ALEX KING EPISODE
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ALEX KING: [00:00:00] if you wanna do something, do it. If it feels right and your soul, go do it. So. You just have to start. You just have to make that decision. And even speaking on the mindset piece, if you really wanna get uncomfortable and uncover those core values, you can do shadow self journaling and really uncover those parts of you that maybe you don't like or that you keep shoving down and pushing down and ignoring and really just phasing it head on and getting uncomfortable is a huge part of whatever you're gonna do.
If you're gonna become a parent, if you're changing jobs, if you're moving A lot of good things can come from being uncomfortable,
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 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 back to the Wild and Wild [00:01:00] Collective. Today's guest is Alex King. She is a certified woman's health nutritionist and podcast host. She helps women balance their hormones naturally, get rid of painful periods, and sync their life with their menstrual cycle. She's also the host of Holistic Women's Health Podcast, which covers everything from wellness, nutrition, personal growth, relationships, fitness, and everything in between, which is kind of like the conversation you're about to dive into.
We're really looking forward to you enjoying. The Wild Milk Collective episode.
SHEREE BEAUMONT: We are joined by the beautiful Alex King. Alex, thank you so much for being here. I am so looking forward to this conversation. We've already had a little bit of chat behind the scenes, and I am very much ready to unpack this.
ALEX KING: Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here and chat all the things.
SHEREE BEAUMONT: Well. Before we jumped on and hit record, we were talking a little bit about purpose. We were talking about fibroids, we were talking about idino, we were talking about a lot of things that kind of come into play as being a woman. And then you said, yeah, that's like my life story right now. [00:02:00] And so I would love if you could dive in and actually share with us a little more about your journey and how you got into this space and what you've been through to get here.
ALEX KING: I love it my story can be quite long, so I'll give you more of the Kohl's notes version and then yeah, if you wanna ask me anything in more detail we can dive in. But I ended up having emergency surgery at the age of 13. I had a cyst that was twisting and torting my ovary, and so they sent me in for emergency surgery because I was in a lot of pain and they found that, so they took out my ovary and my fallopian tube.
And then after that they were like. We're putting you on birth control at, the age of 13, to control the cysts so that you won't have painful periods and we'll send you on your way when you wanna get pregnant, come off the pill, get pregnant, easy peasy, you can go back on until menopause. And I was like, okay, great.
So I was on it for around or just over a [00:03:00] decade. And then when I came off of it, it was just nothing but issue after issue. And at that point I was. Had already done school to become a dietician, and I realized I wanted to also go a little bit more of a different way. So then I studied more of the holistic nutrition, and then I specialized in women's health, and then everything was fine and dandy, and then I just started struggling.
A bit more in life, just trying to figure out who I am and what's going on, and focusing so much on my business and being an entrepreneur and putting off my health, focusing on all my client's health, and then all of a sudden I started experiencing tons of pain. And so I was like, no. This is the year where I start taking care of me and figuring.
What's going on. And so I went to get an ultrasound and found that I have a hemorrhagic cyst and also a fibroid about 10 centimeters around. So pretty much the size of a [00:04:00] grapefruit. And so now I'm figuring that out, but also trying to figure myself out. And so this is the whole journey that I've been on in this past couple years.
CHRISTA ELZA: Yeah, I think it's interesting how the combination of. These kinds of issues, hormonal issues, there's a variety. Women are just so dynamic compared to men when it comes to the complications we can have with reproduction and our reproductive cycle, and then how that can bleed into. And I think we'll touch both of that during this conversation, but how that can roll into our purpose motherhood, launching kids, out of the house once they've.
Once they've launched, and how there's a lot going on. I would say in thirties and forties, there's just so much going on with a lot of times our personal life, our work life, our relationships, and our body. It's a very dynamic time. It's not a static time in our life. In fact, every month it's very dynamic.
And that can [00:05:00] really take a toll or make a lot of women feel, cause a women to cause women to feel a lot of being alone or nobody can relate to me, or certainly my spouse can't relate to me because, my partner if you're married to a man is. Easy peasy. It's they, there's not that dynamic going on.
And even amongst women together, women aren't always, I think that we are more honest with each other and open than most male relationships. But women relationships, we don't always express fully the, our inner world and the inner insecurities that we may have about our body and about where we are in life.
Let's first start a little bit on the physical side of things and how you have navigated some of these more. I know we've talked a lot on this podcast about seed cycling or your, your cycle and things like that, but a little bit about the science behind, and the emotional impact on things like endometriosis and fibroids in particular.
We haven't touched a lot on fibroids. And I think that [00:06:00] younger women have that. But then you also have some older women that are struggling with that, and some women even postmenopausal, end up having a hysterectomy because of the fibroids. What is, what have you learned in your journey along that and along with that conversation, I'd like to have a little conversation about the science behind it, but then also what kind of.
Nutrition and what can you do around that to so women can help themselves and feel empowered in that?
ALEX KING: Totally. And it's funny you mention the age piece. 'cause all this started happening around the time that I turned 30 and. Just the way we've grown up, as everybody talks about when you turn 30 and it's this huge pivotal moment in your life and all of a sudden, there's pressure and people are asking you about marriage and kids and all these things.
And so I felt, not that my life was over, but oh my gosh, I'm entering this huge change and so. For me, I was like, what does that look like? And am I happy with the way my life is looking? And so it was just, it's so tough to be in a moment where you're questioning everything and unsure of yourself [00:07:00] and who you are.
And when I was a kid, I remember being so sure of myself and strong headed and knew exactly what I wanted my whole entire life. So for me to go through this. When I was 29, approaching 30, and now in my thirties, and I'm like, oh, it was no big deal at all. But, a big part of what came outta that was me focusing on my health and treating myself like a patient.
