How Your Cycle Can Affect Productivity In Business & Motherhood with Leisha Drews, RN

This week on The Less Stressed Life Podcast, I am joined by Leisha Drews, RN, FDN-P,  Holistic Hormone Coach and host of the Happily Hormonal Podcast. In this episode, Leisha shares how her transition from conventional to functional medicine occurred. She breaks down the menstrual cycle, explaining how its phases affect women’s energy and productivity. She highlights the importance of listening to your body and using each phase's strengths, from the low-energy period phase to the high-energy follicular phase. Leisha also discusses why some cycling women may have pre-period bloating and shares tips on temperature tracking to monitor cycle health and fertility. I just love that Leisha expresses her passion for helping women, emphasizing that they are often underserved when it comes to understanding their own bodies. She speaks my language! 🥰

Try Leisha's quiz: What's causing your Hormonal Imbalances?

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Understanding the different phases in the menstrual cycle
• The importance of cycle tracking
• How to manage pre-period bloat
• The impact of hormones on mood and energy
• The importance of communicating menstrual cycle symptoms with partners to foster understanding and support
• Different apps to track your cycle and fertility

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ABOUT GUEST: 
Leisha Drews is mom of three, RN, FDN-P and Holistic Hormone Coach and host of the Happily Hormonal Podcast. She brings a unique understanding of how our body systems work together and how stress on the body and mind impact overall health. She believes that as women we can have it ALL when it comes to health and motherhood, and helping women restore energy, balance hormones and feel good in their bodies again is her passion. Hormone balance doesn't have to be overwhelming, and she is here to empower women to understand & trust their bodies again to create change for generations to come.

WHERE TO FIND:
Website: https://leishadrews.com/ 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leishadrews
Podcast: Happily Hormonal 

WHERE TO FIND CHRISTA:
Website: https://www.christabiegler.com/
Instagram: @anti.inflammatory.nutritionist
Podcast Instagram: @lessstressedlife
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lessstressedlife
Leave a review, submit a questions for the podcast or take one of my quizzes here: ****https://www.christabiegler.com/links

NUTRITION PHILOSOPHY:

• Over restriction is dead; if your practitioner is recommending this, they are stuck in 2010 and not evolving
• Whole food is soul food and fed is best
• Sustainable, synergistic nutrition is in (the opposite of whack-a-mole supplementation & supplement graveyards)
• You don’t have to figure it out alone
• Do your best and leave the rest

EPISODE SPONSOR:
A special thanks to Jigsaw Health for sponsoring this episode. Get a discount on any of their products. Use the code lessstressed10

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TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Leisha Drews, RN: I think that we can just get rid of so much of the messaging of our society that like something's wrong with you because you're a woman, or you have to feel like crap because you're a woman, your periods have to be bad.

[00:00:10] Leisha Drews, RN: It's normal. Just deal with it. This is your lot in life. And I just don't believe that any of that is true.

[00:00:17] Christa Biegler, RD: I'm your host, Christa Biegler, and I'm going to guess we have at least one thing in common that we're both in pursuit of a less stressed life. On this show, I'll be interviewing experts and sharing clinical pearls from my years of practice to support high performing health savvy women in pursuit of abundance and a less stressed life.

[00:00:46] Christa Biegler, RD: One of my beliefs is that we always have options for getting the results we want. So let's see what's out there together.

[00:01:04] Christa Biegler, RD: All right. Today on the less stressed life, I am talking to Leisha Drews, who is a mom of three. She's a nurse. She is a functional diagnostic nutrition certified and holistic hormone coach and host of the happily hormonal podcast. We've spent the last 20 minutes talking about motherhood, about cycles.

[00:01:23] Christa Biegler, RD: That's a little bit of what we're going to talk about today. She brings a unique understanding of how our body systems work together and how stress on the body and mind impact overall health. So basically. We are very similar in our feelings and our approaches. We were just talking about the use of minerals and I was just sharing with her how today is supposed to be day one of my menstrual cycle.

[00:01:45] Christa Biegler, RD: And she laughed because. She interviewed me for her podcast approximately one month ago and apparently I said the exact same thing. So it feels kismet that we are going to go ahead and chat about the topic of arranging your life around essentially your menstrual cycle. And I don't know how you phrase it, Leisha, exactly, but I know we're going to talk about motherhood, business, life related to the cycles of your body, which I think is this beautiful conversation because nature also has cycles.

[00:02:20] Christa Biegler, RD: And I'm going through a whole phase right now where I'm like reflecting all of our health to nature. So welcome to the show.

[00:02:27] Leisha Drews, RN: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to talk about this. I think that the concept of seasons and cycles has just been one that I've Gone more and more I was going to say in depth, but almost just like more intuitively into, as I progress in motherhood and business and just like life as a woman.

[00:02:47] Leisha Drews, RN: And it has been one of the most, almost like calming and grounding concepts for me just to understand that. I don't have to have the same expectations of myself in every single day and moment and week of my life. 

[00:03:05] Christa Biegler, RD: I was on a walk last night with my sister in law, who is also a dietitian who lives next door.

[00:03:10] Christa Biegler, RD: And I was telling her it took me a minute to get to her house because we didn't have a lot of snacks before I came after work. And then, because this is how our lives are, I was like, it's fine because my period is tomorrow so I, my appetite is up. So I wanted to eat X, Y, Z and the good news was it wasn't all chocolate, which I feel could be some mineral stuff there.

[00:03:33] Christa Biegler, RD: It was actually just straight up carbs ish I was just hungry. Just in general, hungrier. And I love what you said there. It's so often women, we kick ourselves because it's like we're not. just completely the same all month long. And it's like, what if it's beautiful that we're not exactly the same every single moment?

[00:03:52] Christa Biegler, RD: We're going to talk about your story here in a moment, but I just think about why should you care about this topic? If you see yourself getting bloated, once a month, I always have to stop and ask people like, it's okay. 

[00:04:01] Christa Biegler, RD: It's not like crazy abnormal, to have that. I work with a lot of skin flares, we see skin flares with menstrual cycles. And then in general, the conversation here is like productivity around business and motherhood. And I like feel this to my soul because literally on a podcast recording yesterday, someone said the words of my soul, which were something like, yeah, am I even being valuable if I'm not achieving this thing?

[00:04:24] Christa Biegler, RD: And there can be a lot wrapped up in there. And so tell me about, I love that. I think this is like the real. Mountaintop experience when you get to a point where it's like, Oh, life can be a bit cyclical and I can welcome it. But let's talk about your story a little bit before we get into it and why you even love this topic.

[00:04:43] Christa Biegler, RD: Why do you love supporting women in hormone balance? Tell us your story first. 

[00:04:48] Leisha Drews, RN: Yeah. So I think it's so great the way you say, like, why I love this topic, because I think that we are similar in that there are these very niche topics that I'm like, I will talk to you as long as you want about this.

[00:04:58] Leisha Drews, RN: And especially if you're, like somebody that I'm sitting next to at my daughter's dance practice or whatever, I'm like, so what day of your cycle are you on? Like before I say, hi, what's your name? And that's a little dramatic. That's not really happening all the time, but yeah.

