Hi friends! I’m SO thrilled have Nicole Jardim on the podcast today. I’ve followed her on IG forever and love the information she shares on IG. This episode is packed with helpful tips and info, especially if you’re curious about improving your cycle and hormonal health.

129: Fix Your Period with Nicole Jardim

Here’s what we talk about in today’s episode:

– What does it mean to have a healthy period? How would you describe a healthy cycle and signs you know something is awry?

– What’s a good starting point to work on improving your period?

– Signs of low progesterone and what to do about it

– Super heavy cycles; what does this mean + tips

– her favorite period products and fertility resources

and so.much.more!

Here’s more about Nicole and her background:

 Nicole Jardim is a Certified Women’s Health Coach, writer, speaker, mentor and author of Fix Your Period: 6 Weeks to Banish Bloating, Conquer Cramps, Manage Moodiness, and Ignite Lasting Hormone Balance, a life-changing step-by-step natural protocol to ignite lasting hormone balance and improve everything from PMS, period pain, and heavy periods to irregular and missing periods. She has developed education and offerings that empower women and people who menstruate to reclaim their hormone health using a method that combines evidence-based information with simplicity and sass.

Her work has impacted the lives of tens of thousands of people around the world by addressing the root cause of what’s really going on in their bodies and minds rather than treating just their symptoms. She passionately believes that the fundamentals to healing any hormone imbalance lie in an approach that addresses the unique physiology of every woman. This is essential to reclaiming and maintaining optimal health and vitality at any age.

Nicole is the founder of the Institute for Menstrual Health, which offers training programs, mentorship and resources for an international community of women’s health practitioners and coaches. Through its signature program the Women’s Hormone Health Certification, Nicole teaches other health practitioners and coaches the fundamentals of hormones, menstrual cycles and fertility.

Finally, Nicole is the host of The Period Party, a top-rated podcast on Apple Podcasts, the co-author of The Happy Balance, a recipe book filled with over 80

This post is sponsored by my friends at NOW Foods and they have so many amazing products, including my fave creatine, on their site. Use FITNESSISTA for 20% off. Also this is a friendly reminder that this post is not medical information and not intended to prevent, treat, cure, or diagnose any illness. Always talk with your doctor before adding new supplements into your rotation. 

Hi friends! How’s the day treating you so far? I hope you’re having a wonderful morning. For today’s post, I’m chatting about a huge reader’s request topic and one of my favorite supplements: creatine!

Creatine is often taken by athletes and bodybuilders to improve their performance, but it is also consumed by older adults and vegetarians for health purposes. Not everyone knows the right way to take creatine, how it works, or what needs to be considered before adding it into a supplement routine.

In today’s post, I’m sharing a guide that can provide some education and help with informed choices when it comes to taking creatine, depending on the purpose that it’s intended to be used. Friendly reminder that your doctor will help you decide if adding creatine is a good choice.

An Overview on Taking Creatine

Creatine is a supplement that can be taken as powder or liquid, before or after a workout. I prefer to take it as a post-workout, but the thing with creatine is that you need to take it consistently to see and feel a difference. 

What Is Creatine

Creatine is an amino acid that is stored predominantly in muscle cells, with a small percentage in our brain, kidneys, and liver. You can get creatine in your diet from animal-based products, such as seafood and meat. This is why vegetarians and vegans will likely have lower creatine stores than omnivores and can often benefit from supplementation. Since creatine can be used for energy production for heavy lifting workouts and high-intensity training, it’s often used for performance enhancement.* Your body naturally produces 1-2g of creatine per day in the liver and pancreas.

Creatine is widely studied, easy to find, and inexpensive. My favorite creatine can be found here!

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Spring is almost here, and with it comes daylight savings time change. Sure, we get more sunlight, but losing an hour of sleep can really throw off our internal clocks, leaving us feeling tired and sluggish for days. But fear not, because I’ve got some tips to help you avoid daylight savings burnout and keep your energy levels up during this transition.

Start preparing early

The key to avoiding feeling sluggish when daylight savings hits is to start preparing a few days before the change. Gradually shift your sleep schedule by going to bed 15 minutes earlier each night for a few days leading up to the time change.

This will help your body adjust to the new schedule and make the transition smoother. Annnnnd if you need a little help, the naturally calming ingredients in Slumber Party will have you snoozing in no time. 

