Original Recording - Emilia V
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Emilia Villegas: [00:00:00] We're actually really strong and I see the women's physiology really powerful and magical because what we go through in a reproductive years for over 30 plus years, the whole cycle is just amazing.
Then on the other hand, women can actually bring life into the world, right? And then when that cycle's finished, which like everything things need to end, then we start this other powerful era, which is a perimenopause and menopause. It'll come with these challenges, but it's also an a time where we women experience a lot of freedom in so many ways, right?
And then when you hit menopause. All the hormonal rollercoaster is gone, and then there's so many other things to look forward to. So I think it will be that just changing the narrative around the female hormonal body and the importance as well of acknowledging it. And that is not one size fits all, because I think that's also a big thing.
Welcome to the Wild and Well Collective Podcast where we believe empowered health is your superpower. We have combined our expertise in medicine and nutrition to bring you the latest research expert insights [00:01:00] and success stories of people on a mission to live a big life. So buckle up and get ready to learn how to live wildly well.
Welcome to another episode of The Wild and Well Collective, and today we have Amelia Vega. She's a hormone expert and wellness coach for women. She's also the founder of Flow with Amelia, and she is on a personal journey. To really help women feel heard, seen, and truly supported as they navigate their hormonal health and life transitions, especially perimenopause, really giving them knowledge and tools to help guide them.
She is a huge advocate for better women's healthcare because she truly believes that it needs to be better, not just for us, but for future generations. So I think you'll really enjoy this conversation with Amelia. Listen in now.
Christa Elza: Welcome, Amelia. We're so excited to have you. If anybody knows us and have listened [00:02:00] long enough to our podcast, they know that Cherie and I are both very passionate about sex hormones. It's just wild, right? How sex hormones are part of the al Symphony of cortisol and insulin and thyroid, and then sex hormones, and particularly for women, we're so dynamic with our.
Sex hormones and that can throw off our other hormones and overall make us feel really unlike ourselves to say it nicely. And so, I'm super excited to have you here today and share some of your knowledge as an expert in this field as well. Tell us a little bit though about how did you start and what really drove you to want to focus and become an expert in this area of the human body?
Emilia Villegas: Of course. Yeah. Thank you so much both Kristin and Sherry for having me. I'm very excited and I think like you, I'm super passionate about the topic. So, well the reason why I started in this I like to call it my hormonal healing journey was because three years ago when I was 39, so I just turned 42 now I started experiencing what I now know are hormonal [00:03:00] imbalances.
At the time, I didn't know what was happening to me because all. Like, all the symptoms I had seemed so unrelated, and obviously I'm saying this in brackets. I started experiencing anxiety for the first time in my life migraines on a monthly basis. And they would last like two, three days, headaches almost every day.
Like I couldn't go a week without painkillers. For me, that was so unthinkable. I was constantly emotional. So sometimes, at the beginning you're like, oh, I'm just emotional. But then it's like all the time my lido was also like gone. My sleep started being a little bit funny and so I went to the healthcare system.
I live in Amsterdam. I didn't know anything at the time but I did know that well, sorry, just to backtrack a little. I was on the hormonal IUD for 14 years because I'm someone who didn't wanna have kids. So I was on it for 14 years. Every time I went to different doctors in different parts of the world, 'cause I've lived everywhere, they were like, oh, you're fine.
You're very healthy. I was like, is it okay if I don't have a period? Oh, that's okay. Don't worry about it. You're fine. Which [00:04:00] I know that I was, yeah, now I know how bad that is. So then I went to my gynecologist in Amsterdam and I asked her, all I knew is I think I need to remove the IUD. The conversations about hormonal birth control were starting, but , I barely knew about it, but I was like, I think I just need to remove this.
And I went to her and I told her what was happening. I was at a, obviously a very vulnerable state at the time, and her response with zero empathy was like, well, I need to give you the pill because if you don't wanna have kids, that's your only option. And then I said to her, well, I really don't want the pill.
I think I need to clean my body from synthetic hormones, which also, I didn't know what they meant. And she said, well, if you don't take the pill, there's nothing I can do about it. And that's it. I was crying in her office. She didn't like zero empathy, nothing. And before I left, I was there for five minutes as well.
Before I left, I said to her, well, can you at least help me with my hormones, understand what's happening? And she's like, oh, I don't know about hormones. You'll have to Google that. [00:05:00] And that's it. End of the conversation. Wild. Really wild. Okay. Yeah. Aw. Like, I can laugh and smile about it now because it took me where I am today, but obviously at the time.
I needless to say, I was like, I mean in tears, angry, frustrated, everything when I left the doctor's office and I said I remember well that was a big turning point for me because then I was like, I refuse to believe this is how I'm supposed to feel and that I only have one option, which is a pill.
I'm 39 and I felt like sadly, many women feel. At that point, broken, embarrassed I didn't wanna talk about it. I didn't talk about it for many months as well. All of these was like months in the making of suffering in silence. I have an incredible relationship with my husband and I was even embarrassed to tell him about this.
Obviously now it's everything changed, but, because nobody tell us anything about this, you just feel broken, even though we're not. It's just our hormones need love. So . I started as [00:06:00] a hobby of, or not hobby, but like as a, on my own self search. Of like listening to podcasts, following experts and trying to find information on my own.
Started becoming a passion. I even did a little course on hormones for like five weeks. I loved it. And all the changes I realized like there were so many changes I could make in my own life that I was like, well, how can I didn't know about this before, like not drinking a caffeine, an empty stomach.
I don't know, like so many like things that we do every day that we don't even know about. The road. Towards my healing was still long, but I started seeing, feeling very empowered about this. Then this after months of doing this this led me to certify myself as a coach. I was also at a time where, I was questioning the job where I was in tech, I was in happy.
