Holistic Chiropractic and Nutrition Strategies with Dr. Anna Melendez

#26. This week Bridget talks with Dr. Anna Melendez, a holistic chiropractor who practices in North County San Diego. With a background in nutrition, Dr. Anna has a passion for supporting women along their health journey and she shares insights on everything from chiropractic care's link to the menstrual cycle, ways to avoid inflammation, and tips for optimal metabolic health.

In this episode you'll hear more about:
- How chiropractic care helped Dr. Anna to relieve chronic headaches as a teen
- How improper spine alignment can impact hormonal health and our menstrual cycles
- Why taking pressure off of our nerves (through spinal alignment) can allow our body to heal itself
- The top recommendations Dr. Anna has for patients to avoid inflammation: avoid seed oils (canola, sunflower, safflower, etc.); practice awareness of neck/head positioning
- Why you should focus on keeping your ears over your shoulders (and not further forward) and make sure your shoulders aren't rounding forward
- Your skull as your brain's helmet and spine as your spinal cord's helmet
- Nutrition for metabolic health
- Symptoms of impaired metabolic health
- Dr. Anna's top four recommendations to support healthy metabolic function
- If meal planning isn't your thing, try to prep foods to keep in the kitchen that you can put together for well-rounded, nutritious meals.
- Dr. Anna's pillow & ergonomic recommendations for spinal health
- Everything takes time
- Dr. Anna's non-negotiables for living a healthy lifestyle

Schedule a chiropractic visit with Dr. Anna
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Dr. Anna's meal plan

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Welcome to I'm Hormonal, your source of information about women's hormone health and how to support your body. Naturally, I'm your host, bridget Walton, and I'm a certified functional hormone specialist and menstrual cycle coach. I am on a mission to hold these hormone conversations with as many menstruators as possible, because you deserve easier access to accurate information about what's up with your unrelief menstrual cycle and with your fertility mysteries. Don't you think it's time that we figure this out once and for all? Hey everybody, welcome to I'm Hormonal for this episode, number 26, where I'm going to have a conversation with Dr Anna Melendez, who is a chiropractor here in North County, san Diego.

Speaker 1: 0:57

Dr Anna spent some time studying nursing and then nutrition before going to chiropractic school and now focuses on providing care as a holistic chiropractor. We're going to get into a lot of good stuff. We'll talk about chiropractic care, how our spinal alignment impacts our hormones and our nervous system. We'll talk a lot about nutrition to metabolism, metabolic health and some considerations for meal planning and just overall wellness, well-being and fostering a healthy lifestyle. This episode is for you if you're somebody who is curious about how chiropractic or how your spinal alignment can impact your menstrual cycle and the rest of your health, and just if you're looking for really practical tips on nutrition or meal planning that can help you to organize your meals and make sure that you're getting the right nutrients into your body. Dr Anna shares a lot of really great information on her Instagram, so check out the links in the show notes so you can connect with her, or on Instagram you can do a search for thefreshpursuit, and that's real-find Dr Anna Melendez.

Speaker 1: 2:05

Before we get into the good stuff, though, let me just say hello again and welcome. If you've been here before, thank you for coming back and hanging out with me. If this is the first time that you're with me, or if you found me through Dr Anna, then I'm really happy that you found me here. I hope that you enjoy the conversation, for today, as always, I want to give a reminder that the information I share with you today is for educational purposes only. It shouldn't be used as a replacement for any one-on-one support from a certified practitioner or from your healthcare provider, or used in lieu of another sort of diagnosis. That being said, if you are looking for somebody to work with one-on-one, then reach out to me and we can talk about if coaching is a good fit for you and how we can help get you to your goals.

Speaker 1: 2:50

Without further ado, gang, let's dive into this conversation with Dr Anna Melendez. Hey, dr Anna, welcome to. I'm Hormonal. I'm really grateful to have you here today and I'm super excited to get into all things holistic health and chiropractic care and, of course, tying it all into how that fits into the big picture of our hormonal health. So tell us about your practice as a holistic chiropractor, your approach to working with your patients and how about your experience with nutrition coaching?

