Live Like a Girl with Dr. Mindy Pelz - The Impact of Diet on Hormones & How Seed Cycling Helps with Kaya & Yasmin of Beeya

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

Delve into the fascinating world of seed cycling with Yasmin and Kaya, the co-founders of Beeya, a wellness company dedicated to natural, food-based solutions for hormonal imbalances. In this episode they explain how incorporating flax, pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower seeds into your diet can serve as hormonal medicine, supporting the balance of estrogen and progesterone throughout different phases of a woman's life. Whether you're menstruating, perimenopausal, or postmenopausal, this insightful discussion reveals how seed cycling can enhance mood, energy, and sleep.  To view full show notes, more information on our guests, resources mentioned in the episode, discount codes, transcripts, and more, visit https://drmindypelz.com/ep241 Yasmin Nouri and Kaya Purohit are co-founders of Beeya, a wellness company helping women overcome hormonal imbalances using natural, food-based solutions and deep education about the impact of lifestyle on total body health. Inspired by their own struggles and seed-cycling journeys, Beeya is a simple way to support hormones and help women revolutionize their own health through all life stages. Check out our fasting membership at resetacademy.drmindypelz.com. Please note our medical disclaimer.

On this episode of The Resetter podcast, we're going to talk about a really cool food that can be hormonal medicine. So let me give you a little idea of what you're about to listen to. So I want to introduce you to Yasmin and Kea. They are the co-founders of Bia is their company. It's a wellness company that is helping women overcome hormonal imbalances using natural food based solutions. And they have a deep education around the impact of lifestyle on body health, which you know, is hopefully you all know is a big message of mine is let's use lifestyle to heal

ourselves. And they started a company, this company that does seat cycling. So if you haven't heard of seed cycling, it's been around for some time. I call it an ancient healing strategy where you eat certain seeds. You're going to hear the four seeds here. They are flax, they are pumpkin, they are sesame, and there are sunflower seeds, and we break each seed down and what they do and what part of the cycle. So cycling these seeds in at different parts of the menstrual cycle to help balance hormones. Now, for my menopausal women, don't jump off because there was so much discussion in here about how seeds can balance specifically estrogen and protein. progesterone. If you are a menstruating woman, there is a cycle to do that with. And seed cycling can

help you not only produce hormones, help you break down hormones, but help keep this balance of estrogen and progesterone intact. If you are menopausal or postmenopausal, we already know progesterone and estrogen are out of balance with each other. It's part of the nature of these hormones on their decline. So using something like seed cycling can be really helpful for balancing, you'll hear in this discussion, balancing moods and energy and sleep, which are big issues that perimenopause and menopausal women are dealing with. So this is a very nuanced conversation. I am very interested in bringing you topics that show you that food is hormonal medicine.

And I could not go many months longer without bringing you seed cycling because it's standing the test of time. Everybody can do it. So here you go. Kaya and Yasmin, such lovely humans. And those of you that want to test their products, check the show notes. We do have discount codes. We have links. So you can go there. And I say give it a try after this episode. They convinced me. So let's see what you learn from it. And let's all give it a try. Welcome to the Resetter podcast. This podcast is all about empowering you to believe in yourself again. If you have a passion for learning, if you're looking to be in control of your health and take your power back, this is the podcast for you.

I just want to welcome you both. I'm really excited to have this conversation with you. So let me just start off by saying, welcome. Let's dive into seed cycling. So happy to have you gals here. We're so happy to be here. Thank you for inviting us. It's such an honor.

It is. We love your work so much, so we're excited to be here. Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. You know, one of the messages that I think we both share, all three of us share, is this idea that food is medicine. And I have learned that at a very early age. I had a mother that knew from the get-go back in the 70s that food.

was medicine. I had a healing crisis in my 20s where a homeopathic doctor showed me the door out through changing my food choices. And then my perimenopausal and menopausal years, I really started to combine this concept of food and fasting to use it as hormonal medicine. So I feel like my life has been on this journey of looking at food literally like we look at medicine. Seats. cycling is really interesting for me because I'm going to be really transparent. The first time I heard it, I was like, there's no way. Hormones are so complicated. There's no way you're going to tell me to eat some almonds or eat, you know, whatever seeds, pumpkin seeds, and my hormonal situation's going to be better. So my first question is, what is seed cycling and why does it work for hormones?

I know. We've all kind of gone through that same thing of hearing about seed cycling and feeling like, is this witchcraft or what is this? There's no way that seeds could do anything. But we like to say that seeds are a little bit, seed cycling is a little bit like magic and a little bit like science combined. Really what it is is that there's not a lot of research. Actually, there's not any research specifically on seed cycling, but there's so much research on the nutrients. in the seeds. So what you do with seed cycling is essentially you're rotating four specific seeds throughout a menstrual cycle. So let's just say the average menstrual cycle is 28 days. You're rotating these seeds throughout the menstrual cycle to support the two main sex hormones that we're trying to balance estrogen and progesterone. And typically imbalances in these hormones are what caused things like PMS or irregular cycles. More often than not, it's too much estrogen in relationship to progesterone that causes these sort of gnarly periods. So the seeds, the nutrients in these seeds are supporting essentially the balance between estrogen and progesterone,

the healthy elimination of estrogen, and the production of progesterone as well. So the four seeds are flax, pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower. And we added hemp to our blends because they taste really good and they're a complete protein too. Yeah, we love hemp too. It makes it taste way better because, as you can imagine, grounding seeds every day, like there can be, you know, a little bit of a challenge there. But we really wanted to make, like, a great tasting product that people would love to take every single day. And Mindy, you know so much about this. But when you think about those seeds and you think about the nutrients in them, you can understand why this could potentially work to support hormones because you have fatty acids, you have fiber, you have antioxidants. You have all these things that our hormones need to not only be effectively eliminated in the body, but all.

also be produced and balanced as well. So that's just seed cycling in a nutshell, but we can dive into all the nutrients in the seeds too. Yeah, you know, the other thing that's interesting I find about seeds in all my research is it's an incredible prebiotic. So where I go with the statement you just made was, okay, if it's a great prebiotic, then do we have any research on just the prebiotic component of seeds supporting the ostrobelome that set of bacteria that break estrogen down, because I could take what you just said and go, okay, so, and I want to dive into some of these nutrients, so if it's bringing a mineral or a vitamin in the seeds, and then it's also feeding this part of our microbiome that breaks estrogen down, that makes it wickedly powerful. So do we know if it supports

good bacterial growth? Yeah, well, you know, the star of seed cycling is probably fly. flax seeds because there's so much research on flax seeds. And so for the first half of the cycle through menstruation through the follicular phase, you're taking flax and pumpkin. And the reason flax seeds are so powerful, they contain fatty acids, they contain fiber, but they also contain lignins. And we know that our gut bacteria break down lignins into these things that are kind of like phytoestrogens, basically. They have weak estrogenic properties. So I hate to say that because a lot of women who have estrogen dominant conditions get scared of things like flax. It's kind of controversial. and some experts like to avoid like flax and soy and these phytoestrogens if somebody is dealing with something like that.