[00:05:12] Leisha Drews, RN: I just think that my overall perspective has just grown in that women are so underserved in understanding their bodies. And there is just so much grace that can come from understanding what's happening in our bodies. And that's the quick answer of why I love this so much, but to do a little introduction to me.

[00:05:32] Leisha Drews, RN: I, Started my career in the hospital as a registered nurse. I started on like the med surge floor and just did like all the things with all the people. It was just like a general hospital floor. And as I went through that journey, I started to, I was in the hospital for 10 years and switched all around different places.

[00:05:53] Leisha Drews, RN: But I had my first baby within those first couple of years and was like investigating some symptoms of my own, because as I. Went through nursing school and tried the traditional medicine method for things like migraines and hormonal acne and irregular cycles and things like that.

[00:06:11] Leisha Drews, RN: I was just really not impressed with the care that I got with the answers that I got. And my mind is always asking okay, but why is this happening? Not just what kind of like band aid can we slap on it? And so as I was. Going through my years of working in the hospital, I just really got into it because I loved helping people and I wanted people to be better.

[00:06:33] Leisha Drews, RN: And I wanted them to, feel seen and heard in their journey and taken care of. And I was able to do a lot of that as a nurse. And I also noticed that I was seeing the same people come back over and over sicker every single time they were sicker. And this is, talking about more of an aging population and I live in Oklahoma.

[00:06:56] Leisha Drews, RN: It's not known for being the healthiest state. I think it's like the third unhealthiest or the third most obese, or, it's not like in the running for one of the healthiest States. And with that being said, 

[00:07:06] Christa Biegler, RD: with that drink, Leisha, sorry, just joking, I'm just, screwing with you. I was at a wedding there like a couple weeks ago and I was like, Oh, we're in the South.

[00:07:17] Christa Biegler, RD: I'm sorry. I really interrupted. Yeah. Beautiful thing you were saying. 

[00:07:21] Leisha Drews, RN: No, there are so many problems with the food that is consumed here and the sweet tea may be, 

[00:07:27] Christa Biegler, RD: I'm not judging. I'm not judging. I'm just joking. 

[00:07:31] Leisha Drews, RN: Yeah, no, I totally get it. So just seeing people come back sicker and my role as a nurse, I wasn't able to really do anything to like, help them in the meantime, while they were at home.

[00:07:43] Leisha Drews, RN: And even the like, dietary information we were giving them was just terrible. It was literally terrible. We'd have people come in, they were on the diabetic diet. I don't know if you worked in the hospital or not, but I think you worked in some of this 

[00:07:57] Christa Biegler, RD: like general clinical. And then I worked in stage renal disease for years, actually.

[00:08:01] Christa Biegler, RD: So I got to see all the things.

[00:08:02] Leisha Drews, RN: Okay. So I'm sure you have a lot to say about the renal diet, which I do as well, but I remember the one that like really caught my attention was the ADA diet, which is the American diabetic association. And it's the 1800 calorie diet. And that was like literally the only imitation or only limitation they would put on the These people with diabetes was that they had to have 1800 calories instead of a little more, and they could only have like diet soda, diet Jell O.

[00:08:26] Leisha Drews, RN: But they would eat like spaghetti and meatballs and bread and diet soda for dinner. Or it was just like straight. 

[00:08:32] Christa Biegler, RD: Whoever interpreted that in the kitchen didn't do a very good job was what I would say. 

[00:08:37] Leisha Drews, RN: Absolutely not. So hopefully 

[00:08:39] Christa Biegler, RD: they were like, where we didn't quite understand this.

[00:08:43] Leisha Drews, RN: I'm rehospital in America, other than the one I worked at, hopefully it's doing better on that. But it was a key point in my mind. I'm like, what are we doing to help people who are having issues with insulin and their metabolism? And we're just telling them to drink diet soda and that's it.

[00:08:57] Leisha Drews, RN: And I found that, the patients that I was working with, it was COPD and heart disease and all of these things. And it takes a lot to turn that around, but we weren't doing anything to turn it around. And I didn't have the time. As a nurse with the floor I was working on at that point, I had six patients.

[00:09:13] Leisha Drews, RN: That's a lot of patients. If you're not a nurse and you don't know, like you're going to run around for the entire 12 hours trying to keep everyone happy alive, like all the things. So all that to say, I really wanted to be able to help people. Either get better when they were sick or not get that sick in the first place.

[00:09:31] Leisha Drews, RN: And I found that the hospital was not the place that I could really do that. And so I went through, my own discovery health journey and found a functional medicine practitioner who was able to help me and help my daughter with some of our symptoms. And I was like, this is it for me. I want to be able to find the actual why, and I want to spend time with people to hear their story, hear what's going on.

[00:09:51] Leisha Drews, RN: And I want to do the digging and the research and find things out. And so that really morphed over a few years into, I just want to help everyone in the world. And then from there I realized, Oh, Hey, guess what? I can't help everyone in the world. I probably need to figure out what I'm doing so I can help someone actually really well, instead of trying to research every single chronic health condition in the world.

[00:10:12] Leisha Drews, RN: So what I found was I loved working with women and I loved working with moms because when I work with women who want to be moms or women who already are moms. You make such a huge impact because as the woman in the house, most of the time your decisions about food and health and like your beliefs are going to shape your entire family.

[00:10:35] Leisha Drews, RN: And so I just found that I loved that. And as I was working with women, I saw that I had, had a story of being completely, I would say underserved or just like undereducated, whether that's, it's on me ultimately, but I had no idea what's going on in my body and with my cycle and my cycles were irregular.

[00:10:52] Leisha Drews, RN: And every single month I thought it was pregnant when I was like, Four days late when actually I was four days late every single month. It was just like a whole thing. And I'm like, I went through nursing school and I still didn't have one clue what was going on with my cycle. Like also I had a mom who like tried to tell me what was happening, but what about the girls who had none of those things?

[00:11:08] Leisha Drews, RN: This is where I love to be able to help because when we can understand our cycles, I think that we can just get rid of so much of the messaging of our society that like something's wrong with you because you're a woman, or you have to feel like crap because you're a woman, your periods have to be bad.

[00:11:24] Leisha Drews, RN: It's normal. Just deal with it. This is your lot in life. And I just don't believe that any of that is true.

[00:11:31] Christa Biegler, RD: I think we are soul sisters in a way. There was a lot of things. I think that a lot of people who work in conventional medicine were listening and nodding their head. And I'm always looking to no more people.

[00:11:45] Christa Biegler, RD: It just lights me up. And so I recently ended up in a network of people who are like seeking change, but all these different disciplines. So from nurses to PAs to et cetera, and to your point, and even my clients at any given time, sometimes a third of them are practitioners of some sort because you get it, you care.

[00:12:06] Christa Biegler, RD: I understand. There was a, quite a large timeframe. Give or take four years around COVID, especially right before, maybe during early times, I would ask people about how they made that decision to like really leap. Cause it's uncomfortable to go from their traditional work. And to be honest and I heard parts of it and I always tell people this start with your own journey.

[00:12:28] Christa Biegler, RD: Your own journey is the first step because you learn the most through your own results. And because you were able to achieve results. And honestly, even if you. If it wasn't all perfect and you had ups and downs, all of those things informed how you help people now for me also, like I saw people and it was not really always a good fit and or they did things that I thought were not the most helpful, like big long supplement graveyards, for example.