So I was like, what would I tell my clients to do in this case? And so when I had the fibroid and the cyst, I was like, okay. The you. And same with the endometriosis. That was something I was diagnosed with a few years ago as well, just along with those painful periods. And there is such a connection emotionally with endometriosis and fibroids as well.
Not only how it impacts your body, but then they've seen that you're at a higher risk If you have had any physical or sexual abuse with endometriosis or if you have any [00:08:00] unresolved childhood trauma, things like that can really impact the womb. Also, what impacted our moms and our grandmas, because we get our eggs from our moms and our grandmas as well.
So whatever was happening with them can be emotionally, physically, mentally passed down to us too. So. Yeah, there, there's so many things we can dive individually into, like nutrition-wise, what I did, or lifestyle, what I did. If you have any specific things you wanna get into, I can talk more about that too.
CHRISTA ELZA: Yeah, I think let's start with nutrition. Let's start with where, I think a lot of people can wrap their head around immediately would be, how did you support yourself there? Because I, I don't think that people put connections together oftentimes with what they're eating and how that's affecting.
They're sexual organs, right?
ALEX KING: Totally. Anything that will impact your hormones is gonna impact what's going on. So there is a connection between higher estrogen [00:09:00] and fibroid cyst endometriosis, adenomyosis, but it's not always a high estrogen picture. So I to test to see what's going on. So for instance, myself, I actually don't have high estrogen.
What's going on with me is that I make. A complete normal amount, but then my drain is clogged, so my liver needs extra support to help get it out. I saw that on my Dutch test, so all my estrogens were in normal range. Everything's coming in normally. And then you go down and it's like the bathtub is drained, so the faucet's on at a normal rate.
The temperature's great, but then the plug. I can't pull the plug out. So for me, a big thing was supporting my gut, first and foremost, before you support your liver. Because if you support your liver, but then your gut's not working and you're constipated, all of a sudden you're detoxing. Your liver naturally does that anyway.
But if you're supporting it and supporting. These hormones and enzymatic pathways and you wanna make sure gut is good so you're not constipated. And so once we sort [00:10:00] out gut, make sure nothing else is going on there if there's any bacteria or whatever it is going on, sort that out. And then liver sort that.
And then after that, yeah, just supporting anything hormone wise. So balancing blood sugar is gonna be important. Protein is super important for. Endo and any kind of pain related, if you have really painful periods, there was a study done that showed if you cut gluten, you have a 75% reduction in pain in women with endometriosis.
So I thought that was interesting. Let me experiment with going more gluten-free, seeing what that's all about. There was also a correlation with dairy, so playing around with dairy alternatives or maybe a two dairy organic. Seeing lots and lots of veggies fiber's super, super, super important. So again, that gut connection, making sure you're moving your bowels and getting everything out and fiber supports all sorts of things.
CHRISTA ELZA: So can you give us some tips? [00:11:00] I'm gonna break in here. Can you give us some tips on adding veggies? I think it's the hardest thing for people to really make sure you're getting enough in. I know it is for me too, unless I'm throwing it in a smoothie or whatever. What do you do to add that fiber that you just mentioned?
ALEX KING: Oh, such a great question. It's gonna be so individual, so you might have to play around, but smoothie is great. Anywhere you can hide. Your veggies. If you're not a veggie lover, then it's gonna be adding it in. Let's say you can hide it in a lasagna or hide it in pasta. You can do not only fruits your smoothies, but veggies too.
So cauliflower, zucchini, some things that, especially if they're frozen, they give texture, but they don't give a lot of taste. I wouldn't probably be doing broccoli, but you can do broccoli sprouts as well, and put that on a salad. If I am short on time or. Whatever it is. You have low iron, you have pots, you're exhausted.
Maybe you just go and grab a salad kit that already comes with the dressing. Of [00:12:00] course it's better if you can control yourself and make your own dressing, but you know what? Veggies are gonna be great at the end of the day. So if you can do a salad kit, if you like soups. I know some of my clients are like, yes, gimme all the warm food.
Some my other clients are like, no, absolutely not. Yeah, so, and then at the end of the day, if you really feel like you're not getting veggies at all, you can add a greens powder, depending. Yeah. If there's gonna be probiotics in there, I would get one with higher quality ingredients and not just one that's.
Popular online, maybe really look at the ingredients, make sure it's something that that is not just trendy, but actually good for you. And then sneaking, yeah, sneaking it in anywhere you can.
SHEREE BEAUMONT: Okay. I think it's really interesting 'cause, veggies has always been the thing that I've preached on the most, like getting your fiber in. And it's funny, like where I'm living now, it's like, okay, we actually need to be getting in at least that half a plate and. Yes, I hear you in terms of hiding it, but also like we need to start training ourselves to crave [00:13:00] that vegetable, to actually want to have the salad with our meal, to wanna have the leafy greens.
And it's really interesting being here. It's not that it's abundant in New Zealand, but like when I go out for dinner. I'll order the pizza, I'll order the pasta, don't get me wrong, but I'll have a side of broccolini. I will add the side of greens because the fiber is what really fills you up.
And if you don't train your palate, if you keep hiding these things, you're not training your palate to look for the bitters. And we talked a little bit about, the liver and the how much you need to support your detoxification pathways with the liver. Obviously the gut as well comes into play.
If we're constantly hiding it or masking it. I even think with children, I get it. We have an innately sweet palate when we're born, but if you keep training them to not look for the veggies, you're also not teaching them lifestyle habits or lifestyle patterns. And then it becomes harder and harder and harder to get them to habits.