Speaker 2: 3:24

Yeah, well, I'm so glad to be here. So thank you for having me and getting into chiropractic. We work in a family office. We work with a lot of families, but we're also family ourselves. When I started my practice with my husband and I and joined practice with his parents, my idea was to work with all types of people, which I still do. But it has completely transformed and I really have this heart and passion specifically for women's health and that has just grown and transformed and I love everything to do with women's health and hormones and the nutrition side of all of that. So it's kind of morphed over the years, but that's where my big focus is now.

Speaker 2: 4:18

Awesome, you and me both right, the women's health, love it.

Speaker 1: 4:24

Talk to me about, like when it comes to chiropractic care, of course, and women's health and cycling, like how are well actually let's even take it back a second from that For a listener who has never been to the chiropractor before like all they know is that you go to the chiropractor, they crack your back and you leave 10 minutes later. Something like that. Like just give us like a rundown on chiropractic and like what are the main principles or tenets, like, what are the focus? What's the goal? Totally.

Speaker 2: 4:53

I love that. I started seeing a chiropractor literally my now in-laws when I was 15 years old, in the same office that I now practice in. So, long story short, I was an athlete growing up and then when I got around 12 years old, I started getting pretty bad headaches. That turned into migraines and I couldn't compete in my sports anymore. I was, you know, soccer, gymnastics, cheerleading, volleyball all the things I couldn't do any of them anymore.

Speaker 2: 5:24

So I was really taking over the counter drugs, you know, help ease the pain, which helps, but it never really solved my problem because my headaches always came back. So then I started dating my now husband, jacob, when we were over here at Carlsbad High and I was 15, and then he learned that little bit about me and he goes hey, my parents are chiropractors, they can help you go see them. And being a 15 year old, I'm like I don't have neck pain, I don't have back pain. Why would I go see a chiropractor? That doesn't make any sense, anyway. So I started getting adjusted and actually looked at my x-rays. They took x-rays on me right away of my neck and the curve in my neck was literally going in the opposite direction. My head was going super far forward and they said to me hey, this is the cause of your headaches. So I started getting adjusted and actually corrected the curve in my neck, it's going in the right direction now, and I have not had a headache migraine since at all.

Speaker 1: 6:24

So for listeners who of course don't know this yet, I also have attended your office many times for adjustments, and so I have the same old tech neck situation, which has really improved. What I really liked about the care that you and your husband and in-laws provide is that it feels more well-rounded than just showing up for five minutes and getting cracked and then leaving. Because of the at-home exercises too, which is really great, but let's bring this back.

Speaker 1: 6:59

So how does that work? Why did and I know you've told me in the past too that having the adjustments done and also impacted your cycle? But how is that all connected? How are those pieces fitting together?

Speaker 2: 7:12

No, great question. So obviously your brain controls everything in your body, right? So how it does that is, it constantly sends messages down your spinal cord and out through your nerves to everything in your body. So your heart to beat, your lungs to breathe, you to digest what you had for breakfast, your cycles, it's going to your, you know your ovaries, and when your spine's in the correct position, you want to have it front to back, perfectly straight up and down, and then, from the side view, have three pretty curves. Okay Now, as I said earlier, we see a lot of families in our office and the other day there was this little boy and he goes oh you're, your skull is like your brain helmet.

Speaker 2: 7:56

And I'm like, yes, so if your skull, I know I was like I'm gonna use that, but if your skull is your brain helmet, of course your spine is like your spinal cord helmet. So it's so important to have it in the proper position, because what can happen is your spine can shift out of that proper alignment. That could look like so many different things. It could be one hip higher than the other, or rotated, individual vertebrae rotating, and we're talking so slight, like ever so slightly little millimeters here, or more global shifts. As I was saying in my story, my neck was literally going in the opposite direction. We see that all the time. So any of those shifts or misalignments, that's called a subluxation and that can definitely cause pain. And that's the main reason why people go to a chiropractor is because they're in pain, right. But from going through it myself, what I really learned is chiropractic is so much more than pain, because those nerves aren't just controlling your pain levels, right, they're going to all of those vital organs that I just mentioned, right, and so much more.

