Barbell Shrugged - Testosterone, Sex Hormones & Hormonal Health w/ Laurie Christine King  — Real Chalk #46

Episode Date: October 23, 2018

Laurie Christine King (@lauriechristineking) is a dietetics grad, nutrition coach, educational blogger, and total badass in the nutrition and fitness space who utilizes social media as a free educational platform and specializes in hormone health.   Not only that, but she has a way of saying things that’s much more untraditional than most. Don’t get me wrong, it's always incredibly accurate, insightful, and well researched... It’s also hilarious, witty, and kind of truck driver-ish which makes it incredibly easy to read and listen to. The dynamic duo of Fisch + LCK will have you laughing your ass right out of your seat.   In this episode, we talk extensively on both men and women’s hormone health and cover topics including low testosterone, gynecomastia, testosterone therapy, and how to naturally improve hormone health. We then flip the script for the ladies and talk about something that may be tanking your sex drive, causing thyroid issues, keeping you from seeing gains in the gym, losing fat, or having the body composition you want.   This is the first time I’ve had a topic like this on the show and also the first time I’ve had someone on with a mouth just as dirty as mine. Get ready to learn a TON and have a blast while doing it. Tag and your share with your friends - this is an episode you wan’t want to miss! - Ryan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/rc_king ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please Support our Sponsor @vuori- www.vuoriclothing.com - Use coupon code REALCHALK25   ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/ barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

Chalk Nation, it is time for another Real Chalk episode. This time we're talking about some stuff that I have never talked about yet on the show at all. So we're going testosterone, hormones, talking about birth control, we get into the women's side, we get into the men's side, we talk about optimizing your health, optimizing those hormone levels, what you should do if you're thinking about testosterone replacement therapy, should you take the pill, if so, which kind. It's insane. The amount of knowledge that we get in this one hour, it's got to be the most knowledgeable

episode that I've dropped to date. Not only that, but Lori and myself during the show, we have just so many jokes flying back and forth. She has just as dirty of a mouth as I do, and she has almost the same personality. So it's just absolutely insane, and it makes the episode so easy to listen to, so memorable. And I think that the way that we throw this episode down, you're just never going to forget any of the stuff that we talked about. So without further ado, let's get into this bad boy. I hope you guys learned so much. Please tag us in the show and let me know what you think. This is going to be

an all-time favorite. I absolutely promise you. Before we get into the show, I want to personally sponsor this show with some of the things that I have going on. Not only is this show called Real Chalk, but it is basically a spinoff of my gym that is called Chalk. And I have online programming now that is available to people all over the world. We have thousands of people who sign up and use my workouts every single day. I think I personally have a unique style on my workouts and a very unique way of thinking. I also have my own methodologies. I throw some functional bodybuilding stuff in there.

And I have another class called Sweat, another program on there. And basically what we do is we do a whole bunch of conditioning and we use all the movements in CrossFit except for the heavy barbell stuff. So there's no snatches. There's no clean and jerks. If we do use a bar, it's like something very simple like a front squat or a front rack lunge or something like that. Maybe a sumo deadlift high pull. So those two programs are available via the Wattify app on your phone, and basically you can compare your scores to people all over the world,

which is super fun for some people. Some people don't care about that. And you get access to both programs every single day for $20 a month. For the rest of the month of October, you can type in Real Chalk in all capital letters, and you can get that for free until the month is up. So you go to CrossFitChalk.com, sign up for the online program. It's free. If you don't like it, just let me know, and we'll get that for free until the month is up. So you go to crossfitchalk.com, sign up for the online program. It's free. If you don't like it, just let me know and we'll just cancel you right away. There is no fee at all. Another thing I have going on is my high

intensity bodybuilding program, which a lot of people are really digging. That's just a one-time fee. It's an ebook that I sell on crossfitchalk.com as well. And basically think about basic high intensity interval training. So you're going to have that interval component with some cardio and then the lifting component is going to be bodybuilding biased. So you're going to have like a bench press. You're going to have strict presses,

deadlifts, stuff like that. You're not going to see a whole bunch of ollie lifting. And you're going to have some arm stuff in there, some bodybuilding, like some true bodybuilding stuff in there, but you're still going to get that really fun kind of death on the floor feeling of CrossFit. So I'm calling it high intensity interval bodybuilding, spin off of the word HIIT, and I'm calling it HIB, H-I-B-B. So

I have that, and I also have my 30-day kettlebell program, which is exactly how it sounds. It's just a workout with kettlebells. So if you're ever traveling or you have access to very limited equipment or you just dig kettlebells, it's a 30-day workout of just kettlebells and it's really, really hard and it's really, really fun and it's something that I've done a few months ago where all I did was kettlebells.

So I pretty much documented all that, turned it into a 30-day program and now that's available in an e-book as well. Both books have links that go to YouTube and explain everything just in case you have any questions. And yeah, those are the things that I have going on at the moment. It is my life's work all put into a couple pages or an online app, and I'm super excited

as the world continues to grow and the Chalk Nation brand continues to grow. So I hope I see you guys on there at some point. We have an online Facebook group, and I answer questions all the time. So if you have questions in general, you don't want to buy anything, but you just want to hit me up and ask me a question. It's just Ryan, R-Y-A-N at CrossFitChalk.com. So thank you for listening to my spiel and let's get to this episode. I hope you guys learn all the things. All right, Chalk Nation, I'm out here at the coffee shop. You know what it is.

Newport Beach, sitting down with Lori Christine King. She is really, really good at hormone stuff. So we're going to hit men's hormones. We're going to hit women's hormones. We're going to mix together lifestyle, food, all the things. We're going to try to debunk some myths for you guys. But also we're going to talk about just boners in general, wet vaginas. Building a better boner. And we're just going to grab your attention. I think I just got it just now. So if I didn't, then I suck at what I do. So let's kick it off right now. We'll start with just men's hormones. So if we had to talk about men's hormones,

I think everyone thinks about testosterone first and foremost. Would you like to define what testosterone is? And then we can start just getting after it. Yeah. So I think it's almost just easier to go into symptoms of low T because as a dude, obviously testosterone is everything. And so, you know, if you feel like you're, you know, if we're struggling with low T, like you're not going to maximize your time in the gym, like you're not going to have a great body composition, like you're just going to feel like shit.

And so I think like if we just go like by literally starting with, you know, like, Hey, what are signs and symptoms of low T? Like that's gonna paint a real picture. I think most guys, they really want low T. And I've talked to you about this before. I'm like, I went to the doctor and I was like, I hope I have low T so they give me some testosterone. Cause I think for a lot of you guys out there, you know what we're talking about right now. Like you're already interested in this. You, you know what we're saying. And I think you have an idea of like the numbers. So like if you get your testosterone checked usually you want to be somewhere between like 500 and 1200 is the upper end but the reality is a lot of people are like

less than 500 most people are like 200 yeah it's honestly it's not uncommon like i i've seen clients all the time where it'd be like testosterone double digits and you're like holy hell you feel like shit yeah so um damn double digits would be so bad. In which case, I hope you guys go get the good stuff. However, if you go to a doctor and you're looking to get it prescribed, it has to be under 300. So if you're under 300, then you're good to go.

But if you actually, and you're actually, you're probably sad if you're under 300. Like, it affects everything. You want to talk about some things that it affects yeah totally so like this is the big this is a big deal so kind of stuff you would be looking for and kind of the first one that always comes to me is like gyno so if you want to you know call it bitch tits man boobs like whatever you want to put um whatever type of name but like when you're a literary guy and you have man boobs um so that's always like so you can get man boobs just from having low t yeah absolutely because it's like i think most people are associating man boobs with like they do steroids or something and then they just do it incorrectly no so like it's it's so

much of everything right like disclaimer like for this podcast, like we don't live in a vacuum. So like there's very rarely like the one thing that you're like, this is the driver. But again, you know, like if we have low testosterone levels, it's very likely that we have, you know, funky estrogen levels and stuff like that as well. So like it's really more of like an excess estrogen issue. But I mean, contributors to gyno could be like low T, excess estrogen issue um but i mean contributors to gyno could be like low t excess estrogen um i've even seen some stuff on like marijuana use and like i'll be super transparent i'm not well versed in it so just literally stating like a little brief overview of what i've seen no people who do use more marijuana they tend to have higher estrogen levels and they tend to also have lower

testosterone levels as well yeah like i said it's just like from surfing pub med like if you go in a deep dive you'll find it um it's not an area that like i personally play in so again it's just one of those like i stay brief on it where it's like yep that's a possibility cool um you know again like you touched on like if you do steroids and we're not you know properly cycling off and on things um certainly like certain medications so like medications for like adhd anxiety depression um like the biggest one again is obviously just like xenoestrogen so like stuff in our environment that basically is going to impact um your hormone or endocrine system and stuff like that. So think like overexposure to

stuff like plastic, um, parabens is basically anything in your like skincare, body care, um, shampoos, conditioners, you know, stuff like that. Um, pesticides in our food, like all of these are chemicals that can mimic, you know, estrogen like function in the body. And so again, you know, things just might get a little bit squirrely in that. But, yeah, you know, like, it's definitely, like, gyno. Like, you see it all the time even in, like, little kids. And, again, it's just, like, you know, if you are eating, you know, certain foods or, you know, just stuff in your environment. That's sad as a little kid.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Because then you're screwed forever. Absolutely. Can you reverse it without surgery at any point yes and no so like um i looked into it a little bit like just for the podcast and basically like there are things that you can take like if you're like taking steroids or something where you can like get rid of it pretty fast but i feel like if you've already had it yeah and you can't get surgery like is there any options for you or can you minimize it a little bit?