[00:12:53] Christa Biegler, RD: And so therefore I chose, out of like trauma responses and overstatement for sure, but out of that response of do better. And so I hear that you did these very typical helping nurse activities and human clinics. And this is where, I think, We go wrong sometimes, like bad mouthing conventional medicine.

[00:13:13] Christa Biegler, RD: It's not that the people there don't want to help you. It's just that the container is not ideal for it, right? It's Leisha's got already all these people, and what are we supposed to do with this really advanced case already at this point? It's not amazing, right? There has to be education, but there also has to be a desire from that person, right?

[00:13:32] Christa Biegler, RD: And something not maybe popular for me to say here, but it's okay for this audience because this is a really awesome audience is that we have personal responsibility, right? And that's just like a outstanding thing in our world. But anyway, I just need to like underline several things. I want to know though, about the challenges from jumping from, because I think this is where a lot of people listening actually are, is they hear your story and they're like, Oh, wow.

[00:13:58] Christa Biegler, RD: But then so often you go look at someone and it's Oh, wow. She's already at this point, right? Cause we often want to compare our chapter one or two or zero to someone else's chapter 12. And just tell us a little bit about like that journey, making the decision to leave med surg to leave your very comfortable, stable nursing career.

[00:14:16] Christa Biegler, RD: What happened there? 

[00:14:19] Leisha Drews, RN: Yeah, that's a great question. And I love remembering this because, so I've been in practice essentially five years now outside of the hospital and That sounds like such a long time and such a short time in it's like both and I obviously not like a very long time, but it's the time is just such a weird thing.

[00:14:36] Leisha Drews, RN: But as I had both of my first kids, I had two kids at that point. And my second was, I think around one. And I have a very supportive husband and a husband who also is a nurse and has a lot of desire to help people and to just had seen a lot of really good benefits in our family from making changes that weren't necessarily aligned with what we learned in nursing school.

[00:15:02] Leisha Drews, RN: And so he was very supportive and he's like. Where, what are you going to do? How are you going to do it? And so I was able to, I was working part time as a nurse. Yeah, I was working part time as a nurse. So I worked three days every two weeks, which is like half time as a nurse. 12 hour shifts.

[00:15:17] Leisha Drews, RN: And so that gave me technically a lot of time to pursue what I was doing, except for I had two kids and they've always been home with me. They don't go to daycare, they don't go to school. They've been homeschooled or, as babies, they're just home with me. And so I really, as I did my the first program I did was FDN.

[00:15:36] Leisha Drews, RN: And as I did that, I heard Rachel Hollis at one point say, if you're going to start a business or start something like five hours a week, I heard her say five hours a week. I don't know anything else that she's ever said, but that really stuck with me. And I was like, five hours a week, where's my five hours I'm going to make this happen.

[00:15:52] Leisha Drews, RN: And that was truly how I started was five hours a week. And I got through it and I was like, okay, two of my hours are before the kids get up this day. One of my hours is during nap while I'm folding laundry. And it was just like, I just got through it little by little, got through the program. And then once I, had finished my certification, then that's where I was like, I'm going to help everyone in the world.

[00:16:11] Leisha Drews, RN: Because I was just so on fire and so ready to do that. But that health was a really big part of my story and my daughter's story. And so I was like gut health this is what I'm going to start with. And I really. Did a lot of local networking specifically through one of the chiropractor that we had gone to for a long time, and they had a pretty big practice and they were really helpful and on board with helping me find some of my first clients.

[00:16:35] Leisha Drews, RN: And then from there there's all the layers, but I really just started one or two days a week. I would have my husband home or a babysitter. And I would have I went to this office and started working with clients. And I still was working part time as a nurse because I tend to hold onto things a little bit and try to create safety in my own life.

[00:16:55] Leisha Drews, RN: Nope not letting go of this yet. But the funny part is I was actually, I was working somehow. I think I say I worked one day a week, but then it turns out I remember this conversation with my husband. He was like, you can't have three jobs and work one day a week. That doesn't actually work.

[00:17:08] Leisha Drews, RN: So I was working on the floor as a flex nurse at this point. So like all over the hospital, And then I also was working as a nursing instructor for students at clinicals. And then I was also trying to have my business one day a week. So there was a point where my husband said, your math isn't mathing anymore.

[00:17:25] Leisha Drews, RN: Like you've got to quit something. And so I quit working on the floor,

[00:17:29] Christa Biegler, RD: just very simple. It's that's all it is at the end of the day. It's like, Where's the math that supports this, right? 

[00:17:36] Leisha Drews, RN: Yes. He's your math, it's just not working. So slowly but surely is the long story short, I transitioned out of the hospital and then I, and then because my teaching job allowed me some time to like work on my business as well.

[00:17:48] Leisha Drews, RN: I kept that a little bit longer. And then I think it was actually just before, no, it was I don't know, it was in 2019. My husband was like more math isn't nothing like you've got to stop. And so I just focused on my business at that point a couple of days a week. And so I always have been working about two days a week at the most.

[00:18:07] Leisha Drews, RN: It's been three as I've been working with my clients and honestly, just like slow and steady has been. Yeah. The best case scenario for me and things have changed as I've gone. And the way that I, have marketed used to be all social media. And now I do my podcast because that's more aligned for me.

[00:18:25] Leisha Drews, RN: And that, it's just, I think that just knowing what the one next step has been really good, but I would say really like feeling called into this brain through what I'm doing, like just trying to really stay aligned with what I'm doing. Where God is leading me and also having a very supportive husband, because there was a point where I was just working on my business and I wasn't actually making money.

[00:18:47] Leisha Drews, RN: So he was working, full time to be able to keep us afloat, but supporting me in being able to work for free for a while. And that was a huge thing. If I had. If I didn't have a supportive husband, then I would have had to work a lot more hours away from my kids in that transition phase.

[00:19:06] Leisha Drews, RN: Yeah. 

[00:19:07] Christa Biegler, RD: Thanks for being so honest and transparent with us about that because sometimes people just need to hear that evidence of what that is. And I think what you did sounds totally reasonable. And to your point about what you heard from Rachel Hollis isn't that funny how that works? Like sometimes you just hear the message you need to hear or that message lands differently.

[00:19:25] Christa Biegler, RD: And it's I'm going to use that one. That's my rocket fuel right there. That's all I needed. So I loved it. And the other really wonderful thing, and I think this is ending up being a really gorgeous conversation as we start to peel back the layers and how we're getting to our menstrual cycles and why it really matters.

[00:19:42] Christa Biegler, RD: And whatnot. So you started really working on gut health, which whether you knew it or not, when you started really supports your hormonal health, right? Because the reality is I think hormones are secondary to everything else that people usually work on underneath. And so let's get into the conversation around menstrual cycles and ups and downs.

[00:20:02] Christa Biegler, RD: So I'm going to let you just take the floor and give us definition around the menstrual cycle as it stands, How a person might feel in different phases of the month, that might be the best way to talk about it, is like, how might I feel at this part of the month, this part of the month, and this part of the month?

