Last December, I decided to take my well-being into my own hand and look for a more holistic approach when it comes to healing my body after years of excessive dieting, aggressive workouts, fluctuating weight, gallbladder removal two years ago plus turning 40. It’s been a lot! I just wanted to feel better physically and mentally, but it seemed impossible. That’s when I learned more in-depth about hormone health and the fact that hormone imbalance rules everything! Literally every function in your body for better or worse.
Today, I am talking to health coach Josie Santi, founder of the holistic coaching service Wellness by Josie, wellness editor at The Everygirl and host of The Everygirl Podcast. Above all, I was interested in her inclusive and non-restrictive approach to and around food (am I the only one who can’t hear the word diet anymore?!). She recently published her ebook Hot Girl Hormones – Heal Symptoms, Biohack your Health, Tone up and Boost Productivity, Libido, Energy, and Vivaciousness which teaches you about cycle syncing, the different phases your cycle is going through every month – menstrual, follicular, ovulatory and luteal phase – and how to best nourish and move your body in each phase as well as which supplements to look into.
More info here. And if you read through the interview, you’ll find a code for 20% off!
I planned on slowly but surely implementing her suggestions around cycle syncing and learning about the benefits of cycle syncing plus healing my hormone health, and after not even two months in, I can already see massive changes in my flow and usual period problems, that changed for the better. So I thought you might be interested in that topic too?!
Welcome, Josie!
It’s safe to say everyone deals with hormones or irregularities in their cycle. who is the Hot Girl Hormones Guide specifically dedicated to and how dID your own health and wellness journey play a role in creating the guide?
Me and my reproductive cycle have been in a toxic relationship since I got my first period at age 12. I felt a lot of shame and embarrassment around my period and started getting debilitating cramps and an extremely heavy flow that controlled my life. I visited many gynecologists but no one gave any answers besides “that’s just how some women have periods, sorry!” and put me on prescription painkillers and countless birth control pills.
After I started my own health journey to heal gut symptoms and use food as medicine, I started learning how the period is the fifth vital sign; period symptoms are the body’s way of telling you something is wrong. So I did years of extensive research from the top hormone experts and studies to identify the root cause of period problems and changed my diet, fitness, and lifestyle based on my hormonal patterns. After following the protocol I put together for myself, I completely healed my period – I got off birth control and even over-the-counter painkillers and now have a symptomless normal bleed every 29 days. More importantly, I healed my relationship with my body: I started to trust my body and love my reproductive cycle (including my period!). I meant to make my periods better, but the rest of my life changed too: my energy, productivity, mental health, libido, relationships, and creativity all increased, while I effortlessly felt more toned.
When I started sharing some insight into this protocol on Instagram, I got SO many questions from women who either had hormonal symptoms and wanted help too, or just wanted to learn more about hormonal health. So I put together this guide for all women to finally be able to end their toxic relationships with their periods or help to achieve any goal, whether it’s weight loss or more energy – the secret to optimizing ANY health goal is to work WITH our hormones since our hormones dictate everything. I also wrote this guide for the 12-year-olds inside of all of us (or whatever age you were when you started your period!) who felt embarrassed, frustrated, or confused when you first “became a woman.” We’re healing her too!
I love this and the inclusivity your work provides. Your Guide can help every woman at any age to finally make peace with years of hormone struggles! On that note, how did “Wellness by Josie” come to life?
After going through a lot of work and research to transform my health, I realized that the end goal of having optimal health is happiness – it’s literally to enjoy life more. When we’re feeling our very best and use food, connection, and movement as medicine, we unlock a deep joy and can live longer, more meaningful, and abundant lives.
I realized nobody was talking about health in this way. At the time, “wellness” was all about restriction and perfection. So I started this lifestyle brand and health coaching service to first of all help women heal symptoms and achieve health goals, but then more importantly, to get to optimal happiness and fulfillment in their life. For example, a lot of my clients start coming to me to help with weight loss, but they end up realizing the more important issue is improving their relationship with food and healing their sense of self. Most of the time, to their surprise, weight loss happens as a by-product of identifying the root cause of their emotional tie to weight or food. So we always get the end results they want, but usually never the route they think we’ll take because true wellness is so deeper.