It depends. It depends on the expert for me. No, I'm just like that discussion we have to unpack. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. But actually there's really cool research that, yeah, again, the estrogenic properties are weaker. And actually what we're seeing instead is a more modulating effect. So it can help to effectively eliminate and antagonize the effects of estrogen. So if somebody is dealing with estrogen dominance, it can actually be pretty helpful. That was what happened to me.

I've had a case of estrogen dominance since I started to get my periods, and especially postpartum, I had really, really horrible periods. They were heavier than normal. They were, I was getting more cramps than normal. And seat cycling was pretty much the only thing that worked for me. Within one month of seat cycling, my cramps went away. My periods were so much lighter. They went from being like eight days to being six days.

So speaking from personal experience, as somebody who has estrogen dominance, I love flaxseeds, but I know that, you know, some people feel differently. Right, right. You know, it's interesting. So I don't want to leave the estrogen dominance talk for a hot moment because when you acknowledge that you are understood that you had estrogen dominance, was it because of exposure to chemicals or like, because our experience that we've seen, now, my. experience with the Dutch test and looking at hormones test is pretty much in women over 40. And we don't see a lot of estrogen dominance. We see actually a lack of estrogen. But then if you go and you look at the breakdown of that estrogen and the metabolites, you see a dominant

4-0-H, which is toxic estrogen. So I don't know if you're comfortable talking a little bit about how you discovered your estrogen dominant, because I think that might be an important nuance that would be helpful. Yeah, totally. It really started off as signs for me as a teenager, especially really struggling with acne for over a decade, having really bad painful cystic acne, and then having pretty bad periods, not debilitating, but they were heavier than I knew that they should be. They were a little bit longer than I knew. And then I worked with a naturopathic doctor who ran a Dutch test on me, and similarly, I found that I had estrogen dominance through that Dutch test. and then again later running tests. And actually estrogen dominance runs in my family. Now, there's so much

environmental factors that can come to the table, especially like you said, toxins, imbalanced blood sugar, stress, you know, so many different things that probably as a teenager, I had a, I was on a vegetarian diet for 25 years. And for 10 of those years, I was on a vegan diet, no shade to any of those things. But I was like a junk food vegan. So I was essentially like, as long as it didn't have animal products in it, I thought it was fine and great for me, but that probably led to a significant amount of blood sugar and balances insulin resistance, which I think really drove my estrogen dominance in particular. But if anybody's struggling with acne, hormonal acne, heavy periods, painful periods, that's something that they probably should look into. Yeah. And I think, and Yasmin, I want to hear about your story with seed cycling, just so people

understand the power of this before we break it into why it actually works. But, but, but, you said something, Kea, that was really interesting, which is, I think when we talk about sex hormones, we kind of pull them out and we make them like individuals. But actually, you can't do that because they all interact with each other. In Fast Like a Girl, I talk about how estrogen and progesterone are like twin sisters. And like we call them the same. They look the same, but they have vastly different personalities. But the conversation that I think needs to happen deep. beyond that is if one of them's in a bad mood, you know, the other one's going to get in a bad mood too. So we need to know how to put them into balance with each other. So is that what we're seeing with seed cycling and Yasmin, is that what you noticed? When you said you had some hormonal bumps, I'm wondering if it's because seed cycling brings estrogen and progesterone together and starts to balance them in this unique way. You know, Mindy, it's interesting because I didn't know I was estrogen dominant or what was going on. I just knew I wasn't feeling well for majority of my life, probably 20 years. And it started maybe when I was 13. I had debilitating periods. I remember being in high school and not being able to go to my class. And at the time, which was very common, a lot of doctors recommend going on the birth control pill. Right. So we were all on it. I took the birth control pill only because of debilitating periods. And I was on it for a good maybe 15 years.

And for those 15 years, I thought I was like, oh, all the horrible cramps, my skin looks clear. I thought it was doing this incredible thing. I wasn't getting my period for 15 years, which is wild now being in the space, how that was happening. But, you know, we weren't talking about stuff like that in the past. And I personally got off of it in my late 20s. And that's when it was horrible. So I had something called post birth control syndrome. Again, didn't even know what that was.

And it felt like my hormones were completely out of control. and came back with a vengeance than when it was even at the age of 13. So I think going back to your question of, you know, did I see an impact with, I think my, you know, I didn't test at the time, to be honest, where my hormones were, but I knew just straight, straight from my experience that it was just debilitating. I, you know, like Kay I was saying, I also had cystic acne. I had debilitating cramps. You know, I know we're all so passionate about showing up as our best selves.

And that was like, how can I show up in this job? that I love and four or five days out of every month, I'm completely out of commission. But I thought for the longest time, that was normal until saw a functional medicine doctor. She mentioned seed cycling, which similar to what you said beginning of the podcast, I was like, this is BS. Like, what is she talking about? Seeds, and I have this like major hormonal issue. And yeah, and Kea had brought it up.

She was getting her master's. And, you know, they were learning about seed cycling. So that was my first foray. It took me two years to do it because I thought it was bogus and witchcraft. I was like, there's no way, but also similarly to Kea, one month. And for me, my symptoms, specifically breast tenderness, which was so painful back then, completely went away. And my cramps the first month was like 50% better. And it only got better in time. So I know it sounds so crazy, but, you know, both just from my personal experience, it was just life changing. So, you know,

I always love to watch the trends that go through, or I call it the cultural zeitgeist. Like, What are all the trends? Like right now the trend is everybody's like HRT, bioidenticals. Like I call it we've been in a cultural hush around menopause. And now everybody, it's like cultural chaos. Like everybody's like, yeah, cream me up, patch me up. And so I like to just like watch the trends and go, is that trend going to stick around?

What are people going to do with that? So with seeds, I've been watching this trend. I mean, it's an old, ancient habit. So maybe you guys can talk to that about that. But I, it's like every once in while, I just see it keep coming back in and coming back in. And I'm like, this trend is not going away. There has to be something there. So outside of the estrogen and progesterone balance it creates, can you talk a little bit about why it works?

Like what is the seed actually doing? You're getting a nutrient, but I could take a supplement. I could cycle those nutrients. What is it about the seed? Yeah, so the cool thing about seed cycling is that it honors that we are cyclical beings, basically, that women have this 28-day cycle. And so we use flaxseed and pumpkin seeds in the first half of the cycle and then sesame and sunflower in the second half. And those are, you know, everybody says that seed cycling is ancient. We actually cannot figure out who invented it.