So both things sort merch together. And I was like, I need to also find my true passion. And as I was healing myself, I started finding the passion into hormones as I was studying to become a coach these passion started growing. But then [00:07:00] also my awareness about well, three things. First, that I was not alone.
And so many women are dismissed and unheard, on the space when it comes to their hormones everywhere around the world, unfortunately. That we know so little about our bodies. And then obviously only until it catches up with us, then we are aware that there's something else. Like, there's this complex but magical system of hormones that keeping us alive every day.
And then the other one the importance of changing the narrative as well about it, rather than seeing hormones and our life transitions as a burden or something like, you just have to deal with. It's about learning how to embrace them. And that's what inspired my business. And a year and a half ago, I actually, yeah, I quit my job in tech, never looked back, and I started doing my own thing as a coach and just, yeah, helping women everywhere.
Sheree Beaumont: Oh, such a beautiful story and one that I know like so many of our listeners will be able to resonate [00:08:00] with, and one that I know Krista and I hear almost day in, day out, from the heartbreak of having the GY sitting in the gynecologist office, you know the moment where you realize you're not being listened to or your feelings are bit, you're told, like your symptoms are all in your head, you're essentially being gaslit by the medical industry.
To them being like, you know what? I'm taking medicine into my own hands and actually I'm gonna do something about this. Like, I love that you mentioned the empowerment, because I think that's one of the massive catalysts that we're starting to see now is actually no, I'm gonna take charge of my health as a woman and I am not gonna let a system that keeps telling me that I'm wrong.
Like, just because your labs are normal. I'm like, but my body's not feeling normal. Like, this is not okay. I'm really curious. As you were going through that, and you started learning a lot more about hormonal health yourself, what was the kind of finding for you, like you've mentioned, the anxiety, the overwhelm, the low libido, which is all such common symptoms.
And I always like to say it's common. It's not [00:09:00] normal. Yes. But was this a like pre, like was this perimenopause, was this something that was like a little bit deeper than that? Was it just a byproduct of being on the hormonal ID I'm always curious to dive into people's stories a little more.
Emilia Villegas: Yeah, of course.
I think it was a mix of things. It was of course being on synthetic hormones for so long. And again, I like to point out I'm not against birth control. I think what I'm against, because , I understand it's offered women a lot of like, freedom, but it's against not having the full like range of information, right.
The pros and cons and then you can choose what you can do. So I think it was that being on the hormonal birth control for like over a decade. Almost 15 years actually. It was that I've never really supported my hormones. Right. Like, I think you mentioned in one of your podcasts, we work like men drink, like men exercise.
Like men, we live like men nine to five, as if we had a hor, like a regular hormonal cycle that never changes or that changes every two, four hours like theirs. So it was all of that that [00:10:00] started like. Compounding. And then, yes, I was 39, so I think my body started changing maybe years before. Now looking back, there were things happening, but they were so small.
You ignore the whispers of your body, of course, until it's screaming at you like, many do. But I think it was like an accumulation of those things per, I was starting to experience a shift of perimenopause. Never in my life I've heard the word perimenopause. And I think I remember the first time I heard that my reaction, which obviously now the perspectives change, but like many women, because again, we're not told about it, I was like, oh, no, no, I'm not old.
I'm only 39. But that's, it doesn't mean you're old. It means your body is changing, right? You're going into this new life transition. So yeah, I think it was a compound of all of those things and to make it more tangible. And I think a lot of women can relate. I was someone really afraid of carbs.
So I never eat, ate carbs, very rarely because they, yeah, we know the story with carbs and the nineties and and I was probably under eating [00:11:00] and over exercising. So those I think are very common things a lot of women can relate with. Mm-hmm.
Christa Elza: Oh,
Emilia Villegas: for sure.
Christa Elza: I think you're speaking for the masses right now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Let's dive a little bit deeper into what you did and then we'll talk about a little bit of the science. But I wanna know specifically what worked for you in teasing that out. And bravo, to doing this on your own. I think it can be really challenging.
When you're in your body, like the eyeball can't see itself. Right? So it can be really hard. Yeah, it can be really hard to treat yourself because we don't, you don't know, and on top of that, you're emotional and you're dealing with how you feel. And so it's really hard to be objective, I think, when you're trying to treat yourself.
And when I find people who find a solution for themselves, I'm like, wow, you overcame a lot to get there. And so I would love to hear what worked for you and then we can tease out what might work scientifically wise what kind of gets us here, why we get here and what might work for other people.
But for you specifically, [00:12:00] what did you find? Was it more like learning about your cycle and cycle sinking your life? Was it seed cycling along with your cycle? Was it certain supplements? Was it a change in your diet and exercise? Like I would love to just hear your actual process of what you specifically did.
Emilia Villegas: Yes, of course. Krista, I think yes to all of the above. I do have to say the first, 'cause this is like three years ago, the first year, year and a half I did do it on my own and I saw a lot of improvements. But there was still some stability, there was still some like extra steps to take and that's actually when I also started working with a coach, which is why I believe in coaches so much.
Which is, I'm still working with her. So I think it was like a combined effort for the first year and a half. I did it on my own and I actually managed to turn things around pretty well. I started with seed cycling, actually. I'm glad you mentioned it 'cause it was one of the first things. I did. And it's obviously difficult to know exactly, but I removed my hormonal IUD in October of 2022.
Yeah, 2022. At the beginning of [00:13:00] the month like maybe three, four weeks prior to that, I started doing seed cycling. Maybe other changes, but I remembered that one specifically. And then 22 days later, I got my period after years of not having a period. And ever since I've had a regular period.
Whether it was like maybe my body ready for it or the seeds helping, but seed cycling was something I did. I started informing myself. I was always the one who I thought I ate healthy, but as I said, I didn't need carbs. So I started informing myself about nutrition and really learning, trying to learn, okay, well what's really gonna help my body?
