randomly taking whatever. They don't even know that they're deficient in it. One of my favorite sayings is tests don't guess, so like you might again just be wasting your money. You might not be absorbing that, you might not need it, but minerals are super important because if your minerals are off balance you could have a hard time releasing weight. It could tax your thyroid, energy levels, all of that stuff. So it's an inexpensive test where we just take some hair, mail it in, we excrete minerals through our hair follicle and we can see where you depleted and target that. It will also give us some baselines on again your adrenals, the thyroid, if some of the ratios are off balance, it might indicate okay, then you might want to consider a hormone test or a thyroid advanced panel. It's a good place to start.

Speaker 2: 28:30

If you're like I don't really know if I need labs, start with a hair test, because it looks at a little bit of everything, including toxicities, and then decide, okay, I'll invest more in this lab or that lab. I have access to over 4,000 labs. So I tell people again, we could do labs all day long. I'm sure you found this when you were doing them. You can drive yourself crazy. You can start wearing CGMs, you can be wearing something to see how your sleep is.

Speaker 2: 28:55

And I think that to me, is catch 22, because people forget to use their intuition and get back in their body to ask themselves how do I feel? Oh, the watch said I didn't sleep last night, but I feel good this morning. Now you're second guessing how you actually feel and to me, that's kind of a route I don't go with my clients because they get so obsessed with data and then that causes stress. Then their cortisol is going crazy over that. So if we can just listen to our body, if more people could drop back into their body and really food journal or just sit and be mindful and go how do I feel today? Okay, I did that workout, kind of drained me. I'm in this phase of my period and I didn't eat enough fat or whatever. Those tools of measurement are great, before you even go to functional labs.

Speaker 1: 29:45

I love those and you remind me I used to do hair analysis 20 some years ago Did you. I had a practitioner that worked with me, that coincided with me in my Pilates studio, and so we would do them and she would be the practitioner.

Speaker 2: 29:57

Amazing.

Speaker 1: 29:58

I love doing all of that stuff. That came through when I was out in Boulder, colorado, so it was much more hip back out there than it was on the Cape at that point. So I again so well rounded with that, looking at the hair analysis and those basics. The Dutch and the other lab I can't remember the name- the GI map, the stool test yeah. So important because it's totally. You'll be like, oh I gosh, I'm putting on weight. Is it my hormones or my thyroid? And nine times out of 10, it's neither Right.

Speaker 2: 30:28

It's gut health. It's always gut health. I'm telling you. It's the liver which we can see on there. It is not having the right bacteria. There's a strain, for example, called acromantia. If you don't have acromantia which I see, so many of my clients don't have that strain because they don't eat foods that feed that strain. And then once they learn, oh I have to eat beets and red apple peel and things like that so we can repopulate it. But if you don't have acromantia, no matter what you're eating or how often you're eating or whatever you're doing, sleeping, it's an uphill battle to balance your blood sugar. So little things like that. You will not know unless you have a test.

Speaker 1: 31:07

Absolutely so. When clients are working with you, is it only in person? Are you able to do virtual and they can go test wherever.

Speaker 2: 31:16

How does it work? It's actually the opposite. I'm 100% virtual. Since COVID I realized I don't really need a space. And, matter of fact, I've lived in this town for a long time and there's this gentleman who owns this really nice building and he knows that I run a women's networking group and I'm all connected. And he's even offered to give me a space at no cost because it will bring people into his building. And I thought about it for a second. I'm like, I really like being in my home. I don't want to see anyone in person. I love, just again, being in the comfort of my own home and not having to travel somewhere. So everything I do is virtual. I have people. I have some people in Canada, some people in Europe, so I can help anyone really anywhere.

Speaker 2: 31:55

And so when people come to me, we have initial discovery call figure out what they've done. That's worked, not worked. Have they worked with anyone before on the foundational things? Because, again I'm going to remind you, no matter what the labs say, you still have to do the foundational things. So sometimes it comes to the point where we'll decide well, let's work on the foundational things for three months, because it takes about three months to really see the needle start to move and then at three months, if we don't see things progressing and moving in the direction you want, then invest in the functional labs. And then sometimes people will come to me and they've already worked with a hormone health coach or gone to an MD or things like that and I just want to go right to the lab testing and we work based on what comes back and what the healing opportunities are.

Speaker 1: 32:46

That's great, so you can. So then you're able to write a script them and they can guide them where to go get the labs or send the hair analysis in.

Speaker 2: 32:53

Yes, so the labs ship right to their house. So I order the labs for them as a practitioner and then other than blood work if they, and you can even have someone come draw your blood at your house. But you can go to a local lab. Yeah, oh yeah, it's so convenient. That's what I had done for for my own lab several times. So they'll you just schedule it and they come right to your house and then you can be comfortable, cause I don't know about you.