Stick to a routine

Maintaining a consistent routine is essential for keeping your energy levels up. Try to wake up and go to bed at the same time every day, even on weekends. This will help regulate your body’s internal clock and prevent you from feeling tired and groggy.

Get moving

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Hi hi! Happy Friday! How was the week? I hope you’ve had a great one. I’m so so happy ya’ll enjoyed this week’s podcast episode, too. Thank you so much to those who took a listen!

A huge highlight of my week: watching Liv’s first dance competition of the season. A fun bonus: Madre and Nani came with us to Phoenix! It was their first time watching a competition and it was so amazing having them there to support Liv. It was a quick 24 hour trip and officially started the competition season into Disney parade into recital.. here we go!

While we were in Phoenix, P was here in Tucson living her best life with the Pilot. They had a family day at work, with bounce castles, corn hole, face painting, a video game truck, and lots of delicious food, and then two of her friends came over for a playdate. The only sad news of the weekend is that our beloved Cookie, the hairless guinea pig, has crossed the rainbow bridge. We’re not sure how it happened – it was sudden and he had no signs of health issues. He happily took his Vitamin C from me before we left to Phoenix and was squeaking happily. 🙁 We had a little farewell ceremony in the backyard complete with Josh Groban’s rendition of “Ave Maria.” Rest in peace, Cooker.

Guinea pigs don’t typically like to be alone, so we might explore getting another one from a rescue as a companion to Donut, but the truth is I’m not sure how much longer I want to be on the guinea pig wagon. I do 99% of their care and they’re a LOT of work (they’re messy lil guys!), so we’ll see what we decide to do. If you have any tips, please let me know!

It’s time for the weekly Friday Favs party! This is where I share some of my favorite finds from the week and around the web. I always love to hear about your favorites, so please shout out anything you’re loving in the comments section below!

Friday Faves

Fitness, health, good eats:

I fell in love with Rebbl this past week. Where has it been all of my life?! I went to Whole Foods to get snacks and drinks for us to have at the competition and wasn’t something different than water that was still satisfying. I usually hate bottled protein drinks, but liked the ingredients in this one and decided to give it a try. It was SO good. Like rich chocolate milk but not too sweet. I went back to Whole Foods and got 5 more bottles, including the dark chocolate. Obsessed.

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Sharing my experience with breast thermography on the podcast today! Friendly reminder that I’m not a doctor or medical provider, just sharing my experience. 

Hi friends! I hope you’re having a wonderful morning. I have a new podcast episode up sharing my experience with breast thermography. It’s something I did recently as another way to track and see what’s going on with inflammation in my body. I’m excited to share the process and my results with you, and some changes I made in my routine that have made a huge difference.

My experience with breast thermography

So what is breast thermography?

Breast thermography is infrared imaging of the breasts, using a special camera. The camera detects heat within the body, which can represent increased blood flow to particular areas. Cancer cells demand higher blood flow, so you can monitor increased potential blood flow and heat. Hippocrates used to place wet mud on the skin of his patients, and the areas that dried the fastest indicated higher heat, which he used to determine areas of disease (I thought this was so interesting!).

Breast thermography is not intended to be a standalone test, but something you can do in conjunction with traditional screening measures, like self exams, mammography, ultrasounds, and MRI. I would absolutely follow the discretion of your doctor based on your unique body and family history.

We have a family history of breast cancer on my side of the family, and in the past, I had a benign intraductal papilloma removed. I’ve also had breast implants, and had my implants removed, which is one of the best things I’ve done for my health.

I’ve wanted to keep an eye on things, and when I first found out about thermography, I was intrigued, particularly because it’s non-invasive. It doesn’t involve radiation, takes less than 10 minutes, and it’s another way to monitor changes over time.

Here’s what the official documents say about the procedure:

This patient was examined with digital infrared thermal imaging to identify thermal findings which may suggest abnormal physiology.

Thermography is a physiologic test, which demonstrates thermal patterns in skin temperature that may be normal orwhich may indicate disease or other abnormality.If abnormal heat patterns are identified relating to a specific region of interest or function, clinical correlation and further investigation may be necessary to assist your health care provider in diagnosis and treatment.

Thermal imaging is an adjunctive test, which contributes to the process of differential diagnosis, and is notindependently diagnostic of pathology. Breast thermography (if this study includes breast) is a way of monitoring breast health over time.Every woman has a unique thermal pattern tha