Speaker 2: 9:04

So it's not uncommon when I'm working with, let's say, you know, a young woman who's just getting her cycle, or maybe has been cycling for a long time, she has really, really painful periods or really irregular periods. Commonly, what I see is I'll be working with a young woman who's cycling, who has a really painful cycles or really irregular cycles, and I take X-rays of them and I see in their low back that L2, that goes directly to the nerves. Those nerves go directly to the organs of reproduction. There's an immense amount of compression on them, right? And how do you think those organs are working if there's compression on the nerve controlling the organs? Not great right.

Speaker 2: 9:52

So a lot of times and this is my story too that when I started getting adjusted, sure I came in for headaches, but I noticed that my not only did my headaches go away, but my cycles literally regulated. I had a cycle one time in high school that lasted an entire summer, and then the next it was my freshman year, and then the next year I had it just like disappeared. It was so out of whack, like so deeply out of whack, so that was huge for me to get and with any young girl you know what I mean Any woman in general to get your cycle regulated. But the whole point behind it, the whole idea behind it, is, if you take the pressure off the nerves for a long enough period of time, your body can then do the healing your body's designed to heal. So chiropractic is all about releasing that inside healing.

Speaker 2: 10:44

It's called your innate intelligence. Your innate intelligence refers to the power and the intelligence within your body to know exactly what to do. You know, like growing a baby. You don't have to think about. Oh, let me like grow a heart today or like grow fingernails?

Speaker 2: 11:04

I don't know. Your body just does it because it knows how to do it, you know. And the labor process it's so beautiful. So the body was created in such a beautiful way that chiropractic. The whole goal behind it is to help your body to heal naturally on its own.

Speaker 1: 11:19

I think that was a really great rundown. And just to make sure that I'm hearing you right, or like to put it into my brain's terms, when our spine is in proper alignment, all of our nerves are able to operate optimally and that is just inherently going to help to create an environment where there's less inflammation or less stress. I love to talk about inflammation and stress around here and we know that that's macarate for our cycles. So overall, it's just mitigating that inflammation and that's what is helping to restore a cycle's regularity or mitigate pain. Did I? Is that a accurate synopsis?

Speaker 2: 11:58

Yeah, that's great. It's essentially you know your brain and your nervous system control everything, all the function and healing in your body, so let's just make sure there's no damage or compression on it.

Speaker 1: 12:10

Okay, that's awesome when it comes to like the top couple of things that you see patients doing, or maybe not doing, that are leading to inflammation, or like worsening alignment, like what are some of those top things or what should people consider when they're going about their daily life?

Speaker 2: 12:30

Yeah. So first off, on the inflammation and I look a lot towards diet in that aspect and seed oils, that is like the number one thing I see, cause, as we all know, health trends go up and down and food trends go up and down, you know quite quickly. But I think what's cool lately in the world of like nutrition and health and food is that seed oils people are becoming much more aware of them, and I'm talking the canola oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil those are all really synthetic inflammatory oils and I think when people are grocery shopping, a lot of times these food producers are so good at convincing you something's healthy, but then when you actually take a look at the ingredients, I don't even look at the. You know how many calories, how much fat, protein, like sometimes I do but I go first to the ingredients and I'm looking at okay, do I know what these ingredients even are? And sure, I know what canola oil is, but, like, where does that come from? You know we're familiar with the word, but yeah, Hello.

Speaker 1: 13:41

Whatever a canola was, I know it's so crazy, exactly so.

Speaker 2: 13:47

Anyway, yeah, focusing on lowering information by literally just eating real food that your grandma would know what it is. You know what I mean. So on the other end of things, where positioning can come into play and especially ergonomics, there's a lot of things, but you already mentioned it. Technic is rampant and it is not good. Actually, there was a study that just came out recently that showed men over 60 years old they have even one inch of forward head posture, so that's your head going forward. Then it increases their risk of Alzheimer's and dementia exponentially and that's just one inch Forward.