There's a tipping point for sure where it's like at some extent, like there's no going back. I know like I basically, you just have a fat deposit in there. Correct. Yeah. So it's just permanently there. Male breast reduction surgery is like weirdly enough becoming like a very

popular procedure, which people obviously don't talk about because i think that's you know touchy and a little bit embarrassing um but i mean i think it's worth noting like it's a hormonal imbalance like it's not just like hey i'm overweight and therefore you know i carry um weight in the chest but like symptoms of it would be like you know enlargement of like your breast tissue tenderness ach, aching, even like, it doesn't get nasty, but like itchy nipples, discharge. Probably like the most common like noticeable symptom would be like puffy

or soft nipple appearance. Such a good visual. Discharging nipples and puffy nipples in the same sentence. I'm so uncomfortable. But yeah, like again, like the goal is always like do as much as you can on, you know, the nutrition, the lifestyle, the environment, stuff like that. But absolutely, like at some points,

like you could be quote unquote doing everything right instead of like, fuck, like this is where I'm at. So speaking of lifestyle, I think that's a great thing to move into. Like when it comes to low testosterone, I think people underestimate like very simple things that we can do day to day that can increase your testosterone like immensely so like sleeping totally if you don't sleep enough you have low t and that's like the that's like almost the start and end of the conversation

it's like everybody wants to buy like sexy supplements and everybody wants to you know buy like grass-fed beef and then it'll be like hey dude like how many hours of sleep you ever do five and you're like what the fuck are you doing like go to bed there's no supplement that's gonna make up for those extra three hours completely um so i think like if you want to keep it super simple like i could rattle off you know like a lifetime list here but um kind of like the four s's to boosting testosterone would be like sunshine sleep sex and steak so like like eating, you know, really, really high quality red meat, like red meat just has the best amino acid profile. Like it's so fucking good for you. Um, so, you know, again, like once a day, try to crush stuff like

grass fed beef, bison, um, you know, stuff like that. Um, again, like having sex on the reg, awesome. Get it. Um, exactly. What about masturbation on the egg and that works too that totally works again you know go just go into switch hands is that kind of two different people totally ass freaking lily stranger hand um but yeah you know like go to freaking bed like one of my tenants for coaching has always been like less than seven hours of sleep and like you don't get to train like you're just not doing yourself um you know any positive adaptation like your body needs time to like positively adapt and if it's just overstretched like go to fucking bed people and so like again you know like there's that hard thing where it's like you know the biggest feedback you always hear from people is like oh well like i'm a new parent or i'm a shift

worker and it's like i'm the parent and again like that's a temporary thing like you know this might be the next you know six months eight months you know year of your life where like you're not sleeping as well but it's like do the best you can right like no need to feel bad about it but it's like can you work out like getting more naps in your day like can you figure out like i don't know like go sleep in a different room earplugs like figure it out so if you're a shift working guy like a fireman for instance would you just say like just start fucking trt right away like honestly i mean i'm a low like probably yeah like i mean if you're gonna have that job for 20 years and you already know that your sleep and stuff's gonna be messed up you know that everything's gonna be kind of a little bit off yeah i mean is there like an eight i mean i the studies say that like

once you hit like 28 to 30 range you start losing one percent like per year totally so um let's say i'm 30 and i get that job you think it's time to go or should i tell them like 35 35 40 i feel like 40 is like, it's definitely time. But I wonder if like you become a fireman at like 35, like if your sleep is always like four to five hours a night, if it's just time. Right.

Chronically. Um, I think, I think a really good books. I know like, um, Rob Wolf wrote a book titled wired to eat. And like,

there's one chapter that just talks all about shift work. And like, anytime there's clients with shift work stuff, I like please go read this um it's just so good that's good i like to always have a book recommendation yeah so it's good to just understand like what you're getting into but like shit man like even on the female side like my mom's been a you know a nurse her whole life always work like second and third shift and like the older and older she got like her health is just so jacked up and it's like your circadian rhythm is so off right and so they actually say too like if you're gonna do shift work like try to hold the same schedule so like part of the issue just comes

from like you know most people might work there two or three days of you know 12 hours or like even like you know like that extreme like you do have the people that are like yeah you know like my shift is 24 hours just like permanent you know you know, forever, infinity. But, you know, like part of it, like part of the issue absolutely just comes from a like chronic sleep, but like that circadian rhythm where it's like, you know, rather than, hey, this is my schedule every single day, like you're bouncing back and forth between like trying to get up, you know, at like, say six in the morning, and then go to bed at 10. And then other nights, you know, it's completely, you you know reverse or upside down or whatever um so like that that would be a recommendation is like you guys like just try to hold the same schedule

um but i think again like it's just important to understand like trt doesn't address root cause of issues so it's like if the sleep is something that we just can't you know like we can't optimize or we can't make better it's like you have to your margin of error and everything else that you have to be so tight so like you just don't get as much wiggle room to like go party or you go do other things that people do so it's like you're just gonna have to be way more squeaky clean on like your diet you know your lifestyle and everything else you do but it's like and it depends on your goals yeah oh yeah absolutely don't bitch about this and that if you're not willing to do a and b you know what i mean and so for a lot of people it's understanding like if you're a shift worker like you may not

be somebody that's in your best interest to like train five to six days a week like you might actually hit like three days of fitness a week and like that's gonna be perfect because again like stress is just so much higher in every other aspect of your life but like same thing you know like are you crushing like too much caffeine on the reg you know like what are you doing um but again you know like people try to paint like testosterone and like hormone therapy is like so good or bad it's like dude like everybody deserves to live their best life on terms that work best for them so it's like if you give it the good college try and like you're doing everything right like and you know your testosterone levels are still in the pooper and you feel like shit like please go to trt i'm actually stoked right now you said something that i really wanted to

hit so one of my friends in the gym uh this kid tyler oh fuck it i shouldn't say his name sorry tyler we just sounded you it's just your first name it's fine um he told me like two days ago he's like dude i've been drinking like three to four cups of coffee like every day this week because he's like planning some stuff like a wedding. And he's like, I literally have not had a morning wood all week. And he's like, he doesn't know anything about it. He's like, is that like if I have too much caffeine, is that going to affect that? And I was like, honestly, dude, I've never looked into that. Like I did have a whole episode that I talked about caffeine,

but I never hit, um, like, you know, like testosterone levels and stuff with it. So if you have too much caffeine, does that, does that mess with it?

I mean, it could. So again, like we don't live in a fucking vacuum. I've had a lot of caffeine. So you guys who don't know, like Lori, Lori has been staying with me like for this past week.

And this might be TMI, but I've had a lot of caffeine the last couple days. But I woke up with a serious boner this morning. Raging. So I was thinking about Tyler this morning, and I was like, well, I have a boner, so I'm good. Testosterone levels through the roof. Yeah, man. I mean, like, if you want to talk other like signs and symptoms of low t like you're thinking you know like poor sleep low energy um difficulty

losing like fat or just kind of like holding weight and like the hips this is too much caffeine no just in general like if we're if we're looking for a low t um but like i i circle back because it's like lack of morning wood is like your number one like ding ding you know like it's so crazy like women like our menstrual cycles we get like a monthly feedback report of like how our health is doing like guys like y'all get a daily report like if you have your crush in the gym but like you're not waking up with them I actually really like that I hope every guy gets that from this show like your daily report is every morning every single thing you can go ahead and just write me and just let me know that you're still hard I hope every guy gets that from this show. Like your daily report is every morning. Every single 24 hours.

You can go ahead and just write me and just let me know that you're still hard. Actually, if we can start a hashtag movement, still hard, after this show, that would be amazing. I'm going to do everything in my life and hashtag still hard. Instead of still holding, still hard. Oh, my God. That's the title of this show. Yep. Nope.

