Mood swings, breakouts, cravings? Yep, it’s not just you—it’s hormones, babe. Let’s talk about it. 💁‍♀️✨

Insulin is your master hormone. Drinking caffeine

first thing in the morning and not eating breakfast can lead to insulin resistance. And NEWS FLASH, Alani and Celsius are not healthy energy drinks. Doing this daily is a habit that needs to be changed.

Our world is full of hormone disruptors. This episode is to educate you and to encourage you to begin with one habit to change and then stack another one and another and so forth and so on.

Sleep is so important to overall health. Some things that makes sleep hard are looking at a screen while falling asleep. Use blue light blocker glasses or screen protector. The best thing is to not sleep with a TV on at all. Charging your phone beside your bed also emits tons of EMFs and can disrupt sleep. Charge is across the room from your bed. If you wake up at 3am every morning, this indicates high cortisol and is stressing your body out effecting your insulin levels.

Birth control for acne? These are synthetic hormones and will cause problems in the future. That acne means you ned to get hormone disruptors out of your life and diet. Seed oils are one example and another one is dryer sheets.

Try eating 30g protein at each meal, eating 3 meals a day and try to avoid being a snacker. This will help you maintain steady blood sugar levels throughout the day.

As a female we have 4 different versions of ourself based off the 4 different variations of our cycle. (this will be covered in another episode)

Addressing the habits that will help you reverse insulin resistance, no caffeine first thing in the morning. Wait to have it with food. If you dont address this it can lead to PCOS later. But you can reverse that and it doesn't have to be crazy complicated.

Plastics are another big endocrine disruptor. Try to get away from drinking plastic bottled water. Use a refillable water bottle and filtered water. Also store your food in glass containers and DO NOT heat up leftovers in plastic.

Use wool dryer balls instead of dryer sheets which have been proven to mimic estrogen. Spiders hate dryer sheets so use them to repell spiders instead. You can scent the dryer balls with essential oils.

Cosmetics are another thing to take a deep dive into. Look at ingredients and follow accounts on social media where they educate their audience. Perfume especially can be harmful because we mainly spray it directly on the thyroid. DIME beauty is a clean brand but again try to avoid spraying anything on your thyroid.

Feminine products swap, organic matters here! Vaginal tissue is so thin and easily absorbs toxins. Do a deep dive about "forever chemicals" and educate yourself on these topics. Knowledge is power and I am simple telling you these things to encourage you to get curious about these things and learn all you can.

Hormone check, ask your DR to check certain things like vitamin D3, (optimal needs to be 80-90) https://amzn.to/45YEMeI Also check B12, you need a methylated version to properly absorb. On the topic of vitamins, choose a prenatal vitamin that has folate (methylated) instead of folic acid. Also focus on your gut health because your future self with thank you when you have a baby. We pass along our own gut health to our baby.

Gut health can also help mental health issues! Reach out if you want help. Birth Control can also lead to poor gut health. There are plenty of apps and devices out there you can use to track your cycle and learn when you are ovulating.

Taking too many supplements can also mess up your gut due to most of them having poor ingredients. Also you're filling up on those powder drinks and not eating real food.

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Simple habits to tweak to change your health.

Mornings: the goal is slow and peaceful. Get up 15-30 min earlier if you're always rushed. Drink electrolytes, and essential amino acids. this can be tracked in macros as 30g protein which is helping you get 30g protein within 30 min of waking.

Put your bare feet in the grass and let the sun hit your face while you drink the mixture. Take 10 deep breaths in through your nose and exhale out your mouth.

This one habit of letting the sun hit your face in the morning before you look at a screen, sets your melatonin production for the evening to help you sleep better that night.

If you plan out your breakfast and make it on Sunday,

then you have a high protein healthy breakfast to eat every day. With your coffee of course. Trying to stop drinking coffee on an empty stomach first thing in the morning. Because this can spike cortisol levels and cause insulin resistance. The goal is protein! If you're in a calorie deficit and not hitting protein, then you are losing muscle. If you're in a calorie deficit but you're hitting 30g of protein at breakfast, lunch, and dinner plus the essential aminos, then you're losing fat.