So for example, one of the things that we do at home is I will cook rice. But I will add cauliflower rice through it. [00:14:00] So it's like you've got the combination there, you're still getting the taste. Cauliflower pretty much tastes like nothing. So that's an easy one to do. But it can be as simple as using bell peppers and things, making it like, I eat a lot of Mexican food that we cook at home.
So it's things like that you can bring in so much flavor and so much potency and actually start to encourage people to enjoy the taste of the vegetables so they crave it. I love arugula. I put the balsamic with it, like I feel like I'm physically missing something if I don't have my greens with my meals, like all of my clients, like I've got a little Sharia on my shoulder going, where's the protein?
Where's the greens? And one of the other easiest ways to do it is micro greens. Again, they taste like nothing. It require no cooking at all. Like you said, sprouts are another great example of that. I literally like put it on your eggs in the morning. Boom. You've suddenly got a whole lot of extra things going in there.
Same with if you are someone that's having a savory breakfast. Add vegetables, add tomatoes, add mushrooms. Like we are not programmed for some [00:15:00] strange reason to put it in our breakfast, but it's one of the easiest ways to do it. Wilt some spinach. Like we need to get over the hurdle and think that we do need, like I, I totally hear you.
Sometimes the easiest barrier to entry is to mask it, but I also think we need to get over the hurdle and get out of our own way. If we're talking about estrogen detoxification too, your like raw carrot salad, which has had so much hype over the last few years, but is amazing and you can just chuck it into absolutely anything.
It's almost like a little pickled variety. So I think having these things, like I prepped that in my fridge at the beginning of the week to have during my follicular in my ovulatory phase to make sure that I am clearing out an eve extra estrogen. So I think that there's two pieces to this puzzle.
What I would love to know though, if we circle back to fi to fibroids is what did you do? Like, did you end up having surgery to get the fibroid removed? You said 10 centimeters, like that's huge. How did you deal with that and like what, or did you manage to navigate that through diet and other means?
ALEX KING: You make so [00:16:00] many good points. I also just want to talk on what you said. I love when I look at my plate, do I have fp, fc, healthy fat, protein, fiber, and color. So I'm like you said, if I'm having eggs, okay, that's my protein. A little bit of healthy fat. How, what else? Like where's the color? Where's the veggie?
What else can I add to this? A hundred percent. And a lot of it's the way we grew up. So either. You grew up around a lot of veggies, so for you it's just naturally innate. Like, of course I'm gonna have a salad with my pizza, my fries, or whatever it is. But for some other people who didn't grow up like that, then it's gonna have to be a mindset situation.
You're gonna have to totally reframe your mind and think, okay, if this is the person who I want to be, I want to be the healthiest version of myself, then it's learning or hiring a coach or. Honestly, just trying your best. Pick a veggie that you've never had before, maybe you've never had broccolini or endives or rapini or any of these things.
Grab something at the grocery store and then look for a dish and then cook around that. So sometimes you [00:17:00] just have to, yeah, go out there and be adventurous. For my fibroid, when it's around the 10 centimeters, there's typically. I, unfortunately, I caught it too late, but I was like, I'm determined to do whatever I can, even just to feel good.
'cause the pain itself is quite intense. So even if I can alleviate the pain with, things in my toolbox, then amazing. So I'm gonna have a follow-up ultrasound and then chat to see if I do need to do surgery. Hopefully I don't, just because. Of my surgery in the past was mentally, emotionally, also physically scarred from that.
So, acupuncture was a big one for me and my acupuncturist gave me some tips and of course, eating warm foods during your menstrual phase and keeping your womb warm and my feet warm. So doing things like that to help with the pain. And then she was. Burning mug wart, so on. My acupuncture over my abdomen.
So she was doing [00:18:00] some of that as well. She gave me some herbs, which tasted not the best. And I've taken every tincture under the sun, and this is probably one of the worst things that I've tasted. So that was quite difficult. But we did the herbs and then. I would say being consistent with acupuncture is probably gonna get you the best results.
I'm traveling right now, so I'm not seeing her as much at the moment. Other things, adding more citrus. So even just for the endometriosis, they were showing pain reduction around 22%. So not as much as the gluten, but adding in. A serving one to two servings of citrus a day can really help. And then I have been doing extra fiber, really making sure I get my protein.
At the moment, I'm pescatarian coming off of being vegetarian, vegan. So really focusing because that's my diet at the moment. I need to focus on making sure if I am eating more of that vegetarian, I'm getting whole. [00:19:00] Protein. So combining beans and rice, things like that, whether I'm doing a minimal amount of organic tofu or Tempe or fish seafood, things like that.
And then I do love a sweet, I'm a chocolate girl, so trying to make sure that I'm not eating too many sweetss and then. Very minimal coffee for me. It impacts me quite a lot. So doing more of the switch to matcha teas and then I'm not a big alcohol drinker, but lowering that to the best of my ability as well.
Sticking more with mocktails and movement has been a big one. There's tons of studies that show moving your body, which Sharia, I know you're big into the movement as well, so anything, any way you can move your body, whatever. I have insanely low iron levels from my fibroid, just causing so much bleeding.
So for me right now it's doing yoga and stretching. Nothing too high. Intenses. I did a reformers Pilates class the other day, which was super fun. And so just [00:20:00] figuring out what, what works for my body. And then other things you can play around with. Heating pads, tens machines, things like that.