For sure. I'm down. Crushed. Other signs and symptoms of low T. Black morning wood. Obviously, difficulty during sexual encounters. Decreased sex drive. Hair loss.

Balding. Infertility. That's not good. Low sperm count. Changes in mood. So, like, depression depression, irritability. Can you get pubic balding? Ew.

Like if a bald spot on your head makes you look like you're 50, I wonder what a bald spot on your pubes makes you look like. That motherfucker looks like he's 80. But he's still hard, so fuck it. Hashtag still hard. Lack of motivation or like second gear in the gym so like if you're a ball steep in a workout and like you're you know normally that ball steep you know normally towards the end of the workout you know the coach is yelling out you know 30 seconds and you're like trying to pick it up and like you know shit's not happening

um so definitely you know lack of motivation lack of second gear um and then i would just say like difficulty building strength lack of muscle tone lack of pr gear. Um, and then I would just say like difficulty building strength, lack of muscle tone, lack of PRs in the gym. So it's like, if you're following a strength cycle and like, we're not, you know, obviously the longer we do fitness, you know, the harder it is to achieve, you know, PRs. So it's like your first couple of years of CrossFit, like every week you're, you know, you're the bad-ass. It's like, fuck yeah, I just had to do 20 pounds, 40 pounds. Like obviously, you know, as time goes on, you know, a couple years in, like, that's not going to be a super regular occurrence. But certainly, you know, like, we should be, you know, if we're following good programming, you know, you should be seeing changes. So, like, those are just kind of some of the biggies to watch out for.

And, you know, if we went through that list and you were like, man, it me, like, that, you know, everything that we discussed everything that we discuss like okay like let's get to the doctor you guys can easily google to like symptoms of low testosterone and there's plenty of information out there plenty plenty of totally um do we want to talk about like if people do go to get testing for low t like other stuff to look out for i mean i think it's it's important to note maybe like free testosterone versus everything like those certain numbers they might want to look for. Yeah. So the biggest thing is just understanding, again, you know, like there's a lot of even like small vitamin or mineral deficiencies that like mimic symptoms of low T or like certainly are going to impact your hormone levels. So usually like my go to is like obviously pull like free and total testosterone um but then also you go to your doctor and be like hey you know can we test like dhea um estradiol like sex hormone binding globulin um thyroid stuff is becoming so popular

with guys like you're you know it used to be something that you really only chronically saw in women and like you're starting to see thyroid issues more and more with men as well i think it's because men are starting to take too many supplements honestly they're like oh i'm gonna do this and then all of a sudden their shit's all fucked yeah but i mean like even like you know if we're under eating and you know like you know if food's a little bit lower like i can't tell you as a nutrition coach like every single client you're like oh great you're eating like 1500 calories and you're working out, you know, five kajillion times a day. Like, no wonder thyroid levels are in the shitter. And your max thruster is 95.

Totally. So usually, you know, I ask my male clients, you know, get TSH, free T3, free T4 checked. And then just some basics as well. So like vitamin D, B12, iron, liver enzymes. And so again, you know, have your doctor pull all of those and like, you know, between there, something will surely pop up for sure. I wanted to hit like a couple like myths. If you can't touch too much on it, I can touch on it a little bit because I've done some

research on it. But a lot of people believe that taking drugs, mean i can't i can't say drugs but like testosterone um a lot of like the things that we already make growth hormones such like that that it heals injuries faster oh have you uh looked very much into that again i was like i hate the answer it depends because i feel like it's such a fucking cop-out but like it does like it depends um because again you know like the whole thing with steroids is like you know depending on the chemicals you take or you know whether we want to talk about actual like legit steroids or you know SARMs or whatever it is you know like every single one is going to have different properties and you know some might dry out your joints and you'll

make things worse you know some are going to increase recovery you know some are going to be things that again you know maybe you have you know shoulder injuries going on and stuff and the doctor is going to say hey hey, take this particular substance. So I think a lot of people, they get into this because they have an injury. Maybe they're all about being natural. And all of a sudden, they get an injury. And they have to be back at a certain time. It's like three months before the CrossFit Games.

Fuck the anatomy. Or like six months before the Olympics or whatever. And they're like, you know what? Fuck this. And that's like when I've said it on a podcast before that i've taken growth hormone before in the past and the only reason i took it was because i had to get better at a certain time and i remember being like every well everybody was saying like if you take this you'll heal faster you know and i had an acl reconstruction and like i had all these things going on and i was like well i think it'll help totally and it

was like the first time i did it and i was like oh man you know like I think it helped but I didn't really know and then you hear about all these baseball players and they have like an issue or someone has an issue and like they get popped for doing this and that and blah blah blah so um I did some pub med research and they do say that it can help but it has to be also with a very high protein diet if you're under eating you're like totally fucking yourself oh yeah well and like if you're i mean eating you're fucked in general in general but you have to have a caloric surplus and also be like and have like those higher hormone levels and basically what's happening is you're increasing your red blood cell count which is increasing your body's you know ability to hold oxygen and and also is in helping

your body recover faster so if you're recovering faster it's obviously yeah and like if you want to talk about like just like improving hormone levels and or just like you know bouncing back from um an injury it's like you know if your your body doesn't have enough resources aka food to heal like that's the one of the biggest like issues i see is like people be like, people be like, oh, you know, like, I had shoulder surgery. So they, like, just cut all their, you know, cut all their food, cut all their macros. And it's like, cool. Well, like, you know, if I don't deserve carbs, I'm laying in bed. Like, it's like, yo, like, let's say, like, I caught on fire today and, like, 80% of my body was covered in wounds.

Like, that's, like, you actually need more food because, because like your body needs resources to recover and rebuild um so it's it's just such a fine line of like you know again just being careful there but again you're like if you want to improve hormone levels in general via nutrition it's like yo like get out of a caloric deficit for one like you know if you pull shitty testosterone levels like eating less food isn't going to help you out as As easy as this is for us to know the answer to, it's like ridiculously easy. Can we just tell everybody out there like the easiest way for them to find out if they're eating enough? Sure. I mean, and so like, this is going to vary, like, my name is Joe and I weigh this and my activity level is this, like just give them the basic rundown. Yeah. So again, you know, there's five million ways to skin the cat and like nothing is right or wrong so like you know if it was just as easy as like

hey go use you know generic template or you know calculator like we'd all be shredded shit um but like my go-to honestly is just like a good old like tdee calculator so like you're you know it's like tdee calculator.net you know you roll in it's like you put in you know how tall are you what do you weigh your activity level and your body fat percentage and like again you're like it's not perfect but like it's looking at the bigger picture right so like if you're you know a dude and you're like all right like attract my food i'm crushing like 1500 calories and then it's like you're like a six five guy and it pops back that you need to be eating your 3,000 3,500 again like it doesn't even matter what the actual end number is but it's like oh shit like looks like I should probably slowly

dial up food right um so I think tde is always just like a good double check and then again you know if you like if there's ever any question it's like hire a fucking coach like it's that's what we do and that's what we specialize in and like when you work with enough people you see the same you know client like avatars where it's like oh you know x y and z person are similar stats and it looks like i'm gonna go ahead and just like tell 70 of these people right now that they don't eat enough by doing this i'm gonna ask you how tall you are and how much calories you eat every day and how much you weigh so i am 5'3 probably probably 127, 128 pounds. Last I checked, probably like 14, 15% body fat, but I would average around 24 to 2,500 calories. 2,500 calories.

A 5'3 human. A.K.A. midget. Who is 120 pounds. So I know tons of guys out there who don't even eat 2,500 calories. So if you think that you don't eat enough and you just heard what I just said and what she just said, you don't eat enough and you just heard what i just said and what she just said you don't eat enough if you have to question the answer is like you you need more food in your pile and it's embarrassing that you eat less than a 5'3 human that weighs 120 pounds i will eat you female by the way but yeah you know like we you know we need

to be loading up so like a lot of people don't realize, especially when it comes to healthy fats, not that we have to be fucking keto or anything, but again, cholesterol is a precursor for sex hormones. So if we're not crushing enough fats, absolutely. So it's like getting more stuff like avocado, olive oil, bison, grass-fed beef, salmon. So that's a good point. There's a lot of people out there who are scared of cholesterol, right? Which is embarrassing but embarrassing let's decipher real quick the

difference between like someone who actually has like a cholesterol problem in their family actually versus like someone who's scared of cholesterol because they think that it's bad for them totally well i think like the 90s did a really big disservice to society because so many people like still present day, you know, if you talk to my mom, she'd be like, oh, can't eat whole eggs. Like I got to eat the egg white. I know they're so scared of it. But it's just like, again, like it's partially like a food quality thing. So like, no, don't eat fucking. You're usually eating the yolk with like biscuits and gravy.