And I learned cars were actually not the devil, like they made us believe in the nineties. So, and. F difference I saw with carbs is once I started eating carbs, I used, I was someone who always used to be cold. And that changed so much within like, maybe six months or something. 'cause I live in Amsterdam of course, right where most of the year it's cold.
And I would be freezing all the time. And once I started eating carbs, it actually, my temperature [00:14:00] regulated like so much. I'm actually not the opposite. I'm not someone who's very cold now. I started psych, I started learning about cycle syn. But I think, and I started learning that I had hormonal fluctuations.
I think to put it like also the most tangible thing, I was like, okay, I have these different hormones. So my cycle is not just about my period, my cycle is the entire month. So it's the entire month where we need to actually work with it. 'cause again, in school they just tell you, oh, you have your period and then if you don't wanna get pregnant, it's just a condom.
That's it. Right. So I think it was learning that I had different hormones that had different needs. Throughout my cycle, and obviously because I've been doing this for so long, but I started little by little implementing first I started with the nutrition side of things in, in terms of cycle sync.
Then the workouts. I'm someone who loves to work out. I love weights, so I was doing weights all the time, the same every time. So, I started like, okay, let me be more mindful of how I'm really feeling. [00:15:00] And I know this might sound like a bit of fluff, but I started listening to my body as well. I'm a person who can be very demanding with myself, and this whole journey taught me.
To have compa, to have self-compassion and be kinder. And then if I, my body needs extra support instead of getting frustrated or angry just to listen of takes practice, of course, but just to listen to what's really happening and how I really feel how I really feel.
Sheree Beaumont: Mm-hmm. So, yeah. It's so beautiful. I love, you actually mentioned it before, like the whispers of your body and I was like, that's such a.
Gorgeous way to express it because I think especially as women we're being so taught to shut down that little voice or that intuitive hit and like you shared, having that moment to pause and go, what does my body need? Or even being educated to understand. I have hormonal fluctuations. This is normal.
Like we're [00:16:00] expected to show up day in, day out, day in, day out and just perform at the same level every time. And you can see where we are taught that and ingrained in society. You are like you even mentioned, you go to biology, you're good, you do your science class, or even in phys ed it was like, here's your period, your period comes and goes and that's it.
I remember when I learned that they. In the medical industry, they said, well, day one is your period, because how else are women gonna know what's going on in their bodies? Right? Like that's why they chose the Bleed to be the first day. For me, it's actually like in my brain, I look at it as like it should be the end of our cycle.
'cause you're wrapping things up, you're getting rid of the uterine lining. And day one should honestly be when you finish your bleed in, in my opinion. But it just goes to show how little information that we are given, right? Because. If you're not told to listen to your body, like the amount of clients or women we work with, and you're like, when are you ovulating?
And they're like, ovulating. I don't know. I don't even know if I am ovulating. I don't track my ovulation. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm really curious, like [00:17:00] your journey is, is so beautiful. Like I said, it's very much a mirror to so many women. When it comes to, you've mentioned the cycle sinking, and I know we talked about this a little bit before we jumped on, but the productivity, like when we think about how these hor hormonal fluctuations really support us, let's flip the mindset around, oh gosh, I'm gonna be emotional this month, at this time of the month, to how can I use them to enhance my productivity?
Can you shed a little bit of light on that for us, please?
Emilia Villegas: Of course. Yeah. And actually you read my mind 'cause Yeah, after obviously I've had like. Some of the other foundations in place. Then I discovered the productivity. I was like, whoa, it does make sense now. If all other aspects of your life kind of like cycle sink, why not the productivity?
And I became very passionate because I think I realized that especially a lot of women in the forties. They start suffering from burnout society, or they're judged. Oh, she's not performing well. Well, no, she, it's not that she's not performing. She has brain fog. She has symptoms that she doesn't even understand.
And unfortunately, most of the corporate world, or all of [00:18:00] it, if not all it's not set for women's hormonal fluctuations, right? It's a nine to five, which is for men hormonal fluctuations. So in terms of like, the productivity piece, would you like me to go like, in detail about the actual hormones, how we feel, or more like the big overview?
Sheree Beaumont: Yeah, like, let's go deep. I feel like we've talked about it on a, another podcast, but it's really fun to dive into this even more scientific. So if you're happy to share, like, yeah, let's go.
Emilia Villegas: Yeah. Perfect. Definitely. So, for the productivity piece during the first half of our cycle we have a what, like the main.
Two hormones that are running the show are estrogen and testosterone. And I like to highlight testosterone because I feel that it's often forgotten in the female healthcare conversation. And it's as important everyone, like there's a lot about progesterone and estrogen, but not testosterone. So, as like you explained, day one of our cycle starts when we have our [00:19:00] period.
Then as our period is ending, let's say I'm gonna work with a 28 day cycle, but obviously worth highlighting that women's cycle can be up to 35 days. But I'll just do, for the purpose of this conversation, I'll use 28. So like, let's say our cycle is like, it finishes on day five, more or less, but as our like period finishes, estrogen and testosterone will start rising. This means that our cognitive function will start improving our sharpness, our confidence, our mental awareness, our focus, our concentration because estrogen will estrogen is a hormone that would help us deal with like stress. Meaning we're more resilient to stressful situations, challenging times.
And then at the same time we have testosterone. Testosterone is the one that will help us with like confidence. Yeah, confidence. Mental sharpness, going, feeling like you're on top of the world. Social, this, the combination of these two hormones are gonna make us feel very, [00:20:00] like, on top of things.
So it is a good time during this first half. And the two phases during this first half are like follicular and ovulation where we it seems like we can. Undertake bigger projects, new tasks, challenging projects. It's a good thing for people who do content, for example, when they can film themselves 'cause they're gonna have that natural charisma.
