Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark - The 3 Weeks Before Your Period Matter More Than Your Period | Kylah Smook

Episode Date: July 14, 2026

Most girls can name every Taylor Swift era, but not one phase of the menstrual cycle 🩸Kylah Smook — women's health educator and founder of Cycle Camp Retreats — reveals what the body craves after ditching birth control and how fertility awareness gives women a natural way to prevent pregnancy. She also walks through the four phases of the menstrual cycle, why ovulation acts like a monthly report card for health, and shares her tricks for taming those 'lunatic' phase mood swings 👀Thank you to our sponsors!⁠ZEBRA:⁠ Use code "ALEX" for 10% off any order⁠CROWDHEALTH:⁠ Use code “CULTURE” to get your first three months for only $99/month⁠LOVEBIRD: ⁠Use code 'ALEX20' for 20% off your purchase⁠Q FOR QUINN:⁠ Use code "ALEX" for 15% off your non-toxic clothing⁠TECH WELLNESS: ⁠Use code "ALEX" for 15% off EMF-Free Air Tube Headphones⁠A'DEL NATURAL COSMETICS: ⁠Use code "ALEX" for 25% off first time orders⁠VOTE ONLINE⁠Our Guest: Kylah SmookKylah's Links:⁠Instagram⁠⁠Cycle Camp Instagram⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠Apple Podcast⁠FOLLOW ALEX:Instagram |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @realalexclark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@cultureapothecary⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @yoalexrapz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @RealAlexClark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcast |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to ‘Culture Apothecary’ on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. New episodes drop 6pm PST/ 9pm EST every Monday and Thursday.DISCLAIMER: This content is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always talk to a qualified healthcare professional for any health-related questions or decisions.

A lot of women think if I have a painful period, what are the things that I have to do during my period to take care of myself? It's like if you're getting period pain, you've already lost the battle. Because how you're caring for your body in the three weeks leading up to your period is what is going to determine how good your period. So the biggest phase that women have issues with is the ludial phase. It's the two weeks after ovulation and before your period. And I've nicknamed it the lunatic phase. It's this time that you feel psychotic and you're crying. crying about everything, you're pissed off at everyone, and you have no energy and you just want to

lay in bed all the time. It's like this opportunity where your brain is kind of handing you like, hey, here's all the crap that we've kind of swept under the rug for the last few weeks. Like, let's look at it. Let's go through it. Let's talk about it. Food, movement, stress, sleep. If those four things are not dialed, don't do anything else. Those are the foundation. Most girls can name all of Taylor Swift's eras, but most can't name. name the four phases of their menstrual cycle. The result, millions of women are navigating mood swings, painful periods, birth control, fertility and hormone issues without understanding one of the most important systems in their own body. The phases of your cycle. Why ovulation is one of the most

important signs of health, how to keep your luteal phase from turning into the lunatic phase, what to do to support your body after getting off birth control and how women can avoid pregnancy naturally using fertility awareness. All of that is on the table today. Joining me is Kyla Smook, women's health educator, co-host of the Did We Just Say That podcast, and founder of Cycle Camp Retreats, after realizing that she knew almost nothing about her own cycle despite years on birth control,

she made it her mission to help women understand their bodies instead of feeling confused by them. If you've ever felt like your hormones are running the show or wondered why nobody taught you the stuff in health class, this episode is for you. If you prefer video podcasts, you can watch this on the real Alex Clark YouTube channel or Culture Pot the Carry on Spotify.

You can pause right now before we get to leave us a five-star review, please welcome Kyla Smook to Culture Apothecary. You realized in your 20s after years of being on birth control that you basically knew nothing about your cycle. Now, I went through this exact same thing. So tell us all about your epiphany. I was put on hormonal birth control when I was 16 years old. It was the next put on an implant that they put in your arm. And I went on it for the reason of that's what everyone does. Like, when you're 16, you go on hormonal birth control. All of my friends were on. it. All my friends loved to be on it because they didn't get their period. Like, who wants to get your

period? It's like so pesky and annoying. And so I was at the gynecologist. They're like, yeah, so, you know, we're going to go on birth control. And I was like, okay, sounds great. I'm not going to get my period. My mother obviously didn't, you know, know, if it was harmful or anything. And at that time, it's like, you know, you trust what your doctor says. Why would you not trust your doctor? And we had asked, you know, are there side effects? Is there anything we should worry about? No, it's completely safe. You're going to get this implant in your arm. You're going to have an arm for three years and then like that's it and you'll get it replaced every three years and like you'll never have to worry about getting pregnant or anything like that so I went on birth control at the time I think

I'd had my period for maybe two years I got my cycle a little bit late uh within a year of being on it I lost my cycle I again thought that that was great I was never told that it's not healthy to not have a cycle and when I would go to like my yearly check up at the gynaecologist and say yeah you know I haven't had a period in a year. Okay, now I haven't had a period in two years. Now it's been three years. They're like, oh, that is totally fine. That's perfectly normal. And in school, we're not taught about our menstrual cycle. We're not taught about, I didn't even know what the word ovulation meant until I was 22 years old. We're not taught how our cycle actually works or what the purpose of a cycle is. You know, you don't know that the only reason you're getting a period is actually because you're ovulating and this is this really important part. It's our fifth vital sign when we're ovulating. And we don't know that this is an actual sign of health. And so I thought I was great. Didn't have a period. I didn't have to worry about getting pregnant. Like, I thought it was the greatest thing in the world until I was 21 years old, 21, 22. And I was having really severe gut issues. And at the time, I was like, it was debilitating. Like, I couldn't go to work. I was struggling to go to classes. And I had heard an episode.

a podcast episode with Dr. Will Cole. And he was all about gut health and fasting and all these things. I love Dr. Will. Oh, this is so interesting. Big fan of the show. Dr. Will is a big fan of the show, big friend of the show, and we love him here. And I literally took every penny in my savings count. And I was like, I am going to get an appointment with this doctor because he sounds like he can fix me.

Because at this point, I had been to so many doctors for my gut stuff. The gastroenterologist and all these things and gotten the CT scare, the, the, the, the, the, the, ultrasounds and everything, and they couldn't tell me what was wrong with me. And so I book a call with him. I'm so excited about it. And we are on this consultation and like halfway through it, he's like, oh, by the way, you're not on any medications, right? And I was like, no, no. And then a few minutes go by and I'm like, wait a minute. I'm on hormonal birth control. I don't know if that's considered meds because it's like in my arm. You know, I'm like taking a pill or anything. And he's like, that can really disrupt your gut microbiome. I was like, what do you mean? Like this

bar that's been inserted into my arm can disrupt my gut. What are you talking about? My gynecologist told me everything like was safe and normal, all these things. So I go down this rabbit hole of learning how harmful hormonal birth control can be. And that's when I'm like, oh, I have to get off of this. And I don't, I haven't had a period. I'd been on it for six years at that point. I was 22 at the time. I knew nothing about my cycle. I knew nothing about anything. But I was like, I have to go off of this. And I don't really know what's going to happen after. afterwards, but I just know that I need to start this process of healing. And when I went off of it, I just started getting curious about like, oh, okay, well, now like my period's going to, well,

first I was getting curious about fertility awareness method because I was like, I need to not get pregnant. That is very scary to me. And I was like, how am I going to do that? And so I stumbled into the world of fertility awareness method. And when I read Taking Charge Your Fertility by Tony Weschler, my brain exploded. Because in this. book, she explains like cycle phases and this word ovulation that I had never heard of in my life and this, like the fact that you can only get pregnant a few times, a few days in your cycle, and all of this information that I was like, how in the world did I not know any of this? My mom doesn't know any of this. My friends don't know any of this. No one in school was going to

teach me this, but this is like the blueprint for my health. Like all of this information is required information to be able to take care of your body and the fact that, oh my, my gosh, I haven't had a period and I don't know how many years. And that's actually considered a fifth vital sign to be like cycling regularly. But I just fell into this world of cycles. And I just was like, I need to learn how to actually take care of this like really vital part of my body. So I was told the same thing that having a period is a nuisance that is too complicated to know how to track your cycle. It doesn't even matter. Just go on this pill. And then you don't have to worry about it. And isn't that so great? Isn't that so freeing to not have to worry about a period? Yeah, so empowering, VOM. So here's the thing. I really wanted to like look at this episode, coming into this episode with you. I wanted this to be like, okay, this is the episode that we can send our like 14-year-old daughter. You know, this is the one that like every teenage girl needs to listen to, every young woman that didn't learn this because I also wasn't taught any of this in school and didn't know any of this to like a couple years ago.