Yeah. Now you fucked up. Yeah. So like, don't be, you know, when I say like eat red meat daily, like that doesn't mean like, Oh, go crush like a nasty, like McDonald's hamburger. Like I'm talking about, you know,

like we just went to arc and have like world's most amazing burger. Like get that grass fed, you know, high quality shit. Um, so I think that's the biggest thing is again, you know, like just watch where your fats are coming from.

Because again, like should we be eating, you know, like 70, 80 grams of like peanut butter every day every day no like go stick an avocado in your mouth like sounds really good though i mean you might not poop for like four days just serving size one jar like fuck yeah jeez testosterone levels through the roof a la peanut butter like shit man a la peanut butter wow no like it's gonna butter wow no that's gonna be the next thing you hear on the next terrorist attack for real though like please don't do that um but again you know

like if we want to talk again about just improving hormone levels via nutrition like you know try to keep your blood sugar balanced like every single meal we should be crushing like protein carb fat veggie um as well as some fiber you know, are we eating at regular intervals throughout the day? It's like, how many motherfuckers will be like, hey, I skipped breakfast. I was too busy working, so I didn't eat at lunch. And then by like 3 p.m., it's like they demolish anything and everything in front of them. I think if you go more than four hours, just like just a side tip, like if you go more than four hours, you're just going to eat something fucked up.

Totally. You just are. You're going to end up at Sidecar Donuts. Just, you know, balls deep in the donuts. Yeah. I mean, if you're the only man on earth and you haven't seen a woman in ten years and some girl walks by, even if she's not attractive, like, she's fucked. Actually.

Completely. That's what I feel about food, you know? Like, I'm like, I'm'm not gonna eat pizza or a fucking 7-eleven hot dog and then like seven hours go by and you're like i will fucking chop that hot dog up and snort it like it's a line of fucking peanut butter that was such a great visual i just brought everything together for everyone thank you but yeah you know like other ways if we want to keep improving hormones it's like um i hate painting the picture of like foods are good or bad like i think that's just such bullshit because again like everybody is different um digestion

everybody is different you know food stuff going on so it's like how does food make you feel um but certainly like i always just like to use the word consider because it's like you know if if what you're doing isn't working you know insanity is doing it over and over again. So, you know, a lot of times with people would be like, hey, you know, for right now, like because we basically want to get your hormone levels up to a good place and then hold it there. So it's like, you know, hey, do we need to remove stuff like dairy or gluten forever? No, but like understand that, you know, for people like those can be inflammatory foods. So it's like, Hey, you know, for the next four or six months, like, can we take them out? And then certainly like later, can we try reintroducing them or, you know, that's what I like about Rob. Rob Wolf like talks about that a lot. He's like,

I'm not trying to tell you guys that like, you know, you shouldn't eat this or shouldn't eat that. But I am saying is like, take it out for 30 days, bring it back in and let me know how you feel. Yeah. And I've done that with everything. Totally. is like, take it out for 30 days, bring it back in and let me know how you feel. Yeah. And I've done that with everything. Totally. Like it's no food is good or bad, but again, like it's so individually specific, like all week long, like we've been together

and like, you know, I have Hashimoto's, I have thyroid issues. Like I cannot do, you know, dairy. I cannot do gluten. Like if I have gluten, I will have a physical reaction. You know, reversely, like you've been crushing whole milk, you know, whole milk. Like we went and got burgers, you know, you're eating the buns.

So it's like, it's so individually specific. But like, again, you know, if you feel like shit, let's try, you know, let's try the things you're not doing. Thankfully, I checked this morning. I was still really shredded. So hard. And still hard, for sure. God, I can't let that hashtag go. So good.

But yeah, you know, look at, you know, look at your sugar intake. Like, again, like, people want to make sugar this, like, big thing. And it's like, dude, like, it's not any more inflammatory than any other thing you shove in your mouth. So, like, should you be crushing, like, you know, 150 grams plus of sugar every day? No. But, like, do you need to, like, micromanage and be like, oh, I need to keep this shit under 40? Like, maybe. Like, you know, again, like, that's, like, the beauty of keep this shit under 40 like maybe like you know again like

that's like the beauty of tracking food is it's just like keep an eyeball on it but like should you be like insulin spiking all day long probably not you're probably not gonna feel great um but again you're looking at other things as well so like caffeine processed food um alcohol is a big one because unfortunately it does fuss with our estrogen levels a little bit um so again just understanding like that doesn't mean alcohol is good or bad but like understand that frequency and then figure out how it can fit in your life so if you're like fuck yeah like i really love drinking cool well like why don't we not drink every day like can we minimize it to like one date night a week with a you know with a wife or whatever it is um or you know same thing can we take it out for a couple months get you feeling better

and then again figure out how it you know fits in the constraints of your life um you know food quality wise like again just minimizing pesticide exposure so like you know nobody is you know everybody is trying to ball on the budget right so it's like you know don't hyper obsess about it but like try to buy organic you as much as possible try to buy high quality meats as much as possible. Um, and if ultimately again, you know, you can't like just do the best you can, like everybody's got a different budget, you know, everybody's got different stuff. Um, cruciferous veggies and sprouts, like both are fucking great for gut health. Both are great for, um, just liver detoxification and stuff like that. So like I'm huge on, um, basically like cruciferous veggies would be, you know, like your

broccoli, bracolini, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, you know, that whole sector. There's like if you Google that, you know, it's like a list of like 30 things. But same thing, you know, like can you incorporate stuff like broccoli sprouts, sunflower sprouts? All of them are just so freaking good for the liver. And so again, you know, like you have all these hormone levels that like it's like your body is trying to just be the magic thing that does and you'll balance things out. But if our gut health sucks, you know, our liver is going to process all those hormone levels, try to kick out excess estrogen, and then struggle to do so if digestion sucks. So it's like we need everything in the chain, like we need our liver to be this happy little vehicle, you know, we need

really, really good gut health um again you know like going back to like the four s's to boosting tea like getting people to you know crush really high quality red meat on the daily you know at least one serving fucking love that um you know back to the gut health thing like can we get you know 25 to 40 grams of fiber and again like everybody processes a little bit different it's like some people might feel better at 25 grams of fiber. You know, reversely, sometimes people can sit on, you know, 40, 50 and it's totally fine. I sit on like five single digits. I do eat a decent amount of fruit at times.

I mean, I saw you eat Brussels sprouts last night. I was pretty hyped about it. Yeah, it was pretty good. I don't eat a lot of vegetables and I have a daily poop and it's totally fine. Sometimes too. Free workout is like almost instant i almost have to drink pre-workout while i'm on the toilet am i ac slater style oh yeah are you guys aware of what an ac slater is like oh i just like i was actually waiting for you guys to respond back sorry so we were talking about this last night this is just a total just complete moment side note that you'll be so happy listening this episode

so if you take your pants completely off and you turn around on the toilet obviously now you can fully straddle the toilet but if you have your pants on you can't obviously so um i have to i have to say that because some people are going to try it and you know and they don't they're not going to take their pants completely off. But now that it is completely off, you actually have the top of the toilet to put your arms on. And you could also potentially put like a bowl of cereal up there or maybe a steak dinner with a fork and a knife. And you could sit there and you could eat and you could be doing two things at once. So this is called an AC Slater.

I'm just going to leave it there. If we could get that. Do what you want with it. It's out there. It's an available option. So that's another great thing you learned in this episode. And I hope that you never forget it. Now that we totally just ruined the entire episode or made it really, really good for people. There's one more hormone I want to hit real quick that I think is really scary for some people. And even when I hear it, the immediate reaction to me is like, oh, I don't want that.

But sometimes we do. Cortisol. Right? So people are like always trying to avoid cortisol. And I mean, cortisol goes hand in hand with our sex hormones. Right? So people are like, oh, I don't want cortisol. I don't want cortisol.