If they're to public speaking networking events, it's a great time to do that. 'cause again, you're feeling more confident, but then you can also you're more sociable. This by no means it doesn't just mean, oh, I have to do it and control that. It's just during this time, again, I think. Cycles thing and should have mentioned this before.
Sorry to jump back, but it's more to be aware of how our body is behaving and being proactive when we can. Right. Like ironically, like now for example, I'm getting my period in the next couple of days, I think. But then I just made sure I supported my body, like gave my body extra support this morning.
'cause I know maybe my mental sharpness won't be [00:21:00] as good as it could be in the first half, or I need like more rest. So, I just gave my body extra support. So I could be here. So yeah, that would be like for the first half of our cycle. And then on the second half, which is a luteal phase what happens is both estrogen and progesterone sorry, estrogen and testosterone will start, like, will decline.
And progesterone will start to rise. And then when progesterone starts to rise it's the, it's called the calming hormone because it's a hormone that's gonna make us feel more inwards, less sociable, which is gonna be cozy at home, maybe by ourselves. This inward this inward feelings also what starts happening is our brain starts like it's more wired for like self analy, self-analysis, self-reflection, which.
It's also very important for productivity because I think the luteal phase, it's also our longest phase. The luteal phase can be very misunderstood, but there's so much we can do in the luteal phase because it is a phase where. [00:22:00] Well, actually, speaking of productivity, it's a phase where we can then start like wrapping up projects, maybe doing some planning, editing.
If you have like content you need to edit or a PowerPoint slide. Because we're also wired for for, and like self-analysis, it's a good time for like maybe reviewing contracts, proof reading, so it's time to wrap up things and then to start also preparing our body that it's gonna go into.
Demonstration phase soon where it's gonna be similar to a luteal phase, but even more inwards at times. It's normal to also feel fatigued during the demonstration phase. Our body's obviously going through, our uterine lining is shedding, and so many things, not just the hormones, but it detoxing so many other things, emotions, and so many things that it's important we give ourselves the time.
So yeah, I think it's understanding what each phase. The advantages of it phase. I think I see all phases as important. It's important that we give our times that like [00:23:00] reset once we get to demonstration phase, that we get to the reset phase because that reset also will help us be more productive on our next cycle.
Resting doesn't mean being unproductive. Resting is just maybe doing other things that require less of your energy, of your output. 'cause there's so much we can do when we're like. On an inward focus.
Christa Elza: Yes. I think it, it's wild how I didn't become aware of this and really act on the cycles the stages of the cycle until maybe the past five years.
Honestly. So I think, what's hopeful is that all of this information and more who talk about it, that younger women who are. In their teens right now. Yeah. Can really glom onto that because it's more about, it's not just about fertility, it is really about like understanding you are literally emotionally a different person Yes.
Throughout the month. And that's okay. And none of it is necessarily bad. It's [00:24:00] just different. And so you explain that beautifully of like, doing the socialness. At certain times and then doing the planning at different times. So all of it can be productive in, in their, in its own right. It's not like we are cozied up doing nothing but watching Netflix maybe.
But that doesn't necessarily have to encompass the last week of your cycle. You can just, you can be productive in different ways, which I think is helpful. One thing I wanna point out though, perimenopause let's start to kinda shift into that and how this can be disrupted and different because what our cycles look like at age 25.
Can be completely erratic at age 45, and we have had a podcast in the past interviewing the representative, Mira Mira devices, M-A-R-I-M-I-R-A. Yeah, we can put the link in the show notes, but what I find fascinating to work with my patients on yes. Is to sometimes utilize something like a mirror device because that can help show you on a day-to-day [00:25:00] basis what is happening with your estrogen.
And then it can also show you what's happening with progesterone. I think blood work is fabulous for pinpointing a very, moment in time, but. That works great when you're 25 when you're 45. Sometimes though you can catch yourself on a day, in a moment in time where that blood, that estrogen is rock bottom, but the next day it's sky high.
So we're not really as the pers as the patient and the practitioner, we're not getting a really great picture of that.
Emilia Villegas: Yeah.
Christa Elza: So something like that can help you on a monthly basis understand these fluctuations. So that's on, on my end, like objectively looking at things. But can you share a little bit about your experience with working with, maybe yourself and others?
I know for me, when I use the a device like that, that shows me morning, every morning where I'm at emotionally, it connects. I'm like, oh, I feel amazing today. Oh, that's amazing. My estrogen is sky high. And then the next day I am like. Crazy or I just feel irritable or I feel [00:26:00] more brain foggy and scattered and thoughts are everywhere.
And I'm like, well that's funny. My estrogen just somehow rock bottomed out. So it can feel literally like a roller coaster. And objectively, when you look at a graft, it is a roller coaster. You are literally up and down and left and right and it's not. This beautiful. Oh, the first half I feel this way and this second half, sometimes it's one day I feel this way and the next day.
And so I think we can't do much about our body's physiology in terms of that's what's naturally happening. However we can understand that and we can support our body in not having quite so many cliff jumps, right? Yes. And so could you share with us a little bit about how, maybe you manage it with yourself, but how you manage it in the clients that you help, how to kinda manage some of these rollercoaster feelings because it's reality of what's happening here.
Emilia Villegas: Yes, of course. I started I'm gonna go back to this just because again, it's [00:27:00] just such a different journey for every woman, and like you said, very well, it's a rollercoaster, right? Like that's why. They, it's called like the second puberty, like perimenopause because our hormones are just gonna be all over the place.
But I really started like listening to my body and then when I just wanted, okay, I need to know exactly more, more like, I need to know more about what's happening. That's when I got the aura ring. I know it's not the same. I know it's not everyone can get one or like Mira, but then I always advise my clients like, track your cycle even if you don't have a regular one, just so you know your cycle and your symptoms.
Right? If someone doesn't, like, can't get an ora ring or Mira or even measure the blood glucose for whatever reasons. It's just track your cycle or track how you're feeling. You can use an app. Because the thing is, the reality is I think sometimes, like it happens to me when a lot of clients come, they just have.