We've had a few people say that they were the one or that some, this other guy, this naturopathic doctor, this. this guy. So shout out to you, whoever you are. You haven't made yourself really known. But it's become very popular. I think recently because Mindy, as you were saying, people really want to use food as medicine. They want a very natural and holistic approach. And especially people who, like Yasmin said, who are in birth control for years, for people who are just kind of putting a band-aids on the symptoms, they want something that they can take and feel really good about. And that's the cool thing about seed cycling is it's seeds. It's literally food, right? So there's other than somebody having an allergy or an intolerance to the seeds, there's virtually no harm

that can be done with having seeds every day. Right? So, you know, it's not like taking a medication. But we talked about flax, which has the fatty acids. It has the lignans. It has magnesium. Let's talk about pumpkin seeds, which are also used in the first half. So those have things like iron, rich source of magnesium, tryptophan, which we know is a precursor to serotonin and then melatonin. So we hear so many women who say they are sleeping better than ever when they implement seed cycling. And it's kind of a cool circle because we know that we need sleep for progesterone. And so it's kind of like working on the melatonin aspect, but it's also working to support progesterone levels. And then we have sesame and we have sunflower seeds, which contain also, again, these fatty acids and then things like manganese.

and vitamin E, these antioxidants and flavonels that essentially help with blood sugar imbalances and also with inflammation. And so a lot of what we've noticed and a lot of what we've talked to with experts is that women who really struggle with their periods, probably one of the number one things they can do is focus on their blood sugar. So anything that they can implement in their diet that supports healthy blood sugar is going to be a win, which is why I think the seeds work in that sense also. with reducing inflammation, also with bringing in all these nutrients that our hormones need to be

produced and to be modulated as well. So it's kind of like hitting your body from all different sides, essentially using food as medicine. Yeah. So, okay, so then does it matter what type, like, like then I, you know, when I sit at, like, I go to the farmer's market and I, there's one vendor there that has nuts and seeds, I know, okay, it needs to be raw. If I can get a sprouted almond, that would be better. So is there something we need to know about the quality of the seed, or can I just rush off and start putting pumpkin seeds on my salads at a certain time of my cycle? Yeah, well, if somebody can get their hands on these in any which way,

I mean, that's going to be better than nothing. But quality definitely matters, which is why we wanted to create a product for people, because so many of the seeds that are sitting at the grocery store have been on that shelf for God knows how long. We know that seeds, when they're exposed to light and they're exposed to heat, they become rancid. So we want to make sure that people are choosing seeds and nuts. So we're making sure that people are choosing highest quality.

So for us, we go with organic. We try to grind them as frequently as possible so they're freshly ground because you should take ground seeds when you're seed cycling, not whole seeds. That's when all the oils are released. That's when you get the beneficial compounds. So we have freshly ground seeds in our product, organic. We get them from a high quality farm that we love and work with. So the quality does matter.

And then we also recommend refrigerating your seeds when possible because, again, when they're exposed to light and heat, they can become rancid and nobody wants rancid oils in their body. No, no. Just to add what Kay was doing, because I was doing seed cycling so incorrectly for a while. But even when you go to, I thought, oh, let me go to the grocery store and buy grounded seeds. I can just create it. But what I learned through the process of us creating our own product, when you buy cold-milled seeds, which is what you have in the grocery stores, that strips out all the oil.

which Kia mentioned, that's the magic and the nutrient value in the seed. So I just want to share that because I was doing it wrong. And also we do third party testing for all the metals since we know there's been some, yeah, conversation around, especially flaxseed. So yeah, we do all the checks just to kind of make sure of that as well. So you're, just so I have a visual, yours comes in a powder. Is that, is it like a powder or that? Yeah, I guess you could describe it as a powder. It's not as fine as a but they're, imagine like coffee grinds, essentially, but they're seeds. Okay. And I've watched on your Instagram, you guys put them in everything, like, which seems

really brilliant. So are there certain foods, do you just take a scoop of it and eat it? Or are there certain foods that they pair better with? Have you experimented with pairing with other foods like squashes we know will help with progester production? Like, have you looked at that combination? Yeah, that's a good question. We haven't gotten too much into the food combining other than saying that seed cycling is not a miracle cure. So you can't just throw seeds at your life and be doing every other unhealthy habit and expect for changes to happen. So the nice thing is that all of the healthy habits that we recommend, including seed cycling, are going to support all of our hormones, our testosterone, our progesterone, or estrogen. We recommend putting them in anything as long as you're not cooking or baking them. We don't want to lose the value. there. So I love to blend it in my smoothies. Yasmin sometimes will put it in yogurt or she'll

just take it by the spoonful. It really depends. People put it on their avocado toast. They definitely are versatile, which is really nice. Yeah, yeah, because it's got to be easy. This has been my thing that I've discovered with Fast Like a Girl was people got such, women got such incredible results, like dropped weight, got off medication, the fertility. Oh my God, the number of women that got pregnant following the fasting cycle that was in there. And a part of why I've thought actually a lot of like how it worked so well for so many women. And I think what fasting does is it gives you a break from the toxic food. And if you can put that in the appropriate part of your menstrual cycle, then, okay, now you're recovering from this Western diet. So if I start seed cycling,

but I'm eating inflammatory foods is what I'm interpreting you're saying is that it may not be that miracle cure that both of you experienced with us and many of the women that have used your product. Totally. But I'm sure similarly to you, Mindy, the people that are looking out for you are not necessarily partaking in very unhealthy habits. They're already primed for doing what works for them. And I love that you're incorporating that because that's just that's such a mission for us because it's, We're actually not taught to think about our menstrual cycle unless we are, A, have really bad periods or trying to avoid pregnancy or trying to get pregnant. And those first two, it's like, forget about it. You're trying to avoid pregnancy or you have bad periods. Somebody just throws hormonal birth control at you. And you're like, okay, check that off. I don't even have to have a period anymore.

I don't have to think about this. And then what we often see is women in their 20s and 30s who get off of hormonal birth control after all these years. and they're like, I don't understand my body. I don't understand my hormones. I don't even know what's going on with me. Maybe I'm experiencing infertility. I need to get back on track. Hopefully they get pregnant.

If not, then they have to go on this whole journey in Yasmin. And I just want to reach the younger group of women specifically because if we could help them avoid all of the downstream consequences of not taking care of your hormones and things like PCOS or infertility or fibroids or cysts or all of the, you know, acne that we had to deal with, then that would be so nice. And they don't have to have like a crazy in-depth understanding of it all, but just basic enough to know that their everyday choices can make such a huge impact on their hormones and avoid all of these like painful things that I had to deal with. Right. You know, it's interesting. You say that I was actually just coming

upstairs into my office to do this interview. And my son's girlfriend was over. And I said, oh, I'm going to go do an interview on seed cycling. Do you know, and she's in her early 20s. I'm like, do you know, do you know, I was like, old and like, did it, you know, it's like behind the curve. Like, surely the 20-year-old would know. And she's like, I don't know anything about it. She's like, I don't even really know anything about my hormones. Of course, my brain was like, well, we're going to fix that. But I want to, I do want to zero in on this younger generation because, you know, I remember when my daughter went through puberty, She had horrible, horrible periods. And so as your company has grown, what are you seeing with that, you know, teenagers, 20-year-olds?

Are they embracing this idea? Are they wanting to know more? Because we have a lot of menopausal women that have daughters in this category. And we're as equally concerned about our hormones as we are, you know, our own daughters. So what do we need to know about that generation? You know, what just comes to mind me, which is so interesting, we actually have a lot of women in perimenopause and menopause using our blends as well. And so once they are on it, they're like, I need to get my teenage daughter onto this. And we have so many because they think, and I know you talk a lot about this. They're like, if I only knew how to support my hormones in my 20s, 30s and 40s, I wouldn't be where I am today. So we have so many mothers advocating for their daughters. And we have family seat cycling. So I just think that is such a cool generational shift and seeing that. So It's just been really fun. Yeah, I can't even imagine.