[00:20:20] Christa Biegler, RD: Would you walk us through that, please? 

[00:20:22] Leisha Drews, RN: Yeah, absolutely. And I know that your audience has a lot of research and a lot of knowledge under their belts. And I also know that sometimes this is a skipped step. So I'm going to talk a little bit about what the hormones are actually doing just as a refresher for some of you.

[00:20:36] Leisha Drews, RN: And as I like, Oh, Hey, who knew? 

[00:20:38] Christa Biegler, RD: Cause you don't usually apply that information all the time. So it's great. 

[00:20:42] Leisha Drews, RN: Absolutely. So when I'm looking at a menstrual cycle, I just want to give a couple of quick disclaimers. I'm going to talk about this cycle. Like it's 28 to 30 days. I consider a good, pretty normal cycle to be somewhere between 26 at the very least 27 to somewhere around 35.

[00:21:00] Leisha Drews, RN: So if you're in that window, I consider that to be, like a pretty happy place to be. I'm still going to ask questions about it. If But if you're far outside of that window where you're having like 22, 24 day cycles, or you're having like 37 or 60 or 80 day cycles, those are definitely outside of my considered range of normal.

[00:21:17] Leisha Drews, RN: And there's something going on underlying that's causing that, but I'm going to talk about 28 to 30 days, just as a standard. And just know that your numbers may be a little bit different. So day one of your cycle is going to be the first day of your bleed. And that is going to be a part of your cycle where your estrogen and your progesterone, the two main hormones we're looking at in a menstrual cycle are going to be at their lowest point.

[00:21:43] Leisha Drews, RN: And that drops off just like a day or two before you start to bleed. Because that's what allows your next cycle to start. And that's what allows the bleed to happen is that drop in estrogen and progesterone. And the really cool thing about this is that when your estrogen and your progesterone are at their lowest points, it changes the way your brain works to some extent.

[00:22:04] Leisha Drews, RN: And some of us think of this as In a negative way, because we're essentially taught to, or because of our own experiences where it really hasn't felt very fun to be on your period. But I think that when we can shift the script and kind of think of this differently, it is really cool that at this time of your cycle, where you may have lower social energy and you also may have lower physical energy.

[00:22:27] Leisha Drews, RN: And just not feeling maybe the same level of motivation that you typically have or the same level of focus, or maybe you just want to wrap yourself in a little cocoon regardless of period pain or not. This is your body's intuitive nature saying Hey, it's okay to slow down here a little bit.

[00:22:46] Leisha Drews, RN: And the beautiful thing about a really optimal menstrual cycle is that it's optional if things are good. Now, listening to your body is always something that I recommend and life also happens. So if you're having symptoms that like knock you out and you have to be on the couch this day, one day, two, three of your period, your body is telling you loudly, listen, like you need to slow down.

[00:23:09] Leisha Drews, RN: There's something going on. But if this is just like more of a gentle feeling of, I'd prefer to spend a little time by myself, I prefer not to run around like crazy today. I don't want to plan all the things. Then this is a gentle invitation for you to actually lean into those changes in your brain that would allow you to be more analytical and to plan for your next month.

[00:23:30] Leisha Drews, RN: And so with those increased neural connections, In this part of your cycle, because of the low hormones, this is actually a really optimal time in your cycle to do planning and analyzing. So in motherhood, there's multiple opportunities for this, whether that's, meal planning or budgeting or like planning your calendar, whatever that looks like.

[00:23:50] Leisha Drews, RN: I love planning my calendar in this part of my cycle, as much as possible, because you are less likely to overcommit. Because you're a little bit, maybe less people pleasing and a little bit more realistic. And you're like, actually 17 birthday parties doesn't sound great to me right now. So I'm going to say yes to do and the rest are no.

[00:24:08] Leisha Drews, RN: And so I think that it's really helpful to have that information and to also just see the beauty of, okay, my social energy is lower and my physical energy is lower. And so if I can just use that to the best of my ability to like, take a little quiet time, sit down, do this planning instead of just This is the worst.

[00:24:24] Leisha Drews, RN: I don't want to do anything. There really is a difference in that of just being able to use your strength, even in this, like part of your cycle that maybe everyone doesn't love as much. So that's week one, obviously in business, for those of you who are business ladies, like there's all the ideas, right?

[00:24:39] Leisha Drews, RN: This is where you can plan your month. This isn't where I would do team meetings or I would tell everyone about my plans, but this is where you can analyze what happened last month. You can, make plans, Make goals, like all of those things during this first few days of your cycle.

[00:24:53] Leisha Drews, RN: And then as we go into the next phase of your cycle, the follicular phase, this is where you're working up to ovulation. And this is going to be days like five through 14 ish. If you ovulate around day 14 and this is where your estrogen is rising. And so estrogen is the hormone that is going to build up the uterine lining and it is the hormone that creates.

[00:25:16] Leisha Drews, RN: The ability to make cervical fluid, and it's also going to trigger your luteinizing hormone and your follicle stimulating hormone to be able to ovulate. So estrogen rising at this part of your cycle is not negative estrogen dominance. You want estrogen to be dominant in the first half of your cycle.

[00:25:32] Leisha Drews, RN: So I just want to clarify that, that these changes throughout the cycle are what actually, creates the cycle in the first place. And so in the follicular phase, The optimal like cycle would be that you start to have more energy, more motivation, more focus. And that actually is because Having enough estrogen up regulates some of your neurotransmitters like serotonin and even dopamine and creates more of that.

[00:26:00] Leisha Drews, RN: Not only physical energy in your body, because you're out of that low hormone phase, but you also oftentimes have a lot more creative and social energy. So I don't know if you have read the book your brain on birth control or read some of Dr. Sarah Hill's work, but she talks about. That there is a marked difference in your attractiveness to strangers, even like your strangers, or obviously hopefully your spouse as well during this follicular phase.

[00:26:28] Leisha Drews, RN: But even your voice can be considered more attractive by strangers than it would be in your luteal phase a couple of weeks later, because you just have this like energy. That you don't have in other phases of your cycle. So coming into your follicular phase, this is where you are most fertile. And that cervical mucus is a key for fertility sign.

[00:26:49] Leisha Drews, RN: But as thinking about how you may feel, just knowing that this would be a good time to plan those things that are going to be more social, take more of your energy in your business, like creating content or showing up on calls or like the things that probably would honestly take the most out of you at other times of the month.

[00:27:08] Leisha Drews, RN: Sometimes you can just be like on fire during this phase for those type of things because of that rise in estrogen and the subsequent rise in other hormones. And then there's even a peak of testosterone right around the middle of your cycle as well. And so when we're looking at. Like exercise tolerance and lifting, like those things are going to be more rhyme in this part of your cycle as well.

[00:27:29] Leisha Drews, RN: And so I think that the the thing that we can go to, that may be a little bit extreme is just I just have to do every single thing in this part of my cycle. And then we can wear ourselves out in that too. But when we're looking at, again, an optimal menstrual cycle, we're looking at like gentle waves, not huge roller coasters of changes in both physical symptoms and emotions.

[00:27:49] Leisha Drews, RN: So Knowing that the follicular phase is a great phase, in motherhood or in business to just really be like where you need to be on and where you need to be creative. And maybe this is the time you do the fun summer things with your kids, because you really want to, not because you're like, Oh, I have to be the fun mom.