So many things, but at the same time, they don't have much like, because all the symptoms is seem unrelated and nobody, because again, nobody [00:28:00] told us, nobody really sits down and thinks, okay, maybe my gut and my brain fog, they're related to the same thing, right? I. So it's more like about track your cycle, like track your symptoms and know when did you have your last period.
Maybe it was 60 days ago, maybe it was 19. Maybe you still have regular cycles and you haven't even noticed. Because once you track that, let's say in my case, let's, I'll focus for example, first. In my case, I still have regular periods, but it's true, some cycles can be smoother than others. Most of the time now I feel okay, my health has shifted massively from.
Three years ago, but I, for example, I could say a third of my cycles, my ovulation phase, which is meant to be your peak performance phase, is not my peak performance phase. So like, but that's, it's very personal, but I started like realizing that with the aura ring and also like at, at first with counting what, which day I was in, and I realized that more or less halfway through it, I would be like really tired.
Sometimes a little [00:29:00] bit like moody, like PMS, like symptoms. So now I know. Okay. Sometimes if I don't feel that way, well I can give my body the support it needs. I know it probably last a couple of days and then I go to my luteal face and actually my luteal face, it's usually great. Unlike, again, it varies.
I know some women struggle more with it, but with me for the aura ring was really helpful because I could really track my body temperature. Okay. I ovulated. It also helped me realize I was still ovulating in my case, so that was super helpful. So I can see the change in my temperature and the other reason why I got it, it's not hormones per se cycle, but I got it because of my sleep.
One thing I forgot to mention, when Sherry asked me what thing, what did you change when you started healing yourself? I prioritize sleep. I was someone who, because I'm naturally so energetic, I wouldn't prioritize sleep because I could cope with like five hours sleep and I was fine.
Five, six hours, which is very little. But as you start getting older, you need more hours. But also we [00:30:00] should all prioritize sleep no matter what age. So another thing that really helped me was prioritize sleep. And when I got the aura ring, the other reason why I got it a year and a half ago was for that.
To start tracking my sleep. How was I sleeping? 'cause my sleep started being disrupted. I started realizing I couldn't fall back asleep so easily and sometimes I would wake up as well. So again, it was about, okay, well my sleep is not great. What can I do to improve it? Like, and I started learning about and okay, let me have an evening routine.
The blue lights, I know it's words, people hear a lot, but they do work. That's why we do it, because all these routines really help. So I think. It's going back to the basics. I think in short, this could be, it was a long answer, but it's going back to the basics and listening to your body. That's how I like to start working with my clients.
Then if it's more complex, the roller coaster, then we go into the detail of it. But it start with the basics because sadly, because again, we were never told, the basics are not covered many times.
Sheree Beaumont: Mm-hmm. [00:31:00] I love that you shared too, like just to give people that horrible, give women that hug like.
You noticed this three years ago. Right. And so, in our mind, sometimes we can make, sometimes we can make the assumption, well, as you get older, obviously the perimenopause is gonna hit more, so symptoms are gonna get worse. Yeah. And that's just the story or the narrative we've been told. Yeah, yeah.
Whereas the beautiful thing that you've shared that I'm hearing is like, actually my symptoms have gotten better and we can still be doing the things to make sure that we are thriving even if we are in this. Sick and puberty or we are in this transitional phase as I like to call it. And I think, again, I love, we're on the same wavelength here.
I was like, one of the key things that we don't often associate with hormonal imbalance is the sleep situation. Yeah. Right. Especially as we enter perimenopause, that progesterone drop off in that first part of the perimenopause can be a shock to the body and sometimes it is a matter of putting in.
For some women, the HRT to support them a bioidentical form of that so that they're [00:32:00] sleeping through the night or it's in increasing their nighttime routines, like the amount of people that don't actually have a nighttime routine. I always say like, you wanna start the morning fresh. It starts the night before.
Yeah. Yes. And so. And like you've shared, having that insight to go sleep is the foundation for my health. If I look after like that aspect, that's then going to have a beautiful knock on effect. And so your story is a beautiful example of how we can actually get better, even though hormonally on the back end, things might be changing or that rollercoaster, like you mentioned, Krista can be going on.
But one of the things you've also keep touching on, which I love, and it's a conversation that we do come back to often is. This isn't something that's common knowledge. Yes. And it isn't something that's shared. And if you were to think about, okay, if you would love to see something in schools or, if every woman could have access to this knowledge earlier, what would be some of the key things that you think that we should be sharing?
I'm super curious. Yes,
Emilia Villegas: of course. I think I'm [00:33:00] gonna have many, but I think we should be taught in detail. When before we get our period. And I think it applies for men and women because it's important that men also know what we're going through, right? For our partners, our friends, , our dads, because then your relationships can also be affected when they don't know what you're going through.
You don't know, and then you're in full rage, and then they just think it's them and so all these things. But I think in schools it should be taught, okay, this is a hormonal female cycle. These are the hormones, and this is how it fluctuates every month, the importance of ovulation, because ovulation is not just for fertility, right?
Ovulation, it's like the main event of the whole thing, but nobody says that, ever. With all the reasons about why, but then also that the life transitions we have as women, whether it's puberty pregnancy, postpartum. Perimenopause, menopause. They are life transitions. They're natural and we're all gonna go through them and we [00:34:00] should embrace them as such, rather than seeing them as a burden or, oh, okay, my hormones.
It's just when people say, oh, it's just hormones, crazy women. It just really annoys me now because it's like, okay, you have no idea. We're actually really strong and I think I see the women's physiology as. Just like really powerful and magical because what we go through in a reproductive years for over 30 plus years, the whole cycle is just amazing.