But like sometimes you do. so let's talk about that i would just again say like let's not freak out about it like people love to paint everything black and white when they freak out when they hear it cortisol is good or cortisol is bad like cortisol is just fine like it's just understanding like we should wake up you know with really high cortisol levels and then like level out during the day um so that you know, like, if you want to talk about, you know, oh, it's, like, 9 p.m. and, like, you know, you should be ready to go to bed, but instead you're, like, oh, I'm, like, the tired but wired, like, you know, I could go run a marathon, like, your cortisol curve is super fucked up, like, we shouldn't,

you know, you should be able to just roll out of bed and, you know, like, I think, like, every day when you've woken up, you know, I've walked down and be like, hey, what's up? And you're, like, holy shit, like, that, like, that's good, like's good like you shouldn't you know roll out of bed and just be you know drag an ass or you shouldn't like you know stumble to the coffee machine and have to chug you know three cups of coffee before before you're like a functioning human um like coffee is delicious but again like it should be a tool it shouldn't be like your freaking life vest but yeah you know like you it i would just say general premise is that like in the morning we should roll out of bed and be like ready to crush the day and then at the

end of the day you know we should be able to be like fuck yeah like i'm super excited to go to bed and it's like you know you lay down fall asleep immediately and so like if anything in that chain is a little bit broken or you know maybe it's like 3 p.m in the afternoon and like you just feel like dog shit and you're ready for bed or um i remember like a couple years ago like back in the day when um it was a year i competed at regionals like my core like and i actually had like blood work to show like my cortisol levels were fucked but you know like if i would be out with people at you know 8 p.m or 9 p.m like i would go from being like super quiet to just awesome being like super loud you know super hyped up and like i remember somebody being like yo like you I would go from being like super quiet to just Austin being like super loud, you know, super hyped up.

And like, I remember somebody being like, yo, like you just did like a total 180. And sure enough, you know, like we would go back to the hotel room and, you know, I would just be so awake and be like, fuck, like I can't fall asleep, you know? So I think like that's honestly just a good place to leave is just understanding again, kind of like what's normal. So like if you, you know, even if you pulled you pulled you know even if you went and got you know cortisol levels confirmed on people you're like okay cool like it you don't even need the lab work to confirm that like again if we kind of just double check on what i talked about and you're like yeah that's

definitely not me like cool we have some lifestyle stuff to improve where it's like you know okay like let's double check you know kind of where things are at you know knockout stuff like um vitamin and nutrient deficiencies like you try supplementing stuff like zinc magnesium b complex vitamin d um again you know just like getting outside and getting some sunshine like that's so so important like can we get outside and like yeah you can supplement vitamin d but like can we get you 20 to 30 minutes of sunshine actually on your skin like that'd be amazing um but again you know looking at stuff where it's like if you train five to six days a week and you feel like absolute dog shit like cool like let's take away a couple training days or like let's cut the you know the active recovery day bullshit like get out of the gym do you know if it matters if like the sun is

like hitting like every inch of your body because i know if it matters if like the sun is like hitting like every inch of your body because i know there's some people that are like really into like being naked in the sun right like does it make that much of a difference like if the sun's hitting my balls am i getting more testosterone out of it i don't think so are we creating weird people right now or they're all gonna be on their porches but naked swinging um no i think like everything i've always read is just like even getting it on your face right so again like if it's cold outside which we're dipping into fall and winter like you're not going to be freaking walking around like awesome we're still crushing you but you're still getting good sunlight on your face yeah just getting it on your skin i think is good um but again like

with stuff regarding cortisol in general it's all just stress management so it's like again you can we minimize and address real life stress where it's like you know hey if you run your own business like fucking hire an assistant and like get some shit off your plate so you don't have as much to do or you're like don't be me or me or me um you know can like i feel like suggesting meditation is so like hippy dippy to people but again like fucking like do we have times a day where we shut it down and just like quiet like we don't need to constantly be bombarding ourselves with music and you know all this stuff like do i want to get that crystal bowl yes yeah laurie and i were hanging out in venice california and it was like this crystal bowl you like hit it and it goes

around and it's supposed to create like a meditation state so soon it was so cool um i think you again like can we you know like journal and like brain dump on the reg um phone apps like headspace are great um one of my favorites is just like going on headspace the one where it creates noise no what is that what's headspace uh so like there's a couple different ones like there's one called i think it's like breathing box and so like you like literally tells you like when to inhale and when to exhale like and that shit's so soothing so like if you've never like it's it's the shit um i had a guy on my podcast once scott mcgee and i was on his podcast recently also but he talks about box breathing while he drives oh fuck yeah especially like if

he's at a light or something he box breathes heck yeah no it's like it's it's such good stuff so um going on long walks is just another really great one so that's a huge like i fucking love like first thing in the morning when it's quiet like just like and don't take your phone with you like that's the biggest thing is like people are so glued to like having their phone on them all the time it's like dude like get off technology stop staring at blue you know blue light and it's like go for you know 15 20 minute walk like get some freaking neat and steps in your life like people look at me like i have a third eye when i'm like hey you know like you should be crushing like 10 000 steps a day you know like have a garment you know check your steps on you have a necklace with an eyeball on it

you said that i was like well there's a fucking third eye right there yeah you know like even like where i live in austin it's like it's very common like on the daily i'm probably crushing like 12 000 15 000 steps a day and it's like that's important like people like obviously crush it hard in the gym but it's like what are you doing the other 23 hours of the day like it doesn't matter if you hit the sickest workout like if you're a fucking potato the rest of the day like no fucking wonder you're gonna struggle with like weight issues or you're not gonna like your body calm so again it's not anything to be like obsessive about you know don't be like pacing around trying to get your 10k steps but it's like that's so fucking common it's like you know having a client or having somebody be like yo like we like how many steps do you get in a day and then they track it and

it'll be like 6 000 you're like oh well no wonder we're you know again like balls deep in a cut or something you're not seeing like fat losses again you're like, oh, well, no wonder. We're, you know, again, like balls deep in a cut or something. And you're not seeing like fat losses. Again, you're crushing an hour or two in the gym. But like your mood is so much different too. Like if I don't go for a bike ride or I don't go for a walk or I don't get outside, I'm like about to lose my mind. Like let a dog out of a cage and see him like, you know,

do those weird runs where he runs like 10 meter. He does like death by 10 meter spread on his own. You know what I mean? And until he runs like 10 meter. He does like death by 10 meter spread on his own. You know what I mean? And until he's like completely toast, that's me. No. Well, even like earlier this week when I drove to LA, it was like I spent like five or six hours like chilling in the car and I was like, I need to go to the gym.

I could just tell by your text messages that you like weren't okay. I didn't even see you. You're like, I just want to do anything. I'm fine. I'm just like anything. Just over here like itching your neck. Like a freaking addict. Well, we're 40 minutes into this podcast right now.

And at some point I did want to talk about women's hormones. That is your specialty. Fuck yeah. So a lot of the stuff that we hit, women share too. So we hit a lot of stuff that's good for both. But let's talk about a little bit more on the women's side. Not only for the women that listen to the show but for the men just to have the knowledge so that when they talk about this stuff they don't sound like idiots

and there's a lot of gym owners out there listening to this there's a lot of personal trainers out there listening to this there's a lot of people that are into fitness in general and it's just nice to know things you know what i mean like it's not it's not good to not know who the president is you know someone tells you that like donald trump did this and you don't know like it's just not good so like stay tuned in right now listen to the women's stuff and get your brain knowledge on so let's start kicking over to the women's side yeah let's talk about what's important um like let's let's start with like what's most important well and like just how to maximize

like i think like like hormones are such like a hot buzzword right now but like i'm totally okay with it because again it's like at the end of the day, like most people just want to like feel good, look good, naked. And like on the female side, like you should have, you know, like symptomless menstrual cycles. Like you should have a strong sex drive, you know, like you should hit PRs in the gym. Um, and like, how many women do you know where it's just like, like, don't want to, like, don't want to have sex with their husband or, you know, they, you know, hate their hate their body or you know like that time of the month comes around and it's just like fucking misery town and so like it's just so fucked up misery town jesus but again like it's just so fucked up because it's like was that is that a good uh i'm still hard it's fine um but yeah you know

like we have such like an unhealthy society society because people think that it's normal that your menstrual cycle comes around and it should be this big production where it's like, oh yeah, I deal with PMS and bloating and cramps and heavy bleeding. It's, again, just misery town. It's like, dude, that just shows how unhealthy society is because it should be symptomless. When your menstrual cycle comes around, you shouldn't even know what's happening like it should just be like oh well cool that's the thing but like instead you know like i said like most people are trying to figure out like hey well can i take like a hormonal birth control so i don't have a menstrual cycle or like even you know on the athlete side like you have all these females that are like hyper lean and you're a super low body fat person and it's like oh yeah i haven't had a menstrual cycle in

four years like i'm totally cool with it and you're like like i get it like i just got uncomfortable hearing that like it's a it's a convenience factor for sure but like again if we talk about like men you get daily feedback on like how your health is doing like i i like love but hate pointing this out to people because it you know it's shitty but it's like dude like we have two genders on the face of planet Earth, you know, like, one is here for the sole purpose of, you know, carrying children, being able to reproduce, and so, like, if you don't have the one thing that allows you to do what, you know, what you're supposed to be here on planet Earth for, like, that should be a big concern, like, whether or not you want to have kids, like, that

tells you so much about the state of your health, and so if we don't have a menstrual cycle like that's not good like you should be concerned yeah and that is an issue for a ton of people in this space absolutely i've heard of people it's like talking about like in the crossfit games like background area and people are like you know it's like casual conversation to like hear some of the girls talk about oh yeah i've had a period in so long and this and that and blah blah blah and it's like fittest people on earth is kind of maybe not the right term you know like if zombie apocalypse happens and games athletes are the only people left to reproduce we're fucked i can't say like fittest is if you don't have your period, I can't say that's like the fittest thing. But yeah, you know, so like in general, like menstrual cycles should be pretty much symptomless.