[00:28:05] Leisha Drews, RN: Because I really love to be a fun mom. That's who I am at my core. And sometimes when I'm like a late luteal or like on my period, I'm like, man, being a fun mom is a lot of work. But when I'm in my follicular phase or like this population, I'm like being a fun mom is like truly who I am. So just knowing, like having those changes doesn't mean that you're crazy.

[00:28:26] Leisha Drews, RN: I think that's something I hear so much is women are like, I feel like I'm crazy. You're not like, you just don't. Of the awareness that where you are in your cycle may affect you, to a different extent based on what your hormones are doing. So I think that's the first two phases.

[00:28:43] Christa Biegler, RD: And then I will continue into the ovulatory phase. I was going to say to hinge on the comment of no awareness to everyone's point. I often have to look at my period app almost every month to figure out why I don't want to talk to people that day. I'm like, why? What is wrong with me today? Oh, let me go look.

[00:29:05] Christa Biegler, RD: Oh, my period starts tomorrow. That explains my life. I'll be fine in a day or two. It'll be all good. But, that said, to me, this is something I prefer, wherever you can automate something in your life, and that's where an app is. I'm not paying for an app. I'm not like really looking at it for advice.

[00:29:23] Christa Biegler, RD: I'm literally looking at it to tell me to keep track of something for me in my life. So however you want to do that. Do you have an app? I'm using an app called Pinkbird. No affiliation. Don't care whatsoever. Do you have anything? Do you have a one or three that you like or maybe you don't like them? 

[00:29:42] Leisha Drews, RN: Yeah.

[00:29:42] Christa Biegler, RD: If you're urinating a lot when you're drinking water, maybe you're not actually hydrating that much. Or, in other words, getting the fluid and nutrients into the cell. Electrolytes are minerals that help fluid and nutrients get into the cell. I recommend all of my clients start by drinking electrolytes when we begin our work together, so to improve energy.

[00:30:02] Christa Biegler, RD: And then we get even more strategic with our electrolyte recommendations as test results come in. Now, generally electrolytes are potassium, sodium, and chloride. One of my favorite electrolyte products is pickleball cocktail from jigsaw health, because it's one of the only products you can get with an adequate dose of potassium to meet my recommendations, which is critical for blood sugar, which everyone should care about hormone health.

[00:30:24] Christa Biegler, RD: And digestion, huge thing for relapsing digestive issues. Jigsaw health is also maker of the famous adrenal cocktail made popular by the pro metabolic corner of the internet and root cause protocol, as well as a multi mineral electrolyte for recovery called electrolyte supreme. You can get a discount on all of jigsaw's amazing products, including pickleball, electrolyte, supreme, and adrenal cocktail at jigsawhealth.

[00:30:48] Christa Biegler, RD: com with the code less stressed 10. That's three S's less stressed. Ten. 

[00:30:55] Leisha Drews, RN: So my favorite one is Kindara because there's two reasons. It is free. Love that. When I work with clients, I love to track their cycle. It's one of the like nerdiest fun things that I ever loved to do. And so it has a feature that lets me see their cycle on the backside. So I love Kendra for that.

[00:31:11] Leisha Drews, RN: But I actually, when I first learned to track my cycle, I started using Kendra and it has a great knowledge base in it that helps you understand fertility signs and what your chart is saying and all of those things. For free. And so I personally don't always track my temperatures right now because I know what's happening in my cycle, but when I'm working with clients who are learning, I like to track temperatures.

[00:31:33] Leisha Drews, RN: And so that's what I looked at in Kendra. And I can just track the first day of your period in Kendra as well. You don't have to track everything. 

[00:31:41] Christa Biegler, RD: I would say. That is probably the most popular app among practitioners. We'll come back to temp tracking so I can let you finish talking about menstrual cycles.

[00:31:53] Christa Biegler, RD: I definitely have comments, but carry on. 

[00:31:57] Leisha Drews, RN: Okay. And I do love really quick, what you said about automating I never would want this conversation to be like, okay, like now I have to think about every single day of my cycle and like what I'm supposed to be feeling and what I'm not. When I first understood this concept, I had a little printout and I was like, okay let me just pay attention to this a little bit and see if this lines up for me and where it does and doesn't.

[00:32:17] Leisha Drews, RN: And then it became intuitive over a couple months, but it doesn't have to be like a, like a whole thing, it's just really paying attention to how you're actually feeling and then maybe lining it up and saying Oh, I noticed I actually feel like this every single time I ovulate, like maybe that means something, so the next phase. Is moving into ovulation. This is a short little phase ovulation. Actually. It's like a momentary thing that happens. It doesn't take long for the egg to burst through the wall of the follicle, but there is a hormonal shift that happens over a couple of days. And so it's this peak of estrogen that triggers.

[00:32:51] Leisha Drews, RN: The luteinizing hormone to actually release the egg from the follicle and this little follicle. This is another one of my favorite things about the menstrual cycle, but the follicle is this little capsule that holds the egg until it's ready to be released. And then this tiny little follicle collapses and becomes a temporary organ called the corpus luteum.

[00:33:11] Leisha Drews, RN: And it makes your progesterone not only for the next, hopefully two weeks of your cycle, But if you get pregnant, it makes that progesterone for you until your placenta is ready to take over. It's just this like amazing, smart, tiny little organ that gives us progesterone, which is a hormone that is pro thyroid pro metabolism.

[00:33:30] Leisha Drews, RN: And oftentimes progesterone, I think gets a little bit of a bad rap because in the luteal phase, which is, where progesterone is dominant for the next couple of weeks of your cycle. This Is where symptoms often arise, but it's not often because progesterone is causing a problem. It's often because there are lots of other issues that are causing your hormones to be out of balance, specifically estrogen to be out of balance and inflammation to be rising during that part.

[00:33:57] Leisha Drews, RN: Little quick phase of ovulation is the time from, estrogen rising the egg actually being released and then testosterone being high as well. And then we have progesterone rise within about 24 hours of ovulation occurring. And then that progesterone taking over kind of signals the start of the luteal phase.

[00:34:17] Leisha Drews, RN: So this little tiny ovulation phase, to me, it's a little bit of a carryover from the follicular phase. As far as mood and energy and productivity, it's usually just like a smooth transition into, it's still like a higher energy, higher motivation phase. And then we kind of transition into the luteal phase, which I like to divide up into two different parts.

[00:34:37] Leisha Drews, RN: So typically what I see is that this progesterone rise just creates a smooth transition where you still have You know, pretty good energy, pretty good social skills, but maybe it's not necessarily quite the like high, or like high libido that you may have had in the follicular phase. It's a little bit more of I like to describe it as a slow and steady where you're like, okay, this is just like who I am as a person feeling pretty good.

[00:35:00] Leisha Drews, RN: I love recommending that this is a great time to look back at those plans you made and your period phase, see what happened in follicular. And then Check things off the list, whether that's in business or in motherhood, this is a great time for communication in whatever part of your life it needs to be, because it's just like a pretty steady phase for this around the first, five ish days of your luteal phase.