Speaker 2: 33:58

But blood work is not my favorite thing, especially after going through IVF. I had to get blood draws like multiple times a week and so it's not my favorite thing. The stool test is easy. You do the stool test at home and you go to FedEx and you drop it off and it's on its way, and then the Dutch test is either urine or saliva or both, so they just mail them right to you. You mail them in, I get the results and then I take what you told me on your evaluation and what we get back on labs and kind of play detective if you will, and piece those puzzle pieces together, and then we get on a Zoom and I share with you. Well, this is probably why you're having this symptom or this is going on. And then people have the opportunity to decide like all right, what am I looking at?

Speaker 2: 34:46

Most of my clients end up working with me on a six month basis because they're not coming to me because they have light work to do.

Speaker 2: 34:55

Usually they've already gone multiple routes or they're super frustrated and we've got to rebuild the body before we address some of the bigger things too. People sometimes want to say they find out they have H pylori or candida or SIBO. They want to go in and just kill things. And I have to remind people that if your body's depleted from fighting those things for who knows how long and your gut's not healed and sealed and your hormones are out of whack, it's not a good idea to just go in.

Speaker 2: 35:25

That's the scary thing about all these influencers doing parasite cleanses. Oh yeah, do them with the full moon and all of these things when they have no idea what the condition of the person's body is or how their immune system is going to react, or if it's the liver's even in condition to get the stuff out of the body. If the detox pathways are closed, you're wasting your money and you can get really sick. So six months, because the first three months we're really rebuilding your vital reserve, getting your immune system to where it needs to be, making sure that your liver and your detox pathways are open, and then we can work on some of the bigger things.

Speaker 1: 35:59

Oh my gosh. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm ready, sign me up.

Speaker 2: 36:03

Awesome.

Speaker 1: 36:03

Because I just I look at it from the idea of I want to know me. I want to know where am I at now? What is the baseline based on your age? I always tell people like if you're 50, shouldn't you have a 50,000 mile checkup? I think you do that for your car. Why wouldn, wouldn't you do it for you?

Speaker 2: 36:17

I say that all the time with your car and they hook it up to the diagnostic machine. Well, it's a state, it's such a blessing. I know, it's an investment, but I also I say this in the most loving way is I see my friends going to Hawaii and going on these all inclusive cruises and they have their Louis Vuitton bags, they're getting their Botox no judgment, right, all of these things but then they'll go oh, that's expensive. And I'm like is it really expensive if you could save your gallbladder, if you could sleep through the night, if you could?

Speaker 2: 36:50

How many women come to me and they say, sadly, they have no sex drive, right? And they think that's again. Oh, it's just menopause and you lose your sex drive. And they think that's again, oh, it's just menopause and you lose your sex drive, not true? And they're like, oh, I have to, if I could possibly stop faking it with my partner. And I'm like, oh my God, that must be like the worst, right? You're like going through the motions of it. How happy would you be to actually be in that mode? How happy would your partner be? How different would your relationship be on an intimate level? So you really can't put a price on it and in the grand scheme of things, it's really not that expensive. It's just what are your priorities?

Speaker 1: 37:32

Exactly, and I always say either you're going to invest in your health now or you're going to invest in your sickness later. It's true and I would rather invest now and I want to live forever. Right, we should theoretically be living to 100, 120. And look after the last few years. It's dropped so much. It's insane. It's like back to the seventies. I mean it's crazy.

Speaker 1: 37:55

So we all need to do something and I think really your program sounds absolutely amazing. Thank you. I've worked in the past, obviously, with a fair amount of different practitioners. Again, I love the well-rounded approach and I love the approach of we're not just going in to spend thousands of dollars on labs. Let's just take it A, B, C.

Speaker 1: 38:17

That's right, that's right, that's so important because I know I've walked into people and done my labs and they've looked at my labs and they're looking at me. They don't know that I've already seen my labs. Sure, I'm OCD, so I know what they mean. Sure, and they're like well, are you feeling this? Are you feeling that? I'm like no, no, why do you? And well, your testosterone is low and I'm like you know what's interesting? I've been told that for years, but everything else is fine and I feel fine.

Speaker 2: 38:44

Right.

Speaker 1: 38:44

So I almost have to question the test.