That makes a lot of sense. The realization to look at your life as a whole and not just diet or workouts was a game-changer for me.
If you could tell every woman 5 things to do/Include/change in her daily routines to feel better and improve their hormone health. What would that be?
1. First and foremost, prioritize the love hormone, oxytocin! That means laughing, talking with your friends, cuddling, having sex, eating foods you love, calling your mom, etc. It is at the top of the hormone hierarchy, meaning it has the most influence over the other hormones (including sex hormones). When the body releases oxytocin, it lowers cortisol, which affects estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone.
2. Eat more foods from the earth.
3. Be outside, get sunlight, play, and touch nature every single day.
4. Don’t eat carbohydrates alone. For example, save sweets for after meals high in protein, fiber, and fat, or if you’re craving a bagel, opt for a bagel sandwich (veggies, egg, cream cheese, etc.) over plain.
5. Stop over-working-out! Many of us have been damaging our hormones for years. Especially the week before your period, ONLY do gentle workouts like yoga, pilates, walking, etc.
Very attainable points! I love your approach to portion size and diet style (I Told you this before). Your guide is vegetarian-based but you encourage clients to include meat and fish if they want to. You also encourage us to eat until we are nicely full which might be a different portion size on different days of the cycle. can you speak on why it was important to you to make that distinction?
Thank you!! Short answer: Your body is the expert. People can feel uncomfortable when I say that because we’ve been programmed to believe that a diet, doctor, or expert out there is the expert on what/how we should eat. In reality, your body knows what it needs to be healthy, and your healthy looks very different from my healthy (which is why there are SO many diets out there – what works for one person will not work for everyone else. Your body is the expert on what it truly needs to be healthy – not a doctor, not a diet, and not me. In my coaching, I always say that my goal is to teach clients that they’re the expert on their health, rather than convince them that I am.
Also, the female body does change every day, which means it needs different things (this is why we should eat different foods at different phases). That goes for the amount of food too. For example, the metabolism slows down and you need fewer calories in the follicular phase, while it speeds up and you need more calories in the luteal phase. Your body constantly communicates with you what it needs to be healthy – we just have to listen.
Imagine having one of those chaotic days when nothing seems to go right. what are your personal daily non-negotiables you would still need to implement no matter what?
Ah yes, I am very familiar with these days! The first non-negotiable is some kind of de-stress practice, whether it’s a quick meditation (sadly, this is my first thing to go on chaotic days, even though it’s when I need it the most!), taking a walk, or a few deep breaths consistently to center myself. Managing my stress and reminding myself that there is no threat present to keep cortisol low is the most essential thing for my hormones. Also, it’s just life! The point is to enjoy it – nothing is ever so serious.
With food, my mindset is always to fit in more veggies. So for example, even if I have zero groceries and have no time to cook, maybe I’ll heat up a frozen cauliflower crust pizza and add some spinach on top, or make sure to get a side salad if I’m ordering takeout.
The tangible ritual that is typically a non-negotiable for me is my supplements too, particularly a probiotic and the supplement for the phase I’m in (all of my recs are in the guide as well!). I know this is a 10-second thing but helps to support my hormones in what they’re doing at that particular phase.
Thank you so much, Josie!
Go follow Josie if you like and if you’re interested in cycle syncing and healing your hormone health without restricting or dieting, check out the Hot Girl Hormones Guide and use code MARTINA20 at check-out for 20% off!
Let us know in the comments how you would like to change your hormone health for the better!
Disclosure: I do not earn any commission, nor am I affiliated in any way with Wellness by Josie. I purchased the guide myself and after noticing positive changes, I asked Josie to come on the blog for a quick Q+A and she graciously offered a promotion code for everyone interested.
All images courtesy of Josie Santi