So I am so new to this. I didn't learn any of this to like the pandemic. So I was totally clueless. So here's the thing. When people tell you that your period is a nuisance and that it's actually just more of a hassle and that it's something that we shouldn't even worry about and that a birth control pill is better so that you don't have to worry about a period, why is that bad advice? Like, why is it actually incredibly important for a woman to have her period and experience

ovulation? So your period is actually the least important part of your cycle. It's when you are becoming a woman and you get your period, it's the only part of your cycle that you know because it's the only thing that you can actually see. You know, once a month you're bleeding. But your period is the least important, quote-unquote, part of your cycle. The main event of your cycle is ovulation. And it's this event that occurs once per month or once per cycle.

Some women's cycles are a little bit longer. And it is when your ovary is releasing one egg into the flopian tube with hopes that it's going to be fertilized by sperm and become a baby. This is happening once per month, the egg comes down, you ovulate. And then once that egg, it's alive for about 24 hours, once it takes. dies, you don't have another egg to be fertilized until you ovulate again in your next cycle. When that egg dies, you enter what's called your luteal phase and you are building up your, well, in your follicular phase, you're building up the lining of uterus. And then in your

ludial phase, which is after ovulation, is when your body is starting to prepare this lining, hoping that that egg got fertilized. And when that egg is not fertilized, the lining is shed, and that is our period. So all our period is is the shedding of this lining. But the actual most important part of our cycle is ovulation, is this egg that is getting released in hopes to become a baby. And our body is extremely intelligent. And so when it is giving us this opportunity to create life, it is only going to do so if it feels like our body is a safe and abundant enough home to how is life. If we are not feeding ourselves, enough nourishing foods, if we are sleeping, sleep deprived and so stressed out and all of these things that are depleting our own body,

our body's going to sound the alarms and it's going to say, hold on, she is not really taking care of herself that well yet. So let's hold off on trying to create another human on, you know, giving away our resources to this new life until this home, this body is safe and abundant and nourished and all of these things. And so getting a period, which is just the signal that you've ovulated every month, is this key sign of. of how healthy and how safe and unnourished and how regulated your body feels. Because if you're not getting a period, which you can only get a true period if you have ovulated, you can get breakthrough bleeds and things like that, which are essentially fake periods, which is what

you'll get when you're on the birth control pill or things like that. It's not a real period. But to get a real true period, you cannot get that until you have ovulated. And ovulating every single month is this sign of health and vitality in the body. And when you're on hormonal birth control, you are suppressing that. You are suppressing ovulation. So you are not going through this natural hormone cycle every single month. That is so important for a woman to go through for a lot of our body. We need to be producing progesterone for lots of different things in the body. Progesterone doesn't get produced until we've ovulated. And so when you're on hormonal birth control, you're never producing progesterone. You can go, some women are on birth control for 10, 15 years.

They never go through that hormone cycle of the estrogen and the progesterone and all these different things. And so it's just such a key indicator of like vitality in the body that we're suppressing. And then we lose this biomarker of communication that we could be getting where I love to say that your period is the report card of your cycle. Yeah. Love to like give that analogy to women because so many of us think one, our period doesn't matter. Like oh yeah, it comes every once in a while. Like I get a period every three-ish months. You know, it's fine. But that irregularity is telling you something about your body. It's communicating to you like, hey, your body's not feeling very safe and regulated because it's continuously delaying your ovulation because it doesn't feel like it's,

you know, has the ability to ovulate. And so your period is the report card of your cycle. One, if you're getting it regularly, every 28 to 34 days is considered a healthy cycle length. And then also your period shouldn't be painful. Your period shouldn't be like this thing where you're on the floor in pain and, you know, you're tired. and you're, you know, moody and all these things, that's not a healthy cycle. And so your period gets to communicate with you every month. It's like literally handing you a report card. It's like, hey, this is how well you took care of me this month. And a lot of women think like, okay, if I have a painful period, you know, what are the things that I have to do during my period

to take care of myself? Like, what are the three supplements that I should be taking when I'm on my period to get rid of my period pain? It's like, if you're getting period pain, you've already lost the battle because how you're caring for your body in the three weeks leading up to your period is what is going to determine how good your period feels. It's not like you get this like fancy supplement or whatever like while you're bleeding. You need to be doing making all the right decisions and nourishing your body and making it feel safe and abundant in those three weeks leading up to your period. And then you get handed the report counter of like, hey, you did a great job taking care of me like good job. Now you get to have a pain free period.

You ever meet your kids teacher and just immediately think, this person hates joy? Like they walk into the room and all the fun is sucked right out. Passive aggression off the charts and you're like, how did you get into this profession in the first place? You're smiling like, yeah, thank you so much for everything you do. While internally you're like, this woman would report me to the government for blinking wrong. You know, half of life is just trying not to offend people, including with your smell. Most deodorant is basically a chemical weapon. I mean, aluminum, synthetic fragrance, stuff you can't pronounce and you're just putting it directly

into your armpits and lymphatic system. That's why I only use zebra deodorant. It actually works, first of all, which is shocking in the natural deodorant world where half of them are like a suggestion. This one keeps you fresh, has unisex scents, and doesn't burn your armpits. It's clean, non-toxic, no aluminum, no fake fragrance.

It's designed to support your body instead of shutting it down because sweating is normal, but smelling like a haunted locker room is not. So we need to be detoxing, and the best part is you don't have to think about it. You just use it, you don't smell weird, and your kid's teacher has one less thing to judge you for. Life is hard enough.

You don't need your deodorant working, against you. Switch to Zebra Deodorant at yayzebra.com, code Alex for 10% off. That's yayzebra.com code Alex for 10% off. Apparently another podcaster was talking about this case where a newborn baby in the NICU had coverage denied in a letter addressed to the baby. I'm not kidding. The insurance company said that the baby didn't need coverage anymore because, and this is real, the baby was breathing on its own and drinking from a bottle, which is a wild standard. Imagine being three days old, learning object permanence, and you're already getting insurance denial letters. Welcome to America, kid.

I cannot stress enough that you need crowd health and you should ditch your conventional health insurance because it sucks. Traditional health insurance blows chunks, yeah. I actually interviewed CEO Andy Shinover on the podcast and what he's building makes so much sense, especially if you're in that season of life where pregnancy is on your mind. With crowd health, pregnancy is treated as one health event. prenatal care, labor and delivery, postpartum, you can get all that covered with a $3,000 personal responsibility.

That's it. No guessing what is covered, what is it? And you actually get to choose how you deliver your baby. Imagine that. True women's rights. Hospital, birth center, or homebirth. Whatever you want, crowd health allows

eligible funding for things. Interns often refuses to touch like certified doulas, licensed midwives, pelvic floor therapy, lactation support, breast pumps, and home birth supplies. This is incredible.

It is a system where members fund one another directly, which feels human, okay? You have the power to take control of your health care, join crowd health to get started today for $99 for your first three months by using code culture at join crowdhealth.com. That's join crowdhealth.com code culture. Crowd health is not insurance. Opt out. Take your power back. This is how we win. Join crowdhealth.com code culture.

Being an adult is basically just finding out that everything important requires follow up. You think that you've handled something once and then five years later, someone's like, no, that expired, that change, that was never processed, good luck. That's voter registration. People assume that they're fine because they registered once in college or because they voted a few years ago or because they have this touching faith in administrative competence. Meanwhile, all it takes is moving homes, even within the same state, changing your name, not voting in a while or some random outdated info, and suddenly you've got a problem. Here's what's wild. Tens of millions of eligible Americans either aren't registered or aren't even sure if they are. So let's not do the thing where we find out too late and then act shocked. Let's just be adults for 30 seconds.