My mom would have never said to me when my 20 is like, hey, take some seeds. And like we weren't even thinking about the menstrual cycle back there. And I feel like now it's like coming in vogue and we're actually starting to talk about it. Oh, it's so nice too because when I was growing up, it actually wasn't really that cool to think about your health in general. Like, no. Kind of wanted to go. my family is South Asian, we're Indian and there's so many Ariavitic principles that my parents would bring into our lives of like if you're feeling, if you have aches and pains, take turmeric, take honey,

don't go just reach for, you know, Tylenol or this or that. And I kind of fought against those things because I wanted to be so westernized. I wanted to be so cool. I wanted to eat Pop-Tarts with my friends. I didn't care about any of that stuff. I wasn't exercising. And so what I've seen, the shift that I've seen recently with these younger generations is it's actually. cool to care about their bodies. It's cool to care about their health. It's cool to take care of themselves. And I'm just so hopeful for those group of people because they have, they have so much accessibility with social media. I know there's a downside to it. But just to see like what's trending, what's healthy, what they can do. And I'm just happy they're getting educated. And Kay and I always

talk about like, how do we make hormones fun for women like us, younger women? So we talk about that every week with our content. Like, let's make it fun. Even for me, if it's too technical, I'm like, you lost me. You know, you lost me. So we talk about it all the time. You know, I, that's what, when I put the fasting cycle together, I actually did it for my patients. And then I was like, okay, follicular, ludial, like, you know, it's just so, and then you start glutinizing hormone, follicular, stimulating. Like, at some point, your eyes roll back in your head. And so that's why I was like, okay, let's just call this, what happens here? Power phase, manifestation. Like, I came up with those fun words. And it was actually a conversation. with Dr. Carrie Jones.

Oh, she's amazing. She's incredible. And I learned how to read the Dutch chest from her. And when she went down to teach me all that, I looked at her. I'm like, this is way too complicated. She goes, yeah, you know, we really should be giving hormones nail polish names. Wouldn't it be a lot easier if they were nail polish names? I love that.

They would be. So I love that you guys are making it fun. And I think hormones are fun. We curse hormones. But if you actually knew what hormones were doing for you, you would be like, I have a lot of progesterone today. I'm going to sit on the couch. This is so great. I have an excuse.

Or I have a lot of estrogen today. I'm feeling very social. You know, if we truly understood it, we wouldn't be cursing them. So I love that you guys are keeping it fun. So thank you on that. Oh, yeah, for sure. And I think us women and younger women, too, even I can think back to my high school days, I think intuitively we know, we understand those shifts.

We can't explain them. And because society is set up in a way that does not honor those shifts, we fight against them. But I remember even from an early age feeling like this deep reverence for, okay, I feel different when my period comes. I feel different the week leading up. What does that mean? And I couldn't put words to it until I got much older. But it's so cool when you understand it and you lean into it and you accept that this is all women go through this in one form or another. when we honor it and when we respect it, it can be such a huge superpower.

Yeah. Amazing. So I want to break down a couple of the seeds because I have a few questions on them. Like flaxseed. I heard you should never have the full flaxseed that now you're grinding them, but I've heard that the oil, like the power of flaxseed isn't actually in the seed. You have to sort of manipulate it a bit to be able to get the healing power. Is that true? That's definitely what we learned from our medical advisor, who's a naturopathic doctor, and everybody who recommends seed cycling to ground the seeds specifically, and that's when you really get the nutrients out of them. You put flaxseed in from which days of the cycle? So flaxseed and pumpkin seeds, you're taking a tablespoon of each from day one through day 14 of your cycle.

So day one being the first day of the period, and then day 14 being roughly around average ovulation. you're taking those two specific seeds to support estrogen and also healthy estrogen elimination. And then also pumpkin to help with progesterone, which is coming, you know, after ovulation. So for day 15 to 28, you take sesame and sunflower seeds. So that's interesting because the way I always understood pumpkin seeds was it was pro, it was for progesterone. Like I always like, like it helped to build progestone. So you're using flaxseed to help with estrogen, good estrogen balance, and then you're bringing pumpkin in with the flax seed to help support estrogen progesterone balance, specifically coming out

of ovulation heading into the back. Do I have that right? Exactly. Exactly. Okay. Yes, yeah. Pumpkin seed was the first, was the one that I didn't really understand why it was always put in that follicular phase, for lack of a better term.

So I like that. And I think we can take a rule like that and we can apply it to a lot of things because what I'm hearing you say in that combination is use flax for more estrogen, use progesterone for more, or use pumpkin for more progesterone so you can balance those two out. Again, we're not pulling these hormones out into little silos. We're looking at how they go together. Is that, am I understanding that logic was, I think it's important because otherwise people are going to start, oh, I'm just going to dump some flax seeds on my salad. But it's really the interchange between flax and pumpkin that works at that part of your cycle. Is that correct?

Totally. And that's, again, what we see so often these days, especially amongst younger women, is their progesterone is in the toilet and their estrogen is maybe too high. And that's what's causing their PMS, causing really horrible cycles. And also, I think a lot of it has to do with stress because we know that progesterone and stress, the relationship between them is iffy. If stress is playing a dominant role and then progesterone's going to say, see you later. So we really want to support. that specific balance. And sometimes it's not, oh, somebody's flat-out estrogen-dominate. It's just that they don't have enough progesterone to support that balance, as you mentioned. So that's what those seeds are doing at that particular time. Not to mention all of the other beautiful qualities that they have in there, too. Yeah, you know, one of my other chakaroos from Fast Like a Girl going out into the world, and you all probably see this from your podcast followers and the people that are using your product is how many 20-year-olds do not have a period. Yeah.

And it's either because of birth control or I think it's largely because of stress. I think the stress levels of the teenagers and the 20-year-olds is so high. And whenever stress is high, progesterone is shy. She's out. She doesn't do well with cortisol. So have you seen anybody start to use seed cycling and specifically, leaning into estrogen or leaning into flax and pumpkin and they actually start to get their cycle back. Yeah, that's one of the coolest ones. I think there's so many cool ones.

Helping people get pregnant, I love to see that. And then also people who have not had a regular cycle or a cycle sometimes in years all of a sudden get their period back. We've had, I mean, Yasmin, maybe you can kind of point out some of the more specific stories. I can't remember now. But we've had people who haven't had a period in maybe like two years. And then all of a sudden they start seed cycling. And within like three months, they get their cycle back. And gosh, what a wonderful feeling that must be. Right?

They're always shocked. Especially if they're kind of thinking about family planning. They want to make sure they're menstruating. They're ovulating. We've had a lot of women. We spoke to a woman recently who was having an ovulatory cycle. So she was having a period, but she wasn't ovulating. And so seed cycling was basically able to help her get her ovulation back, which is we know the main event of a menstrual cycle and so important.