Movement is very important, and if you're just getting started you can start by walking 3 days a week and doing an at home resistance band workout for strength training. The bottom line is MOVE your body 5-6 days a week for a minimum of 30 min each day.

Goal for longevity is to walk with intention and do weighted exercise to improve bone density.

Is eating healthy expensive? I beg to differ! Go to the store with a plan and only by what you need! wash your fruit and veggies immediately and chop them up so you will eat them! If you fail to plan you will plan to fail. Going through the drive through and eating out for breakfast and lunch all week is what's killing the budget.

At the end of the day, try to go to bed 15-30 min earlier than normal. Try avoiding a screen 30 min -1 hour before bed. You can wear blue light blocking glasses and get a blue light blocking screen protector. Plug your phone in across the room from your bed. Make sure your room is dark and free from clutter. Let your room be your sanctuary! This can really help with your sleep. These new habits can help sleep, energy, stress, and digestion, including bowel patterns and habits.

Body Health essential aminos

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Today. I want to talk about the truth about doing it all as women. What I was doing personally, and so many of my friends, family, and even women, that I just talk to on a daily basis is we are doing it all. We are taking care of everyone else, doing for everyone else.

So I would like to offer you what if you dropped the pressure and got real about the balance? And by that I mean, what if all the pressure for you to do all of the things was actually you putting it on yourself? The balance comes in by pausing. taking a look at what someone else could do, that you are doing, taking that off your plate and to slow down a bit.

when our bodies spike up a high cortisol level, which is a stress hormone that releases this cortisol. It is because we are doing too much and going too fast and never allowing ourselves time to rest.

So what if we took on a different role in which we delegated. We said, No, I can't do that right now. It is so good for your body to take that rest. That's how our cells turnover. That can be such a simple solution. Yet when things start to happen and our health starts to take a turn. Even if we want to do a holistic approach. we still get caught up in the thought of. I have to go see a holistic doctor or functional practitioner.

They will offer you holistic solutions, but it comes with a price tag, and oftentimes it comes with a protocol that is so overcomplicated that sticking to it oftentimes doesn't happen.

you can take a simple approach. and oftentimes it starts with the simple act of boundaries, taking things off your plate.

My 1st ministry was to my home and to our girls. I wanted to start homeschooling our kindergartner and I needed to really focus on doing that and doing it well. So what I'm here to tell you is that it's okay to say, no, it's okay to delegate.

I have so many beautiful, lovely women in my life who keep their grandchildren. They work full time, maybe 2 or 3 jobs, and they do not take time for themselves. Exercise class gets put on the back burner because the grandkids are out for summer. What's happening is that cortisol is continuing to rise. which is doing more damage than you know. It can cause heart palpitations. it definitely disrupts your sleep, which is very important, and it also will cause that midsection weight, gain that no matter what you do, you cannot get it off.

the foundation I found when looking for better health in a simple, holistic way is gut health. blood, sugar, balance, and also reducing inflammation. But what I have found is those things can be achieved through your nutrition through your food when we are so busy that we're going through a drive-through every single day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner over time, those bad seed oils that they cook with. and the poor ingredients in the food that they're using will not only increase our inflammation in our body, but it wrecks your gut health, and then, when you have high cortisol, this is the perfect storm to take you down.

Maybe you shift and go to a functional practitioner. And here is what I'm seeing in that area. the protocol is so complicated. Remember, you're stressed out. You're tired. You don't eat well, you don't sleep well. This overwhelming protocol is not what you need.

You need something simple, and that's why I feel like finding a holistic health coach is actually the better approach, because most of the time the coach is going to meet you You don't even have to be stressed out about going out in public and sitting in a waiting room going in a doctor's office. You simply can stay in the comfort of your home. and that coach is going to meet you where you're at. Listen wholeheartedly, and offer simple solutions. and that coach is going to meet you where you're at. Listen wholeheartedly, and offer simple solutions.