Go to real Alexclerc.com slash vote. I made it really simple. You can check your registration status. That's all it does. Just tells you if you're registered to vote or not. And if you're not, register you to vote. Not even telling you who to vote for. Real Alexclerc.com slash vote.

So to have a pain free period, the three weeks before you're actually bleeding, what are the things to do to make your body feel safe so that you can alleviate yourself from super painful period cramps? There's a lot of like clickbait information online and I don't subscribe to any of that. I think it's so easy to see all these videos online of like either, you know, getting in course into taking these $100 supplements to have like the perfect pain free period or, you know, having your perfect like cycle synced workout plan and that's going to have give you like this healthy pain free cycle. And all of these things that are extras. They're like these little cherries on top that you do not need because if you take the average woman who has a painful cycle or who has a regular cycle, who's not getting her period at all. And you take a look at the foundations of what a just healthy female body looks like, a.k.a. Are you sleeping at night? Or are you staring at your phone until 11 p.m. doom scrolling for three hours? And then you're going to bed, but there's like all this like artificial light in

your room and all these different things. Are you getting actual good quality sleep? Are you eating like real nutrient dense foods. And all of these things are so unsexy. You know, and no one wants to like hear for the hundredth time like, hey, eat your nutrients foods and get enough sleep. And are you going outside and are you getting sun and all these different things? But they're the things that we'll hear and we'll be like, yeah, yeah, whatever. And then you're not even doing them. It's like how many women can actually say on a regular basis? Like, yeah, I am cooking really nourishing foods for myself. I'm really taking accountability for my stress. I'm making sure that I'm actually getting enough sleep and all of these like little things that builds the solid

foundation for a healthy home. And so it's not that I don't think, you know, the supplements can be helpful. It's not that I think they're, you know, a hoax or anything like that. I don't think the cycle singing workout plans are bad. But I think that people are trying to grasp at these like quick fixes and these like fun, exciting things when they don't have any solid foundation. And then they're wondering why the seed cycling kit that they bought last month didn't get them a pain-free period. And they're wondering why they did the perfect yoga plan in their luteal phase, but they still have a painful period. Like, they're not building the foundation. So for me, the biggest one is food. That was when I was healing my gut, when I was healing my cycle and all those things. I had to take a

really long, hard look at the food that I was eating because we live in a world where I feel like, quote unquote, clean eating isn't really nurse. eating. And we're told to be as skinny as possible, and we're told to eat, you know, super low fat and super low carb and all these things. But then we are in this mindset where we see like a David protein bar to be healthier than a steak. Which, by the way, never eat those. They are in so many lawsuits for lying about their ingredients. There's so much crap in there. It is not healthy. It is one of the worst protein bars out there. But somehow they have done amazing marketing is what they've done. And they have duped everyone in the wellness community into thinking, oh, this is like some kind of healthy protein bars.

So that's just an aside, don't fall for David bars. Yeah, we're like told that all of these synthetic foods. My favorite quote by Michael Polan is humans, I'm not going to, you know, be able to get a word for word, but humans are, he's saying essentially no longer eating foods. We're eating food like some substances. Yes. Dead food. Yes. Yes.

And we're terrified of fats and we're terrified of carbs and we're terrified of everything. but then our body is becoming genuinely malnourished, even though you might not be stick skinny, and yet you're still malnourished because you're not getting the abundance of bioavailable vitamins and nutrients in foods that have naturally come from the earth, you know, in our meats and in our raw dairy and all of these different things that nourish our body, but now we're terrified of all of them.

And so we're going to Starbucks in the morning, grabbing our coffee and our muffin, and then we're having this protein bar for lunch that that influencer told us to buy because it has the perfect macros, and we're having our little rabbit salad. And then for dinner at night, we're having some grains and some like lean chicken

with no sauce on it or anything because you want to have the perfect macros. But then there's no nutrients. Like, where are the nutrients? And when I started drinking raw milk and I started eating red meat again and focusing on not just the food itself, but the most quality version of a food.

So I feel like I love to give this example. to women where when we're looking at food, because we've really demonized every food group, we've demonized, you know, milk is inflammatory and this, isn't that. When we can forget that food is like milk is bad, like there's this like good or bad, this black or white. And it's not so much that any particular food is good or bad, but it's what have humans done to this food that has made it less optimal or more optimal? And how have we interfered with these things? Like the analogy that I love to give is if you had, you know, two gallons of milk on a table and you didn't know that they were milk. You just saw this white liquid in two glasses and you had labels on them. And the label on one of

them reads, in this bottle is a liquid that has come from an animal that has never seen the sunlight, that has been severely mistreated, that has been pumped with hormones, that has been fed a diet that is not species appropriate. And you have the severely sick animal. And they are creating this liquid. And that is what is in this bottle. And then you have a bottle next to it. And it says in this bottle is this liquid that has come from this animal. And saying liquid that comes from an animal sounds so gross. But you have this liquid that comes from this animal. And they were happy living on pastures. And they were fed a species appropriate diet. And the animal itself was healthy. And it's describing the life of this animal. Those are two completely different foods. They're not the same thing. But if we see them in the grocery store, they're both just labeled as milk. Wow. Yeah. And so we're not seeing the nuance. of food anymore because we live in a world where all of our food is so depleted and ruined and you know processed and all these things and we're forgetting that food in its natural form is so nourishing for our body and so that's the foundation of like if you want to heal your cycle you need you need to start nourishing your body again and giving it the abundance of nutrients that it needs

I think my period is the best it's ever been and that came from eating way more red meat especially during my ludial phase, I make sure that I'm taking magnesium, extra magnesium during my ludial phase. And then I always notice just being in tune with my body that I am getting tired like an hour or two earlier than I normally would during ludial phase. And so I'm trying to get extra sleep and I feel a lot better when I have that extra sleep. And then when my period does come, it's, I'm not having excruciating cramps or anything like that. So I've noticed a difference doing those three things. What does your meal plan look like in those couple weeks leading up to your period? I always try to toe the line between I'm like, well, like, I want to like give women like a blueprint of like this is exactly how, you know, how you should eat in your cycle.

And at the same time, I feel like women grasp too much at trying to find like the perfect food. Like what is the exact way that I should exercise and the exact way that I should be eating and all these things and cycle sync everything perfectly and then, oh my gosh, I'm to be so healed. And that's one of the reasons that I'm like kind of anti the way that the cycle sinking space has gone because it's just giving women all these like do this, follow this checklist, like work on this. It's giving women a blueprint. When there really is no blueprint for like truly understanding and like getting in tune with your body and being able to eat in alignment with your cycle and all these things. It's so different for every woman when they're trying to just check all the boxes. It misses the point. However, they're obviously things that work and are extremely beneficial for every single woman. For me, organ meats were a huge one. When I started really just going towards like what are the most nutrient dense foods. Okay, organ meats, oysters, sardines, like all of these foods that have often been demonized are actually the most nutrient dense of foods.

And so when I stopped counting macros, not looking at like, okay, here's this perfect meal that I just made, how much fat carb and protein are in it. But instead I'm like, how many nutrients? are in this food. Like, how can I make the most nutrient-dense meal possible? So I'm eating red meat. I'm having every single day. I'm having organ meats a few times a week. I'm having dairy every single day. That's a big foundation for me. How do you eat organ meats? I love Force of Nature's ancestral blend. Yeah. So I've done it a few ways. I used to just like eat raw liver. Like, just shoot it every single day. I would put a little bit of maple syrup on it and just shoot it down the hatch.