So anytime I can get people's phases to come back, we feel super excited. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was just shocked at how many women don't have a period. And it bothered me so much that I actually started to look into what happens with. we shed each month. Like, you know, if you think about the menstrual cycle, it's like nothing in there is a mistake. And so why would our uterine lining every month shed? And of course, you have to let the unfertilized egg out somehow. So you got to get all the hormones that came in at this big peak

during ovulation. It has to go somewhere. But the shocking thing that I found was that there's actually four toxins in menstrual blood. There are pesticides. There are phallates, there are forever chemicals, and there are plastics. And this is based off a pub med study. So literally shedding every month is so much more than your ability to get pregnant. It's actually how we detox. So using something like seed cycling seems like a really cool way to bring that cycle back. Do we know anything about these seeds and what they do for detox? I feel like you had mentioned something earlier about that. Yeah, well, we know that. And Mindy, you explained this so eloquently in your videos that healthy estrogen elimination is really key. And that happens through

our gut and our liver. And so I think specifically things like flax seeds also help with that. Anything that has a lot of fiber in it is going to help with that elimination of estrogen that you don't want recirculating through your body causing all these issues. So I personally, believe and just looking at all the nutrients and the seeds that it is helping with that. And it's such a good point too because when we shut down our period, we're not getting this beautiful thing we get every month, which is a report card for our health. And so essentially like every month, your your period tells you like, how am I doing? Am I so stressed that my period went away? Or am I so going through something that my period is super heavy or super light or it's irregular? I don't know when

it's coming. And so our periods give us so much valuable information. And it's, it's really sad for me to see somebody want to just voluntarily shut that down versus thinking, how can I optimize it and make it what it is. And I think that's why so many women are so in tune with their bodies, because we get that monthly report card. We understand more so how our bodies are doing versus men. They don't get that information and they don't get that way to properly detoxify. I remember when the raw food movement was a really popular in the early, I mean, when was it, 2008, 2009, all these women stopped getting their periods. And they thought, oh, that's good. That's a good thing. Because, you know, and really what it was is they were just, they were not eating enough food. They were under eating so much that their bodies were like,

we're shutting down reproduction or any opportunity of reproduction so that you're not getting a period. But again, we really want women to feel like their periods are powerful and their periods can be really beautiful. Yeah. Thank you for that. I, you know, it's, I too, I love the, the analogy of a report card. You know, I am working a lot more with the perimenopausal and menopausal women, but in perimenopause, you know, one of the things that's very classic, and I'm thinking about the seeds through, through this lens, is that you start clotting. Yeah. And that's a sign of low progesterone. So it's a sign like, hey, we got to work on stress. We got to bring glucose up. And now you have me thinking, we need to bring in some more seeds.

So have you seen with menopausal women the symptoms balance a little bit, periods change a little bit? I actually tell Yasmin all the time. We talk about this that seed cycling is probably the best suited product for women in perimenopause. We've had so many women in perimenopause who feel like they're not themselves, their periods are out of whack. They've shortened. they've lengthened. They don't really understand what's going on. They're not sleeping well. Their libido is gone. And then they start to use seed cycling and their cycle becomes regulated again. So they almost feel like they're not perimenopausal anymore. So anytime you can get that extra time or those extra years to have a regular cycle, that's really nice, especially a lot of women who report their libido coming back after seed cycling. That's amazing. And so we've also had a lot of women who are going through menopause and postmenopausal use seed cycling. And Yasmin and I want to look into this a little bit more and hopefully one day create a product specifically for them. They can use seat cycling as it is. But what we understand from our medical

advisor is that it's really the flax and the pumpkin phase that's most important for them. So if anybody is at home listening to this and they're going through menopause or postmenopausal and wants to do seed cycling on their own, they can just take a tablespoon of flax and pumpkin every single day. They can use our product too and it's still great. But if you just want to focus on one phase, specifically. It's really that flaxen pumpkin that's going to help with estrogen and help with progesterone and all of that in those years. I love that. I mean, again, you know, I just got off a call with my membership academy and we went through all the different ways you can detox. And I was like, before you spend money on expensive detox programs, let me walk you through the basics of what it

looks like to detox that will actually save you money. So when I hear what you're saying, I'm like, like, yeah. Like, you know, if you could take the, you know, things like the timing of fast and the things like I really believe that there's moments for women to go high carb, low carb. And then we've got great conversations right now are about protein and adding protein back in. And then we put seed cycling into this. Now you're actually giving approachable, cost-effective strategies for women that are suffering instead of us bouncing from doctor office to doctor. doctor after his doctor, trying to get the antidepressant right and the patch right and the cream right. Like that is causing as much crazy making as the symptoms themselves. So I love what you just said

about the perimenopausal and menopausal women taking this. And I'm excited to try it myself. So. Yeah. And I think to, you know, thinking about those years and specifically perimenopause and menopause and making them more manageable, like I love the food as medicine approach. And I've learned from experts such as yourself that really everything that we do leading up to those years specifically with stress management because at a certain point our ovary shut down and our adrenals take over, anything that we can do to support the body when it comes to stress, when it comes to nutrients, when it comes to gut health can be so valuable. And that's why I love seed cycling because I actually think that you can also eat to improve your stress response by eating specific nutrients.

So I think all of these things help at every stage of a woman's life. Of course you want to make sure you're older. I don't, I'm not going to get. my toddler these seeds right now. But when she's older, you know, and she starts to get her period, I'll give them to her. And that's the beautiful thing about using food is anybody can use it. Yeah. And there's no, there's no consequence if you're using clean. I mean, that's the most obvious. Like your body, you know, it's your body figures it out because it's in harmony with what your cells want as opposed to a chemical that is out of harmony. So I really want to point that out. the two other seeds, the sesame and the sunflower.

Okay, this one's interesting to me because sunflower seed oil is not healthy and it's highly processed and it's inflammatory. But what you're saying is sunflower seeds actually is. So can you break down the, what's going on with those two seeds? Yeah, I think all the refined seed oils. So right now we're seeing a lot of people talking about vegetables. oils and these refined seed oils and how problematic they are. And that's essentially it because they're so processed, they're so refined. We don't want to be getting our omega-6 fatty acids, which are important, by the way, from those sources. When we get them from real whole food sources, that's when it's

good. And when you're also eating them with enough omega-3 fatty acids, too, which, you know, flax has, gosh, I'm having such bad pregnancy brain right now, AHA, which converts to AP, I don't know. You're allowed to have a pregnancy. You guys, surely you brought. Surely you brought Lisa Mascone on your podcast. She explains. You're actually, your neurons are pruning away, so you're allowed to not forget. I feel it. I feel it. But, you know, you want to make sure that you're getting a good balance of omega-3 to omega-6. The nice thing about these seeds is that they're whole, they're not seed oils. They're not refined. They're not processed. They're really in their whole form other than the fact that we ground them. So they're definitely a much better choice than taking something like a vegetable oil or seed oil. And then sometimes, sunflower and sesame seeds, they have selenium, they have manganese, they have antioxidants, flavinals, all these things that are anti-inflammatory. We were also a bit confused in the beginning. Flax I get, pumpkin I get, sesame I get, sunflower we're still learning more about. And actually what's really exciting is that Yasmin and I are going to be doing the first ever clinical trial on seed cycling pretty soon.