CHRISTA ELZA: I'm big on early detection of things. Is there a way that women can. Even know early on that you have a fibroid. What symptoms did you have early on to pass along to our listeners on potentially catching it before? Fibroids I'm sure grow pretty slow. I would imagine that they're not a rapidly growing entity.
What kinda symptoms did you have early on that, that women maybe need to pay attention to and try to get an ultrasound earlier?
ALEX KING: Such a great question. If anything's off. From your normal, anything changes. If your bleeding gets heavier, that's a very telltale sign. So if you're filling up. A cup of pad or a tampon in 30 minutes, less, anything less than an hour.
That is quite a heavy bleed. So in that case, you'd want to do some investigating, get an ultrasound, talk to your doctor. [00:21:00] Pain is another really big one. So if any, if your cycle changes in any which way, if it becomes shorter, longer, more bleeding, less bleeding, pain in between your periods, if you get pain anytime.
In between your bleeds as well, and that's not your norm, then definitely talk to someone, get an ultrasound. It would be diagnosed on an ultrasound for me, because I'm so used to having painful periods, I was like, and a little bit, the doctor's not my favorite place to be. So for me it was also a mental battle just to get there and to speak to my doctor and to get that help.
So, which I know is the case for a lot of people if they've had not such a great experience. But yeah, if anything changes, pain, heavy bleeding, go get an ultrasound.
CHRISTA ELZA: I think it is tough sometimes between, there is a place for modern medicine, 10 centimeters, you may not have a choice, right?
Like, it's either gonna stay in there and calcify or, but if you wanna have children down the road, that could be a problem, right? So I think there's this. Integrative approach that is available to all of us. It's just we don't always see the other side of like maybe [00:22:00] doing acupuncture while I'm getting a regular ultrasound.
Maybe I'm doing surgery, but I'm using herbs and acupuncture to heal post-op. I mean there's all sorts of ways that we can integrate. I think it's good though to know both sides and know that you don't always have to go the western approach all of the time. Again, there's always a time and place where we have acute care and we have to in my mind, we need it.
But there's always more options, right? , You can open more doors for yourself so that this, it's more integrative and you feel more comfortable with it, and maybe you heal better. Maybe you don't need as much intervention because you're allowing, you're tapping into the natural resources for all of it.
So we've talked a little bit about the fibroids and the nutrition around it. What about endometriosis? Again, that's going back to opening up kind of that, those detox pathways, right? Like we've got the three phases of detoxification. I think you explained it well that we've gotta have our gut worked first.
Work backwards, right? Like phase three, then we wanna support the liver with certain foods, with, you mentioned the leafy greens, that [00:23:00] kind of a thing. So that's all great. I think that should be reiterated that nutrition plays a huge role in hormones and we really I don't think people put that together and gut health and hormones.
I think the word is getting out, but it's not, people don't put that together either that gut health is so important for. Detoxification of hormones. That goes all the way through When I've got women on hormone replacement, not only are now you've got hormones, you're also older, so you know your body naturally as we age, the mitochondria, the ability to detoxify can decline, and so it's almost more important for women to understand if you're gonna do hormone replacement, you've got to not be constipated.
You have got to be eating enough fiber. Fiber and protein are the biggest things. At least 90 grams of protein. At least 30 grams of fiber. And that's a challenge I think, for most people to keep those going. But it's absolutely, absolutely essential for hormone balancing. Right? I mean to to have all of that.[00:24:00]
ALEX KING: Totally. I don't know if you found as well, but. Yeah, a lot of people tend to maybe tell white lies or extend the truth or not want to talk about gut health. So maybe they don't want to talk about constipation. But then, like you said, if they're doing hormone replacement therapy, it's like, we need to know some of these things so that we can support you correctly so that you get the best results.
So some of my clients will come to me and. Whatever. It's silly. It's probably a thing, maybe some childhood issues, but lying about the piece of cake they had, or maybe how much they're going out to eat, how much they're ordering on whatever app it is, or Yeah. How much, maybe they don't get veggies.
Maybe they are new to this and they don't wanna admit that to their practitioner. And so the more honest you can be, then the better it is. So that's another thing for sure.
CHRISTA ELZA: Oh, for sure. We're talking about poop in this clinic for sure. And here's the thing, sidetrack, but a lot of the GLP ones can be constipating.
So there's so many benefits to GLP ones. I am [00:25:00] an advocate for them when used responsibly. But one thing that I've gotta stay on with my patients who happen to be on that is that, yes, like. Cool. You're losing weight. You're able to tackle your goals finally. But it can lead to constipation and that in effect can lead to some hormone imbalance.
So it's really important to, yeah, I ask those questions a lot because we're fixing one thing, but then we're creating another problem, and so we've gotta stay on top of that because it is so essential to that estrogen detoxification. And ultimately not only hormone imbalance, it makes you feel bad, but you know, higher risk of cancers and exacerbating maybe things like endo and other preexisting, you can definitely exacerbate that.
So on one hand it can be really helpful for PCOS with insulin resistance, et cetera, but we could be creating another hormonal problem just because our gut health is not where it needs to be based on some of the other medications. So I think that's an important point as well, because I think a lot of women can fall into that bucket where it's lifestyle changes have led to more constipation where maybe it wasn't [00:26:00] something a problem before.
ALEX KING: Yeah, for sure. And you did mention some good things before as well of combining the medical interventions with also natural interventions. That's. My jam as I studied to be a dietician working in hospitals and calculating tube feeds and doing all that.
And I see such a, obviously such a huge need for that. But then when I studied holistic nutrition, there was almost this gap of, oh wow, there's tons of things we can do as supplements. There are studies for this. There are things we can do myself. I feel better when I. Don't eat this, or when I do eat that and I just, I have such a sensitive stomach just from my whole childhood.