And I thought that was the greatest thing ever. Most people think it's gross. But I was doing that for a long time. And so now I'll do the Force Nature Incestrial Blend. I will make beef heart tacos. It's like one of my favorite things. Wow. Just like lots of fun things. I think something that women miss in this journey is like they forget that it's supposed

be fun. And so it's not like this drag of like, oh, man, I got to like make sure I take my organ pills and eat all these foods. I'm like, how can I like find out how to make the sickest recipe ever with beef liver? Have you tried flux season yet? No, it's not. Oh my gosh. Okay. They're not a sponsor of the show, but great friends of mine. So Pluck is just like, you know, your garlic seasoning or spicy seasoning, whatever you use to put on your vegetables or your meat or whatever. But it has freeze, dried, organic, grass-fed, grass-finished organ meat in it, like the most, you know, the best way that you could do it so that you get the nutrients. And obviously, it's not going to be, it's in your seasoning. So it's not like it's going to be the same amount as you're getting from your

beef heart tacos. But it is a little bit of extra and kids love it because it tastes so freaking good because again, it just tastes like your garlic seasoning or whatever that you're putting on your broccoli and stuff. But it is infused with organ meats. And they've got brain and, you know, they also are using all of them in there. But it's all organic and excellent, excellent, excellent seasoning. So that's something that you should look into. Yeah, well, I love desiccated organ supplements. Like I love heart and soil. I have a friend with a company, omni one, Omni one. It's like, the play on words of omnivore. And it's like organs and clostrum and all these things. Like that's a great way to get it in. But I just kind of like it in real food. So that's

like the first foundation is like, okay, you know, how many nutrient-dance foods can we include on a weekly basis? And most women that I'm working with, when I just set that goal for them, I'll get a text a month later like, hey, I just had a pain-free period. Because most women are just malnourished. And so that's like the most low-hanging fruit is just like, let's clean up your diet, but not like get it, you know, so clean and perfectly. Let's get it nutritious. Let's get it nourishing. This is an exclusively American thing where everybody is fat, but they're actually malnourished. Everybody is deficient in multiple vitamins because they're fat because they're eating this fake dead food that is causing obesity, but they're not getting any actual nutrients. And so I think that's like

the greatest irony of the standard American diet and what's going on with us. Here's something I want to know. Why is it important for women to experience ovulation even if they're not trying to currently get pregnant? It's a vital sign. It's literally, it's not for the act of like, oh, you know, I need to be ovulating. It's the fact that ovulation is a sign of whether or not your body is healthy. So it's not like, oh my gosh, I need to be making a baby every month. But if you're not ovulating. It's your body telling you like, hey, we're not feeling good. Like, I don't feel safe to make a baby. And when you're on the birth control pill, is it true? You're basically one note, your mood, your personality. You're just, you're just, yeah. It's making us like men,

which we're not designed to be. And it's actually healthy to have these, not severe, but minor fluctuations like four times a month with different phases of our cycle. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's this like gifts that we get every single month. And, you know, it gets a bad, rap because women experience it in these like horrible ways where they were having these, you know, crazy intense moods, because they don't understand, you know, how their body works and they're not caring for their body and all these things. And it can be very confusing. If you don't understand that you're supposed to go through all these phases, then you just see the way that men live, where men have a 24-hour hormone cycle. They're going through the exact same hormones every single

day. They do and eat and everything the exact same way every single day. But we're going through this 32-ish-day hormone cycle where, you know, from one week to the next, the way that our body, you know, our hormones that are being produced are different. So then the way that our moods are going to be different, the way they're supposed to exercise is going to be different. And if you think that you're supposed to be performing like a man, if you think that every single day is supposed to feel the exact same and eat the exact same, and then, you know, one week you go to the gym and you're like, oh, I'm like feeling really weak today. Or you get into a fight with your boyfriend and you're like, wow, I'm like really irritable right now. And you don't understand that there's an

actual hormonal reason for that. You get frustrated. And you're like, what is wrong with me? And then it doubles down because when you're getting irritated with yourself and frustrated, then you start like going to war with your body. Because it's like, oh, I just need to like suck it up more. I just need to like push harder. This is that. And the more you shove the emotions out of the rug, the more you try to push even harder in the gym when your body's not having it, the more you try to like force your body into this way of living that it is just not designed for in that particular phase, the worse that it gets. And so then we have these like crazy moon swings. And then you're going against the biological nature that God gave us for our bodies as women. And then we wonder like why we're so miserable and and not thriving.

We're not leaning into our feminine. And I think really leaning into your feminine sounds kind of woo-woo, but I don't mean it that way. I mean, from a scientific standpoint, leaning into our feminine is really living with our cycle and embracing our cycle and not trying to minimize it or run away from it. And I think that we would be so much happier as women if we really did that and understood, okay, I'm in my follicular phase. So I'm more likely to, you know, want to do this, this, this and this. I'm menstruating. I'm more likely to want this, this is this. I'm in my ludial phase. I'm, you know, more likely to want to stay home and hang out and cuddle up and like just different things like that. Yeah. And when you have grace for those things,

And it's like, okay, like this is where my body's at right now. Like I can recognize, you know, okay, maybe my moves are a little lower and this, this and this. When you have grace for that, they actually become way more chill. And the fluctuations become way less intense because you're kind of flowing with it rather than working so heavily against it. So the biggest, like, phase that women have issues with if you want to go into it is the ludial phase, which is like this phase where the luteal phase is what comes right after ovulation. And it's the two weeks after ovulation and before your period. And I've nicknamed it the lunatic phase. Yes. Which for most women it is. It's this time that you feel psychotic. And you're crying about everything and you're pissed off at everyone. And you have no energy and you just want to lay in bed all the time. In this phase, progesterone is our dominant hormone.

So in the follicular phase, which is, I like to, let me just take a step back for the phases. So you'll hear most people online say that there are four phases of the female cycle. I say that there are three because I think it's really. confusing to women to consider ovulation as its own phase because it's this single event that's occurring. So let me walk through the cycle. It's okay if you want to say that there's four. But I just find when you're teaching women about their cycle phases, this helps them digest it a little bit more. So we have our menstrual phase, which is the beginning of the entire cycle, which is when you're on your period. This is the one that everyone knows. Once your period ends, we enter the follicular phase.

And in the follicular phase, estrogen is the dominant hormone. And it's this hormone. You can think of it as like the season of spring. It's blossoming and good energy and this this hormone is preparing us for ovulation. So when we're in our follicular phase, we're producing estrogen, we're starting to build the lining of our uterus and we are, you know, counting down the days until we are ovulating. So energy is high. We, our sex drive is higher. It's encouraging us to be social and active and all of these different things. Estrogens are like our fun hormone. So that's our follicular phase that usually lasts anywhere from 8 to 13 days. In a healthy cycle, we're going to be ovulating.

So again, ovulation is like this event that's occurring. The egg drops into the fallopian tube, and then it's there for 24 hours, hoping that a sperm's going to come along. And then when the sperm doesn't come long, the egg dies. It's not like it's waiting there for a week, which is why I think the ovulatory phase can be confusing to them. It's not this phase. It's just a single event that's occurring, that's separating our follicular from our ludial

phase. And so the follicular phase ends. We ovulate. And then after that egg, does. dies and no sperm has come along to fertilize it, then we enter the ludial phase. And this is where progesterone takes over as the dominant hormone. And if estrogen was like the super fun spring best friend who's like always super peppy and exciting, progesterone is like the season of fall. It's a little more calm. Yeah. And it's not a bad. I think like this phase gets such a bad rap. There's nothing that's

bad about this phase. However, if you're expecting to be super peppy and high energy and wanting to go on dates and all these things. And then this phase is not meeting your expectations because you didn't realize that this is a phase of going a little bit more inward, being a little calm or maybe wanting you some more time to yourself, having an increased emotional energy, then that's when we get confused and frustrated and all these things. But if you can lean into like, okay, in this phase, like I am going to maybe go inward a a little more. I am going to have a little bit more emotional activity. But this is actually such a gift in this phase, a lot of people think of your period as the time that you're like the most moody and all these things. But our luteal phase is actually this time where when we're getting all

of these emotions that are coming up, you're getting this increase in irritation, all these things. It's like this opportunity where your brain is kind of handing you like, hey, here's all the crap that we've kind of swept under the rug for the last few weeks. Like, let's look at it. Let's go through it. Let's talk about it. And when we're just shoving it back under the rug and trying to like pretend none of it exists, then it kind of all overflows and boils over. Whereas in when we enter our menstrual phase, this is supposed to be like the season of winter. It's supposed to be the cleaning of a slate, the release and reset before a spring that is about to come. But in the fall, we're not purging everything. We're not going through all the things and allowing these things to

flow through us. Then when we get to winter, we're supposed to wiping the slate clean, releasing, letting go. That doesn't happen because we're, you know, getting so, we're just letting everything. everything boil over. And so the ludial phase, like, yes, you're going to be a little more tired. Yes, your emotional energy is going to be up. But like, that's okay. I mean, you can have grace for that and like expect it and prepare for it. It's not this terrible thing that's happening. It's like actually like kind of cool. It's kind of enjoyable. It gives you time to like chill out a little bit. Let's talk about breakfast in America, which is essentially dessert marketed to children. You wake up, you pour a bowl of something that's been engineered in a lab by a man named