[00:35:22] Leisha Drews, RN: So this is going to be days. We'll just say 17 through 22 ish. So right in the middle of your cycle. And then as you start to transition into the late luteal phase, which is like that last week of your cycle, this is where I see problems come up symptom wise for my clients so much of the time.

[00:35:40] Leisha Drews, RN: And it's not because it has to be that way. It's just because like in this last transition of your cycle, this is where your body shows symptoms the most often. And this is where things would come up like PMS breast tenderness, Even like some pre period cramping and PMS, I'm talking about mood changes primarily, whether that's a little bit of irritability, whether that's like full fledged anxiety, depression, PMDD, there's a varied response that can happen.

[00:36:08] Leisha Drews, RN: And hormonal acne can come up in this phase. There's lots of things that can come up in this phase. And if you are having those types of symptoms and don't know this, I want you to know that is not normal. And that there's always something your body's telling you. That, it probably goes back to a million other things because what you said before about hormones being secondary, I fully agree with that.

[00:36:27] Leisha Drews, RN: There's going to be lots of things that are contributing to that. With that being said in the like happy, smooth waves of your cycle, even this late luteal phase can be pretty like slow and steady phase where it's not necessarily a crash. And even in that, I typically see that like a couple of days before your period starts, right?

[00:36:45] Leisha Drews, RN: Yeah. There'll often be a time of kind of a little bit more low social energy, low physical energy. For example, I went and worked out today at a gym in a class where I was like doing what they said, which I don't typically do. And I was like, yep, definitely starting my period in two days because two days before that I was killing it.

[00:37:03] Leisha Drews, RN: And today I was not killing it. Also it was like 97 degrees and there's not air conditioning. So it was just like, so hot, but I could tell a difference in my body. And because of the knowledge that I have, it's not like what in the world happened. Now I suck. It's just Oh, yep. Here we are. Like, this is a good day to take it a little slower and to not look at those girls who are ovulating and like running around laps around me.

[00:37:27] Leisha Drews, RN: That's fine. They can do that. 

[00:37:28] Christa Biegler, RD: Understanding self is empowering. And we're all of our menstrual cycles are different. 

[00:37:35] Leisha Drews, RN: Absolutely. So I know what I would consider to be a smooth transition in this phase would be just a little dip in maybe social energy, physical energy again, or you just, again, like really like to just, have a little cocoon and maybe do what you want instead of maybe what you planned to do.

[00:37:50] Leisha Drews, RN: And in business, this is something that I think is so interesting. I've talked to a lot of women who get to the end of their cycle and the last couple of days of their cycle get crazy. Overwhelm imposter syndrome. Everyone else is doing things better than me. And I should probably quit like some version of that, which I think is so funny because I actually had that every month for a while and something has smoothed out where I don't feel that way anymore.

[00:38:17] Leisha Drews, RN: But I've talked to lots of women who are like. Yes. We're all just twins. Every single month. I feel that way. 

[00:38:24] Christa Biegler, RD: I find. 

[00:38:24] Leisha Drews, RN: Yeah. 

[00:38:25] Christa Biegler, RD: I find I'm just mirroring the clients that I have also. I've come to enjoy it and find it amusing at this point oh, we're all exactly the same. 

[00:38:34] Leisha Drews, RN: Yeah.

[00:38:35] Christa Biegler, RD: I want to zoom in on a couple of particular symptoms that bother people a lot and talk about those, but I want to recap for a moment. And you mentioned hormonal acne, and since I see a ton of eczema, I always joke if we had a dime for everyone who had an extra breakout like during, right around ovulation or right before their menstrual cycle, I could buy myself some coffee for sure.

[00:38:55] Christa Biegler, RD: And I will also mention that, and maybe I'm jumping around here a little bit, but to your point, the week before your menstrual cycle could be looked at as this cool time to just a pulse on your health if you're cruising, right? Because if you have an increase in symptoms, it's Oh, interesting for me.

[00:39:10] Christa Biegler, RD: I know myself well enough. I'm not genetically blessed with elimination and clearance and detoxification. And that's what's happening around that time that I'm clearing out excess hormones that I'm not going to be using, in pregnancy. And Essentially what this looks like is if the traffic jam is happening, if I have too much toxic burden and I'm not clearing things efficiently, then I have to be careful with coffee or it gets me all jacked up right those couple days before my menstrual cycle.

[00:39:39] Christa Biegler, RD: I actually just noticed that for a handful of months in a row and I was like, wow, I need to not do that. Funny story, not a shocker. I was drinking organic coffee instead of mycotoxin free coffee, and for me, this is a big deal. As a result, I did drink two, more than I needed to, of coffee before day one of my menstrual cycle today.

[00:40:01] Christa Biegler, RD: Did not feel really noticeably amped up whatsoever. And, as a fun aside, little other pearl, I think that body odor, Could have a lot to do with your toxic burden and even like the smell of your menstrual cycle blood, et cetera. But in general, I talk about, people ask me about body odor all the time, my clients do.

[00:40:19] Christa Biegler, RD: And so I was just talking about it today with clients and I was lamenting, or I was not lamenting, I was like recalling that, oh, since I switched to mycotoxin free coffee, which I did, and then I bought organic because I was, in Costco, saving money. And then I was like, nope, not working for me. I need mycotoxin free coffee because I have history of mycotoxin exposure, which by the way, a lot of people do.

[00:40:42] Christa Biegler, RD: So anyway, I'm just sharing this because anytime I could offer some funny insight for you, it's Maybe it's not that crazy. Or maybe there's just simple, there's simple things we can do to love and support ourselves. I love everything you said here. So I'm going to summarize what I heard.

[00:40:57] Christa Biegler, RD: Also, you did a beautiful job talking about the phases. I do feel personally for me that the menstrual cycle phases are a little bit like trying to, it's I'm like, am I going to be tested on that? And like what those dates are, it's a little bit of a different language. And yeah.

[00:41:11] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. If it's a little bit too much of a language for today, I would just invite you to accept that around your menstrual cycle, you will have this dip in physical and social energy, and the most useful thing you said about that cycle to me, that I heard, was like, You can be introspective in planning. I was like, thank you for describing my life.

[00:41:30] Christa Biegler, RD: Literally. I was like, someone asked my co pilot asked me can you take this many people in September yesterday? And I was like, that's a hard question to answer today. Let me look at the calendar tomorrow and forecast that for a few months from now and just see where I'm at. But to that point, like literally I've been enjoying that.

[00:41:46] Christa Biegler, RD: It's let me just check the calendar check that I'm not overextended. And I love that you said. This is wonderful because, I have the tendency to overfill that plate all the time, or overfill the calendar, and this part of your month may help prevent you from accidentally doing that. This is a huge life hack for all people who sometimes might overdo things.

[00:42:07] Christa Biegler, RD: So let's just go ahead and underline that and highlight it. It's brilliant. Very brilliant. So thank you for sharing that. 

[00:42:13] Leisha Drews, RN: It really makes a difference. Yeah. And again, I agree with you, like when we're, I just feel like you can go way too far with cycle syncing and the phases. And, I didn't even talk about like foods that you can eat or exercises you can do.