Speaker 2: 38:47

Right, right, and that's the thing is. We cannot treat the paper because you're an individual. Right, bioindividuality is everything in my practice. Some people don't need 120 grams of protein a day. I don't care what any influencer says. You're in perimenopause and menopause You're going to eat one gram of protein. Well, that's not the case for me. I personally know, because I ended up at a urologist with blood in my urine from eating too much protein because I was following that advice years ago. So the best reading is to trust your intuition and how you feel. How do you feel? And if you don't feel well, then maybe the labs can tell you something about why you don't feel well. But if the symptoms correlating with low testosterone don't match up, then you have to say well, maybe that's just my body's running that way and it's okay.

Speaker 1: 39:38

Right, Right. It's all about just being in tune and dropping back to itself. Like you said, for far too long we've all lived outside of our bodies for one reason or another. It's really time to pull people back in for sure. Oh my gosh, this has been so amazing, dee, like my little head, I wish you could get in there. It's like spinning right now.

Speaker 2: 39:56

I love that.

Speaker 1: 39:57

I love it. So we are at this time in the show where I ask this one question Are you ready? Yes, okay. What is one thing that no one knows about? D Davidson.

Speaker 2: 40:13

One thing that no one, no one knows?

Speaker 1: 40:15

Okay, almost no one.

Speaker 2: 40:17

No one knows. Hmm, well, I wasn't prepared for this one. Did you send me this ahead? You didn't?

Speaker 1: 40:25

No, I don't send anything, but I generally ask this question in the podcast.

Speaker 2: 40:28

Well, you know what One thing that I've struggled with and most people probably wouldn't know this and again, I get compliments all the time on how fit I am and how great I look, but I don't think many people really know that I have my own body image struggles and I have to constantly work on my own mindset around health and my relationship with food.

Speaker 2: 40:55

I have experts come on and talk about that all the time, but I have my own struggle with that and that's not something I talk about a lot. Come on and talk about that all the time, but I have my own struggle with that and that's not something I talk about a lot. But as recent as this morning, when I was at the gym and I'm like, oh my gosh, it's summer, Right, and I preach to get out of that mentality, but I'm being raw and honest here that I was like time to do some sprints, but then my mindset kicks in and I go this is not what we do, Right? So at least the awareness kicks in, but I have a lot of the same struggles that my clients have. So I want people to know that I'm human too and I'm right there with you.

Speaker 1: 41:30

Well, and I think that's important, because you're not just talking the talk, you're walking. You know you're walking the talk, or talk however that saying is, but you're doing it and that's and you're real and authentic, and I think that is so amazing and as vulnerable as you are and everything that you've shared. I thank you for that, because we need more of this in the world right now and we need more women like you supporting women.

Speaker 2: 41:52

Thank you For sure.

Speaker 1: 41:54

Absolutely Well, as we close out the show today, do you have one last piece of inspiration or advice that you'd like to leave with us?

Speaker 2: 42:03

One last piece of inspiration or advice I would say again if you're thinking that something's off, don't allow yourself to be gaslit. You have to be an advocate for your own health and your family's health. I've had to be an advocate for my family many, many times. My son's had GI issues. My other son has had executive functioning issues, and so my last piece of advice to you is if you don't find the answers where you're knocking, knock somewhere else.

Speaker 1: 42:33

Dang, that's fabulous. I love that. Knock somewhere else. Get your feet a-walkin' and a-knockin'.

Speaker 2: 42:38

That's right.

Speaker 1: 42:39

I love it. Oh, my gosh Dee, will you share with our community where they can best get in touch with you?

Speaker 2: 42:50

Yes, so my website is confidentlyloveyourselfcom and I am very active on Instagram, which is confidently underscore love, underscore yourself.

Speaker 1: 42:55

I love it. I love all the love going around.

Speaker 2: 42:58

Yes, we need more of it.

Speaker 1: 42:59

Yes, we need so much more of it. Well, as always, all of Dee's information is going to be over in the show notes, so you can head over there and click on the links and get in contact with her and have a discovery call and see what y'all can discover about yourselves together.

Speaker 2: 43:16

Thank you.

Speaker 1: 43:16

Yes.

Speaker 2: 43:16

Thank you so much, Dee this has been amazing.

Speaker 1: 43:17

I so truly appreciate your knowledge, your insights and your time today. Thank you, yes, thank you so much, dee. This has been amazing. I so truly appreciate your knowledge, your insights and your time today. Thank you so much for that.

Speaker 2: 43:25

It's been a pleasure, all right.

Speaker 1: 43:26

Well, as we say, until next time, may you live an empowered life from within. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode. Please remember to rate, review and subscribe to Empowered Within with Jennifer Pilates. Your feedback is important. It helps me to connect with you and gives me insight into who you are and what you're enjoying about the show. For today's show notes and discount codes from today's sponsors head over to JenniferPilatescom. Until next time, may you live an empowered life from within.