So like just understanding like, hey, it's not normal to experience, you know, lack of a menstrual cycle. It's not normal to experience tons of hormonal acne, you know, painful cramps, bloating and water retention, breast tenderness, constipationipation headaches heavy bleeding uh large blood clots mood swings you know huge weight swings like all the shit like if that you have if i read that and again you're like fuck that's me like we've got some work to do and so i think like again it's just super fucked up like i'm 29 years old and so i took hormonal birth control for um 10 years of my life and like on my situation it was just like I was 15 or 16 like I had acne so bad that like if I would spend the night at like friends houses like I would go to bed with like full makeup on and like wake up early to you know same thing like wash my face and do my makeup because I was so mortified that I was like

I want my friends to know I had like serious case of you know pizza face but same thing like you know when my menstrual cycle would roll around it it's like, I would miss school or, you know, it was like, again, just like this big production. Were you taking birth control at this time? Yeah. So like I, you know, obviously I went to my parents and I was like, I like, I don't know what to do, but like, this isn't okay. And so like, for sure, you know, at 16 years old, doctor was like, oh, just take this pill. Like, it'll be fine. Um, and so sure enough, like all those symptoms went away. Um, but what I didn't realize is that you know two years later acne went away too yeah absolutely um yeah so like and it depends what variety you take but in general like hormonal

birth control um is going to decrease sebum production so your face is just less oily you know so you're not gonna um you're just gonna see better skin but like what i didn't realize is that you know two years later it'd be diagnosed as hypothyroid um present day like i actually have thyroid antibodies um but part of that i genuinely contribute to you know taking hormonal birth control and so again like i took it for 10 years and it wasn't until at 28 years old like um it was like fuck man like i'm really good at this nutrition thing. Like, you know, like my specialty had actually always been thyroid stuff working with clients because, um, you know, I dealt with it for so long and it was like, fuck man, you know, like in 10 years, I've never pulled optimal thyroid values. And like, I hate the phrase, like I'm doing everything

right. But it was like, I was doing everything textbook, like every single fucking book out there. Um, so I know if people want good like thyroid resources, Adrenal Thyroid Revolution, fantastic. Hashimoto's Protocol, also fantastic. But, you know, again, when you checked on the list where it was like, you know, I was doing all of the food stuff, all the supplementation stuff, like it changed up, you know, my exercise motel, like I'm doing everything right and still never pulled optimal thyroid values. And so I had somebody where it was like, yo, dude, like,

what prescriptions are you taking? Like, I think a lot of people don't associate, like, even on client intake forms, you know, you'll get stuff back and, like, I'll, like, double check where it's like, hey, like, just asking, like, do you take hormonal birth control? Do you have an IUD? Because, like, it just slips off the radar and people are like, oh, fuck, yeah. Like, I do that, too. But so somebody had, basically, basically you know we were having some

conversation he was like hey dude like have you ever considered the fact that hormonal birth control actually inhibits thyroid function i was like wait what you know like i looked at him like he had a third head and so then you know same thing like ended up researching and i was like well holy fuck like you know there's rarely a one thing but like that was my one thing is you know i had changed absolutely everything possible except for the hormonal birth control piece. And so how many people do you know that, you know, same thing, you know, they start taking the pill, they get in a new relationship or whatever it is. So, you know, they're trying to not get pregnant. And so they end up on the pill, but then it's like, oh, you know,

like my body composition went to shit or, you know, like same again, you know, are you experiencing weight gain, you know, issues like that? that well i did a little study in the gym like on my own just like by asking people and i i would ask how many girls i would ask every girl in the gym who was like shredded like if they were on birth control and they say no and they would say no yep and then all the girls who were like i do this right and i do everything right and blah blah blah and i would ask them if they were on birth control and they said yes. So like I had this girlfriend at the time who was like, I helped her with her diet. She was working really hard and like she could never really get super lean.

And then like I was like, well, I'm going to ask all these questions in the gym now. And I didn't tell her. I just was like, I'm going to ask this question. I think that's what it is. And then sure enough, like everybody I knew who was super lean, like they didn't take birth control. Yeah. And so,

I mean, do you want me to tell you why that is? Yeah. So, um, and there, I know now, but like,

I want everyone else to know. Yeah. Cause we had talked about it. Um, so like, I'll go ahead, like I'm, I'll,

I'll loop back. Like if we're taking hormonal birth control again, it's like everybody has a different physiology. Everybody's going to react differently, but like basically like your gamut of potential symptoms um from taking hormonal you know birth control might include like depression mood issues um increased inflammation is big um disruption to your gut flora and digestive health so again if we understand like we're only as healthy as our gut um if we have increased inflammation like we're going to be a prime candidate to have you know a bunch of fucked up gut issues whether

that's you know an overgrowth of yeast bacteria imbalances like SIBO or leaky gut um you know nutrient deficiencies are a huge one so like you know say bye-bye to like your antioxidants your b vitamins your zinc magnesium selenium and again like all this stuff plays into your thyroid so it's like oh this is just a perfect little vortex, right? You know, again, like the low sex drive thing. So hormonal birth control, typically you see an increase in sex hormone binding globulin. So it binds up your testosterone levels. It can bind up your thyroid levels. So, you know, boom, again, like you talk about like all these females at the gym slaying it and then you look at them body type wise and you're like, do you even lift? Like, well, like, testosterone levels in the shit.

That was a gnarly sentence, but so true. In the fucking shit, testosterone equals, you know, next to zero. But same thing, you know, like, other symptoms you might see is, like, yeast infections, weight struggles, hair loss. So, like, that's, you know, that's part of your game is, like, again, you know. Talk about, like, irony, though, right? It's like, oh, well, you're taking this pill, you have this IUD, that's you know that's part of your game is like again you know talk about like irony though right it's like oh well you're you're taking this pill you have this iud and you don't have to worry about babies but sex drive is zero like you don't want to have sex with your significant other like

what's the fucking point yeah fuck i just i mean i think people need to decipher too like if you're like a year into a relationship and it's just starting to get slow, like, there's a difference there. Unfortunately, I've been in that boat. I feel for you, my friend. It happens. Yeah, you know, I think, like, it's hard because, again, like, it's so multifaceted. A lot of people start taking... Is it flaccid?

No. No, no, I'm just kidding. That was so smooth. Yeah, you know, so many people, like, at the end of the day, I think most women end up taking hormonal birth control for one or two reasons. It's either like, yo, like, I just don't want to get pregnant. Or B, it's like, hey, like, I'm suffering symptoms of hormonal imbalance, whether they realize it or not, you know, right?

So it might just be like, oh, fuck, like, I've got really, really bad skin, or like, oh, my period sucks. Or you're like, fuck, yeah, I'll get on the pill or fuck, yeah, you know, like, I'll get an IUD. And so again, it's just understanding, like, if we're suffering with symptoms, like, that's feedback from the body, like, we need to make changes to our nutrition, our lifestyle or exercise our environment. Does the IUD have the exact same effects as pills? Is it better on your hormones? Same? So it's like slightly similar but different, right?

So it's like it's the same synthetic chemicals, but it's a slightly different mechanism of action. So like the biggest difference with the IUD, like I always like to kind of frame things in terms of like good, better, best, right? So it's like, if we're going to use hormonal birth control, or if we're, you know, if we're going to go down this path, like what's our best options versus like, what's the shit we should stay away from? So like I did a post recently talking about like the Depo-Provera shot. And like, that is the shit that keeps on giving. Like literally, if you like PubMed, if you research about it,

it's like, hey, signs and symptoms for you from using this may include like uncontrollable weight gain while on it and then also you know when you go to like i won't say transition off because it's literally just as simple as like every three months here you're getting this injection um so you just don't get the next injection but yeah like those are like the people that are most fucked up is like the hormonal implant where they stick. It's basically like a little thing, like a matchstick size right into your arm or the Depo-Provera. Like that's always on my like, please don't fucking play with these. Like there's other stuff like that accomplishes this without all the shit. What's the best thing if you have to do it?