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When I 1st started having gut health issues. I knew I wanted to do a holistic approach. So there was a local chiropractor in town who was doing a cellular healing program. So I went and met with him. He sold me on the idea. It was very expensive. I paid for it up front, and then he gave me probably 8 bottles of supplements, and I was told that my diet needed to consist of only beef or venison, homemade beef, bone broth. and I believe I could have eggs.

He wanted me to take these supplements and eat like that for 15 days. 15 days later and start the fiber, supplement. It immediately bloats me out to where I look like I'm 7 months pregnant, and I cannot go to the bathroom.

I do not feel any better. I absolutely cannot stand the smell or taste of homemade beef broth. So, apparently either, was that I had Candida overgrowth in my gut. pivoted away from that program that I paid a lot of money for. Found a nutrition coach

everything you're eating is absolutely not being absorbed because your labs look like you're severely malnourished compared to your diet. So she told me that she wanted me to do a stool sample, because she was fairly positive that I had candida overgrowth, which I had no idea at the time what that even meant. But let me tell you what it means Basically, it is a yeast that coats your entire intestinal lining, and it is so It's almost like it has a shell around it that protects it like, think of a pill and eat shrimp. It thrives off of sugar.

that will make these tiny permeable holes of your intestinal lining, which leads to leaky gut. But what happens is, your body in turn starts to attack itself. That shows up as an autoimmune disorder. It can look different in each individual person, because we're all uniquely made up.

So different practitioners use different protocols like I said, a lot of them will put you on the most overly complicated protocol ever. and it does not have to be that complicated. So what I found was a really good probiotic. and I used to think probiotics had to be a certain brand name kept in the refrigerator, and like gazillion you know, cultures. I learned you really want a soil-based organism probiotic that can be shelf stable.

and can have the ability to have digestive enzymes that can break down that shell covering the yeast. and then have antifungals to kill the yeast. so a good magnesium and there are a lot of types of magnesium. They all do different things. So you want to make sure you get the magnesium that helps you go to the bathroom. also you want a gentle form of it. So you're not running to the bathroom like you're prepping for a colonoscopy. You're actually going to the bathroom like a normal person should. And let me stop here and tell you normal bowel movements. You should have one per meal that you ate 24 h prior. So if you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner the next 24 h you should go to the bathroom 3 different times to eliminate breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

if you're eating one meal a day, that's fine. But if you eat 3 meals a day that's not going to work.

some protocols are so complicated and yet aren't really addressing the root problem. It didn't matter how long I ate beef, eggs, and bone broth. It wasn't doing anything. It was trying to heal the gut. It was giving my gut a rest, but it wasn't breaking down the shell of the Candida, killing the Candida.

once you detox the sugar out of your body and get on the right supplementation to kill the Candida. Get it out of your body. You're gonna feel so much better, and you're not going to blow every time you eat fiber.

So that's my simple solution for starting off on a gut. Health regimen that will make you feel better, help you absorb your food. Better, nourish your body better, and also give you more energy. At the same time.

Hello! Welcome! Welcome! I'm Alicia Trotter, your host of trotting through life today. I want to start by sharing a little bit of my personal story, how my wellness journey began and what I've learned, and why I'm passionate about making it simple.

So let's back up a little bit to 2,007 I had just found out I was pregnant with my second, had a 2 year old with me. We traveled to Georgia to tell my grandparents that I was pregnant while I was there. During that visit, my grandfather, who was on a waiting list for an artificial heart who is also on oxygen full time, was outside showing my parents something to do with a car, because he always loved to tinker.