Speaker 2: 14:33

Yeah, exactly, so it's that curve in your neck. I cannot harp on it enough. It is so incredibly crucial and important. And not only the curve, but the position of your head, because if the position of your head is way out in front of your chest, way out in front of your shoulders, that shifts the weight bearing of your entire body and that's not only causing neck pain, of course, and pain between the shoulder blades and in your shoulders, because your muscles are all working overtime to try and bring that head back over your shoulders, but it shifts the weight bearing entirely that it even affects your low back. So even when some people come in with low back issues, I look at their x-rays and I'm like dude, it's your neck, you know what I mean. So it's a whole body approach really.

Speaker 1: 15:23

Yeah, that is really shocking and surprising to me that that technique like that, or the one inch you mentioned, can lead to Alzheimer's and dementia. I read a lot about you know, like insulin resistance and you know what can, what ramifications can that have on your health? And you know, lately have been reading like Alzheimer's as like type three diabetes, kind of which. What am I getting at here, I guess, to say it's all, it's all interrelated, whether it's like totally, or did they in that study that you mentioned like outline, like how exactly is are they tied together?

Speaker 2: 16:00

Yeah, great question. Alzheimer's and dementia, though, those are neurodegenerative disorders, right. And the position of your neck, your spinal cord is going inside of the position of your neck, right. Your spine is that spinal cord helmet, so when it's stretched forward it's tethered forward, so that affects your neurology as a whole. A lot of times chiropractors are referred to as doctors of the nervous system, because that's we're literally working with the neurology day in and day out. We just refer to it a little bit different. We're looking at the spine right. So when your spine is stressed, your neurology is stressed. I mean, we're just talking about stress. It's not going to give you any favors, right, it's not going to do you any favors. So the positioning makes such a huge difference. Yes, in the short term, because it comes up as it shows up as pain, but more so in the long term because it's doing that damage day in and day out, just over a longer period of time.

Speaker 1: 17:03

When it comes to daily sort of things in my everyday life that I can do to have better posture. I guess one mini goal that I have is when I'm driving in my car, I just want my head to be back, actually against my head rest, and I don't know. When I'm laying down in bed, I try to be up a little higher on my pillow, so it's not just my head that's kind of cranked forward. Is there anything else? Do you have any reminders that you give yourself throughout the day? Oh yeah, definitely so.

Speaker 2: 17:31

The thing with being in your car, oh my goodness, I think we've all kind of experienced this at one point at one point. You know, when you wear your hair in a ponytail or a bun, like at the very back of your head, and you it pushes your head forward, when you're in the car, just take out the ponytail, Just because you're right, you want your head, your actual head, directly on that headrest, right. But here's the thing with posture. You don't have to puff out your chest and have this crazy like type of posture. It really is as simple as first, off, make sure your shoulders aren't rounding forward, right, and once they're at a neutral and not rounding forward, then check in on where your ear is sitting. Okay, you want your ear to be directly above your shoulder, and for some people that means okay, full double chin mode you know what I mean, and it's super uncomfortable.

Speaker 2: 18:27

But that's what I see most with patients coming into the office is because they feel that really oh wow, my head's supposed to be here. That feels so weird and uncomfortable. I'm like, yeah, absolutely. But when they start to go through our process and correct the curve in their neck, then it becomes their new normal and it feels so much more comfortable because that's where their head should be. I experienced that firsthand too.

Speaker 1: 18:50

Do you have any recommendations when it comes to ergonomics and just simple, quick changes that we can make in that regard?

Speaker 2: 18:56

So, when it comes to ergonomics, first off your phone, so a lot of us will look down at our phone. Just bring your phone up to eye level. I promise you you won't look like an absolute freak, like it's okay, we're going to make it cool. Just bring your phone up a little bit higher to eye level, just so your head isn't in that reverse direction for majority of the day. Now, when it comes to sitting on the couch watching TV or sitting in bed, you want to make sure that your neck isn't being pushed forward. I know it's the coziest, comfiest position, but it really isn't doing you any favors and it's only going to harm you in the long run. So, and even in the short run too. And then, lastly, with your pillow that you sleep in.