So when I started drinking coffee, I was like, why do I feel nauseous all the time? And then when I switched to organic, it was something so much more tolerable for me. And then when I switched to matcha, I was like, oh wow, I feel even better. So even just listening to the signs of your own body, really tuning in is [00:27:00] gonna be so important.
A lot of people just like to. Watch a show right through a meal and not even listen to their hunger cues or not pay attention to what's going on in their body, or not even look what's in the toilet. They just flush it right away. A lot of these people totally bypass all their natural bodily cues.
So that was a big thing for me too, is just listening. What is my body need? What is it saying? How am I feeling? And just really honoring that and honestly, just tuning in.
SHEREE BEAUMONT: I love that. We always talk about here like how empowered health is your superpower, but if you haven't even taken the time to get to know your body and actually develop that body literacy, it can be quite confronting. Like you said, sometimes there's the white lies that are told. It's. If you haven't taken a moment to even look or even analyze or like you say, a lot of the times I say to my clients, or, before we even become client and coach relationship, I'm like, look, I know we just met, but we're about to talk about poop.
And you [00:28:00] just kind of like get it out of the way because it can be like, it's, we're also told that, women aren't meant to like, they fart. Flowers and rainbows and unicorns, like it's not a thing. And I'm like, get over it. Like we are human beings. We're the human biology. I'm talking to the men that kind of paint that picture.
It drives me mental because it actually teaches us to shut down that part of ourselves. And to your point about, these women are quite often dealt with this, a lot of the women we deal with are in older or ages, like later stages of life. They have dealt with this issues since they were young, like really young and.
The fact that they've been told, like I literally had a client the other day say to me, I went to a gastroenterologist and I was told time and time again it was normal to have one bowel movement a week. Like it is not normal. It is not normal, but as a child, if that's not treated, then can you imagine the hormones that are recycling the issues that are gonna happen over time?
And then we get to this phase, this transitional phase where we hit [00:29:00] menopause or perimenopause, which we're completely uneducated about, especially in like the traditional sense for most people. And they start to go, what on earth is going on in my body? The overexercising, the undereating that I was doing all the way into my thirties.
Has suddenly stopped working for me, and now like Krista was mentioning, I'm trying to navigate this entire change in my life. Maybe I'm having children, maybe especially in today's society, I'm having children quite a bit later. Like I look at myself, I'm in my thirties. No husband, no partner. Like there ain't no me having children in the next year or so.
So it's like you've got a lot of these women who are coming up against this internal challenge of, I've prioritized my career, or I haven't met the right person, or, I'm about to go into this, but am I, have I got enough? A MH? Like there is so much that's tied so deeply and so emotionally that can be impacting our hormones or we have to factor in our hormones.
Maybe the biological clock is ticking. Or maybe we've had kids early [00:30:00] on and we're going, what the heck is my body doing? I'm in menopause now. And so I'm curious, 'cause we talked a little bit about. This purpose and the confrontation that can happen when you go through a health scare or your deep health journey like you've been on, how have you navigated that internally and from a mindset perspective when you got the diagnosis of the fibroids, when you had the endo, even having, I know it was very young, but having that emergency surgery, it must been a lot for you to go through
ALEX KING: For sure.
Mentally. Maybe undoing some patterns as well, or uncovering some things that, okay, how does the, how does my childhood impact these things now? Or how I feel about my body now, how that impacts myself. And yeah, there are studies that show if you think you're gonna have a painful birth, you're more likely to have a painful birth.
So even things like that of how I feel about my body, or being afraid of when my period comes, if it's gonna be painful, even [00:31:00] just that. Anxiety of worrying and waiting for my period. Of course, that's gonna make me have a worse relationship with my body and my cycle. So I had to undo. A lot of these things I'm thinking, okay, just because I had surgery and I'm prone to cyst doesn't mean there's anything wrong with me.
And also overcoming the shame of being a women's health practitioner with all these women's health issues. And it's like a lot of people don't wanna talk about that 'cause it's like, well, how can you help other people if you're experiencing all this? So that was another big thing I had to get over. It was like, I'm also human and trying to figure this out and yeah, so, and it was a big shame thing.
Even though it shouldn't be just focusing on myself for the first time in forever, who knows how long? And so that was also a thing of I'm not putting my clients last. I'm just being very intentional of the things that I wanna do for my health. So I. Putting aside a budget for different wellness memberships.
So whether it's yoga or going to the gym or my [00:32:00] acupuncture, my supplements, and being like, no, I do feel better when I do these things. So I really need to set aside the time, the money, the whatever it is to actually do those things so I can feel better. And so. Yeah I got into meditation and journaling.
That's, I know it's something that might be, it sounds so tedious, like, ugh, meditation and doing this, but, and same, I was talking with my sister-in-law yesterday who's going through a lot of fertility struggles and even just what you were saying made me think of her that we don't really talk about these fertility things and she's in her.
Thirties now and actively wanting to get pregnant, but because it's something we don't talk about until you actually want to get pregnant. Now she's having all these issues and yeah, she ended up having to go into emergency surgery and it's a whole big long story with her of everything that happened and she's just been honestly like in a wash cycle and she just can't get any answers from anyone and she's just trying to figure this all out and she saw a [00:33:00] fertility.
Doctor and, fertility nutritionist and so we were just chatting about it yesterday and they've also been seeing a therapist who recommended that she journal and I was like. Y she was putting it off and she told me that, and I said, trust me, when you actually sit down to do it and you really get out all your thoughts, you'll feel so much better, even if you just start with some prompts to get you started.