So like if I was going to loosely paint this, I would say like IUDs, then the would say like iuds then the pills you know then again you know the top of the implants and stuff like that um so iud is the best again we had to do it like if you notice like i'm still kind of like a condom would be best yeah like your best option like you know people talk about like people pretend like there's no other ways to prevent pregnancy right and so like we want to be like real like there's only like one to two days technically during you know the entire month that you can get pregnant and that like blows people's minds because again like nobody fucking tells you like hey this is how your body works and nobody realizes there's four parts to your fucking menstrual cycle like you know if you if you talk

like the first two weeks of your cycle, you know, first one to 14 days. And again, like this varies person to person, like ideally, you know, an entire circle lap should be like 28 days for some people it's 30, some, you know, 26, whatever it is. But, you know, for approximately two weeks, you should see a rise in estrogen levels. We should ovulate. And that's when, you know, we're dropping an egg cell. And so like, that's the biggest thing is like, you can get pregnant when that little follicle when that little dude you know when that situation is happening that's when you can get pregnant so it's like if you track yours in the first two week window so it's right in the middle of your cycle so basically we produce estrogen for

two months or i almost said two months that's like that's like a lot for you know one for basically the first 14 days, we ovulate right in the middle of a cycle. Then we, um, if we ovulate, we produce progesterone. And then, you know, if we don't get pregnant, basically during that middle, that's when we experience either the bleed, um, because we're shedding our uterine lining. But yeah, you know, like if you're, if you're tracking your cycle, it's basically knowing like, Hey, you're ovulating right now, like either a, you know, use a condom, abstain for a couple of days. Cause they say like sperm can survive in your body up to four to five days. Um, but same thing, you know, how many people do

you know? It's like, Oh, I was going to say, cause like, let's say you just say, let's just say you like just had it. You just finished your period enough to like where you want to have sex right because like you're bleeding obviously for a few days um and then you decide like i don't know like a day after that that you're gonna have sex and then you don't pull the goalie amazing still gets can you still get pregnant i mean i mean so i'll i'll paint this picture again loosely where it's like please don't be fucking dumb like yeah please always try to use backup protection i have to say this though because someone's gonna be like oh i only have like a soul and then like there's gonna be 100 babies out there because they listen to the real talk podcast no like team team no babies like don't

i mean team babies at some point or we wouldn't be here right but i'm saying like don't be fucking dumb about your stuff right actually so even even one of my favorite companies is, it's called Daisy Fertility Tracker, but it's basically a medical device. And, you know, so it's expensive. Like, barrier to entry is $300. But like, literally, it tracks your entire cycle. And so it literally tells you, you know,

every day when you wake up, you take 60 seconds, you shove it in your mouth. And so it flashes like green equals go, aka like you're not fertile today. Or reverse like equals no so either a you know abstain or b you know use backup condoms um i'm always still of the camp of like say you know safer than sorry because children are expensive and like that's you're gonna change your world so like please use both is always my recommendation to people um you know i think when people think of condoms they're like oh trojan like fuck that and like eating ice cream with saran wrap on it both was always my recommendation to people. You know, I think when people think of condoms,

they're like, oh, Trojan, like, fuck that. It's like eating ice cream with saran wrap on it. Oh, my God. It could be so good, but it's just not now. It's still hard. Not after that comment. Still flaccid. So flaccid.

Put that hashtag out. Fuck, man. But, yeah, you know, like, there are condoms present day that don't suck. And so a couple of brands. Is there? There is. Let's talk about those. I'm actually wearing one. Hold on.

Let me show you guys. One brand is Sustain. There's another company called Lilo Hex. There's MyOne. And so biggest thing is just like. MyOne? MyOne. they actually you you put in measurements on that one i'm pretty sure really yeah for fitting so it's custom fit custom

fit holy shit we are in one this is a great time to live what a time to be alive right yeah you know at the end of the day like like putting that order in over the phone, can I have, um, the six to seven inch black slim fit. This is even better than I'm like, is there a boot cut? I mean, I have a really weird head of my penis, so I'm going to stop there.

You guys, you can take that home yeah write that down yeah you just understand that again like hormonal birth control like it's not a factor of like is it right or wrong but like just understanding again like you should understand the things that you know you're putting in your body you should be understanding how they affect you um because like uh you know i've coined this term and, I've seen a lot of people using it. Like, it strikes hard, but it's, like, hormonal birth control is doctor-prescribed hormonal imbalance. Like, one of the ways that's preventing pregnancy across the board is that, like, it prevents you from ovulating.

And so, you know, if we don't have progesterone, like, that's where shit gets a little bit weird. So, like, do you want to talk about, like, benefits of progesterone and, like, why it's important? Yeah, I think a lot of people don't understand like benefits of progesterone and like why it's important yeah i think a lot of people don't understand really progesterone especially men like you're not gonna there's no really no need for you to really understand it too much because it's not your you know your biggest problem for women it is totally um so like the analogy and like i think this paints a really good picture but like basically estrogen if we want to think of like estrogen in our body is like grass on a lawn like progesterone should be the lawnmower that you know comes in cuts the grass down um so like if hormones are happily balanced like progesterone estrogen kind of acts as this happy little seesaw so like

progesterone is kind of like the yang to esterine's yang and so for a lot of people like the issue is that you know again because of our nutrition because of our lifestyle because of you know the prescriptions we're taking or whatever you, maybe our estrogen grass grows a little too high or lung gets a little unruly. And so we might have too much estrogen. We might not have enough progesterone or both. And so you just end up struggling with a variety of symptoms due to hormonal imbalance. So again, if you don't ovulate, we don't produce progesterone. So kind of cue your cellulite,ite mood swings weight gain around the hips and middle

um basically progesterone is a natural diuretic um it's a natural antidepressant you know it boosts body temperature and metabolism it promotes healthy thyroid function um healthy libido and sex drives so same thing like you don't if you don't have your period yep do you have progesterone uh again like if you don't ovulate you don't produce it and so you know you might have minimal amounts maybe but again for all of you out there who don't have your period right now who think you're healthy you're not all these things we just said are out the window um yeah you know like progesterone helps you know promote healthy blood sugar levels ability to cope with stress it maintains the uterine lining so again like

maybe you're not interested in getting pregnant but like that's the biggest issue is like people that have been on hormonal birth control don't realize like they think like oh like i just take it and then when you know hey i'm 35 i met this awesome guy like we're right at babies i'll stop taking the pill or i'll take up my iud and it's like nah dude like your body is a little bit fucked because like hormonal birth control just shuts down your natural hormone production and so um again you know it's overridden it's shut off and so like if you want to think again you know like a giant generator if everything's shut down it's going to take a while for it to come full circle you know it's going to take a while for everything to come back around

so the same thing you know like if you stop taking the pill like you're gonna have you know everything is gonna have to get worse before it gets better and so a lot of people um jolene brighton is actually the one that coined this term, and it's called post-birth control syndrome. But again, you get off hormonal birth control, and then it's like, holy hell, I have super bad acne or whatever it is. It's not quite as simple as like,

hey, I'm ready to have a baby, stop taking the pill. Shit gets complicated, you know? Yeah, that's not really. I mean, I think for some people out there they haven't had a period in a really long time they think that like you can get it back like one two three and it's not a big deal and i think that's the biggest reason why they keep holding off yep because they're just like oh i can have it if i want to but like how much time are we actually talking about it's like they fuck themselves up for however many years because it's usually not like months. It's usually, it's usually years. I mean, shit,

like I took the pill for 10 years, right? So like, I genuinely like, side note, like, we want to talk about resources, like before people do anything, like, please don't just stop taking a prescription, like regardless of any mechanism, like, please, you know, do your homework, do your research, really great resources to read up on all this stuff, like every single client, every single person, I'm trying to promote to them to pick up a copy of Laura Bryden's The Period Repair Manual. It literally walks you through, like, hey, you're having this symptom, you know, here's how to remedy it, or here's how to improve it. Or The Hormone Cure by Sarah Gottfried, another amazing read. Please read up on your body.

I wish these books would have existed when I was 15 or 16 years old. I wish somebody would have told me, hey, Laurie, you might not have terrible acne if you would just stop drinking Red Bull and go to bed at night with being an ass bug. So number one is A, please do your research and stuff like that in terms of get to know your body, like understand what you're putting in it.