I was in the house still with my two-year-old. He came in and immediately went into the bathroom. When he came out he was fumbling in his pocket of his shirt for his nitroglycerin and the color of his face was gray. and I immediately knew something was wrong. He was trying to take deep breaths through his nasal cannula to get in the oxygen, and he sat down on the couch. He had a pacemaker defibrillator. All of a sudden it started shocking him and going off, and I knew he was having a heart attack. So I ran outside to where my parents were leaving and told my mom, you don't need to leave. We need to call 9 1 1. Grandpa's having a heart attack. So my grandmother went inside, sat down on the couch, held his hand, and comforted him as he passed away.

I called 9 1 1, and my mom called my aunt, who was a cardiovascular surgical nurse. By the time the ambulance arrived he was gone they hooked him up to the defibrillator, and of course it showed that he still had a heartbeat because he had a pacemaker. But we told them he had a DNR. So we had to provide it before they would not resuscitate.

Luckily my grandmother knew where it was, but that moment spiked my cortisol and sent my adrenals into fight or flight mode, which at the time I didn't even know what that was. Not being able to do anything to help or to save him was heartbreaking.

So fast forward to the time I had the baby another little girl. And I didn't realize at the time that when you get spun into an adrenal fatigue moment, an adrenal rush, cortisol moment. And then you are also say, pregnant how devastating that is to the body. Maybe you've heard of the body keeps score right when there's trauma. When there's injury the body keeps score.

So have the baby, life goes on, but I am barely surviving. I'm losing weight at such a rapid pace that people are asking my husband if I have an eating disorder.

I was eating tons of calories because I was starving, but because I was losing weight so fast and my breast milk supply was diminishing. The baby wouldn't take a bottle. It was just all of these things compiling on top of each other, and I did not realize that my adrenals still thought I was in the chase of a lifetime. So what ended up happening was, I was exhausted, thinking it was from having a toddler and a newborn, and so I would wake up 1st thing in the morning, go straight to the coffee pot, brew that coffee, put the sugar and cream in it. and live off of that coffee until about lunchtime. Then I would eat lunch. Then I would have to take a nap and then go about the evening.

Go to bed, but I would wake up at like 3 Am. Every single night, and I could not go back to sleep for about 2 h. So, though waking up, not being hungry. The living off the coffee with sugar and cream. The need to take a nap every single day, and the 3 o'clock nighttime wake up! That kept me awake for hours are all signs that I now know are high cortisol. That was a result of my adrenals thinking I was still in the fight of my life.

so years going on of that not knowing what it was or what to do, is what led to insulin resistance that then led to poor gut health.

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What if wellness didn't mean expensive routines, strict diets, or chasing perfection?

Hello, and welcome to trotting through life where we keep things simple, intentional and actually doable.

I'm going to share a little background about who I am. I'm a nurse by education, turned wellness, coach, retreat, host, workshop, leader, and now author of a soon to be published. Allergen, Friendly Cookbook.

My passion is making wellness approachable without all the overwhelm.

I started my blog also called trotting through life back in 2,010, when I was sharing my own health struggles and the journey that it took me on so many doctors, functional practitioners. So much money, spent complicated protocols, and yet I was left really not feeling any better. I knew there had to be a simpler approach that led to feeling better.

And since I've spent years figuring out how to feel good in a realistic way. I learned it wasn't about perfection, but about progress along the way. So each week I'll be sharing simple lifestyle practices, wellness tips and mindset shifts.

I believe in simple solutions that support the body as a whole system. I'll talk about nutrition, habits, hormones, healing, energy and burnout, all without fluff or fear tactics.

You see, I've walked through insulin resistance, adrenal fatigue, gut health, healing breast, implant illness and now, Alpha-gal, syndrome. Through all of this I've learned. Health doesn't have to be perfect, to feel good. It just has to be yours. And I'm here to help you make it simple.

This is not another wellness podcast, that's going to tell you what you're doing wrong. It's a place to be inspired, encouraged, and reminded that small steps matter.

New episodes will drop every Tuesday. So if this sounds like your kind of journey hit, follow, and let's trot through life together. One feel good step at a time.

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