Then on the other hand, women can actually bring like life into the world, right? And then when that cycle's finished, which like everything things need to end, then we start this other powerful era, which is a perimenopause and menopause. It'll come with these challenges, but it's also an a time where we women experience a lot of freedom in so many ways, right?
And then when you hit menopause. All the hormonal rollercoaster is [00:35:00] gone, and then there's so many other things to look forward to. So I think it will be that just changing the narrative around the female hormonal body and the importance as well of acknowledging it. And that is not one size fits all, because I think that's also a big thing.
Christa Elza: Yeah. Well for sure when I. When I have patients in here and we're starting hormone replacement, which is another topic, but when we're starting hormone replacement, I think. It's very important to do one hormone at a time. Yeah. Because if you're gonna throw testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone at a patient at one time, yeah.
We don't know. Which one made you feel bad? We don't know. Which one made you feel good. We don't, so to say all, we dosing and even avenues of which way we're doing it, whether it's a patch or a pill, or a. Injection. There's a cream, there's so many different avenues too. And so the whole scene is very much a very personalized approach and [00:36:00] prescription.
And I think that a lot of practitioners fall off on that too. It does take time. You're gonna see this patient monthly for multiple months and run multiple blood work sessions to get this dialed in. Yeah. And I think it's also important, in terms of hormone replacement to, the benefits of progesterone and you, for instance, feel very productive and cozy and wonderful with it.
I've got some patients who feel anxiety and irritable and horrible with it. And so it's also important to acknowledge when you're looking at, okay, I'm in perimenopause. You don't typically need estrogen yet. Yeah. But you might need progesterone. It's important to, hey, take it when your body naturally should have it.
So day 14 to the start of your period. Yeah. But also to pay attention to how did I feel if I felt crazy on birth control pill? I might feel crazy on oral progesterone, and that can be frustrating. A frustrating adventure. Yeah, because you think, well, my friend felt great and slept great on [00:37:00] progesterone, and here I'm over here having anxiety attacks and wanna kill everybody on progesterone.
And the fact is, a third of women feel amazing once you put them on progesterone. It solves that problem of like, Hey, they're not ovulating great. Halfway through their cycle, some months they do, some months they don't. But when we add and, get more of a robust progesterone. Blood level, the second half of their cycle, boom, problem solved.
We're great for another three to four years. Some women don't notice anything. They're like, I don't sleep any better. I don't feel any different, whatever. Some people feel the opposite. So it's about a third of women feel great, a third of women feel nothing. A third of people wanna crawl outta their skin.
Yeah. So that again, is another very personalized thing, and you've gotta work with. Coaches and practitioners who understand that, prescribers that understand that, because some people feel terrible. Some women, their whole life, PMDD has been a problem because their brains don't have that great, pregna gastro receptor in the brain that calms 'em down.
It does the opposite, right? [00:38:00] So, it's, it is, it's like we're having this kind of high level conversation about what most people experience, but the solutions can be oftentimes very well, they are every time very, very personalized. Yeah. They're not a one size fits all, not a one size fits dose, all of those things.
Right.
Emilia Villegas: Yeah. No, I agree. And I'm glad you brought up the hr, well, hormone replacement therapy topic because it brings up like a bigger picture, right? Like I think it's important to also teach. Things in school that we shouldn't just suffer through the symptoms or deal with them or power through them, right?
Their solutions, whether it's going back to the basics and then supplements to then going to HRT or hormone replacement therapy. That I think there's such a big misconception about just, oh, just power through it. Well, you can power through perimenopause. It lasts seven to 10 years. So it is a very re it is a very long time to do that, but there's not an awareness.
And also, like we said, like at the beginning, right of the conversation where Sheri mentioned how women are gaslighted [00:39:00] and it's true, like they're just gaslighted. So then women think, oh, it's in my head. Oh, I'm imagining it, imagining things, oh, I shouldn't bother. Maybe I'll just stay with it. And then they just suffer in silence.
So I think it's important to acknowledge that you have these symptoms, let's address them because there's a solution and a lot of this and. A big part of the change can happen at home sometimes. It's not all, sometimes you need like medical, like, like HRT and all these things, but a lot of it's gonna come from home, from the basics you're doing every day, your sleep, how you're eating, just very basics.
Will al already start helping things shift?
Christa Elza: I wanna bring up to the, and I wanna talk a little bit about the, the long-term effects and the health benefits that women lose. Yeah. Men don't lose it. Men don't lose testosterone at age 50, but women lose our estrogen naturally. And, and so I wanna expand a little bit on the amazing health benefits that Estrogen offers us.
But also like, I wanna kinda reiterate what you talked [00:40:00] about with it starts at home because the hormones that I mentioned, sex hormones, estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, but then we've also got insulin and cortisol and thyroid. And it's important to understand that those really work together. And so, maybe let's start there. Some of, if we're under a lot of stress, which most women in perimenopause have a lot of life going on, it's a very pivotal time in our lives as most people at this stage in our. Life of on the planet earth here we're it's crazy time. And that can affect your cortisol.
And that cortisol then can affect how robust your progesterone is, right? So that fight or flight can really affect one hormone, and now we're affecting our sex hormones. Mm-hmm. Also people gain a lot of weight and estrogen, insulin, we know, have this inverse relationship together, right? So they're doing the same things, they're eating the same things, they're working out the same way, and all of a sudden I'm gaining weight.
Well, you're your more insulin resistant, not by anything you've done, but because estrogen is down or insulin resistance is up. And so again, that's just coming [00:41:00] back down to the science itself can be really complicated for some people. And that's not really the important part. Understanding that your lifestyle affects those things, that's really all we have to focus on, right?
Yeah. Like sleep, the eating, the continuing working out, having eating low glycemic foods to help with some of that insulin. All of those tie together, which I think is. Beautiful. Also very frustrating if you don't understand that like maybe the way you were acting when you're 25 is not the way that you can perform anymore at 45.