Greg who hasn't seen sunlight since 2004. And you're like, this is a great way to start the Meanwhile, it's loaded with pesticides, refined sugar, artificial dyes, basically a chemistry set with a cartoon bird on the front so you don't ask questions. And even the healthy cereals, oh, don't even get me started. It's like, now with ancient grains. Okay, great, still poison. You walk into the store, you're like, I'm not buying junk cereal, I'm getting Cheerios. I'm a good person. Let's talk about Cheerios.

You're eating 729 parts per billion of glyphosate. Oh, and if you really want to treat yourself, how about Honeynut Cheerios? Over 800 parts per billion. This is why Lovebird exists. Lovebird is a cereal brand that was invented by a dad who worked in big food. And he was like, I'm not feeding this garbage to my kid anymore, which is the most radical thing you can do in this country. Care.

Lovebird took out all the fake stuff, no synthetic pesticides, no refined sugar, no weird lab ingredients, and replaced it with actual food. We're talking organic cassava, prebiotic fiber, lightly sweetened with honey, things your body recognizes instead of rejects. And now they've gone even further with their new protein cereal. 11 grams of protein made with grass-fed way, sweetened with organic coconut sugar, gluten-free, non-GMO, third-party tested, and it tastes phenomenal, which is rare because most healthy protein cereals taste disgusting. I'm not going to lie to you. I love the cinnamon one,

and if you're trying to get your kids off ultra-process junk, this is the move. You swap in something familiar, right? You're not totally changing their life. They're used to cereal in the morning, but now you're going to start with something non-toxic. Also, Lovebird donates 20% of profits to fight childhood cancer. They're family-owned, independent, and they even have a program to swap junk cereal in schools for real food at the same price. So you can email them, find their info on their website, and tell them about your kids' school, and they'll send cereal for free, which is insane because they're basically losing money

just to fix the system. These are the types of companies that I sponsor on my show. Okay, so now do you understand. I am so picky. I want the game changers. I want the real parents making a difference. You can grab Lovebird at a grocery store near you, but if you want 20% off, go to Love Birdfoods.com. Use code Alex 20 for 20% off at lovebirdfoods.com. Code Alex 20 at lovebirdfoods.

Can we talk about sports bras for a second? Because I feel like every sports bra on the market was designed by somebody who actively hates women. Like you either put one on and you suddenly cannot breathe or you take it off six hours later and it leaves those deep red marks on your body like you've just escaped maritime captivity. You're peeling it off and you're like, well, I survived. If I am wearing something this close to my skin all day, you know, maybe I should actually care what it's made of. So that's a whole other issue. And so that's why I've been loving the sports bras from Q for Quinn. Most people know them because they make incredibly clean socks and underwear, but their women's line is so good. Their sports bras are made with certified organic cotton. They're comfortable enough to wear all day long. And they do not feel

like you're being vacuum sealed into your own rib cage. I know you know what I'm talking about. They are the best sports bras I've ever used. I also love the story behind the company. So the founder, Melita started Q for Quinn after her son struggled with Exima, and she realized just how many clothing basics can contain questionable chemicals. So she built a company focused on natural materials like organic cotton and marino wool that are GOTS certified, which is the global organic textile standard. It's one of those products where you put it on and you think, okay, this is what a bra is supposed to feel like. It's good for me. Use code Alex for 15% off your first order of non-toxic basics from underwear to socks to sports bras at Q4Frin.com.

That's Q4Quinn.com code Alex for 15% off your first order. Realistically and scientifically, how many weeks or even days out of the month does a woman, on average, actually really want to have sex? Like she's actually horny and wants to have sex. It is very often close to ovulation. For a lot of women, they actually have very high sex drive in the menstrual phase. Not really sure why that is. but most of the time it's like leading up to ovulation so it's maybe that weak leading up to ovulation however you know for every woman it is different so sometimes you're going to but if you're trying

to you know initiate something the week before her period he's like that's just it's going to be a disaster because it's like the body isn't biologically in a place where it wants to create babies and like nothing is going to go well but yeah that is solid i would say week two weeks No, that doesn't mean that, you know, for the other two weeks of the month or whatever, two and a half weeks that your partner does not want to or won't. I'm just saying on average, that's the reality. I think with most women, we have responsive desire where men just, they always desire sex. Women have to be, have to get into that place based on how you guys are talking to each other and spending time together and sensual touch and just whatever it is for, each particular woman. And then it's like, okay, so if you just ask a woman, would you want to have sex tonight? Like almost always, she's going to be like, I mean, no. Like, that's not even on my radar. I'm not even thinking about it. But like the correct answer is probably going to be like, no, but I could maybe get there. I'm open-minded. But, you know, can we just do some things or

have some conversation or spend some quality time together so that I can kind of get in that mode? We can't just like turn it on and off like men. You know, so I think we're kind of different in that way, which a lot of men I don't think understand. So when women with PCOS or endometriosis are told that hormonal birth control is going to be your best first line of defense, what's your reaction to that? It's so frustrating because I'm like, I'm not a doctor. I'm not going to, like, I can't tell you exactly how to heal your PCOS or heal your endometriosis. But what I can tell you is putting a Band-Aid over it where they're just, because they're essentially saying, hey, so ovulation makes these things flare up. So let's just stop ovulation. Like let's just like basically go hide behind the curtain and pretend nothing's happening and everything will be okay. But then they're not asking like, well, why do you have endometriosis? Why do you have PCOS? Because it's not just genetic. It's not just this thing that's just happening to you and you can't do anything about it, which is what we are, they are led to believe. They want us to believe that like, oh, you just have this thing. This thing is just happening to you. And you have no control over it to make it better or worse or anything. Like your diet doesn't influence it and your

lifestyle doesn't influence it. So here you are. Like, this is just you. And so now take this pill forever and we'll put a band-aid over it. And then, you know, when you want to have a baby in five years, like, good luck. We'll figure it out then. Right. And it's just very frustrating because it's not fixing the problem. And it's doing such a disservice to these women who can like, yeah, maybe you're not going to completely get rid of your endo with lifestyle and diet. But you can make it significantly better. You can do so much. And then. then now PCOS is now PMOS, we know that it's a metabolic disease. That is entirely in our control. And so to tell women that you just have this thing, you can do anything about it is so frustrating when

so much of your lifestyle can play a role in it, so much of your food, but now we're suppressing ovulation. So now not only do you have PMOS or not only do you have endometriosis, but now you're not even going through a normal hormone cycle, which is creating all kinds of other issues. Now you're just, you're, you know, your guts getting dysregulated if you're taking the pill or taking these other forms of birth control. Like you're just stacking problems on top of each that's like, oh, we'll just deal with those things later. Like, later when you have like an autoimmune disease and a gut issue and all these things, like, we'll give you 10 more pills.