Once you do it and you get in the habit of it, it feels. So good, but it might sound daunting until you actually go to sit down and do it and then you don't realize what you're missing. So I like the activations app. They're active meditation so I can put it on and while I'm doing laundry or going for a walk or when I wake up in the morning and you're in that, we talked about this preview.
Previously Sheri the that theta state in the morning putting on a meditation. Then you can just set yourself up or I put it on while I'm showering and getting ready. So those are two of the things mentally that have helped me a lot. [00:34:00]
CHRISTA ELZA: I think along the lines with what we've talked about, how people don't put correlate, maybe gut health with their hormones, when like we're so interconnected, the mind, body, spirit, right.
And. And so when I have patients coming in that are wanting me to fix their physical body, and then they start to talk to me about their personal life or their work life or their, the changes that they're going through, it's something that cannot be ignored from the healing process, right? It just can't be, we can't be stressed out all day worried.
Feeling like we're out of our purpose or not knowing what our purpose is. Feeling like we don't even understand our values anymore because values change. Over time. Maybe the dynamics have changed in your marriage. Maybe it's changed with your children. Maybe you've decided that you no longer enjoy your work life and you wanna make a change.
All of those can be really. Confusing and make you feel again alone and [00:35:00] like, well, crap, here I am 35, 45 and I wanna change things up. Like, is that even possible? And those feelings really do. Your body senses that. And our mind doesn't know the difference between an actual threat and the thoughts that that are happening on the daily.
And then we start to have GI issues, then we start to have heartburn, then we start to have anxiety. Then we say, there's all of these things, and I think it's eye-opening for a lot of people to recognize like, yeah, the feelings that you're having are affecting your physical body, so we can't ignore either one.
We're going to address the physical body with, let's say, lifestyle changes, diet, exercise, some supplements that are targeted to you. But we can't just do that without address. Your state of mind on a day-to-day basis, do you find that that has played a role in your healing? I know for me, going through a lot, when you go through surgery healing, a lot of it is mental.
When you have you've been diagnosed with something, your state of mind around the trust that you have in your body, the trust that you have [00:36:00] in your community, the trust that you have, all of those things play a role in your ability to heal, your ability to physically feel well, right? So, mm-hmm.
I, yeah, I'd like to talk about that for a minute, because I think that that is a, another big thing that women don't recognize. Men don't, either that they're, I go to work every day, I'm feeding the family, I'm whatever. Men have the same thing and men probably have even a harder time with this because it's very hard for them to open up and feel vulnerable and recognizing, and certainly more difficult to have a conversation with someone.
So I try to do a little tap with my nail patients as well. But I think it's eyeopening for people to realize like, yeah, this, this state. If you're not taking time to do some breath work, if you're not taking some time to do meditation. We'll have to put that app in the show notes 'cause I'm really curious about it as well.
Like an active meditation I think is helpful for those of us who wanna be active and feel like we're kind of like zoned in on, on some meditative thoughts going on a walk , and just, listing out things that you're grateful for. [00:37:00] Those things add up and I think it's important too for us to recognize like, it's, the time to do it is not when you're feeling maxed out completely, the time to do it is daily so that when you have this.
Wave of whatever it is that you're going through, that you already have the tools and you've honed that within yourself, right?
ALEX KING: Yes. This whole podcast just me nodding my head, agreeing with everything. So I'm like, yeah, I totally, I see that in myself. I see that in my clients, and like you said, men and women both have that.
Sure. Women are more likely to talk about it and they, it's two entirely different, usually things that are going through a women's mind than. At, a typical men and women mind and yeah, just going through all sorts of stuff and sometimes we keep it really bottled up and we really don't share anything.
So the first thing I do with any of my clients is some sort of mindset piece. 'cause if you're coming in and you wanna have a change. One, [00:38:00] recognizing that change. So I get everyone to do a future ideal version of me journaling, just so you know where you're headed. So yes, of course, if you're coming in with pain or whatever it is you wanna.
Check on your hormones, post pill, or you do have a fibroid or a cyst or endometriosis, or you're struggling with fertility, whatever it is. But when you're coming in, I want you to write out a whole your ideal day, this ideal version of yourself. Do you go to the gym? Are you eating a high protein breakfast?
Are you living at the beach? Maybe right now you're living in a city, and deep down in your soul, you know that you would. Thrive and benefit from living somewhere near water, near nature. Maybe your ideal day is you hiking or whatever it is. So even just get, and they don't have to share it with me, they can do it on their own time and then they can reevaluate, okay, that ideal version of me, what time do they get up?
How do they feel? What clothes do they wear? Even having that. [00:39:00] Mindset piece of really getting to know themselves and aiming towards that version of themselves. I find especially helpful even with weight loss. 'cause then , you're really picking out as you're writing your ideal day, these things that you want to be doing.
And so then we can pick a couple of those things. Do you go for a walk daily? Are you someone who meditates? Are you someone who wears these bright colors or form fitting clothes or whatever it is? Then we can start to work on that. Mental mindset piece and then combine it with the other things. Are we, whatever it is, cutting out alcohol or doing one last cup of coffee or getting more sleep is a big one.
So combining all these things together,
SHEREE BEAUMONT: I, I think it's such a pivotal thing to actually take a moment and pause. Like, I love that you bring up the future self visioning. It's something that, when you talk to people, they know what they don't want. They know so clearly what they don't want. I don't wanna be in pain, I don't wanna have this, I don't wanna experience [00:40:00] these headaches anymore.
I don't wanna experience this infertility like they know what they don't want. And part of our job as practitioners is to actually pull out what they do want. And it's quite funny when you talk to the amount of women that you talk to that almost shrink or haven't even given themselves permission to dream or to know.