So we just started, yeah, we just started to work with a company. We're going to be recruiting about 40 women to go through this process. And so hopefully we'll be able to be able to to bring so much more information to the table because anecdotally we've seen just how powerful this can be for thousands of women who report back to us and now we'll be able to bring some research to the table and show really what it's doing. That is, I'm so excited you all are doing that. I mean, I've watched, I've listened to your podcast, I see your reels and stuff. And I know you've had conversations around how little information there is out there for women. and putting together a research study is not really easy.

And I don't think it's cheap as far as I know. We've been wanting to do it from like day one when we launched. But like you said, there's a lot of investment that goes in there. And finally, we just are so confident in this. Like Kay has said, we see thousands, tens of thousands of women seed cycle on our product, off our product. And we know there's something there. So we're just so excited the time has come. So we'll keep you posted once we go through.

it. And it's such a good point, too. It's like you don't know how bad you feel until you feel good. And so we both personally know that when how our cycles are when we're not seed cycling versus when we are seed cycling. So for me, I during my first pregnancy, obviously, I'm not seed cycling when I'm pregnant. When I have a newborn, I wasn't really thinking about anything other than keeping a newborn alive and keeping myself going. So I wasn't seed cycling that whole time. And then it's always a nice reminder when Yasmin and I bring it back into our lives more ritualistically that we're like, wow, this works so well. And we can see it in ourselves. Like, our periods are so much better. We feel so much better. Mood. Oh my gosh. The mood thing, that was huge for me because about two days before my period, most of my life,

I would feel like the world was falling apart. I would question everything. I would pick fights with my husband, whatever it was. It was just, it was bad. And then since seed cycling, I have not been experiencing those intense mood shifts, which we hear a lot from our community, too. I'm going to do the game that everybody does to me, which is, who shouldn't seed cycle? Everybody always asks me that with fasting. Who shouldn't fast? And I'm curious if there's some of an overlap, but of the same type of person. But is there anybody who should not seed cycle? Yeah, totally. Well, our specific blend does contain a little bit of chamomile in there. So if anybody's dealing with a ragweed allergy or an allergy to flaxseed pumpkin, sesame, or sunflower, sometimes people don't even know they have an intolerance to those things. And then they try our product and they might discover that they have that.

So allergy or intolerance for sure. Again, anybody who's dealing with any sort of active breast cancer or estrogen dominant related condition should work with a practitioner. Now, ideally, that practitioner will be well-versed in some of these things and maybe tell them, like, it could be safe for you depending on where we're at. My mom, she went through breast cancer and the doctor that she worked with was able to bring back things like soy and flaxsees into her diet. And we felt really good about it. But it really depends on your practitioner. We also recommend that, you know, if they're younger, if they're younger, their family members evaluating them or their doctor feels good about it. it just because under the age of 18, you always want to make sure everything's okay, even though

it's real food. And there are so many teenagers who work with their parents and it works for them. If you don't have a menstrual cycle, you don't need to seed cycle. If you're pregnant, I don't recommend seed cycling. If you're breastfeeding, it depends, again, what your doctor says. But there's really not a long list of people. Why not during pregnancy? Because if it's just food, you just don't want to mess the hormonal rhythm up that's... Yeah, there's so much going on. with your hormones already when you're pregnant. There's so much to think about. I use it right now being pregnant. I'll use it as extra source of fiber in my smoothies here and there. I'll just add it to things. But there's not a cycle to regulate at that point. There is just this huge production of

hormones happening all at once. So you don't necessarily need to cycle something when you're not cycling. But post... But you can add it in, you know, you can add it in here and there. Some people are weary about hemp when they're pregnant depends on the person. Post-pregnancy, postpartum, it's been so critical for me when I got my period back. It was one of the things that really helped get my hormones back in balance that I recommend to everyone who, once you get your period back after you've given birth, it can be so crucial. What do you, what about people with the oxalates and lectins piece of the conversation? You know, the, and I, I, I, I, I had a really interesting discussion with Stephen Gundry on this because my feeling around the oxalates and the lectins are if you have gut dysbiosis, then yes, you could have a reaction to a toxin that's in, you know, something that nature has provided us in vegetable or seeds or nuts.

But actually if you have a healthy gut, you actually are fine to be able to lean into some of these. And Stephen actually agreed with me. He's like, yeah, everybody thought it was like an absolute. I'm like, well, you are the guy that's created the plant paradox. But I think this is something that we do with nutrition that is a disadvantage to us is we take each nutritional idea and we become zealots for it. We think it's an absolute. And then we struggle because it wasn't the thing that, like, you know, made our life completely different

or it made our life really worse. So do we know anything about the oxalates and lectins from seeds? Yeah, I have to admit this is a conversation I'm not super well versed on and mostly want to roll my eyes when I hear because I'm sorry. No, not from you, not from you, but more so from when it's made to be this huge thing, mostly because I feel like so many people are not even eating enough whole foods as it is. Thank you. telling them to eliminate an entire group of foods that could potentially be a source of whole foods. And then that's like leading to some sort of orthorexia. I personally will say I do think it is an issue for some people.

And we do have a lot of women who are using seed cycling who have gut and balances. That's pretty common. I think especially when women who have really horrible cycles or they're navigating perimenopause and it's really tough or menopause and it's really tough. Gut and balances are common. And we haven't had anybody experience any sort of negative side effects when it comes to their gut health that are outright. Yasmin, you can correct me if I'm wrong. It's maybe some people feel like, oh, I'm a little extra bloated.

I would say if anything, we have a small percentage of people who are like, oh, I feel a little bit bloated. But I think they're just not used to getting that much fiber in their diet. So we'll tell them, start with half a scoop and slowly build your way up. And they feel fine with time. Right. And make sure that you're hydrated enough, right? Because if you're eating more fiber, you want to make sure you have enough water to support that. Otherwise, you could end up getting more constipated or more bloated. We haven't personally seen that. But maybe if somebody's listening to this and they've tried seed cycling and they have an issue with lectins or oxalates, then I would love to hear from them. But again, sorry, Mindy, it was not about it. It was more so. It's really just because I feel that we're, who says it really good? We're majoring in the minors. when we talk about things like oxalids and lectins. Like I would just love for the majority of the population to be eating more real whole food.

And I think that would solve a lot of our problems. Yeah. No, it's, you know what? I got so frustrated with this the other day because I'm like, when people get like, but this health influencer says this. And then this health influencer says this. But then my doctor said this. And then they're all opposing each other.

And I finally like lost it one day. just like your frustration right now. And I was like, look, we have to look at this like a toolbox. If you are going to build a house and you had a set of tools, you wouldn't pick up the hammer and then look at the screwdriver and be like, eh, the hammer is better than the screwdriver. Screwdriver's not good enough. You would actually know that each tool was used for different things.

And you would stop comparing them with each other. But I think, and again, you guys are very much deep in this health and hormone movement with your podcast and your product. I feel like one of the biggest disservices we are doing right now is trying to say there's one way. And that's the only way. And then the people are like, well, forget it. You know, they're like, I don't even know what to do now. Totally. Totally.