But we're not going to try to fix anything. So it's just frustrating. Let's say a woman listening wants to come off birth control tomorrow. What is the biggest mistake that she could make? A lot of women assume that coming off of birth control is just the thing that you're supposed to do and then you're going to be healthy. It's like, okay, well, birth control was, you know, it's harmful. It's this bad thing that I shouldn't be on. So let me go off of it.

and then everything is going to be sunshine and rainbows and my cycle's going to come back and everything's going to be perfect. But hormonal birth control, if you've been on it for, I was on it for six years. You know, some women are on it for 10 years for 15 years. It is creating this state of trauma in your body where you have not been cycling regularly for who knows how long and you're not producing the hormones. You're supposed to do all these things. And so when you come off of it, you can't just expect that everything is going to be amazing and perfect. You are, that is. That is. the first step of the healing journey. You're going off hormonal birth control. Now the work starts. And I don't want to scare women. It's not like, oh my gosh, it's going to be this daunting journey. But you have to

expect like, okay, now I have to give my body the tools to heal from this trauma state that has essentially been in. And you're also, you are depleted of a lot of essential nutrients. Birth control zaps that out of you. Severely depletes. So when you stop taking that, you really need to double up on a lot of different vitamins and minerals and nutrients, right? Yeah. So leaning into like, again, building all the foundations and supporting your body with nutrient and foods and like getting a healthy lifestyle and all these things, that has to be coupled with going off birth control. So then you're supporting that process back, getting on a really good, people think this is so strange, but taking a prenatal vitamin is not just for having babies. Like it's giving our body

all of the nutrients that it needs like for fertility. So getting on like a really good prenatal can be great for getting your cycle back because it's flooding. What prenatal do you like? I like birthright and I think is it WeHeart nutrition or something? I don't know that brand. Fig wellness is a really good one. That's the one that I take. I've been taking it for six months now. I'm not going to have a baby anytime soon, but it's like you're also for women,

preparing for pregnancy is like a three-year journey before conception. So if you're thinking, oh, I'm going to go off birth control and then next month I'm going to start trying to have a baby, your mineral stores are so severely depleted. Your body is so dysregulated. It takes a long time to get your body fully, fully prepared for like a three. thriving pregnancy. Yeah, not saying that you can't get pregnant a month after getting off. Yeah, no, absolutely. But it's not going to be as great. You're not going to have as great of a postpartum. You're going to, like, it's going to be, there's going to be a lot more friction.

Whereas if you can go in with like a really nourished thriving body, it's going to help so much. But your gynaecal doesn't tell you that. They're just like, yeah, go off the pill. Okay, now try to get pregnant. And they're not giving women any resources of like your body does need to be really nourished to be able to house a baby and have a great postpartum and have a great breastfeeding journey, all these different things. So when you're going off birth control, obviously you want to be doing all the things afterwards. You want to be, you know, taking the prenatal, eating all the good foods and all those things and have grace for your body. Like if your period doesn't come back in the first month, that's okay. Take it as communication of like, okay,

this is my body telling me that we still have some work to do. And that's okay. And that's great. However, it's going to take a little bit of time, especially you've been on birth control over 10 years. It's okay if it takes three months. It's okay if it takes six months to get your cycle back. Oh, it is? Just no. Yeah, I mean, that. Because I've been, I've been, I've, I've, got that question before. My DM's just like, okay, I got off birth control and I still haven't got. My period has been six months. And I'm like, I don't know. It just, it depends at what level of like depletion you're now entering this new stage. Like if you've been on birth control for so long and you've never taken care of your health and like everything is kind of out of whack. Like, yeah, it's going to

take a little time and that's okay because you are putting in the work to get your body back to that baseline. Obviously, the faster your cycle comes back, the more of an indicator that, you know, the health of your body is better. But it's okay if you're, you know, just starting out and you've never, like, gotten into the kind of the health space and you, if it takes six months, it takes six months. Yeah. And if you're not, if you don't have a naturopath, first of all, I always recommend a natural path to doctor. But if you don't have that and like, we're talking about something just getting off the pill and just wanting to make sure that you are, are upping your nutrients that were depleted. I mean, you guys can just ask Chad, CBT, like what, what vitamins, minerals

and nutrients are depleted while I'm on hormonal birth control? It'll tell you. you know, I don't remember them off the time of my idea. Also, there's so many. There's so many. There's so many good resources out there. My favorite book is the fifth vital sign by Lisa Hendricks and Jax. Okay. It is a phenomenal book. And it gives women such a beautiful blueprint of like, hey, here's how to nourish your body.

Here's how to prevent pregnancy. It's like the crash course on like you went off birth control. Now here's how you to take care of your fifth vital sign. Here's how to take care of your ovulation. And so it's like if you don't have the money to work with all these fancy functional medicine doctors and all these things. All of these doctors write books. All of these doctors are on podcasts. You can learn so much through just going to study these doctors. And the biggest thing is it's not rocket science. That's what drives me insane about, I think, like, the cycle sinking space and a lot of

the hormone space is it makes women think that all of these things, that it actually is my biggest issue with cycle sinking. Like, it's not rocket science. It makes it look so complicated. You have to do this in this phase and make sure you eat these nuts in this phase and like exercise this way in this phase and it gets your head spinning. And it's like that stuff is a cherry on top. You do not need to be perfectly cycle syncing to healthy cycle. I'm not perfectly cycle sinking. But I am building, again, the really unsexy but very important solid foundation of a healthy body. And I'm doing that not just in my luteal phase, not just in my filicular phase. I'm doing it every single day. And so it's great to cycle sync. But it doesn't have to be rocket science. And I think that's one of the

biggest things of like when I learned this and I started sharing it online, I think it resonated because I'm not a doctor. I'm not like, I didn't spend years in college learning about all these things. I was like, oh, I actually can understand how my body works. It's not supposed to be complicated. Like understanding how to nourish my body and all of these things is actually just this basic knowledge that we all can have. And you don't need a doctor to explain it to you. You don't need a doctor how to tell you how to get your cycle back. Like they are not the ones that are in control of your health. You're in control of your health. And it is simple. And it doesn't have to be scary. And I think when you're going off birth control, just knowing like, okay, I'm going to nourish

my body. I'm going to do all of these basic things. When my body's ready, it will. A great sign on if your body is healing after birth control is paying attention to your cervical fluid. So for a lot of women, they've never experienced egg white cervical fluid. It's this like stretchy, raw, egg white-white-looking stuff that comes right out of your body when you're ovulating. And if you don't have healthy hormones and healthy cycle, or have you been on birth control forever, you've probably never experienced that. And so when you're coming out of birth control and you start, you know, ovulating things again, paying attention to how much and the quality of the cervical fluid you're producing is a great indicator for, you know, seeing that progress and health in your body.

It's not just like, there's so many indicators. Like our body is communicating with us all the time. It's like, okay, how often is your period coming? How painful is your period? Are you getting great cervical fluid? How are your basal body temperatures? That's a great indicator into how healthy you are. And it's like, you don't need to get all these expensive labs and all these things. Our body's communicating with us every single day about what's going on internally.

And if we can learn how to decode a lot of those signals and communications, we get all the information that we need. And then it gives you this like little excitement. It's like, you are seeing these little micro progresses every single month. of like, oh, my cervical food's looking a little better this month, or my period or my period came two days earlier than last month. And it's like, it's great. It's an awesome thing that's happening. You learned how to prevent pregnancy naturally using the fertility awareness method. A lot of people hear that may think, okay, so the rhythm method, but those are different. So what is the difference between the rhythm method and the fertility awareness method to prevent

pregnancy? If I could do one thing in life, it would be to go to high schools and explain this to girls. I have a personal experience of a teenage girl that I love. And I was teaching her about fertility awareness method. Her mom thought it was the rhythm method. And it's like this big, scary thing of like, the rhythm method does not work and it's dangerous. All these things. I'm like, you don't understand. But so the rhythm method was really popular in the 1950s, 60, 70s. And it was the method where you're essentially just counting. So your last period, let's say, was on day 28 of your cycle, which means this upcoming month, we're going to assume that my period is going to be on day 28 of my cycle again. And now I'm going to count backwards. And okay, looks like that means that ovulation is going to be on day 14.