And so if we go back to that piece around purpose and. Even coming up against some of these challenges that can happen earlier, later, 30. Like, like we say, there's some of these big hurdles that kind of come up in life. It's taking a moment to pause and to fully put your stake in the ground and be like, actually this is what I want.
And maybe things have changed in my life. Maybe the dynamic has shifted, but let's be real, like even if this is happening at 45, even if it's happening at 60, you still got like our, we are living so much longer now. Like. If you couldn't have started before start now. Like if it feels scary, that's fine.
Like what is it gotta take for you to be able to make a safe choice? And actually, so many of us have [00:41:00] been programmed, especially as women, to be people pleasers, to be, the hypervigilant safe space for everyone else, right? And so it's now going. Shoot, my kids have left the nest, or I'm about to start a family.
Like, what have I not worked on internally that is all of a sudden coming up? And so having that opportunity to go, well, this is what I want, this is what I'm working towards, and giving yourself permission to move into that space, I think is foundational, for us to really be able to move through this.
The other thing that I do is actually get my clients to identify what their core values are. Because a lot of the time we've just been walking through life, we don't realize what's bringing us out of alignment or what's not feeling good, or maybe why we're now heading up against relationship issues. Or maybe now why, we're struggling to discipline our children effectively because we've been taught for so long.
This is the conditioning and it just doesn't. Feel like we're in the right space. And so really bringing, I love that you've been bringing this in with the work that you do. And I [00:42:00] know Krista, you talk about it as well. If we start with that mindset piece or we start with diving into this, suddenly it expands our capacity too, which I think we need to be able to hold we, a lot of the time we've given our power away. And that happens in health with gaslighting. In the medical system it happens with when you don't know what's going on. It happens when we feel so out of touch with our bodies 'cause we've been told that it's normal and it's actually just common.
And so bringing people back to what are the inner whispers of my body saying, what is my intuition saying here? And instead of just trying to run away from the pain, what is the pleasure that I'm moving towards? Because. When we're in that space, that's where the magic happens. We only change from pain or pleasure.
And which one would you rather be focused on? You're gonna be focused on the pain, which, like you said, can exacerbate your symptoms. Or are we moving towards that future self where actually this is what I'm driving to towards, this is what I know that I [00:43:00] want, and suddenly you start noticing doors opening.
Your body is starting to heal. You feel so much more in control of things around you, which then gives you even more motivation to move forward.
ALEX KING: Mm-hmm. There's no right or wrong steps, or there's no right or wrong time to do something. You just have to, like you said, you, you just have to do it. There's.
You can do anything, as long as you're physically able at any age. There. I once was watching this TikTok video of a guy who always wanted to go to, it was either Japan or Tokyo, and he had always wanted to go there and he regretted. Never going backpacking after going out of college or university.
And so he was like, you know what, no. Today is the day everything changes. And he was in his fifties and. Some people wait to retire to do these things, or, whatever it is. And he's like, Nope, now is the right time. I am, I think he was [00:44:00] 51 and he's like, I'm doing it. Flight is booked, ticket.
I'm just going because there's no right or wrong age to, if you wanna do something, do it. If it feels right and your soul, go do it. So. You just have to start. You just have to make that decision. And even speaking on the mindset piece, if you really wanna get uncomfortable and uncover those core values, you can do shadow self journaling and really uncover those parts of you that maybe you don't like or that you keep shoving down and pushing down and ignoring and really just phasing it head on and getting uncomfortable is a huge part of whatever you're gonna do.
If you're gonna become a parent, if you're changing jobs, if you're moving. A lot of good things can come from being uncomfortable, so that's probably the biggest thing that I'm always doing, is I'm always trying to get uncomfortable in any bigger little way that I can just so I can grow and figure out more about myself.
CHRISTA ELZA: Yeah. The discomfort thing I do, the, what is it? The block is the breadcrumb, right? Like it really [00:45:00] is like sitting with discomfort. If you see, if you feel something coming up, often our immediate re like response is to try to run away from discomfort. And it's just like an exercise.
We don't want to do the last lift. We don't want to do the last sprint, but that's where the juice is, right? You just have to sit in it because that's where the growth happens. And same emotionally, if you're just feeling that, I always liken the emotions to a toddler tugging at you like.
They're crying and crying and crying and crying and they just need to be sat with like, okay, what is it that you need? And that's our emotions. Like, if you are constantly feeling this, just sit with that emotion and actually ask that emotion. Like, what is it that you need? Why do you feel depressed?
What are you anxious about? It's okay that you're anxious. What are you anxious about? It's really interesting kind of what comes up. And I think it's an important, self-reflection. It's a, it's an important relationship with self to be able to sit with yourself. And really [00:46:00] experience those emotions, because once you do that, just like the toddler, it's, it calms down.
It's not so apparent because you've actually addressed that part of yourself. And inevitably, the more often that you do that, you'll feel mentally more at ease. And you'll notice, yeah, the physical discomforts that you're having don't, aren't, they also heal. It's crazy that connection. But when we do that.
And we have more of a trust and more of a calm. Things heal faster. We do, we move through whatever crisis we're going through faster, but it does take, it's simple to say it and it's just harder to actually do. Sometimes it's really hard depending on the level of depression or anxiety that you're facing, but to really sit with those emotions on a daily and and move through that, and I think that.
Also, you brought up a good point about values too and purpose. And I think a good way to find that is like, well, what do I not want? Because we can quickly say, well, I don't wanna be alone, [00:47:00] so then I value relationship. I don't wanna be broke. So I value abundance. I don't wanna be, physically in pain.