We have to invite it all into the conversation and then say, you play with it. you see what works for you. So that actually brings me to even the seed cycling. You know, does it come in like a bag? Like does it come in four different bags? Does it come in two different bags? What happens if I, if I take some of the seeds at the wrong time of the cycle? Can I mess this up? I know these are the kind of questions that our listeners are thinking about. Yeah, it comes in two bags. The first one is with the flax and pumpkin all grounded. We add hemp and a little bit of camomile. and then the second is the sunflower and sesame and the hemp and the little bit of camomile. And we get that question all the time, Mindy.

We have women emailing us. They're like, I was so perfect. I missed two days. I'm like, listen, don't let perfect get in front of good. Like, it's just all about consistency. And what is even good for your lifestyle? And how does it become just easy for your own habit? So exactly.

If you miss a few days, no issues. Some people mess up, you know, the phase because they're kind of confused with their cycles and they'll email us and well, kind of help. them get back on track, but it's food. You can't mess it up. It's all about the long-term ritual that you incorporate with seed cycling. Yeah, and they're totally seasons to life, too. Jolene Brighton explains it so beautifully with seed cycling. She says, there are seasons of my life where I'm not going to be focused on this particular thing. I'm traveling. I'm going around. I'm focused on my kids, whatever it is. And then I notice that I feel off track with my cycle and I bring seed cycling back in.

So it's definitely not about being perfect by any means. Thank you. I'm hoping everybody's hearing that because we get a lot of questions about like, oh my God, did I break my fast? What if I, you know, what this? And I think that there is a concern amongst women that, oh, I'm going to do it wrong. And then I'm going to have wasted money. And I just want to free women from that mentality too. And so everybody listening, you can't do it wrong. It's food. So, so yeah. So thank you for that. Yeah. So we've talked about puberty. I'm going to say postpartum, because. because you said don't necessarily do it during pregnancy and then perimenopause. And you talked about how important this would be during the perimenopausal time. Of all those categories of people, do you see who, is it the younger generation that's gravitating to this? Is it the perimenopausal? Like, is there an avatar? I don't know another way to say this that gravitates to seed cycling. Is it women at the end of their rope? I mean, you guys have a lot of people buying this product. What are you seen as far as the person that really is gravitating to this?

Yeah, we ask this question all the time because actually when K&I launch, we thought it would only be about women in PMS, but we had so many other women reach out and want to try it. So we've done many surveys. And I would say the average, at least that we're seeing, are women who are around 28 to about like 50, who are seed cycling with us. Yeah. That's the time. Yeah, that's definitely the time.

And it's so interesting that a lot of these women, in a way we are the end of the line for them, which makes me a little bit sad, but also like I'm so happy to be there for these people. And Mindy, I'm sure you feel the same way about your community, too, that they've been dismissed for years, that they've been looking for answers for years, that they suspect they have endometriosis or they, you know, had a hysterectomy at a very early age and they're navigating some challenges later in life. And they're really just seeking out answers. And they come to us. really as kind of a last option. And we're not necessarily the experts in the way that can help everybody, but we point them in the right direction. We say seed cycling can be a part of your toolkit. We try to give them as much education as possible. We're all about like, how can we give as much free education so women can take control of their health? But it really does speak to this movement of women who are like, okay, you know, my doctor couldn't help me or this person couldn't help me. And I need to start to look for my own answers. Yeah. My biggest cry, right? now is we, I love that we're talking hormones finally. I love that this cultural conversation is

happening. But let's not forget lifestyle. It has to be. Lifestyle has to be. So I, when I hear you say we are the last resort for a lot of women, I'm like, okay, together our voices can start to change that because it should be the first resort. Then you don't have to be looking for a last, a last resort. So totally. And then one of the questions I know that. I'm going to get. And I'm actually, my fasting brain is looking on this, is can you use it in your fasting window? What does it do for blood sugar? If it's a powder, I'm like, could I put it in my coffee? What could I, like, what have you tried? I don't know if you both, I know, Kyah, you're probably not fasting, but right now, but I hope you're not fasting right now. But is there a way.

Yeah, exactly. Is there, I'm wondering like, A, what does it do to the metabolic system? And I'm wondering how we can add it to something that would go in the fasting window, perhaps. I haven't tested it on like a CGM or anything like that. I would love to, but, you know, Mindy just kind of asking you, have you seen certain things like hemp, which technically are complete protein, that would potentially break somebody fast, I suspect, even if it is ground. So I'm not sure, but it would be really cool to experiment and see what it does to somebody's blood sugar or if they're trying to, you know, stay in ketosis or something like that, maybe that'll

be an experiment that we run. Yeah, because we know people put it in their coffee. So I'll try it one day fast and see what it does. Put a CDN on. Yeah, and I'll try it as well. It would be interesting to note because one of the ideas around hunger is that our human cells are not hungry, but the bacteria and our gut is hungry. So in my community, we actually played a lot with, okay, what if you put, did a probiotic while you were fasting? You know, what if you do some of the prebiotic powders? Like, we've played with everything to see if we could get the microbes to be satisfied so they stopped sending you hunger signals.

I also am wondering, you know, I'm really a fan lately. I've been talking a lot about how the first meal matters, that first meal into your eating window. You know, everybody got excited about fasting. Some people got critical of fasting. And I always say it's only one side of. of a metabolic equation. We have a fasting window. We have an eating window and we have switching between these two. So that first meal into your eating window, I'm thinking something like this.

I actually used to put hemp seeds on avocado with sauerkraut. That was my breakfast meal all the time. So I'd be curious if you all try adding in the powders. I mean, again, Yasmin's fasting and Kyah, you're not, but, and see if, if that would, you know, what that would do to stop hunger, how you would feel. If that would be another level, we could unite our messages to get more rhythm going with these hormones. So you may have an answer to that. If not, go, go experiment. Let me know.

Yeah. We love telling people to take it in the morning. Some people take it at night, actually, because they feel like they sleep better when they take it, which is really cool. But we love to tell people to take it in the morning because, as you mentioned, that first meal, the way that you break your fast, whatever kind of fast you're doing 12, 14, 16 hours is so important and can set you up for a disastrous day of a blood sugar roller coaster and feeling moody or hangary or can set you up for a really good day. And so getting that balance of protein, fat, and fiber is so nice in the morning. And the nice thing is that seeds have all of those things. They have the protein. They have the fat. They have the fiber. So it's a good addition to, you know, something like you said, avocado with sauerkraut with seeds. That sounds. great. I know. That sounds great. Yeah. It was literally my go-to forever, like, because I was trying to, you know, see what I could do for my microbiome. Yeah. And so that was, and then sometimes I'd add chia seeds. Like, I got, that's where I got into seeds. I feel like you all have just taken this to another level, which is, is beautiful. And I'm just a fan of food as medicine. Like, I just, I agree with you, Kaya, about like, like, let's get off the absolutes. Let's get off the red.