Speaker 2: 19:42

I get this question all the time as a chiropractor, like, oh, what pillow, what mattress and all that, but with your pillow, the softness of it, you, the best kind of pillow, in my opinion, is one with a dip in the center. Okay, because if you're laying on your side, your neck can still be supported and then your head can be in that neutral position. With any pillow that you use, that's the goal. You want your head to be in a neutral position in whatever position you're in. So on your back or on your side are the best sleeping positions. If you're a stomach sleeper, I'm so sorry to give you bad news, but yikes.

Speaker 1: 20:23

I would imagine too correct me if I'm wrong in this assumption that if folks are doing back exercises to build that muscle which is kind of pulling your shoulder blades together and kind of naturally pulling your head back, that that might be one thing too for the you know, amongst the other zillion reasons why building more muscle is going to be beneficial for our health.

Speaker 2: 20:46

Okay. So it depends on your fitness level a little bit, I think, because if you're just going super hard in the gym and you know our day in, day out gym rat, sometimes you can really strengthen your back but your head is left in the dust still in front of your chest. You know what I mean. Yeah, so it's really a dual, dual action of you need to strengthen your deep muscles in your neck as well as mold the actual curve of your neck.

Speaker 2: 21:16

So there's a lot of different factors that can go into it and especially if anyone's ever been in like a car accident or had a bad injury, yale came out with this study saying that a combined speed of only eight miles an hour is guaranteed to cause with lash. So a lot of times I have patients come in and they say, like I asked them oh, have you ever been in a car accident? And I know, or just little ones, like less than 25 miles an hour. Those do a lot more damage than people actually realize because with lash, even at you know, 10 miles an hour really stresses your ligaments and those ligaments become weakened and then there's instability in your neck. So your neck is kind of like not flopping around but it has more of a tendency to go forward if you're not, you know, doing anything about it.

Speaker 1: 22:08

So interesting when those ligaments do get stretched out or if they were to be stretched out in an accident like you described. Do they eventually, I guess, go back to normal if you train them, or is it like building your muscle memory to hold your head back?

Speaker 2: 22:24

Yeah, good question. So ligaments are kind of like taffy Once you stretch them out, they're not coming back, they're not elastic, right. So we teach some pretty specific exercises that are really simple but they're working on the deep muscles of the neck, in the front and the back, so that your little itty-bitty muscles can strengthen and pick up the slack of those damaged ligaments. So there's little things that you can do here and there to really strengthen those muscles, and I'm not talking about whenever we're talking about posture and correcting your posture. I'm not talking about your big muscles like your quads, your biceps, your pecs. You know not those muscles. I'm talking really the tiny, specific muscles that you don't have to work out. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 23:13

That aren't?

Speaker 2: 23:14

oh, I'm going to go to the gym and like work on these. They're really tiny, specific muscles that turn on and off in really specific ways.

Speaker 1: 23:26

Hey team, let's take a super quick break from this conversation with Dr Anna because I want to share with you some information about a sponsor for today's episode. As always, my sponsor today is my own one-on-one hormone coaching. Did you know that you and I can work together one-on-one? If you're somebody whose period is missing, if you have a really painful period, if your cycles are irregular or if you're preparing for conception and you just want to make sure everything is good to go and get some guidance one-on-one, then I'm your girl. You can reach out to me either through the link in the show notes or go over to BridgetteWaltoncom slash coaching to learn more about how we can work together. But ultimately, all I want to do is help you make sure that you're confident in your body, that you have a plan of diet and lifestyle changes or tweaks really to make to get you where you want to be. So if this is something you think would be helpful for you, if you want to learn more, set up a free one-on-one call with me through the link in the show notes and we can talk more about how coaching might be a good fit for you to get you to where you want to be. All right.

Speaker 1: 24:29

Now back to my conversation with Dr Anna. Maybe this is a good time to pivot a little bit to talk more about nutrition, because you've done some nutrition coaching in the past. You put out there a lot of great content when it comes to well nutrition and metabolic health and those kinds of things on your Instagram. So what has your experience been there? And I'm so curious again about what are the things that you saw your clients doing that you know. If you could pick your top three for, like taking, maybe consider not doing, or yes, doing X, y and Z, what do you think?