[00:42:25] Leisha Drews, RN: Like you can find, in my opinion, too much information on the internet. And I've really gotten away from like the typical, like cycle syncing foods or whatever with my clients, because just truly it's often too much to be thinking about that. And like, how do I grocery shop now? And how do I grocery shop now?

[00:42:40] Leisha Drews, RN: But like when we look at. What are the basic things that are going to support our bodies? What are the basic nutrients we always need to support detoxification and to support good gut health and to support energy and blood sugar balance? Like those are the things that are going to help your cycle long term so much more than seed cycling or eating, broccoli sprouts on day 17. 

[00:43:00] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, I agree. That's it's, it gets stress that circumvents the potential benefit. And I do, I'd like to you, it's this doesn't actually feel realistic or sustainable. And and the reality is like your energy for this is ebbing and flowing throughout the month.

[00:43:15] Christa Biegler, RD: The reality is the execution. May not be, and personally, some of those things I just don't see enough benefit. So I, like you, feel exactly the same. Not surprisingly. So I like to just associate it around the time that you have the bleed right before right and then the other half.

[00:43:34] Christa Biegler, RD: The opposite time frame right where you're more creative, but to that point, one thing that's cool and I don't know I was thinking when you were talking about this and here we are, I'm on day one, your menstrual cycles in a couple of days. And here we are having a conversation like trying to be creative and it's a comedy show.

[00:43:50] Christa Biegler, RD: Like maybe someday in our lives we'll record podcasts only in the ovulation phase, but the also the reality is you can't jam your entire life into one week. So you just try your best and I show up and I'm just honest with people now. And this is where I sometimes hack things with nutrients. I'm like, I'm going to rally today and my brain's going to work and I'm going to do some nutrients to make things work.

[00:44:10] Christa Biegler, RD: A couple of things since we're talking about menstrual cycles that come up a lot and it might be easy stuff. So we talked a little bit about symptoms, we talked about acne, we talked about all types of mood things. And that's the thing is it does present different ways. I do want to talk a little bit about bloating right before menstrual cycle.

[00:44:27] Christa Biegler, RD: I do find that one I have to remind myself of every once in a while and clients of pretty much anytime a client's this is happening out of nowhere. I'm like, let's go over to this column. Yep. It looks like it's this looks like it's the week before your period. Okay. All things are normal.

[00:44:41] Christa Biegler, RD: Can you tell people what's happening at that time to create that particular symptom? 

[00:44:47] Leisha Drews, RN: Yeah. So I do think bloating can be obviously like anything, it can be a little bit more personal, but When you're, there's a couple of different things that are happening close to the end of your cycle. You're at the end of your progesterone and I I forgot to say this or didn't quite get to it.

[00:45:03] Leisha Drews, RN: I like at that very end of your cycle, those couple of days, like that's when your hormones are dropping off again to finish the whole cycle. But those, that last week or so before your period. Progesterone is dominant and progesterone is a, to some extent, a relaxing hormone. And so sometimes there can be a little bit more and I personally would say this is likely in the instance of mineral imbalance or like depletion and also issues with detoxification.

[00:45:31] Leisha Drews, RN: There can be a little bit more water retention, which can cause some bloating. There can also be a little bit of a slowdown in the contraction of the intestines, which can like just slow down digestion a little bit. And then there's also an increase in something called prostaglandins, which are a little bit more inflammatory.

[00:45:48] Leisha Drews, RN: So I would say, typically, I would think that one of those factors. Or all three of them together are probably contributing to bloating, but I see that most often in someone who's having some sort of issue with the food they're eating in the first place. Along with like potentially, detoxification issues or other things that are causing that rise in inflammation during that part of the cycle.

[00:46:10] Christa Biegler, RD: And prostaglandins might also be the reason that you have the period poops as well, potentially. Absolutely. 

[00:46:17] Leisha Drews, RN: Absolutely.

[00:46:17] Christa Biegler, RD: Before I move past temp tracking, because I do think it can be a really useful thing. We didn't really touch on it. You said you generally just track maybe for stay. Do you want to offer anything around temp tracking?

[00:46:28] Christa Biegler, RD: Because people have lots of different feelings about it. And the conversation here has an underlying conversation about simplification.

[00:46:34] Leisha Drews, RN: So I personally love temperature tracking. I love making it as simple as possible, which in my opinion is either just buying like a basic thermometer. If you're a great person at taking your temperature every morning and you remember.

[00:46:47] Leisha Drews, RN: Do that, put it in one app every single time, look at it every once in a while. If you don't know what to do with it, then I love the book taking charge of your fertility. Or like I said, in the Kindara app, the knowledge base is really helpful. I think often it is very helpful if you're starting to track your cycle and like looking at temps, especially for reasons of wanting to improve hormones or wanting to improve fertility to have someone looking at it with you.

[00:47:10] Leisha Drews, RN: I think it can just be like, A night and day difference in how valuable it is to you. So that's, that's why I love doing that. So I typically though if someone's having hormone issues, I want them to track because I want to know exactly when they're ovulating. I want to know how long their luteal phase is, where the issues are with estrogen detoxification.

[00:47:28] Leisha Drews, RN: I can see a lot of that through temperatures. So I personally love temperature tracking. And I think there's seasons in life where it's really helpful and seasons where it's not. So if we're looking for a problem, I want to do your temperatures. You can also use, I like the temp drop. I know there's mixed feelings on that, but it's just one that you put a little thermometer, you put on your arm, love that, especially for moms who have kids that are getting them up in the night and their temperatures might just be a little off because of that.

[00:47:51] Leisha Drews, RN: And it's just also really great for people who are either mouth breathing, which is not great and something else we can work on, but mouth breathing or really bad at remembering to take your temperature in the morning. So sometimes just simplifying it with a temp drop is great, but. I also, I wouldn't recommend, diving into temp tracking.

[00:48:09] Leisha Drews, RN: If you're like, I think my hormones are fine. And I know exactly when I ovulate because I have symptoms, whether, just like a minor symptom, like I, I have that little bit of pain and I feel it, or I can watching my cervical mucus. And I know for sure that I'm ovulating. Then I would say it's almost something to start with when you're trying to understand your cycle, because It can give you so much information.

[00:48:30] Leisha Drews, RN: And so typically what you're looking for is you're just looking for a pattern of lower temperatures at the first half of your cycle, and then you'll see a change to a pattern of higher temperatures. And that's usually somewhere between 0. 3 to 0. 5 or even more degrees higher. So for example, say you're 97.

[00:48:44] Leisha Drews, RN: 5, the first half of your cycle, and then you pop up to 98. Around 98, the second half, you're just looking for a pattern. So it's going to be like 97. 3, 97. 5, 97. 4. And then you're going to see that it's like around 98. And that would be a sign that ovulation has occurred and you can be really understanding better what's happening in your cycle because of that information.

[00:49:04] Leisha Drews, RN: So that's why I like temperature so much. And I like them because it's something you can track every single month. And if we're doing, hormone testing. We're not going to do that every single month, and we're not going to be able to track progress the same way as we could with doing a temp tracking chart every month and three months down the road.

[00:49:22] Leisha Drews, RN: We're like, wow, look how much of a difference there is here, not only in, your temperatures have increased, your metabolism is better, but you have a longer luteal phase, or we see more regularity or like those types of things. So I do really love tracking. And when it's overwhelming, we just try to make it more simple.