So it's guesswork. You're literally just guessing when you are going to ovulate based on past periods. But ovulation doesn't work that way. Every single month, depending on your stress levels, depending on if you're sick, depending on all these things that are going on in your life, ovulation can ebb and flow even up to a week. Like if you're traveling and you're really jet lagged, like your body's going to delay ovulation just as a natural, like protective mechanism. And so if you're just trying to use guesswork to guess when you're going to ovulate, because again, the reason that we're even doing this is because ovulation, like I said, is the only time when the egg is released into the fallopian tube and you have this 24 hour time when the egg is alive and available to be. be fertilized. During that time, it's the only time in your cycle where it's possible, literally scientifically possible to make a baby to get pregnant. However, sperm can live in the body for up to five days. So we consider in the fertility awareness method the ovulation day and then the five,

four or five days leading up to ovulation as your quote unquote fertile window as time that having sex clean to pregnancy. So if you are using the rhythm method and you are assuming that, you know, I am going to ovulate on day 14, but then you actually ovulate on day 17. And then you thought you were safe after day 14 and you have sex. Oh, my gosh, now you're pregnant. So using fertility awareness method, you're using signals from your body. You're using actually biomarkers in your body. There are three of them. There's basal body temperature. There's cervical fluid. And then there's cervix position. And you are cross-referencing all these signals that your body is actively giving you every single day to determine when you are leading

up to ovulation and then to accurately 99.7% accuracy, just like any other birth control, accurately confirm that ovulation has now come and gone. And again, when ovulation occurs, that egg is only living for 24 hours. So once ovulation is gone, there's no egg to be fertilized. When you're in your ludial phase, like after ovulation is passed, it's physically impossible to create a baby. And the fertility awareness method when you're cross-referencing these fertility signs, it accurately can predict when that is. So it's not just a guesswork of like, oh, well, I'm going to predict that because of this thing happened last month. Now this thing's going to happen this month. You're using the signs every single day that your body is communicating with you. You ever notice we're living

like we're in a sci-fi movie and nobody acts like it's weird? I mean, we carry around these little glowing bricks that know where we are, who we texted, what we ordered at 1 a.m. And somehow, they're always listening. We've accepted it. And if somebody from 1985 saw us walking around with Bluetooth earbuds, permanently welded into our schools, they'd be like, oh, so the government won. You know, that's why I've been making some really simple swaps. And one of my favorites is the anti-radiation air tube headphones from tech wellness. This is what I use. Instead of sticking wireless earbuds in my ears, I use these when I'm taking calls, when I'm listening to podcasts or watching videos, when I'm on a flight, when I'm working out. If you're just getting started

with reducing your EMF exposure, they also have an EMF protection starter pack. Every pack comes with the air tube headphones plus a Wi-Fi kill switch so you can shut off your Wi-Fi with one click while you sleep. And then you can upgrade to include things like a phone stand, a stylus, or even an EMF meter so that you can actually see what's happening in your home. And if privacy is your thing, my code also works on their Faraday bags, which completely block wireless signals when your phone's inside of them. Go to Techwellness.com. Use code Alex Clark for 15% off, the Air Tube headphones, the EMF protection starter pack, and the Faraday bag. That's Alex Clark for 15% off at Tech Wellness.

com. People ask me all the time, Alex, what is your favorite non-toxic makeup product? Like, I'm about to reveal some underground beauty society that meets in a candlelit basement. Nope, it's so easy. It's a Dell Natural Cosmetics. At some point, every woman has to dump her makeup bag out and confront the reality that she's been carrying around products older than some middle schoolers. There's always one lipstick that survived three apartments, two relationships, and somehow COVID. That deserves a military funeral. If you're trying to clean up your makeup bag, but you still want products that actually perform, Adele is what I recommend. Their loose foundation is lightweight enough for summer, but gives buildable coverage so that your skin still looks like skin. And then the best part is

they've got this color matching service. Shopping for foundation can really be daunting. You know, am I a beige almond? Am I soft linen and my emotional support sand? Well, Adele actually helps match you with the right shade and gives application tips too. Adele is a Christian conservative-owned company based in Texas. Everything is made in the USA. They are committed to thoughtfully selecting ingredients and incredible customer service. Go to adele natural cosmetics.com. Use code Alex for 25% off your first order. That's adele natural cosmetics.com with code Alex for 25% off. What signs is a woman tracking when she's trying to do this method? So the first one is basal body temperature. So that is the temperature of your body when you are waking

up in the morning. And how do you take that? Your mouth or your vagina. Some women take it vaginally, but most just take it in their mouth. It's usually accurate enough in your mouth. Some women will like, you know, if they need, like, extra accuracy, they'll take eventually, but you don't need to do that. There's also, like, the temp drop arm band that you can get. There's so many different. People use the aura ring, which I'm actually not a huge fan of, but there's so many different ways to temp these days. The one thing that I just want to, like, preface with is when people first hear about the fertility awareness method, it sounds like a lot of work. It sounds really complicated and confusing. Like, oh my gosh, that is a lot. It's really not. It becomes so second nature when you do it for a month, two months that it's like, you don't even think about it. So I know it sounds daunting, but get the book taking charge of your fertility.

And that is like the Bible for this. It is amazing. But anyways, basal body temperature is the temperature of your body when you're waking up in the morning. And you get an oral thermometer or you have your armband or whatever you need and you take your temperature. A lot of the devices these days, they're Bluetooth. So it'll just like connect straight to your phone and like put the temperature into your phone. Then you have your cervical fluid, which is a lot of women know this is the discharge that you found in your underwear when you were 16 years old. And you're like, oh my God, I'm going to die because no one tells us what that is.

It's actually a really healthy part of your cycle. Cervical fluid is what your body creates is like, your body's creating a slip and slide for the sperm to easily travel to the egg when the egg is when you're ovulating. And so you will notice if you start paying attention to your cervical fluid, not paying attention to that like creamy or crumbly stuff that you find in your underwear a few, you know, a few weeks of the month, you'll notice that it will kind of ebb and flow. You'll get, you know, a lot of cervical fluid and it'll get like really creamy, kind of like you're finding lotion in your pants. Or you'll get that really egg white. It really looks like a stretchy raw egg white.

You'll find that. And your body will produce this for usually the weakish leading up to ovulation. And it'll progress. It'll start kind of dry and crumbly and it'll get creamy. They call it like the progression of like fertile quality. The more quote unquote watery it gets. So the closer it gets from like creamy to then. like egg white and like wet, the closer you're getting to ovulation. And then when ovulation

finishes, the cervical fluid will dry up and you won't really see a lot of it produced until you're getting back to ovulation in your next cycle. That's cervical fluid. And then we have cervix position, which is kind of an optional fertility sign in infertility awareness method. A lot of women use it, a lot of women don't. But it's essentially, so in your female anatomy, you have your uterus and you have your cervix, which is kind of like this little hallway that connects your uterus to your vaginal cavity. And that little hallway, our body really wants us to get pregnant. And so it does everything possible. It gives us the slip and slide, gives us all the things. And what it also does is our cervix will shorten and soften to open up and allow sperm to more

easily enter. And so you can tell your cervix position by literally putting a finger into your vaginal cavity. You can feel the position of your cervix. But a lot of women don't use as a fertility sign. It's really just kind of basal body temperature and cervical fluid that are required to be cross-referenced. So going back to basal body temperature, the reason this is such an accurate sign is because when you are taking your temperature every single morning and you are charting it on a temp chart, you can do this on an app. There's a lot of really simple ways to do this, you're going to notice a pattern. And when you are in your follicular phase, when you are pre-ovulation, you'll notice that the temperatures are kind of in this consistent range, 97.3, 97.4