Speaker 2: 25:06

Totally. I have probably tried every fad diet in the book in the past, dude everything. I've been paleo, pescatarian, vegetarian, vegan, keto. You know just all the things. I've done it all, and you know.

Speaker 2: 25:25

What's funny, though, is I probably stuck most to more of a paleo-esque type of diet, and even when I was super strict paleo you know eating all organic, taking all the right supplements, getting adjusted regularly, exercising frequently, doing all the quote-unquote right things you know that we all think are so great. I was still having crazy cold hands and feet. I was peeing like 20 times a day which wake up call like that's not normal and I was having some pretty painful periods. My periods regulated because of chiropractic and they weren't painful in the beginning, but then, gosh, it was like in 2018 where they started out of nowhere to get incredibly painful. It was so weird and so painful that it brought me to like throw up sometimes even, which was horrific, so they got really bad.

Speaker 2: 26:30

I'm like what is going on? Like I'm doing all the quote-unquote right things, but you can believe that your diet or the things that you're doing are, you know, the best of the best, but your symptoms will always speak louder. So that's when I found the work of his. His name is Dr Ray P and he focuses all on the metabolism and metabolic health and I guess kind of now it's referred to as pro metabolic but it it just rocked me because I had all well, not all, but a lot of the checks where he's like, okay, check in, see if you can check in with the health of your metabolism and if you have these signs and symptoms, hey, it's not the best, like it needs, it needs some help. It's your body's way of screaming hey, help me. You know and, as I said, like cold hands and feet, I was paying all the time mood swings, pms, painful periods, you know the whole line.

Speaker 1: 27:28

When it comes to metabolism, like you know, I think our brains all go back to middle school and it's like oh, the slim kids have high metabolism and the heavier kids have a slow metabolism, or we hear adults say that. But of course we know that it's like more complex than that and that your metabolic health is more than just do you digest food fast or slow. So maybe that would be a good place to come back to of like, what is our metabolism? Like, what does that mean, why do we care and, ultimately, what does that say about our health?

Speaker 2: 28:02

Definitely. Oh gosh, the metabolism. Everyone thinks that, not everyone. The large majority of people, as you said, kind of view metabolism as and this was me too oh, you know, they're thin, so they have a fast metabolism. Oh, our metabolism slows down as we age. We're not in control of our metabolism, and that could actually not be further than the truth. The metabolism actually encompasses every cellular job in your entire body, every cellular function. So that includes breathing, digestion, your cycles, your moods, your libido, your skin and so much more. So when I learned that, I'm like, oh, uh-oh, what's going on? So, yeah, it was really big to me seeing the difference between what a slow metabolism actually looks like and what a robust metabolism looks like, and how to get there.

Speaker 1: 29:01

Yeah, what are those steps or some of those ideas to keep in mind?

Speaker 2: 29:06

Yeah, definitely. So, the first three things. I guess I'm going to add one more the first four things that I really tell patients. And this is exactly what I started with too. All I did. I didn't even change what I was eating like types of food. All I did was change these three things and I saw a huge difference within one cycle.

Speaker 2: 29:26

The next cycle I had I literally didn't even know it was coming. It was so easy and simple, so literally these are the only things I changed. I started eating more. I was eating a truckload before, but it was all really like empty calorie type of foods, like a ton of vegetables, a ton of fruit and protein Great, I could eat a ton of that but it was still coming out to like 1600, 1700 calories a day. And so I slowly but surely bumped it up and now I eat around like 2200 or 2400 calories a day. So more nutrient dense foods and but anyway, I digress I started eating more and then I started eating breakfast. Now I was totally that girly where I would wake up early, have my coffee first thing, go for a hit workout or run and then maybe have breakfast. And if I did have breakfast, it'd be like a green juice or a smoothie with like barely any protein in it, you know, and that was destroying me and destroying my hormones.