You can't eat, burgers at midnight and alcohol all night and whatever we were doing in our twenties, it just doesn't quite hit the same because our body is naturally a little out of sync. And that's not to say that we can't pull other levers. Yeah, to make it more in sync. It's just more the knowledge of what levers do I pull to make that a little bit more imbalanced.
And so, yeah, I'd love for you to dive into a little bit [00:42:00] more about the, what you can do at home. And then let's also, on that note, can you share a little bit about your knowledge around the importance of ongoing estrogen for our overall physical health too?
Emilia Villegas: Yes, of course. So, I think at home.
Again, like I've been mentioning before, it's just the basics, right? Like, try to prioritize sleep. I know obviously it can be sometimes difficult if someone's a new mom, but then like, rest maybe when the baby's, the baby's resting. Or obviously if you don't have kids, prioritize that sleep time.
Not this thing of, oh, I'll sleep when I can when I have time. No sleep is our superpower. Also it's the way we eat. A lot of like women, again, we, and I was one of them, were under eating. Because again, it's these conceptions about weight and all of that. And then obviously, especially when you start feeling bloated and gaining weight and they eat less and exercise more.
And I think it's about listening to, again, listening to your body and then prioritizing your nutrition. It's not that. Hamburgers every day, [00:43:00] like you said, and I, I believe in an 80 20 balance. I think we need to have balance, like everything, right? Any excessive, anything in excess, whether it's to go or to bad.
It's just not gonna be, it's not gonna work or be sustainable. So it's like an 80 20 rule, it's okay if you wanna have the piece of cake. Have the piece of cake, but then most of the time make sure you're having like whole foods, nutritious foods, like well-balanced, eating all macronutrients, right?
Like healthy fats, vegetables, fruits, as a little as possible, like processed food, sugar, it's being aware of sugar. I know if people be like, oh, sugar again. But it sugar matters, especially in perimenopause where we're less, we can be less insulin resistance when estrogen starts like. Shifting everywhere.
So it's important to be aware of like sugar caffeine. This is a very straightforward one, whether it's black tea or coffee or matcha. To drink it. Don't drink it on an empty stomach first thing in the morning. That's another one that like I. It's one of the first things I always tell my clients as well, or women I talk to, have it with breakfast, not just first thing in the morning, because [00:44:00] then again, cortisol will rise a lot.
Like you were mentioning cortisol before. And then if you already had a bad night's sleep, then you have the coffee, then you don't eat, then everything just like snowballs. Another thing I would say at home, well movement, whatever movement means to you, you don't have you don't have to be like doing.
Like a heat workout every day? No, because you also need to listen to your body si sync with your cycle if it still applies. But then one thing that's non-negotiable for women, especially perimenopause and for the rest of our lives, it's strength training. Because strength training, I have to say it because what happens is when we start losing estrogen and testosterone, we are gonna start losing more muscle mass, and our bone density can be affected as well. And a way to help counteract this, it's by doing strength training. I. This effect of doing strength training now in our forties or earlier, it's never too late whenever you start, that's why I always like to say if you're not too late, you're not behind.
You just need to get [00:45:00] started. Whether you're 36, 46, it doesn't matter, or 56, but this doing strength training, it's gonna keep our bones strong. Our muscle mass as best as, as healthy as possible. And muscle is one of the most important longevity biomarkers as well. And then but it will also. Translate into our later decades as well, right?
Later in life. It's not just what we do now, but it's gonna have a very positive impact on our fifties, sixties, seventies, and beyond. So strength training, it's a non-negotiable. And then one that, I know it's very controversial to talk about this, but alcohol intake does matter when you're in your forties.
I'm not saying everyone should stop drinking. In my case, I did have to stop drinking because that actually. It massively shifted the migraines I was having. In my case, I was having two drinks and I will be two days in bed with a migraine. So after eating with water. So for me it was like once I changed that it really helped shift my health.[00:46:00]
But it is true that women for them to have less symptoms or improve their symptoms. They need to reduce their alcohol consumption. In some case, like mine, probably stop it, but reduce the alcohol consumption because also when you're drinking, it's really gonna affect your sleep. The more we get into perimenopause and then again if we don't sleep, it's that cascade feeling of, not feeling great and we've explained before.
So I think that's an important one to mention as well. So those are some of the things I've, I've known and also working on. And I don't wanna leave this one out 'cause I think it's very important as well. Mental health. Mental health is just so important. It's as important as our physical health because again, we're gonna start experiencing with the loss of progesterone, we're gonna start experiencing maybe more anxiety or the negative self-talk can be like more, it can be louder in our heads. So it's important to focus on mindfulness, whatever that means. Going for a walk, painting, I don't know, listening to music, meditating, [00:47:00] breathing, but mindfulness is a big thing as well to focus on.
Sheree Beaumont: that's beautiful. Very, very tangible tips And a lot of times I think clients can come in and be like, Ugh. Like this sounds, we're looking for this magical pill. Right. And I think that's part of the problem or part of the conversation we have to have is.
We've been told, here's the pill that'll get rid of your hormonal symptoms. Here we've been told, here's the IUD, that, that's the things do for contraceptive. We've been told, here's the one thing, or if you're gonna lose weight, like, now it's the ozempic, right? Like, and it's just, it's like we are so conditioned to this one magic pill that when you come and work with a coach or a practitioner or you're working in this clinical space.
People are looking for that one magical pill. And I think you've really reiterated like this is where that holistic approach or that functional medicine approach comes in. We've got the movement, we've got the sleep, we've got the nutrition. We need to be mindful. And I love that you brought in the mental health because that is, I think, where it comes back to the conversation we were having before.
Women are often told they're crazy or their emotions are outta [00:48:00] control. Or, I remember having an anxiety attack, I didn't even know it was before anxiety was a thing, right? Like what an anxiety attack was. And I looked back on that moment, I remember I was in Central Park cycling around the outside of Central Park and the road was gravely and I like, and I was like.