[00:49:38] Leisha Drews, RN: And like I said, right now, I don't really have any reason that I need to be tracking. I know when I know when I can, my luteal phase is not problematic. I have regular cycles, so I'm not tracking because. My temp drop broke and I don't know where my thermometer is. 

[00:49:54] Christa Biegler, RD: It was just an expensive thermometer that syncs up with that app.

[00:49:58] Christa Biegler, RD: Doesn't it? Doesn't it just automatically plug it in there for you? 

[00:50:01] Leisha Drews, RN: Yes. It's an expensive thermometer and it's not, I don't like it because it sinks necessarily. I like it because you wear it on your arm and it's something it's like you wear it like under your armpit. So I think you get a better read than like the Ava bracelet or like the aura ring or something like that.

[00:50:15] Christa Biegler, RD: You put it on before bed, 

[00:50:16] Leisha Drews, RN: but it's just a little more automated. 

[00:50:18] Christa Biegler, RD: You just put it on before bed so it's automatically there? Okay. I did not realize that because You just wear it. I just did not have an interest in buying it, so therefore I've never used it and I didn't realize that. Would you qualify, you made a statement about mouth breathing and why temp drop is better.

[00:50:37] Christa Biegler, RD: Are you talking about thermometer in the mouth? Is that what you mean? That's what I'm talking about. Like taking an oral temperature? 

[00:50:43] Leisha Drews, RN: Doing an oral temperature, but if you are chronically mouth breathing or even working on mouth breathing, you're not going to get as accurate of a temperature.

[00:50:50] Christa Biegler, RD: Perfect. Just double checking. Fun. Okay. So we covered the cycles. We talked about how to make that most advantageous in your business. in your motherhood when you might want to curl up and watch a movie with your children or read a book or just snuggle, that works too, versus be out at the pool with whoever.

[00:51:13] Christa Biegler, RD: We talked about apps, we talked about awareness, it's like really the first step if you can cultivate any awareness around something, that's great. Leisha shared all the things around the names of the cycles and then I shared that I like to just keep in mind the opposite of my period. Which is okay.

[00:51:28] Christa Biegler, RD: Both are fine. And I'm not in a phase of childbearing. So that's part of my detachment from certain things yet your menstrual cycle is still such a vital sign. So I still like to look at, do I have any symptoms around my period as an overall measurement of what's going on with my health?

[00:51:46] Christa Biegler, RD: I still consider every single month. Anything, we talked about business, we talked about motherhood, is there anything you want to say about your menstrual cycles and your partner that wasn't mentioned? Or maybe the question, better, a better fit is how can someone convey to their partner how they might be feeling?

[00:52:09] Christa Biegler, RD: Do you have anything you want to say about that realm? 

[00:52:13] Leisha Drews, RN: Yeah, I think it's really helpful. So I would say this is going to be most helpful if you are having a lot of symptoms with your menstrual cycle. And I totally agree and love what you said about there are going to be places in your life where you're paying more attention to your cycle because there are symptoms, but I fully believe that it is a sign of our health as women.

[00:52:33] Leisha Drews, RN: And it's a gift when we, it doesn't feel like a gift when you're having symptoms necessarily, but you get to have those symptoms each month as a reminder that something's happening that you can work on. But as far as getting your partner on board and like understanding your cycle.

[00:52:47] Leisha Drews, RN: So there's an app that I haven't used in a long time, but it's the, my flow app. And they actually have you can just sign up, put in, the first day of your period or whatever, and it'll send you an email or send you a message on your phone. That'll say what set phase of your cycle you're in, but it'll also send your partner.

[00:53:02] Leisha Drews, RN: Something by email if you want. So that's a super easy way for them to start learning a little more about your cycle. Super fun. Yeah, exactly. So I think that's like the super easy option for getting them on board, but also as you're learning more, you can just throw things out there. I told my husband this morning you know what, that workout wasn't real fun for me.

[00:53:23] Leisha Drews, RN: And I, just changed up a few things for myself because. I don't want to overdo it when I'm about to be on my period, because that will cause symptoms for me. Typically, like even when it was just, I feel more tired because I didn't need to work out that hard. And my husband understands that because I talk about this all the time, but also sometimes I'm like, I think he really doesn't know as much as I think he does for how much I talk about this.

[00:53:46] Leisha Drews, RN: Cause I don't always talk about it to him. So I think just really sharing what you're actually feeling. Yeah, exactly. Just sharing what you're feeling and not I think I should feel this way on day 14, but just Hey, I've been paying more attention in the last month or two. And I noticed eight days before my period, I'm always scrumpy.

[00:54:03] Leisha Drews, RN: So how about on that day, why don't you take the kids somewhere for a little bit and I'll clean the house by myself and I'll have a great time. Like just having those little conversations, I'll say this really quick. One thing, especially with PMS mood symptoms, especially when they're like moderate and not severe, I love to really pay attention to what day they show up.

[00:54:21] Leisha Drews, RN: So it's okay, it's three days before my cycle starts. Then I want you to heavily communicate with your partner and with yourself and realize five days, four days before my period starts, I'm going to fill my cup as much as possible. Like I want it to be overflowing. And the way that it's so helpful to communicate to your husband and to your kids is, Hey, I know you've noticed get a little itchy, a little irritable those three days before.

[00:54:47] Leisha Drews, RN: And I know that if I have a little bit of extra time to myself, or I have a little bit of extra help. Or get more sunshine. Like I'm going to feel better and I'm going to be happier and nicer and full responsibility on, you for what you choose to do, of course, but. My experience, most husbands are very on board with Hey, I think this is going to help me be less grumpy for three days.

[00:55:08] Leisha Drews, RN: Could you put the kids to bed while I take a bath? They're going to be like, yes, I can totally can. Yeah. Especially when you just communicate it clearly like that. 

[00:55:15] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. I think we could. Listen back if anyone needed ideas. And actually now my second daughter goes through what feels like hormonal mood swings.

[00:55:25] Christa Biegler, RD: I'm like waiting for first day of menstrual. And this is actually a reminder to me to start having conversations with her about how she might feel around that timeframe based on everything else in life. So another reminder. just for me, that it's not just me, it's also, these other women in my household.

[00:55:42] Christa Biegler, RD: Leisha, you did a great job dropping resources and different things. I think we probably could have kept talking about this, but in, again, the spirit of simplifying what if we view it as a gift? And I think the other thing That you said is what if any symptoms that we do have, we look at as opportunities and optional symptoms, 

[00:56:05] Christa Biegler, RD: I feel like symptoms can be optional and they are opportunities to make some shifts that will then have a domino effect of positivity in the rest of our body.

[00:56:14] Christa Biegler, RD: So how lucky are we to be able to have this monthly reminder of whatever our body needs? If we just tune in, where can people find you online? 

[00:56:25] Leisha Drews, RN: So the best place to find me is my podcast, the happily hormonal podcast. And then my website is leishadrews.com and my Instagram is just at leisha drews. So easy to find.

[00:56:36] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Thanks so much for coming on today. 

[00:56:39] Leisha Drews, RN: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. This is always fun.