Speaker 2: 30:35

So I changed that right away. I started eating breakfast within an hour of waking up. I started eating more. As I said, coffee was not breakfast I always had something in my stomach before having coffee and then I started focusing more on protein, and protein from animals specifically. I started focusing more on things like eggs and beef and poultry milk.

Speaker 2: 31:03

Anyway, all to say, I really focused on eating my body weight in grams of protein per day, and that took a while. It wasn't like an overnight thing. It wasn't okay. I'm eating 1600 calories one day and 2400 the next day. That took time and that is the number one thing I could really say is that took time. But besides, from the nutritional aspect, those things like breakfast within an hour coffee isn't breakfast eat enough and focus on protein. Those are the only things I changed and saw huge differences. But also a key part of that kind of on the exercise thing, part of on the exercise side of things was that I stopped doing crazy high cardio and switched to more walking and weightlifting and wow, that made such a huge difference.

Speaker 1: 31:59

I think we have so much overlap in our previous experiments.

Speaker 2: 32:05

Let's call them Totally yeah.

Speaker 1: 32:07

I also was vegan for a while and also had a variety of like oh, let me try, yeah, x, y or Z, which now I am a regular old omnivore which I've been loving. But also, yeah, I was in a part of my life before where I would do so many high intensity workouts and we're always probably eating less or trying to eat less and I'm like, oh, why am I not becoming more lean and not that that is something that you want to really try to do at the same time that you're supporting your hormonal health.

Speaker 1: 32:42

But, I guess I'm saying that all to say we're the same. I'm just a girly who wants to go for a walk. Do like, do a little lifting, then lifting a lot lately.

Speaker 2: 32:53

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 32:55

And then, like we're not going to do anything like breakfast, like let's just, we don't need to do anything crazy here. Exactly One question that I have for you, because for me, when it comes to making sure I get enough protein, I can be so shit at planning ahead for myself sometimes. Oh, yes, like, do you have any good recommendations when it comes to like, do you sit down every Sunday and, like, figure out your plan for the week, or how do you actually make sure that you're getting enough protein and like falling through with your plan, and then I try to get some protein per meal at least, and then so let's say, I get 30 grams per meal, that's 90 right there.

Speaker 2: 33:33

And then I try to fill in the gaps with snacks in between those meals. So I'll do like a morning snack and afternoon snack and then after dinner like my little bedtime snack and try to fill those gaps and but I'm not a huge meal planner per se. Like a prepper, I should say I'm not a huge meal prepper, but I'm more of an ingredient prepper meal planner, if that makes sense. I think I'm picking up what you're putting down. Yeah, I think I'm all like prep ingredients that I have ready to go in my fridge so I can put together quick and easy meals.

Speaker 2: 34:15

Taking lunch on the go. Those chicken sausages are so easy and, like a tuna salad or an egg salad, super easy. I eat yogurt almost every single day. Greek yogurt has a ton of protein in it and both of them are really good. I cook my rice and bone broth. That gives you more minerals and especially a little bit more protein in it. And I use collagen throughout the day probably two scoops a day. So once you get kind of in a good groove with knowing you know, okay, this is roughly how much protein I need, then it gets really simple and easy to just kind of run with it.

Speaker 1: 34:59

I guess my takeaway overall my mental note to self is well, and to everybody listening now is maybe in the evenings I'll take a couple of minutes to like, yeah, cut up, or like, take the chicken out of the package and marinate it or do something so that the next day I have a couple fewer steps and, yeah, maybe I'll just try that, we'll give it a go. I'll put a picture of you on my vision board or on my fridge or something and wish me luck. I know that we've talked about this before too, how it's like hormone health, metabolic health, all of these things. It's not just like it's not just taking a supplement to augment X or, you know, doing exercising in order to get rid of the problem. It's not just taking a supplement in order to address one specific thing.

Speaker 1: 35:47

Those are important and helpful, but it's like the lifestyle, like living a healthy lifestyle. You have to make changes and I don't know if I want to say concessions, but it's. You can't just like add these little factors into your life and think that like, okay, now I'm healthy. I guess what am I getting out of this? I don't know. I'm just wondering if you have any thoughts or recommendations, like what are things that you do that are part of your kind of lifestyle, of healthy living.