Rick, let's just come back to nature provided some amazing hormonal medicine. And you all are doing an incredible job showing us how to use that. And I think we won't have to lean into all of the HRT and bioidenticals as much. And I'm not opposed to those. I just think you're taking women that are so lost. And they're trying to grip on to the patches, hoping that's going to be the thing without looking at something as simple as adding seeds back in. Like, it's so simple. Totally. Yeah, anything that we can do earlier on to kind of prevent having to take,

not that they're necessarily drastic measures, but they can feel drastic to a lot of people is so beneficial. And we're so lucky to get to learn from you maybe. We've learned so much from all of your education and everything that you've taught us. So, you know, the love is so mutual. Yes, thank you. We're way more powerful together. I don't know if you all are feeling this and I'll end it on this women's empowerment

moment, but I really feel like women are waking up. And they're like, wait a second, my body's different than a man's body. So what does that mean? Like that, that aha is happening in so many women's heads. That is where we start this discussion. Now, the challenge is that there still is a big pharma has every, every desire to keep us medicated. I'm not anti-medication. I just think it should be last resort. So I just think we have to take conversations like this and spread it out so that we can all just at least go from a mind that was closed to a mind that's open now.

And then together we can really figure this out. We're way more powerful together. So I just love this. So, okay, well, before I ask you my final question, how do people get a hold of your products? And I'm going to really encourage. my followers to give it a go. And what would the go be? Is it 30 days, 90 days? Like, what do you typically tell someone to do? Yeah, we always like to say give it, which I'm sure you know, Mindy, at least three months, 90 days to kind of see the impact. So on our website, which is bea wellness.com, we allow you to do one month. If you just want to try it, see if you can even add it to your day to day or it's, you know, we give you a bigger discount with the three months, just because we really want to encourage women to get that real experience. And then you would

just continue from there. Yeah. And I would say I agree with that. It takes the body sometimes 90 days to adapt. But like you said, often people see changes within 30. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's absolutely brilliant. So and then you guys will have codes for us. Discount codes. We'll leave that in the, unless you know it off the top of your head. But PELs, P-E-L-Z, we'll give five dollars off. So, but we'll make sure to give you all the information that you can add in your show notes as well. great wonderful okay my last question and i always love this one because i don't know what anybody's going to say and jasmine i'm going to start with you oh my goodness um yeah we're gonna we're gonna we're we're gonna give the pregnant woman a moment to she's been on a roll yeah they're so proud i know she probably needs to go eat here i'm over here sweating exactly exactly so what is your definition of health because we're all chasing something that we have not

given a unified definition to and how do you know what's your personal measurement for health? So what's your definition? What's your personal measurement? I would say the way I would personally define health is how I'm personally feeling in my own body. I think we can get so, and I've been there before and I have to reel myself in. You can get, you can just compare yourself to other people, what works for this person, how this person is feeling, how this person is showing. How this person is showing up. And I'm like, what really matters is how do you feel in your own body? And that even goes to not doing certain trends, not eating something that doesn't feel right for you. So I think about that a lot. And then your second question, Mindy, remind me, I'm not pregnant, but I don't remember.

Thank you for that clarification. Where are you in your cycle? Maybe that'll help me understand. Oh, my gosh. I'm on my luteal phase, for sure. Okay. Okay. That's good. Yeah, we've already had enough stress going on then for you. Like how, you know, how do you know you're healthy? Like, I think you probably just answered it. Like, I think there's, we, we tend to ignore health until we aren't healthy. Yeah. So do you have like a day-to-day check-in to say, yeah, I'm moving in the right, the right direction? Yeah. And I know you've been talking a lot about burnout and my whole life, I think I've been chronically burnout and my own hormonal journey. It makes sense. Yeah. So I'm on my path. And I think for me, it's, am I giving myself permission to take care of myself, right?

I think we're all here and we're so passionate about our mission. I can get lost with work every hour of the day because I genuinely am so, both, all of us here are so passionate that I've had to reel myself in and be like, Yasmin, are you giving yourself permission for you to take that walk in the morning? Take a second to truly eat your breakfast. So I think, you know, I've been telling Kay, I've been recently doing that. only this past week. And I already feel significantly better. So it's like giving myself permission to take care of myself and, you know, as much as I want to give to the world and everybody else. Yeah. You know what I've been doing? I so resonate with that because one of the things I've been doing is when I look at a day, if it has space in it, my brain used to say, oh, I could do this project.

I can do this project. And I've been reminding myself, wait, I could go for a walk. I could call a friend. I could read a fiction book. I could, you know, like stop filling the space with more production. So I love that. And I think we all have to hold each other accountable. Yeah. One of the statements I've been using lately is I call it the patriarchal hex. I feel like we've all been like in this like, like days.

Like I got to perform. I got to perform. I got to perform. And yet our feminine bodies can't keep up with that. So we have to remember to rest. So I love that. Totally. Okay, Kaya, what's your definition of health?

Yeah, thinking of just what's my measurement of if I feel healthy or not since becoming a mom, for me, is do I have the energy and am I present with my child? And that is my measurement of how I'm doing that day. Because if I don't have the energy and I don't and I'm kind of scattered or I'm looking at my phone or I'm thinking about work, then I can tell that something's off in my body. And I hope that extends into one day, one of my biggest hopes and desires in this world is to be a grandparent to many children. I've always loved that vision of just being a grandmother with so many grandchildren around me and being able to play. Yeah, I just want to be able to play with them and keep up with them for my life.

So energy is a huge, huge thing for me and the ability to be present to the people in front of me and what's in front of me, the food in front of me, everything that I'm doing versus feeling scattered is really. the way that I look at it, and then also being able to step into gratitude at any moment and just feel really, really thankful for everything in my life. Those are probably the two presence and gratitude and then the third energy. Yeah, you know, at the tail end of my practice, we did lifestyle, all kinds of lifestyle tools in my practice. And I started to see a trend in women that were five years out from retirement. And they would come in because my practice was in Silicon Valley. And they would come in and they'd be like, I got five more years and then I'm out. But the way I feel from the stress of work is that when I get to that five year mark, I'm going to have not be healthy.

I need to know how to be healthy. So I love that you have that long-term vision. I think that's part of where we fall apart is we're only thinking of today and where we're comfortable today. I always say every single day, every workout I do, every fast I do, I'm thinking about my 90-year-old self. like what does she need? So I just, I think that's beautiful. So, well, I love you gals. Oh my gosh. I could talk to you all day. And again, we're just, thank you for having this collective conversation with me. I just feel like it were so much more powerful together when we just keep opening this up. And I knew in my heart that as I'm talking more and more about food is hormonal medicine, that I couldn't leave seed cycling out, that there had to be a discussion.

And you gals were it. So thank you for everything you're doing. And I want, when you get your research done, I want you to come back and tell us everything that you've learned. Oh, yeah, we would love that. And we're so grateful for you. We're so excited for your upcoming book. I can't wait to read it and talk about it. And thank you for every, share it, all of the things. So thank you so much for having us. Thank you, Mindy, for paving the way for all of us. We're just so inspired by you. Thanks for having us. Thank you.

Appreciate you. Thank you so much for joining me in today's episode. I love bringing thoughtful discussions about all things health to you. If you enjoyed it, we'd love to know about it. So please leave us a review, share it with your friends, and let me know what your biggest takeaway is.