I value health. So then we know, okay, these are my values, and how do I. Focus on those things and how, where do I have evidence in my life that those things have been present before? Where do I have evidence that this can exist for me because they have before? And then focusing on that so that our brain starts to create new neural pathways of like knowing that this is possible.
And when we start living like that, some of these overwhelming things with. Whatever it is, gynecological disease processes with chronic pain, with all of those things, when we start to see the possibility, we start to develop new neural pathways and we start to become more connected with the possibility of that and inevitably we will allow our body to heal because we trust our body and we're like, yeah, we're not blocked anymore about that.
It's coming my way. Or we find the practitioner that really can help guide us or whatever. Like when we start to see that. It's just amazing how like, life can [00:48:00] open up and create the solution. But when we sit there and meddle in, I'm anxious, I'm depressed, I'm mad at this person, my body's broken.
Well, we stay there. So it's this, you've gotta come to grips with that fact and start to work on those neuropathways and whether you can do that on your own or you need a practitioner that can really help you do that because oftentimes we don't even see our blocks to getting better.
It's important to do that and know that it's available to you.
ALEX KING: Yep. Or if you're an avoidant person, you might need. That practitioner or whoever that someone in your life to be like, sit you down and listen. Sometimes yeah, we just, and something you, you said that I say all the time is Sure.
This advice that we could give, it's simple, like we mentioned earlier, eat a raw carrot, carrot salad, or do the conscious dream journaling. Go for a run. I find conscious dream journaling or going for a run, those are really where all of a sudden my mind is working, things are coming out. I'm [00:49:00] discovering these things about myself, the simplest advice, but it's not easy.
Getting uncomfortable and doing these things is is not easy. So yeah, you sometimes have to sit in that uncomfortable feeling. There's a lot that I like about David Goggins and a lot that I don't like about David Goggins as well. But a couple things he says is one, he knows himself really, really well.
'cause he runs every single day and when you run every single day and you're alone with your thoughts, he just, he knows himself inside and out, which that's something that I admire. Just to know yourself so deeply inside and out. And then two. Your mind gives up way before your body gives up. I think there's about 20% left in your body, but it's that mental piece that always wants to give up first.
It's like if you're running a race and you can picture the finish line, it's harder to keep running after that. Once you've mentally seen that finish line, it's harder to keep going, but your body still has some leftover. So it's a [00:50:00] really big mental piece that you have to get uncomfortable with.
CHRISTA ELZA: Yeah. It's funny you mentioned David Goggins, my husband and him lived together when they were in, it was early on in their military career. Were roommates and Yeah. And it's just funny to see even, him now, like that's a process, right? That he didn't, he wasn't like that when he was 19, when John and him were friends.
It wasn't like that at 19. But we all get to learn and grow and learn to sit with it. We learn. We learn lessons like what he preaches now, like your, yeah. Your mind is a. Amazing tool. And it can also be your worst enemy if you don't wrangle it and say, this is how it's gonna go.
Okay. This is how it's gonna go. And we have to remind ourselves like, this is how it's gonna be. And and it's a training process, right? So, I've loved this conversation. I think we were all over the gamut of topics, but that's cool. It's like what happens in a normal conversation. And I think to just tie it up with a bow, [00:51:00] you shared some of your struggle, but you've also shared your triumph and how, our struggles also can help other people.
And clearly you're doing that with your own experience. I think you just have to work through some of those things with shame of like, oh, I'm experiencing the thing I'm trying to cure. And that's cool. I think that when you have a perspective, it's people can relate better when you've gone through something yourself.
They understand it, and they're like, cool, this person understands what I'm going through and I know she's gonna give it her all because she knows exactly. Empathy goes a long way. And so even when things pop up that maybe we feel, first of all, you can't help it, you can't help that your body, X, Y, Z but it's more the process that you went through.
To overcome it and to continue to grow and learn physically as well as mentally on things. And so I love that you shared some of that vulnerability with us, and I think that our listeners, I hope that you really felt. Some that we are all empathetic to this life and the variety that happens in our emotions and in our physical [00:52:00] body throughout life.
And I think whatever comes our way, it's just important to recognize like, cool, this is working for me. Like I get to learn a lesson through this. I get to. I figure things out. I get to use my story to help other people. And that's an important thing. I think as practitioners, we are human too. And we're going to experience the life on earth as in a physical body.
And what we get to learn from it though and share with others is the real gem there. Right. So
ALEX KING: yeah, I appreciate you for allowing me to share on your platform and hopefully it does resonate with some people out there and yeah, we talked about so many good things left, right, and center, but that's the beauty of it.
SHEREE BEAUMONT: I have really appreciated you and being here. Alex, I would love to know where we can direct our beautiful listeners to if they wanna connect with you or maybe they've got a similar story or struggle or they just, I know you've got some amazing, incredible resources as well that people can reach out to you for.
So can you let us know where they can find you?
ALEX KING: Yes, of course. I'm at Nutrition Moderation. Across the board on everywhere. And then website, [00:53:00] nutrition moderation.com. And then I have a podcast as well, holistic Women's Health podcast where anyone can reach out and find me.
SHEREE BEAUMONT: Beautiful. Well, thank you so much again for being here. And you guys make sure that you go and check Alex out. I love her energy. I just love our conversation that we've had and I hope you all have a beautiful day.
If you love this episode, be sure to leave us a review, download, and subscribe. If you know someone that could also benefit from this conversation, please share. That's how we Spread Empowered Health. We'll see you again for another episode of the Wild and Wild Collective.