90s, like, it's a very tight range. And you'll see it kind of just moving, moving. And then after ovulation, like I mentioned earlier, progesterone takes over as the dominant hormone. Progesterone literally heats up our body. And progesterone cannot be produced unless ovulation has occurred. It impossible for us. We don't produce progesterone until we've ovulated. And so it is this very clear sign that you will see in your temp, you got your little temps, and then suddenly you'll see a spike in the temperature. And then not only will it spike, but it's going to remain spiked. And so you're going to see the spike. It's called your thermal shift. And then after that, until your period comes, those temperatures should remain in that higher range where it's going to be like 98, 98.3. It's going

to consistently start climbing and climbing. And this is actually a great indicator. of your progesterone levels because our progesterone is a very important hormone in our ludial phase. If your ludial phase is really short or if you're getting a lot of PMS or you are struggling with failed implantation, it's a sign that your progesterone levels are low. Progesterone is a really important hormone for our fertility. My cycles in general are so short. I feel like I have a 24 or 25 day cycle. Yeah. So you can, if you know when your ovulation day is and you can. count from ovulation day to the first day of your period, that window, which is your luteal phase, should be at minimum 11 days long. 11 to 14 days is a healthy luteal phase. Anything

shorter, and that's an indication that your progesterone levels are too low, because the way that your body triggers your period to come is the fall off of progesterone. So when progesterone kind of runs out, and you'll see this on a temperature. It's really interesting. You'll see the temperatures kind of fall off a cliff. And then the next day your period starts because literally your progesterone saying, okay, I'm done. Yeah. And so women who have shorter ludial phases are going to experience more negative symptoms, but it's literally just a sign of your progesterone, which is a really easy thing to fix. Do you think that a woman would know more about her health by tracking her cycle or just the yearly checkup with her general practitioner? You go to your early checkup. They don't even

tell you anything about your body. You're like, oh, yeah, I haven't gotten a period in a while. Oh, that's okay. Don't even worry about it. You're on birth control, right? Just like, let's make sure, like, you're taking the pill, right? They don't, like, they don't even know anything about your cycle. You get your pap smear. Like, what is that telling you? Okay, great, you don't have HPV. So it's like if you are getting this communication every single day, every single month from your body, if you understand how to tune into it. Looking at your cervical fluid, looking at your base of body temperature, knowing when you're ovulating, knowing how long your ludial phase is. All of these things are like constant biomarkers that you're getting for free.

of like, hey, this is how well your body's doing right now. And then you get to, like, use that to make changes. So it's like, oh, I'm noticing that this month, these last few months, my luteal phase is like a little bit shorter. Like, I wonder what that's trying to tell me. Okay, well, if your luteal phase is short, it's usually you're undernourished or your body's really stressed out. Like, what are the things that are depleting progesterone? Okay, let me start making those changes. And what's great is those changes are always almost free. What are your favorite cycle tracking apps? I use so it depends because I personally hate the apps that are like done for you I hate natural cycles people dog on me for that but I just I don't like things that are going to like do the work for you well natural so I'm just going to say something natural cycles is also big on like breastfeeding people and men you know like having periods and all this crap so like I do not like natural cycles for that reason so a lot of those apps that you're you know you're going to put some information and it's going to make a prediction for you. you of like, okay, now you're in your safe zone, now you're this, now you're that. And I'm like, I like to be empowered with the information to make those, like, decisions on my own. So when you're looking at your base water temperature and all these things and you're cross-driving see them and you're seen, okay, I know that I am, whatever, whatever. So the app that I use is called Kandara, but it's completely like you chart the temperatures, you chart your cervical fluid, and it makes, you know, and you like determine where you are in your cycle. It's not doing

anything for you. The author of taking charge your fertility, Tony Weschler actually just came out with her own app. It's called cyclicity, I think, and it's a fertility awareness method app. I'm sure it's similar to Kandara, where you can chart and do all the things. So I think those are the two apps that I would recommend, but to use those apps, you have to understand how your body works, which is great. By taking charge of your fertility, learn about how your body works. And then also, when you get this book, it's like this thick. It is so daunting. You only have to read the first 52 pages. The first 52 pages will give you the basics. You can read more if you.

want. But the first 52 pages will teach you how your cycle works. It'll explain like the basics of fertility awareness method. It's really all you need. So don't like feel. Okay. I kind of love that. So if a woman feels completely disconnected from her body, she's overwhelmed by a lot of conflicting advice and unsure where to start. What is the first thing that she should start doing tomorrow morning? Stop looking for the quick fixes and stop trying to buy all the fancy supplements and like really sit with yourself and ask, where is the low-hanging fruit? Like, what are, where are the cracks in my foundation? And for some women, that's going to be, hey, every single day, I need to make the goal of cooking myself one nutrient-dense meal. Yeah. Great goal. Yeah, you don't need, maybe you got to

eat out of fruit, like, you know, once a day or whatever. But if you can just start with one nutrient-dense meal, like, I'm going to eat red meat once a day or I'm going to have some organ meats once a day. That's for some women. That already makes the biggest difference. For other women, maybe they're eating healthy, but maybe their stress is like super out of whack and they're doom scrolling until midnight and all these things. They're not doing anything to support their nervous system. So for you, it's like, okay, I'm going to leave my phone at home and go for a walk in the sunshine and move my body for 30 minutes for an hour a day. For like, it's so different for everyone, but it's like, that's always, it's either food or movement or stress or sleep. If those four things

are not dialed, I don't care, like, don't do anything else. Those are the foundations. That's like the rock solid, low-hanging fruit of like, come on, just get some more freaking sleep. Like, get your sleep, move your body, get in the sunshine, every single day, manage your nervous system, take accountability for it, and eat good foods. How can people learn more from you? I have a podcast. It's called, I have a co-host as well. Her name's Abby. She's amazing. Our podcast is called, Did We Just Say That? Because it's very TMI and all the, the fun things. We're always talking about some crazy topics. All about health or other things? It's all about health, but like our last episode was like sex after birth and like just very

TMI things. But I teach fertility awareness method and all the cycle phases and everything on there. So that's like a great resource. So did we just say that? That's on all the podcast platforms. And then I host women's retreats specifically geared towards the cycle. So it's called cycle camp. because I literally wanted to make it feel like adult summer camp. Like we go out into the woods and we swim in lakes and I teach classes on your cycle. And we find like-minded friends. It is my favorite thing in the world. What does this happen?

It happens two to three times a year. We actually have one coming up in July and we have one more spot to it. How much is it? It's different for every single. They're always kind of in the 2000 to 3,000 range. It's all-inclusive. We have a chef there. we

Wait, this sounds awesome. I want to do this. Literally the most fun thing ever. Like we all stay in like one big house. It's like a slumber party for like five days. When is it in July? It is July 24th to the 27th. Where are you going?

We're going to Sister's Oregon. Oregon's my favorite state ever. And we literally get this like every time it's different. We've like got these like villas in Costa Rica. We've gotten cabin like this one is a cabin in the woods on a lake. And we like eat really nutrient dense foods and we learn about our food. and we learn about our cycle and we go hiking barefoot and we swim the and it's just like such a fun time and yeah we've done them kind of all over i've been doing them for three years now we've had

i think seven groups of women now where do you sign up um if you go on my instagram which is i'm at cycle with kaila on instagram you will find it in my bio okay this is so neat love everything that you're doing i got to know you um i hosted a one year anniversary culture apothecary dinner and and you Kane because you're friends with your friends with Bethany from Primely Pure. And so she introduced us and I was excited to meet you. And I thought you would be such a fantastic guest and you were. So thank you for coming on. I have to ask if you could offer one remedy to heal us at culture. It could be physically, emotionally or spiritually, what would it be? I'm going to sound like a broken record, but it's going to be stop trying to find the resources outside of yourself.

Stop trying to find the next perfect supplement. Stop trying to find. Stop trying to find. like the perfect protocols and all these things and get back to just returning to the way that your body was designed, returning to the foundations of a healthy body becoming a human again, frankly, like return to nature. And that's the biggest thing. Thank you, Kyla, for coming on Culture Poppica. Thank you so much. Whether you're trying to get pregnant, avoid pregnancy, balance your hormones or just feel better in your own skin. Understanding your cycle as a woman should be foundational knowledge. Kyla, thank you for joining me and helping make that knowledge more accessible to women everywhere. New episodes come out every Monday and Thursday at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern,

anywhere you get your podcast. Please leave that five-star review on Apple or Spotify if it's been a while or you never have. You can tell me how long you've been listening. It takes like three seconds to do it. It really, really helps us out. This content is for informational purposes only, and it's not intended to be taken as medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional regarding any questions or decisions related to your health or medical care. I'm Alex Clark and this is Culture Apothecary.