So stressed and so like, the tears were striping down my face and I was like, what is going on with you right now? You are riding a bike in New York? Like it shouldn't be this intense. Yeah. But I was overthinking and I was overdo it and it was because I was on the pill. I had nothing to calm me down.
And again, you look back on it and you go, okay, like you almost have more compassion with yourself Yes. When you know what's going on. And so that mental health aspect that you brought in, I think is so important, especially as we go through. The stages of life that you outlined. We are, we don't just go through puberty and then we carry on that way.
Yeah. There are so many different intervals in a woman's life, whether they have children or not, hormonally. And so bringing [00:49:00] that piece in, like, I really thank you for sharing that because I think we can so often go, oh, the foundational pieces, you wanna get the eye roll. Or like, it's so simple. Or, yeah, mental health this, mental health that, but it's how you feel every single day in your body that matters.
And these tools. Change that. Yeah,
Emilia Villegas: yeah, yeah. No, definitely. I think I brought it up because I did at some point struggle was struggling a lot with mental health. And that's, and I, I never knew, like, like I had a time where I would open my eyes in the morning, but I didn't know how the rest of the day I was gonna feel mentally or physically.
So I would have my plans, but then I could be waking up fine, but then a few hours later for no reason, I would just not feel okay. And I just then had to cancel my day. I had to pause my life. I remember like, there was a time in my life where like if I was gonna have my period, I would make any plans.
Like, we had this trip with my husband one time and I was like I'm gonna cancel it because I started having so much anxiety just thinking. I was gonna be [00:50:00] traveling when I was gonna get my period, and I just ended up, and it was around the time I also had a panic attack, so I ended up canceling the trip.
It ended up being a good period, but I didn't know that was gonna happen. So, that's why I think it was, and I think for me, I think I was also seeking for help and support. I think it's also good to speak out because again, as women we're told, like, oh, I don't wanna bother, or maybe I don't say anything, and it's just so important we speak out.
And we don't again, because they make women feel like, oh, they're crazy, or they're being too much. And it's not, it's just seeking support with our loved ones, with a coach, with a practitioner. For me, one big thing, I think going through whole, this whole heal a hormonal healing journey was having the loved, like the support of my loved ones, right?
My family, my friends, and my husband, which is, I live with him. I live, I don't live. I live in a different continent and my family rides. My husband's the one who's with me every day and having that support from him every single day, just, I dunno what I would've done without it at my worst time.
[00:51:00] So I think it's important. We really give mental health the space it needs.
Christa Elza: Yeah, I think this conversation has been great. I think it's important for women to know that there are so many tools, technology like tracking your own hormones. Now, like we've mentioned, that device, there are ways and coaches and practitioners that are educated on the fact that, hormonal shifts, whether you're perimenopause or not, are a reality and they deserve.
One-on-one individualized protocols. Whether we're having a hormonal dysfunction during our, our, reproductive years of PCOS, endometriosis, all of these things no matter what problem you're going through, working with someone who can really look at your hormonal patterns and mm-hmm.
And then help support, because like you said, a lot of it is, A lot of it it's a partnership in health. Yes. And you should find someone you can be in a partnership with because [00:52:00] it requires the practitioner to be educated and understand all of it. It also requires the patient, the client, to be willing to do some of the work.
Yes. Not the one size pill fits all. It's going to be maybe some intervention with medication, but. A large part of it, we cannot, we can't discount the power of our foundational things, the major things that shifted Yeah. In all of those things that you've talked about with sleep and diet and exercise and the mental health , and I think for women to feel supported and have some accountability.
It does help each person individually move along in their journey with this. So, yeah. I thank you so much for being here and just for sharing, it's so lovely to find other practitioners that are just as passionate about this and, it's hard to sometimes shift a complete tide, but the more of us that are.
Involved in this, more of us that are educating our own circle of influence is, is how change happens, is how people [00:53:00] really get to understand their own body and how to move forward with that. How can people work with you? Do you work virtually with people?
Emilia Villegas: I do, I actually, I have my one-to-one coaching practice, whether it's online or offline.
If they live in Amsterdam they can find me in well, my Instagram flow with Amelia, my website www.flowwithamelia.com. I am also I'll be soon on TikTok as well. It'll be the same handle but I'll be soon on TikTok and just. Anyone feel free to reach out. DM me. I love to talk to women.
See how they are, like, see what they're know, learn what they're going through. I think one, as you just said, it's just, I don't want anyone to feel alone in this journey. Whatever, like life transition they're in, it's important that women feel supported. And that they don't feel alone. So the me, I'll be happy to have a chat. I do offer a free discovery call if someone wants to [00:54:00] know, okay, well what does the coaching program really entitles? I have a free discovery call. They can book it through my Instagram or my website.
We can chat for an hour. And then from there, take it from there to see one, like which one of my programs fits best. And yeah, I'm doing also like some public speaking about hormones and productivity, which I think is a very important piece. As well of the puzzle for women and so they keep growing in their careers.
Sheree Beaumont: Aw, I love that. Thank you so much for sharing. We'll make sure we pop those in the show notes as well for anyone that wants to reach out and connect. You've got such a beautiful energy and I, like Chris just said, just to reiterate, it's beautiful that we've got so many, meeting like-minded people and just know that the more of us that are out there, the more that this message gets to be spread.
So thank you for showing up and sharing your magic with the world.
Emilia Villegas: No, thank you both for Kristen, Shari, for inviting me. It's been an absolute pleasure to be here with you both and I completely agree with you. I think, I believe like together we are stronger, so I love meeting like-minded as well. Women just, we can do so much more if we're all [00:55:00] together creating this movement.
Right. So thank you for the invite. Yes.
Christa Elza: Thanks for being here.
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