Speaker 2: 36:19

again, in the eyes of hormone, health and metabolic health, totally, yeah, I would say I think I would call these like my non-negotiables. These are my non-negotiables for what I do on a daily basis to you know, focus on hormone health, my metabolism and just like your overall well-being and lifestyle. Because it's totally as you said. It's not just, hey, take this supplement or and it'll change everything. You know what I mean. Or take this, whatever, this pill, potion, lotion, you know it's like it's not going to solve your problem, it's you got to put in the work. You know what I mean. So, and everything holistic and natural, like doesn't happen overnight. Nothing good happens overnight. You know what I mean. Yeah, I agree, it just takes time and that's funny enough. That's actually one of the main principles of chiropractic is everything takes time. So my non-negotiables are kind of what I already went over Like I have breakfast within an hour of waking up non-negotiable and I make sure that I'm eating protein with it.

Speaker 2: 37:29

Another non-negotiable is movement for me. So movement, I have to get outside. I have to get outside if I'm moving my body and in the sun If it's sunny outside, I like force myself to go outside. So, jacob, my husband actually made a rule. We were in high school and it was summer and he goes yeah, I'm not on my phone, computer or watching TV when the sun's out all summer and he made that rule and I'm like, okay, I kind of actually love that, but let's keep it going longer. I mean so if the sun is out, I want to be soaking in the sun for at least 30 minutes to an hour every day.

Speaker 2: 38:13

So I go on a lot of walks, A lot of walks, yep, and it doesn't have to be like, oh, I'm going to go on a six mile walk today. I think I'm going to go in a little 20 minute, 15 minute walk and that will make a difference, it really will. So, walking, getting in the sun, I have a gratitude journal and, honestly, dude, that does something. Really it sets your day up in a way that not a lot of other things can.

Speaker 2: 38:44

So, waking up, getting in the sun even if it's cloudy outside, just getting outside and getting some fresh air, writing down three to five things you're grateful for, and having some breakfast. I think morning routines are really important and that's pretty much what mine looks like is gratitude outside, breakfast Boom.

Speaker 1: 39:04

Yeah, I wish I could like architect my whole day or my whole life around what I would like my ideal morning routine to be. So, right, we're getting closer and closer to it. But, yeah, just to just to echo what you said, though, yeah, I think that gratitude it is such an important thing, and actually all of the things that you mentioned really that are supportive of a digestive system that's working the way it should be, that you're making all the right juices and things that you need to in order to break down the foods that you're eating, and just you know that's where it all begins, so I think that's a really great way to wrap it up and great things to incorporate into our daily lives and activities. Well, it's been so fun to have you here and talk with you today. I really appreciate you, and same Would you let us know, like, how can listeners connect with you after this? Where can they find you?

Speaker 2: 40:01

Yeah, definitely so. On Instagram, my handle is thefreshpursuit and that's pretty much across the board TikTok, instagram. And then I have a YouTube channel where I definitely go much more in depth with a lot of nutritional concepts. I have workouts on there. Health and wellness and lifestyle tips in general is all on my YouTube and you can just search the fresh pursuits and you'll find me there.

Speaker 1: 40:29

Dr Anna, thank you again for joining me this week for a conversation and, dear listener, if you found this conversation to be helpful, would you consider sending it to a friend or a sister? I know that she will appreciate it and you'd also help to grow the I'm hormonal community, which I would be really thankful for. As a last note, consider subscribing to I'm hormonal if you want to see these episodes show up automatically in your feed. Now. I am so grateful for you listening and especially for those of you who have made it all the way to the end here. Don't forget to connect with Dr Anna on Instagram at thefreshpursuit, and you can also connect with me on Instagram at Bridget Walton. See you here next time. Until then, be well.

Speaker 2: 41:16

I love butter. I think butter is a super food. Get out of the way kale, spinach, all that crap. Now it's butter.