But usually, you know, anything you're dealing with present day. So if you're like, hey, I have a really shitty menstrual cycle this month, like it was painful, you know, super heavy, like you actually need to look back a couple months. So your follicles start developing about three months back. So say, you know, it's like, oh, sure enough, like three months ago, I was doing a weightlifting meet, like that, you know, that's probably why things are getting squirrely. So just understanding you're going forward, like hopefully every single month, things do improve. But if we stop taking the pill, like you might not see your cycle restore for, you know, six months, 12 12 months um again like i've had clients

come to me where it's like i've been on menstrual cycle in eight years and they're like oh shit so um i think for me personally when i transitioned off of the pill it took i think it was like 45 days after i stopped taking the pill that i had my first like withdrawal bleed because that first cycle again like it's a drug-induced bleed it's not actually your menstrual cycle but then from there on that you know i was pretty normal but yeah i would say for most people you're looking at six to twelve months easily um and that's assuming you're doing everything right because again like you have to make changes because you know whatever the driver was behind you know you having symptoms like you need to address that so it's like you know we need to look at what changes need to be made you know know, again, do you love Orange Theory?

Like, do you love stressing your body out? Like, it's not that that shit's bad. That's like, you know, hey, your body clearly isn't, you know, picking up what you're putting down. So, like, let's assess what we want. And there's limits to everything. Yeah, absolutely. I have a question about the girl who had, like, she didn't have it for eight years. Did she wind up having one?

Yeah. How long did that take for her? Usually with clients, it's right around, around like the five to six month mark and like that's the show even after eight years she still had one like within five or six months that's pretty cool yeah it's um i think like a good way to frame is like for every year that you had the pill you had the iud you're probably looking at about a month's time so if you're like hey you know i took it for you know 10 years you i would say like you know 10 months to a year to like restore that situation that seems pretty reasonable yeah that's super reasonable like hormone levels are just slow to change and so like same thing like happens you know like say you get prescribed thyroid meds

they don't say like hey see you in a month it's like hey see you in like three four five six months like it just all of that stuff takes time to change and it takes time you can do something really bad and go to jail for life you know what i mean or you can do something really bad to yourself for 10 years and get it back in 10 months that's not a bad trade so i think um i've got a pretty good track record at this point i think i'm down to like just one client that like we're still cranking on it but i think there's still like some some diet and lifestyle stuff that's like we haven't fully committed to changing and so like that's why um yeah you know like the the human body is pretty cool like if you treat it super well like things do come around um well i think it's a good time right now to tell people like how to find you because i mean um a lot of people

out there they have these questions and I don't think they really know who to talk to so like even if I had these questions and I didn't know you I don't really know who I would talk to like let's say I had a girlfriend actually I have had a girlfriend who didn't have a period and I was like I really want to help you actually I actually called you actually yeah um because I didn't really know anybody else so I think there's people right now listening to the show and they've probably like heard of some of these things like whispered about the gym or like maybe it is their significant other or whatever and they want to reach out to someone and ask like okay like what do i do like what are the steps to get them back to normal or i want to have a kid and like i need

to tell my wife like what to do and i want to make sure that by actually you know what you can't tell her because she's never going to listen but you can give her someone else to listen to. Let's be honest. But at least you like know where to get the information from. So Instagram is. Yeah. So Instagram is my shit. So you can find me at Laurie Christine King. Kind of go by LCK is my nickname, but Laurie Christine King.

And then that's my website as well. It's LaurieChristineKing.com. Which just went up. Yeah. So I just updated my website. We pulled out all say, there you go. It's lordchristienking.com. Which just went up. Yeah. So I just updated my website. We pulled out all the steps and upgraded it. It's so fucking pretty. But my biggest thing is just, like, again, like, I don't think there should be a barrier of entry to people living their best life.

And so, like, again, like, I wish I had learned so many of these things at a younger age. Because, like, fuck, man. Like, I could have been way more shredded the past 10 years. Or, like, I just could have felt better. So, like, mood was such a big thing where it's, like, I remember, like, the past 10 years. Like I just could have felt better. So like mood was such a big thing where it's like, I remember like the past 10 years of my life. It's like happiness was like kind of a choice. Like I would just roll out of bed and like,

just kind of like Debbie Downer. And like, I totally didn't realize because it just become part of my normal. Right. And so then when I got off hormonal birth control, I was like, holy shit. Like I don't feel like garbage all the time.

And so I basically do educational blogging. And so, holy shit, like, I don't feel like garbage all the time. And so I basically do educational blogging. And so, you know, obviously, Instagram is a 2200 character limit. So I'll write content on there. And then when it transfers over to my website and blog, it tends to be a little more in depth, a little bit more detailed, but you know, four to five times a week, I'm just putting out information like it's not just women's health, like I try to cater to a little bit of everybody. So obviously, you know, I'm primarily in the CrossFit space. women's health like i try to cater to a little bit of everybody so obviously you know i'm primarily in the crossfit space but you know i try to talk about everything from the basics of nutrition to like hey you know like these are symptoms of low t hey you know like just so you know it's not normal to have a menstrual cycle um so we definitely touch on all

pieces but again you're like i just do so i like that you talk about men and women yeah i i try really hard um and with women it's yeah I didn't really know you all that well. I only met you one time in Austin, and I saw your page, and I was like, oh, there's good stuff on here for me to read, too. So then I would read it. But a lot of times, someone like yourself, they specialize in women, whereas you still do, but you still put a lot of great content out there for both. Yeah.

So I try really hard. And again, I don't want it to be boring, so I'm known for, I swear to God, pretty inappropriate. The way that we talk on this show is exactly how she talks in her posts. She's been pretty tame right now on this show. I think I've been hitting it a little harder than she does. But if you read her posts, they're exactly the way that I talk. It's gnarly. From a girl, it's interesting.

Today's post started out, it was like drier than a mummy's vagina. Like that's just what you're getting into is like, if we're going to talk about stuff, like let's not make it weird. Let's, you know, let's have fun with it. So, you know, again, it's cool. Like I do nutrition coaching. I'm going to get into one-on-one consults because again, I'm just trying to figure out like how can I help more and more people and help, you know, get the content out there

and stuff. So, you know, same thing I wrote, like, a 125-page e-book. And so, you know, I took all my years of, you know, dietetic schooling. I took all my years of coaching experience. And it was like, you know, whether you're working with a coach, whether, you know, you're just, you know, trying to ball into budget and you're like, hey, you know, I need help. Like, I don't feel well, but, you know, I'm trying to live my best life. Like, you know, that's why I wrote, you know, the purpose of my e-book and stuff. So basically just attacking it from all ends of, like, how can I just keep getting information out there? Because, again, you know, everybody should be, you know, total badass that gets to live their best life and feel well.

So sweet. We got the Instagram. We got the website. Is there anything else that you have that you'd want to talk about? I've got gym programming coming up. But, again again that's not really related to any of the educational stuff so i just keep following her yeah you'll see that stuff also like in your stories i think it's important to know that you you're always like

putting tips out there for oh yeah no like my stuff like that i like i spend a lot of time you know kind of documenting just you know the supplements i take the way i'm training you know like i post up like my food shit all the time and people like people love seeing that that's like you're that's like her legitimate job like she puts like most of the time of her days into her instagram whereas like most of us have a job that we go to and do and like that is her job so like if you guys follow her on instagram it looks i mean it's that's not looks like it's just a very professional page it's it's fun to follow it's good stuff and it's like it's so fucking rad because like i get so many dms and messages and comments every single day where it's like yo like i've never paid you a penny but like i got back my menstrual cycle

after you know following your suggestions or like i recently had one dude um because i just recently did another post talking about like low testosterone and like he legit like showed me the blood work and then like told me about the changes that he made just from following me and looking at my posts and stuff. And he upped his testosterone by literally 300. He went from 200 to 500. I was like, that might be... Obviously, people getting back their menstrual cycles is really fucking rad. But I was like, that's fucking rad too.

Yeah, that's really cool. Again, the cool part is all of this is just free. I'm just giving, giving, giving. If you had 300 without a boost and 300 more boost, now he's killing it. Fucking shredded. Still hard. Still hard. Well, yeah, guys.

We have so many things that just went down. You guys learned what an AC Slater was. You learned the still hard hashtag. Learned how to build a better boner. Yeah. Better boners. Wetter vaginas. Can I say that?

I just did So many things went down It was so fun All the laughs All the knowledge And you guys know where to find both of us If you don't know where to find me That's like really really strange Because I don't know how you found this podcast

But it's Ryan Fish R-Y-A-N-F-I-S-C-H. My Instagram is updated pretty daily. You guys know what I'm doing all the time. And if not, CrossFit Chalk usually has you guys covered. They creep on me on the reg. So, all right, guys. I hope you guys loved this episode.

Share it with your friends and tag us, me and Lori Christine King, on Instagram so that we know that you listened to it and how much you loved it. See you guys next Tuesday.